Summer House

Summer House

I have just finished stitching this lovely cross stitch design by Brooke Nolan from Brooke's Books.  I've added a border and four lines of a poem which I think goes quite well with this.
I'm quite pleased with the results and will be starting the Winter House in the morning.
I just love Brooke's designs!!!!!!!!

Here is the poem I found to go with the house...........

     Our House

It should be yours, if I could build

The quaint old dwelling I desire,

With books and pictures bravely filled

And chairs beside an open fire,

White-panelled rooms with candles lit--

I lie awake to think of it!

 

A dial for the sunny hours,

A garden of old-fashioned flowers--

Say marigolds and lavender

And mignonette and fever-few,

And Judas-tree and maidenhair

And candytuft and thyme and rue--

All these for you to wander in.

 

A Chinese carp (called Mandarin)

Waving a sluggish silver fin

Deep in the moat: so tame he comes

To lip your fingers offering crumbs.

Tall chimneys, like long listening ears,

White shutters, ivy green and thick,

And walls of ruddy Tudor brick

Grown mellow with the passing years.

 

And windows with small leaded panes,

Broad window-seats for when it rains;

A big blue bowl of pot pourri

And--yes, a Spanish chestnut tree

To coin the autumn's minted gold.

A summer house for drinking tea--

All these (just think!) for you and me.

 

A staircase of the old black wood

Cut in the days of Robin Hood,

And banisters worn smooth as glass

Down which your hand will lightly pass;

A piano with pale yellow keys

For wistful twilight melodies,

And dusty bottles in a bin--

All these for you to revel in!

 

But when? Ah well, until that time

We'll habit in this house of rhyme.

 

1912

Christopher Morley