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17 January 2018 by Lesley Dewar Leave a Comment

Bluey’s knee – Fully reconstructed at age 90.

My Dad loved watching the Tour de France, although with Bluey's knee, he would never have made the ride. — Watching the Tour de France

At the age of ninety, Bluey’s knee was the subject of much medical interest.

Footballers going off the field in agony and facing a full knee reconstruction are a regular feature of sporting news each week. Their loss of income and mobility is certainly significant and it can also mean medical procedures many years later. However, they are young men, nothing like my Dad, and Bluey’s knee is the stuff of legends.

I wrote this story nine years ago, and given his peaceful passing yesterday, on January 16, 2018, a few weeks short of his 100th birthday, it’s a good time to retell it.

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Bluey’s knee had just collapsed, while I was away.

Bluey is my Dad, lives with me and I was away overseas when he had a severe fall because the knee had just simply collapsed. I returned from my trip in a wheelchair, to find him on crutches. Within a couple of days, we were off to see his surgeon to Read More

8 January 2018 by Lesley Dewar Leave a Comment

Deserts, Shipwrecks, and Elephant Stories Enthrall Our Children.

The stories we read as children stay with us all our lives. Where deserts meet the sea, and your chances of survival are remote, shipwrecks bring terror. I remember enthralling stories that took me into the mystical world of elephants, learning how they deal with death. Wildlife who survive the scorching heat of deserts by day, and avoid the freezing cold of night enthrall us.

It is a sad event if, during their travels, an elephant family chances upon a long dead friend. They may spend several hours caressing, feeling, and smelling the bones, now bleached by the African sun. Sometimes, they pick up the bones and carry them away, to disperse them into different places. What memories do they store away about their lost companion? What stories stay with those elephants, as they “read” the bones?

Our story Tahj and the Dragon’s Gold is set against a background of shipwrecks Read More

1 January 2018 by Lesley Dewar Leave a Comment

7 reasons why we launched Nana’s Zoo for 2018

Nana’s Zoo is a brand new venture, associated with Stories My Nana Tells.

With a growing Zoo of over 500 animals of all kinds, from around the world, Lesley Dewar is using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to bring story telling for kids up to an exciting and different level.

So, how did this happen?

1. Nana’s Zoo was born at local markets

For several months, we used Facebook and social media to promote Stories My Nana Tells personalised books and printed editions at local markets. With a free “lucky dip” at all the events, it was easy to attract children, and then engage their parents by showing them the excellent quality of the finished stories. Not only in print, but with the digital copies as well.

By Christmas 2017, Stories My Nana Tells had become quite a feature for storytelling to children at local markets, and in support of various community groups.

Over the last few months of 2017, Lesley Dewar began acquiring a few high quality animal figurines which children can handle without constantly being told “don’t touch that”, and “put it down”, and so on. Children love being “hands on” Read More

21 December 2017 by Lesley Dewar Leave a Comment

The Winner of the Golden Dragon is……….

This is the Golden Dragon being given away to our winner, today. Beautifully crafted, it’s an inspiration for dreams and stories of treasure. Of knights in shining armour, and the maidens who needing rescue.

It’s inspiration for girls to be fearless and fight whatever dragons come their way.

Our Facebook page Stories My Nana Tells gave us tiny spark of an idea, to give the dragon away. It soon kindled into a flame! And then, a fireball.

Tahj and the Dragon’s Gold

Why a Golden Dragon? Because one of our most popular stories is Tahj and the Dragons Gold.

Sharing this adventure thrills girls and boys alike, as we sail the treacherous coastline of Western Australia, learn about pirate treasure and shipwrecks, and discover a cave filled with Dragon’s Gold. Having their own name and photograph in the story makes it much more exciting.

Let your son or daughter come with us for an exciting Dragon’s Gold adventure, too. Order their personalised story here ORDER HERE

DRUM ROLL PLEASE

The winner of the Golden Dragon is number 31

31 Amanda Atherton

4 December 2017 by Lesley Dewar Leave a Comment

Daffodils – The Promise of Spring is Never More Beautiful Than When They Appear Above the Snow.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils.

Wordsworth made daffodils an icon of the English garden.

Since 1804, William Wordsworth’s poem has echoed this wonderful sight. Nevertheless, the earliest known manuscript of an English garden that includes daffodils was written in 1441. Daffodils speak of spring; of life’s renewal; of the joy and promise of hope. It is no surprise the Cancer Foundations adopts the Daffodil as its iconic symbol.

On my first trip to London, the tour bus left me behind as it sped off to lunch in a local pub. I was so entranced with the sight of golden daffodils peeking through the snow in St. James’ Park, I didn’t give a hoot for lunch.

In New York, great beds of tulips rather than daffodils brighten the streets and the parks.

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