warm, eager, restless

Warmth very kindly bought me a Kindle, for my slightly sleepless nights, now and probably when the baby arrives. I'd thought that a Kindle with it's light would be a way for me to be able to find time to read. So far I'm downloading the free ones that I've already read, I'm sure I shall be tired so a re read maybe just right. Next one is Emma.

'That evening for the first time in his life, as he pressed through the swing door and descended the three broad steps to the pavement, old Mr. Neave felt he was too old for the spring. Spring - warm, eager, restless - was there, waiting for him in the golden light, ready in front of everybody to run up, to blow on his white beard, to drag sweetly on his arm. And he couldn't meet her, no; he couldn't square up once more and stride off, jaunty as a young man.' Katherine Mansfield An Ideal Family in The Garden Party.

spring

old-fashioned flowers

'He strayed down a walk edged with box, with apple-trees, pear-trees, and cherry-trees on one side, and a border on the other full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweet-williams, primroses, pansies mingled with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs. They were fresh now as a succession of April showers and gleams, followed by a lovely spring morning, could make them: the sun was just entering the dappled east, and his light illuminated the wreathed and dewy orchard-trees and shone down the quiet walks under them.' Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre

oldfashioned

Another reason for loving Jane Eyre - the flower and spring quotes.

pale-lit hours

So November is upon us. Hopefully it won't be as bleak as this description in Alaska.

'November was here, and it frightened her because she knew what it brought - cold upon the valley like a coming death, glacial wind through the cracks between the cabin logs. But most of all, darkness. Darkness so complete even the pale-lit hours would be choked.' Eowyn Ivey The Snow Child

cabin cosy

What are your plans for November?

full of light and silver

Are you enjoying the new series of Downton Abbey? Sunday evenings once more have a rhythm to them.

'I must agree with you when you speak of beautiful furniture. Who does not enjoy food upon shining tables with glass full of light and silver - Ah! ....'the sensation of the fingers of a well-polished silver-spoon!'
...
'But,' he said dramatically, 'what shall happen when the tables no longer shine, when those who clean them are taken from you and there is no time to sit and polish spoons?'... 
'Then how terrible to see the table dull, to see, perhaps scratches, to know you cannot preserve the beauty you enjoy, because there is no time in the day for so much. No, no,' he went on, 'that shall not happen, that must not. Silver and shining mahogany and bright glass must remain in memory beautiful, and not be seen in actuality smeared and unkept. I like better to have this table' - he smote the deal with vigour - 'which is so clean, and to see my good friend en casserole, rather than to have it made lordly and perhaps cold in a silver dish not well cleaned!' Jocelyn Playfair A house in the country

kitchen

I think this story line might be one hear more of this season. 

a drop of dew

Whilst hanging out the washing early yesterday morning the sun was shining and the dew was glistening.

"The sun lights up a drop of dew

The drop of dew soon dries

You are the light of my eyes, my eyes

I'm brought to life by you..."

Laura Esquivel Like water for chocolate

light

Yellow Cocktail Music

I'll not be blogging this week as I'm preparing for birthday celebration party at the weekend. A Jay Gatsby party to get me in the mood.

"There was music from my neighbour's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars...

fizz 

... enough coloured lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d'oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.

lights

... already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colours, 


...the bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter...

chatter

The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music...


Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.


....The party has begun." F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

This time in December

Today it's Carol Ann Duffy's birthday and so any excuse for some Duffy. This piece comes from her 'Another Night before Christmas'.

Then she watched as the room filled with magic and light
As the spirit of Christmas made everything bright
And suddenly presents were heaped by the tree -
But she didn't wonder, which ones are for me?

For the best gift of all is to truly believe
In the wonderful night that we call Christmas Eve,
When adults remember, of all childhood's laws,
This time in December will bring Santa Claus.
presents

How will you be spending today?

String My Thoughts Together

Another lady, in some ways very different to Lady Slane but in her memories a little similiar. I really enjoyed reading, or rather devouring a couple of train journeyseant it was swallowed up rather quickly, my second DE Stevenson - Mrs Tim of the regiment. This passage slightly sums it up, and is also the diary entry for my birthday.


'...a blessed feeling of idleness encompasses my soul....
My thoughts drift across the garden and hang upon the trees like fairy lights, or curl upwards and vanish like the smoke of Burnside chimney. I can take a thought from the cupboard of my memory - just as I take a dress from my wardrobe - give it a little shake and put it on, or fold it away.
... How nice it is to lie here in blameness idleness, and let these vagrant memories flow through my body like a cool stream!
Somewhere in the world there must be a formula (am I trembling upon the edge of it now?) which, could I but grasp it, would reveal to me the Secret of the Universe. For there must be a secret, of course; the world would never roll over and over on its way through Time and Space if everyone's thoughts were as vagrant and purposeless as mine. This secret, once known, would string my thoughts together like a necklace of pearls.
But where to look for the secret - where to find it? Those mountains, dreaming so peacefully in the sunshine - do they possess it? ...Shall I find it in the swallow's jagged flight, as it darts across the garden in pursuit of flies? Shall I find it in the call of the cuckoo, echoing sadly from the pine-clad hills? Or is it hidden deep in the hearts of human beings - a piece here and a piece there - so that if you could find all the pieces and fit them together, the puzzle would be complete? But the hearts of humans beings are so difficult to find...' DE Stevenson Mrs Tim and the Regiment

idleness

Where does the secret lie for you?

Love

After yesterday's post on painful love let's end Virago Week with

our hope for, our experience of a stronger love.

'Christopher loved her with the passion of youth, of imagination, of poetry, of all the fresh beginnings of wonder and worship that have been since Love first lit his torch and made in the darkness a great light.'

Elizabeth von Arnim Love

love

Thank you Carolyn and Rachel for hosting Virago Reading week. I've really enjoyed it.

Little Rays of Light

I think that this, apart from Jane Austen, was probably my first Virago. This quote is on page four of my original book of quotes, so probably around the time I was 16... This passage spoke to me then and speaks to me now...

'However dark things may seem little rays of light and understanding will break through. Perhaps this is all there will ever be, all we have the right to expect. But so long as we are open to receive them that is all that matters. Whatever happens we must never shrug our shoulders and say
"Well, I had such dreams and nothing came of them, but things haven't been so bad, I've got along somehow."
You must never do that to yourself. Delve into your despair and rage against it, rather than that. But never subscribe to the littleness of life.' Mary Hocking Welcome Strangers.

rays of light

Aren't Virago novels all about not 'subscribing to the littleness of life', whatever that may mean for our situation?

A ring glimmers on your hand

No I'll not take the half...

No, I'll not take the half of anything!

Give me the whole sky! The far-flung earth!

Seas and rivers and mountain avalanches -

All these are mine! I'll accept no less!

No, life, you cannot woo me with a part.

Let it be all or nothing! I can shoulder that!

I don't want happiness by halves.

Nor is half of sorrow what I want.

Yet there's a pillow I would dhare,

Where gently pressed against a cheek,

Like a helpless star, a falling star,

A ring glimmers on your hand.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Oh to have had abundant candles and fairy lights....

(Alas being a 14th cemtury tithe barn there were no candles allowed anywhere vaguely in the vicinity.)

candles

dancing by fairy light

candles


lights

Our Deepest Fear

As October is Black History Month I'm going to have a weekly post celebrating it. We'll start off with this passage Nelson Mandela used in his inaugural address, written by Marianne Williamson. (Thank you Ali Mal.)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves.

Who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually.

Who are we not to be?

You are a child of God...

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you, we are all meant to shine as children do.

We are born to make manifest the glory of God, within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we're liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela

@

Hoping your light shines today x