Unmoored

"The rainstorm had ended and the gray mist and clouds had been swept away in the night by the wind. The wind itself had ceased and a brilliant, deep blue sky arched high over the moorland. Never, never had Mary dreamed of a sky so blue. In India skies were hot and blazing; this was of a deep cool blue which almost seemed to sparkle like the waters of some lovely bottomless lake, and here and there, high, high in the arched blueness floated small clouds of snow-white fleece. The far-reaching world of the moor itself looked softly blue instead of gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray."

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This week, via The Thirteenth Tale as suggested by Christianna of The Girl with the Blue Bow, I was transported north of London to the Moors of Great Britain.  It's a ghost story, it's a mystery, a book about sisters, all those deliciously spooky things wrapped into one neat little bundle.  The setting, winter in Yorkshire on the edge of the moors, only highlighted the sense of solitude and isolation.

It got me thinking, what other wonderfully delightful stories are there that take place on those infamous heather covered moors?  So of course, you have to mention The Secret Garden and Wuthering Heights.  And what about All Creatures Great and Small?  James Herriot's novels are my 'chicken noodle soup' reads - what I curl up with when I want to catch up with an old friend and remember all of the adventures the vet has traipsing through the Yorkshire countryside.

I hope that if I were ever to visit, that one of these beautiful country cottages would greet me and welcome me home.

All pictures via Gorgeous Cottages