Anne was so worried that she didn't sleep until nearly morning, and then she dreamed that the trustees had put a fence around the school and painted "Try Purple Pills" all over it.
i did some furtive googling and i can't remember if this has been discussed before, but it appears Canada had this in the late 19th - early 20th century...
Anne was so worried that she didn't sleep until nearly morning, and then she dreamed that the trustees had put a fence around the school and painted "Try Purple Pills" all over it.
Anne was so worried that she didn't sleep until nearly morning, and then she dreamed that the trustees had put a fence around the school and painted "Try Purple Pills" all over it.
another lovely read recently! i was so sick of the state of current literature and it took going back almost 100 years to find something i liked. i feel like this could become a comfort read for me
beautiful laughing lady by lydiafairy on Flickr.
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
I like how Valancy is described exactly the way you’d describe a changeling child: tilted, eerie eyes; stick-straight, lusterless black hair; a “three-cornered, white” face; small; thin; possessed of a “ghastly grin”; sallow-skinned.
But instead of bringing trouble and discord to the family, she is the only peace-seeking member of a family filled with inharmonious, petty, and emotionally abusive people.
She is like the antithesis of the changeling; the second she leaves, the whole family goes into turmoil; the second she leaves, she finds happiness and satisfaction.
How about Valancy Gay for the WIP Game?!
O, that's a fun one to play around with! So, I started with the idea of Valancy and Cissy as sisters, but I liked the Stirlings as the terrible family too much to give them up and came up with a convoluted way to tie them all up. It is mentioned that Abel, for all his faults, was very handsome and had quite a collection of love affairs, so I invented a Stirling girl (sister of Frederick, James, Benjamin, Wellington, Herbert, Mildred and Isabel - goodness, that's a lot of Stirling siblings!) who eloped with him and died giving birth to Valancy. Then Abel marries Valancy's wet nurse who gives birth to Cissy. I had so much fun coming with Stirlings' reaction to the fact that even though their scandalous sister is dead, they are tied to Roaring Abel through Valancy :D
The fic focuses on how existing in this strange limbo between respectable and irreputable circles in Deerwood affected Valancy's personality and life, and of course her relationship with Barney when he shows up and befriends the Gay family. It's very much in the begining stages of creation right now, but I do have 2 first chapters written.
Yessss! I loved what you shared before! Can’t wait!
Y’all god bless the blue castle book club era because just searched fanfics of it after so long and 🙏 😭 the recent many splendors I see!! These were times we just dreamed of 😪 we used to live in destitution 😞
Y’all god bless the blue castle book club era because just searched fanfics of it after so long and 🙏 😭 the recent many splendors I see!! These were times we just dreamed of 😪 we used to live in destitution 😞
I should be working on my current wip, but instead I’m rereading The Blue Castle. Oops.
Now that I’m reading it a second time I’m picking up on even more foreshadowing.
In chapter 3 we learn that Valancy likes her name because she feels like it’s got an “outlandish tang”, as in otherworldly, like she belongs in the wilds.
A few paragraphs after she reads an excerpt from John Fosters book, Thistle Harvest, which foreshadows how he’ll come to love her:
“The woods are so human,” wrote John Foster, “that to know them one must live with them. An occasional saunter through them, keeping to the well-trodden paths, will never admit us to their intimacy. If we wish to be friends we must seek them out and win them by frequent, reverent visits at all hours; by morning, by noon, and by night; and at all seasons, in spring, in summer, in autumn, in winter. Otherwise we can never really know them and any pretence we may make to the contrary will never impose on them. They have their own effective way of keeping aliens at a distance and shutting their hearts to mere casual sightseers. It is of no use to seek the woods from any motive except sheer love of them; they will find us out at once and hide all their sweet, old-world secrets from us. But if they know we come to them because we love them they will be very kind to us and give us such treasures of beauty and delight as are not bought or sold in any market-place. For the woods, when they give at all, give unstintedly and hold nothing back from their true worshippers. We must go to them lovingly, humbly, patiently, watchfully, and we shall learn what poignant loveliness lurks in the wild places and silent intervals, lying under starshine and sunset, what cadences of unearthly music are harped on aged pine boughs or crooned in copses of fir, what delicate savours exhale from mosses and ferns in sunny corners or on damp brooklands, what dreams and myths and legends of an older time haunt them. Then the immortal heart of the woods will beat against ours and its subtle life will steal into our veins and make us its own forever, so that no matter where we go or how widely we wander we shall yet be drawn back to the forest to find our most enduring kinship.”
He realized that he had been sent there by the powers that govern to fall in love with her. It was predestined in the councils of eternity that he should look through that particular window at that particular moment.
Et tu, Petre?
Valarney Winter
So beautiful!!!!!!
⭐ if I am allowed a preference, I'd like your tbc fic👀
Hey! Thanks for the ask @batrachised!!
So about Lake Glass…
I have a little sea glass collection from childhood beach trips. There’s something so satisfying in finding a piece!
On a nerdy note: it’s sort of like anomaly detection: the beach we would go to was mostly sand, but then there were strips of the heavier beach material: rocks, seashells, driftwood, seaweed. The most common sea glass is white, green, and brown, which can blend in with the other stuff… except that glass is man made and sort of pops out if you are looking for it!
I’ve also found tumbled glass on smallish lakes (though it’s harder to find the real stuff) so I decided if anyone could find it, it would be Barney. From there I was pretty proud of the parallel between Valancy and the glass!
I could go on, but instead, here are a few pieces from my collection:
You have The Blue Castle art?!?
i do, a lot actually, valancy/barney are my second favorite lmm couple. i will have to organize it and figure out how to post here. i didn’t realize anyone would be interested in such niche art.
Now that it was all unveiled yesterday that this is my fic, I can gush about how perfect this moodboard is!!!
I love this so much and has all the aesthetic and heart of the first chapter. I can't tell you how many times I've just stared at this since you did it @daydreamingandprocrastination I love this so much.
