To ask all Chaletians to get ready for Madame's birthday?

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

Pop to the splasheries my lambs and after you've brushed your hair till it shines we'll have a quick practice of 'I sing of Margaret so fair'.

Once we've finished casting the movie, that is....

To be honest, Joey seemed to have a habit of swooping on kids when they were going through some kind of interestingly difficult time and unofficially adopting them and having them to stay during holidays etc. And then she would just casually drop them and treat them like any other pupil.
She did it with Carola, and with Lilimana in Lavender and even the Robin seemed to be written out of her life once she departed for Toronto.

True. I think, to be honest, she unofficially adopted, fostered, and assumed loco parentis for so many waifs and strays that it would have been impossible for EBD to keep her involved with them all. Her relationship with Robin and Daisy was much more believable and interesting than all these random kids washing up on her doorstep for the most tenuous of reasons.

and Jacynth

Possibly I'm finding links where there aren't any, but I wonder if the experience of her father abandoning the family led EBD to think that all parental relationships could be disposable - perhaps all the more so when they're 'only' informal adopted ones.

Poor Rob. Although, she's interesting in terms of what her post-school options are: too frail for work or motherhood...

" And Jo" is all about Jo helping others when she doesn't really want to. Not to mention having Shiena and twins moving in.
When I was a teenager and almost every interesting conversation in EBD was deemed "insightful for a girl ofher age" and realising that ssay things cost money is the sort of thing that 15yos should only just be considering, I did wonder what on earth the girls all talked about. History of central Europe, probably. I remember doing lights out duty and dealing with sobbing 12yos and wondering how OOAO would butt in with a kid who is scared to go home at the end of term because she doesn't want to be abused by her stepfather again, and thinking where's Joey Maynard to magically fix everything when you need her...

I never understood the choice of godparents at all. She needs to pick Catholics, well, okay, but Miss Wilson, Miss Stewart and Miss Nalder, of all people? What about her three Catholic best friends - Simone, Frieda and Marie? I can see picking Bill, because they did seem to be friends after school, but she's the only one of those three you could describe as being even remotely close to Joey. Or am I remembering wrongly and Margot's godma is actually Mollie Maynard, with Grace Nalder as a stand-in on the day? That makes more sense as Mollie is Jack's sister (possibly his twin).

Okay another sad comment.
I'm now onto A Chalet Girl from Kenya - they are all wilting in the heat (sitting on chairs in the pines, lying on beds with all windows open in dressing gowns). As I'm going to the Tiernsee this summer I started to worry (I know its the Tirol not Switzerland) but I was wondering are we going to melt?
Well with the joy of google I looked up the average maximium temperature in Interlaken, Wengen (close to Rosen Platz) and the Tiernsee in June (must be roughly when this occurs in the book). It is respectively: 20C (34C), 1C (12C) and 8C (historic high of 21C). So if it was 34C then it would be hot, and without fans/air con a bit sweltering, but it doesn't get that hot in the mountains just down at Interlaken. (In the mountains it sounds decidedly nippy).
You be pleased to know at the Tiernsee its an average of 12C in August (23C max) - I'll make sure everyone has fleeces or do they need shawls?

But Mollie is a protestant..

Mummytime, I'm going to the Tirol this summer too! I've been practicing bending my knees when I walk (though TBH I'm not quite sure how to achieve walking without bending my knees) and of course I'm learning to play the zither so that I can pass the time when I get marooned in a mountain hut. Tell me where you'll be, and if any deranged madmen come trying to kidnap you I'll dash to the rescue with my Guide cord.

Well I'm hoping my 15 (nearly 16) year old doesn't fall into any streams/down cliffs or otherwise need rescuing by a young Doctor. As we have slightly greater ambitions than her getting married at 18 or maybe doing Uni then getting married.
I also want to know how you walk without bending your knees. In my youth I did a project that involved climbing a Scottish Munro a couple of times a week, and never felt the need to walk especially differently - but then the alps are different.

mummytime make sure you have your scarf crossed over your chest and knotted at the back at all times. Keep an eye on the sky and take immediate cover in a herdsmans hut when you get caught by a snowstorm.

Be especially careful if you look at a picture of snow, as this has been known to knock CS girls for six!

Am jealous really, would love to come!

Be especially careful if you look at a picture of snow, as this has been known to knock CS girls for six! Yes, very dangerous! You may need to recover with Matey's special milk.

I've been rereading Camp. There is a v minor non-argument where Jo asks/tells Juliet to get her some more coffee, and Juliet says "I'm too tired to move", or something to that effect. In this exchange, Joey calls Juliet "my child". Then Grizel intervenes and tells Jo not to be so lazy, and also calls her "child". Simone is promptly furious on Jo's behalf, and Misses Stewart and Nalder petition Miss Wilson to have a word with Grizel, because she shouldn't have addressed Jo like that. Is it the inclusion of 'my' that makes the difference between whether "child" is good-natured chat or offensive? Is it because Grizel is butting in where it's none of her business? Are we supposed to infer that Grizel changes the whole tone of the v minor non-argument, because this is not spelt out. Jo is being bloody cheeky in the first instance, isn't she? She can just as easily pour her own kaffee!

Ooh. I've been to Tirol on honeymoon. Mayrhofen to be exact. I've put a pic of me at the top of the Penken in early September on my profile for a short period. Its degrees colder higher up!

I was having a bit of a think (blimey!) and really setting the school abroad was a pretty brave thing to do and chosing Austria, including lots of german, traditions, etc was groundbreaking for the time if you consider that within living memory of some readers we had been through the First World War. Most British readers would have been affected in some way by tbe war and if you think that anti German propaganda was whipped up for recruitment then ten years later EBD is really going some to change opinions.

What I am enjoying now, reading the books as an adult, are the descriptions of places, scenery and all that scrummy food. If you think that British food was generally dire and the most many readers could hope for was a week in Morecambe or Blackpool then these were pure escapism. I made my parents take me to the Tyrol and i bet there were many others who have visited Austria on the back of these books.

Now clearly I have thought too much for my delicate constitution as my mother's family died of 'the white man's plague' (true by the way - something else that is forgotten how prevalent it was) so too much thinking will automatically mean intolerable strain on my nerves. Better go to bed for a week and get Robin to sing to me.

"I made my parents take me to the Tyrol".

I enjoyed Lavender laughs but I thought I would want to throttle Joey in RL if she kept calling her triplets 'the girlies'. Ugh.

Stop the press: in Jo Returns Miss Annersley has brown eyes.

I always knew she was wearing contacts!!

In the first Mrs Jarley Miss Annersley has straight hair (it is escaping from its ringlets to lie in its usual straight lengths around her shoulders), but in subsequent books she has curly hair. Methinks she discovered contacts and perming! She is rather abnormally interested in hair (see Theodora when she does Ted's hair, and I'm sure there's another one - oh yes, she introduces Jo to the dreaded earphones in Jo Returns!)

Mollie is a Protestant but Jack is a Catholic? How does that work?

It's pure EBDism, I think. Mollie is Protestant before Jo is destined to marry her brother...

I hadn't noticed Miss Annersley's perm. More importantly, though - the first Mrs Jarley? Do they do it again?

Wait, does she go post-accident curly, after the bus crash? Like Mary-Lou?

I've been to Tiernsee (Achensee) a couple of times. I have a gorgeous picture of the Dripping Rock near Gaisalm in the pouring rain. I also have one in glorious sunshine. It can get very hot there in the summer. I've also been to Mayrhofen, which is lovely. Am very of those going to Austria!

Now I'm working on persuading the husband to go!

I went for a day visit to the Achensee...it was the most beautiful place I have been.......she was right about that! We went on the little train to get there...it was amazing. I am trying to persuade DH to save up and we go for a couple of weeks camping one summer.....but he is resisting!!