On Friday night we eat with friends.
Their tiny daughter opens the door looking immaculate,
her French bob beautifully brushed.
MissM had a French bob when she was that age.
We are told about her day dressed as Little Bo Peep.
We admire the homemade crook and I ask if she had a lamb.
She says "No...obviously not...
because Little Bo Peep LOST her sheep"
Of course! How could I have forgotten?
Is it really that long since I heard that nursery rhyme?
We discuss her part in the Christmas Nativity Play
var. 'The Grumpy Donkey'
She is to be The Smallest Angel.
I hope Mary is aware that
The Smallest Angel is the most important part.
I am given a guided tour of her new Dolls House.
She describes in detail in each room:
Drawing Room, Kitchen, Dining Room,
Playroom, Bedroom and Bathroom.
Her imagination furnishes the empty house.
I tell her that my little girl
(who is not a little girl any more)
has a beautiful pink Dolls House.
I tell her that we used to buy furniture every week
- tiny beds and chairs, a bath and a kitchen sink.
And each time we went to the shop
we bought some tiny dolls house food.
When I get home I look inside the Dolls House
for the first time for years.
The Dolls House family are sitting in the Drawing Room
listening to a piano recital
but their tea is laid out in the kitchen
by a careful owner who was little once
and is now half a world away.
Their tiny daughter opens the door looking immaculate,
her French bob beautifully brushed.
MissM had a French bob when she was that age.
We are told about her day dressed as Little Bo Peep.We admire the homemade crook and I ask if she had a lamb.
She says "No...obviously not...
because Little Bo Peep LOST her sheep"
Of course! How could I have forgotten?
Is it really that long since I heard that nursery rhyme?
We discuss her part in the Christmas Nativity Playvar. 'The Grumpy Donkey'
She is to be The Smallest Angel.
I hope Mary is aware that
The Smallest Angel is the most important part.
I am given a guided tour of her new Dolls House.She describes in detail in each room:
Drawing Room, Kitchen, Dining Room,
Playroom, Bedroom and Bathroom.
Her imagination furnishes the empty house.
I tell her that my little girl(who is not a little girl any more)
has a beautiful pink Dolls House.
I tell her that we used to buy furniture every week
- tiny beds and chairs, a bath and a kitchen sink.
And each time we went to the shop
we bought some tiny dolls house food.
When I get home I look inside the Dolls Housefor the first time for years.
The Dolls House family are sitting in the Drawing Room
listening to a piano recital
but their tea is laid out in the kitchen
by a careful owner who was little once
and is now half a world away.
18 comments:
I'm surprised she didn't point out that you must've been thinking of Mary. Mary had the little lamb.
My daughter's dolls house and all its 'innards' made a 3000km trip just this Sunday gone to the house of my two nieces.
This definitely brought me down memory lane and the endless hours I would spend re-arranging the furniture in my doll house until I had it just "perfect." Then, I'd wake up the next day and to it all over again, right down to the kind of play food on the table.
*le sigh*
How lovely. Love the tiny food! Unfortunately my daughter is not the slightest bit interested in the dolls house I had, made by my Dad!
oh! How wonderful! I adored my dolls house, I had tiny wooden plates and miniscule cutlery, but no food, so I spent an age fashioning meals and cakes out of plasticine for my dolls house family. I even made them teeny-tiny books to read, fully illustrated of course.
I don't know what became of my dolls house, but I do still have my old furniture, including plates and plasticine food, it must be about 33 years old.
My Little Lady (4yrs old) will be getting her first dolls house for Christmas.
I am beyond excited.
Thank you so much for sharing, this has brought back such happy memories :o)
xx
How delightful. I always wanted a dolls house but none of my four boys were interested! There is something so beautiful and appealing about everything in miniature.
Lovely little plates of food. Tiny Small loves dolls houses, to the pimnt of obsession. Tall Small really isn't too interested - she prefers hula hoops and pompoms!
You have the knack of bringing a tear to my eye. There's nothing so poingnant a reminder of an absent loved one as their belongings left where they last put them.
But Hey! She won't be weeping will she. Just having wonderful times.
Alas, the German doll house of my youth is an ocean away...packed carefully into boxes in some sort of storage facility.
But if you only knew...
At an age most girls would've long since given up playing with a doll house--an age far too old to be caught up in the secret lives of a doll house family--I was just awkward enough to still find it appealing. I delved willingly into a world of doll house fantasy--of tiny cups and saucers, of itty bitty cakes on silver platters of forbidden love.
I spent hours in my bedroom, behind closed doors, planning out the lives of my doll house family. There was drama. There was intrigue. There was illicit romance.
There was a lot of illicit romance.
Oh, the stories those dolls could tell...
now MissM is more likely to be reading Ibsen
Oh a little pang of loss there methinks. We also had/have a dolls house, sorry mouse house, and spent many happy times purchasing and making minatures for it. It's still there, everything set out, alittle untidy and definetly dusty.
I often notice that the not-so-little-but-always-careful owner of the doll house at my place has dusted and rearranged the furniture.
I'm sure your not so little girl still holds the house dear and will love it forever.
Oh Alice, big hug.
I was never much of a dollshouse girl myself, but the poignancy of an outgrown plaything hits me in the stomach every time.
'saudade' is the Portuguese word for this sort of thing of course.
Wikipedia entry is good on the overall concept.
Oh, I loved my doll house. My father made it for me. Some good memories there. Thanks.
Oh, Alice, you haven't lost your knack for conveying deep emotion via just a few seemingly casually scattered words (+ images). This was so poignant. Consider my heartstrings tugged.
Oh dear.
But maybe, some other little girls will come to play with the doll house people.
It's not completely impossible --
This post brought a lump to my throat and the sudden desire to run down to my daughters school and hug them tight.
This evening, before their chatter drives me to distraction, I will remember that they are not little for long.
As a mother of boys, thank you for this enchanting post!
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