the Green Man of Summer – original painting by V Knox
The Green Man is an ancient symbol of rebirth representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring – a nature spirit that incorporates certain aspects of the Greek, Pan. The Green Man is the embodiment of ecological awareness. When he is driven from cultivated gardens or if he retreats of his own accord into the wildwoods, drought and winter ravage the land.
In book one, ‘TWINTER’, of my Bede trilogy, the Green Man deserts the gardens of Bede Hall anticipating a supernatural event.
A catastrophic winter will ensue if twin teenagers fail to resolve an ancient curse and prevent a natural disaster foreseen after one of them time-slips through one of the Hall’s many time portals.
IT’S EVEN LESS EASY BEING BLUE
‘TWINTER – the first portal’ (book one of the Bede Trilogy) is a middle-grade time slip adventure for ages 12 to 97½
Lady Nan, the matriarch of Bede Hall, lingered in her own impatient dreamtime. She dreamed purposely to forget, yet she dreamed selectively to remember something wonderful. It was easier to slip away to Egypt than face the heart-breaking truths that haunted her, but as hard as she tried, old-family loyalty was in her blood, and messages of responsibility crept in to disturb her night travels. The winter scene inside her old snow globe on the bedside table wavered between an English Christmas and a desert sandstorm that threatened to cover the Great Sphinx. And often, the flakes of fake snow swirled into warm rain.
Bede Hall, a disgruntled stately home, had a mind of its own. It fussed three hundred miles to the north, nestled next to Hadrian’s Wall in a mystical corner of England, mired in deep trouble. Please come home it called, and when Lady Nan drifted off into a lapse of deeper memories its pleas grew more demanding, sounding more like a father ordering his daughter. Come home this instant, young lady! But it was the fretful voice of a lonely little girl she once knew, calling out for help, who disturbed Lady Nan’s sanctuary the most, so she decided to wake up.
She always found it curious how the word ‘present’ had a double meaning, referring to a gift as well as the time called now. It was significant that the word ‘myth’ was ‘present’ in her family name, Stratford-Smyth. Truly amazing. The words ‘a maze’ flashed once and disappeared. Words delivered magic if you knew how to listen. Words were funny things. FUNNY STRANGE.
The over-excited little ghost rubbed a small hole in the window frost and peered down into a summer that shouldn’t be there. A thin slick of ice defied the blistering heat of August and crept over the sundial’s weathered face. Time in Bede didn’t always behave as it should. She saw the same things she always did: a marble sundial leaning slightly towards the stables, a maze that looked like a giant green puzzle, and a bright carpet of flowers that shimmered like jewels. Beyond them, a topiary sphinx basked under a blazing sun. A movement of green caught her eye as the sphinx made of leaves sprang to its feet, shook off a blanket of snow and ran behind the house. Bede Hall was a funny old place. FUNNY WEIRD.
Veronica Knox 