Last night the Canterbury winds howled around our house - bringing heavy rain upon our roof for a little while.
It's very noisy here when the 'nor-wester blows. The house shudders and the roof sometimes twangs with a particularly strong gust. I could almost rename our place, Wuthering Heights. If you've ever read that classic, you'll know what it sounds like here when there's a gale.
Ever since the Earthquakes, my three youngest children are scared of extreme weather. I'm sorry about it, because as a child I loved storms - revelled in them. Not so much now. And I am sorry that my children have had that bloom rubbed off their rose.
So last night as we sat cuddled up on the couch with quilts and the fire blazing at our feet, while listening to the rain pound the roof and the wind howling around the house, my oldest daughter refusing to go to bed by herself, and my two youngest burying their heads in my neck, I decided it was time to introduce them to the story of the Wind Woman - thank you to LM Montgomery for thinking her up, or should I say, Emily of New Moon.
"I'm going for a walk with the Wind Woman, dear," said Emily.
"The Wind Woman is going to be out in the fields tonight. She is tall and misty, with thin, grey, silky clothes blowing all about her - and wings like a bat's . . . and shining eyes like stars looking through her long, loose hair. She can fly-but tonight she will walk with me all over the fields. She's a great friend of mine-the Wind Woman is. I've known her ever since I was six. We're old, old friends."
Reading Emily of New Moon to my children in a storm took them to another place - the safe, romantic, interesting world of LM Montgomery. By the time I finished reading the rain had stopped and the wind had died down a little. They were happy to go off to their beds, having now made a new friend of the wind woman.
"She coasted the shores of dreams and fell soundly asleep while the Wind Woman sang softly at the window."
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4 comments :
I must get hold of that story, thank you, it sounds enchanting. How lucky your children are to have such a loving & thoughtful mother.
Good thinking Rachel to take a scary situation and turn it into an adventure instead. Sounds like a great book..I wonder if my girls have read it?
I adore L M Montgomery, anytime I need some real comfort reading, I re-read my Anne books. I have just ordered the Emily books from Ebay, I have meant to read them so many times, thanks for posting about them and jogging my memory! I too love the wind, although sometimes it can get just a little too much, the house we live in at the moment seems to be on a path the wind likes to use in the winter, it positively howls around the corners! The cosy fire and the lovely books are a beautiful mental picture, keep warm and thanks again for a lovely post!
Another good book to lock away in the mental archives. But I know what you mean about kids reacting to the extremes of weather. As soon as we have a bit of heavy rain they are asking me if it is going to flood!
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