Last month I had the great good fortune to be back in Scotland for my summer holidays. As you may know Scotland, along with Italy, are my two favourite places on Earth. I have a deep love and affinity for Scotland through both ancestral links on both sides of my family and an appreciation of the beauty of Scotland and it’s culture, people, and landscapes.
As mentioned in my previous blog post I visited ‘The Art of Wallpaper – Morris & Co’ exhibition at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh in May of this year. To say that this was one of my favourite exhibitions I have seen recently is an understatement – I came away wanting to decorate my future house with everything and anything William Morris designed and made!
One of my favourite things to do is to get on my walking boots (pictured above and muddy to boot!) and go for walks. Long walks, short walks, sunny walks, wet walks. I walk in nearly all weathers and don’t go outside unless it’s particularly snowy or very, very, very windy, and wet. I have taken it for granted that I can go out by myself and feel safe and walk. I live in Ireland; it’s relatively safe to walk most places even hiking and solo walking trips. I took it for granted that it was always like this but lo, and behold this wonderful book made me think again about women who walked before me who were walking trailblazers walking in a time when women being alone was seen to be dangerous and circumspect.
In May of this year on my holiday in Edinburgh I visited the exhibition, ‘The Art of Wallpaper – Morris & Co’ at Dovecot Studios. I had wanted to visit Dovecot Studios for quite sometime which meant that I was doubly excited that their latest exhibition’s theme was William Morris and his contribution to both interior design and art history.
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated (probably more slightly obsessed!) with American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. I have a clear memory of dressing up as Eleanor Roosevelt for a dress-up day at school in the 1990s and no-one knew who she was. To be fair for a young Irish child in c.1995 to know firstly about Eleanor Roosevelt and secondly a woman (!) in history was probably, highly unlikely.