glowed with flowers

Our final Jane Eyre floral spring quote.

'that bright May shone unclouded over the bright hills and beautiful woodland out of doors. Its garden, too, glowed with flowers: hollyhocks had sprung up tall as trees, lilies had opened, tulips and roses were in bloom; the borders of the little beds were gay with pink thrift and crimson double daisies; the sweetbriars gave out, morning and evening, their scent of spice and apples;' Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre

roses

I've the first bud creeping on my roses and look forward to a summer of roses and sweet peas.

pink and mauve wildflowers

I think we could safely say we're in late spring, or even early summer, so this passage about Russia in late spring 1910 is timely.

Never had nature been so flamboyant; its vibrant freshness was like a satin-lined jewel box containing a precious stone corroded from within by a black chancre. Copses of beech with silvery trunks and tender green foliage engulfed dilapidated manor houses with roofs collapsing on abandoned rooms and broken windows, shutters torn asunder. The wheat, which was just beginning to turn golden, intermingled with the tall grasses of the steppes and with pink and mauve wildflowers, undulating around half-rotted isbas that crumbled on the edge of the muddy pools below, above which loomed ancient willow trees whose branches dangled into the water, filled with brambles that no one bothered to prune.' Elisabeth Gille Mirador

pinkandmauve

I love the order and chaos of nature, and thinking about our garden even though it had  been neglected for at least one summer the roses still bloomed, the hydrangeas revealed, the apple tree blossomed and produced fruit nature keeps going it seems.. No matter what else is going on around.

scant leaves

'There was not a breath of wind, and under the glowing white sky tinged with pink from the horizon which seemed to fume with the warning of frost, the scant leaves were hanging motionless from the lime trees. The waiters who had to serve the tables outside the cafe were wearing their overcoats over their long aprons. It was the first sting of autumn.' penelope fitzgerald the beginning of spring

autumn

Somehow 'the first sting of autumn' makes it seem horrible when in fact it's sometimes more like the 'first glory of autumn.' 

Pink Friday

Kirsty has put her money where her lipsticked mouth is and has taken a sabbatical from her paid job to volunteer for a few months at Breast Cancer Care. She has reminded a group of bloggers about Pink Friday.

I have a whole host of quotes concerning pink, but decided today to post a quote about bodies. It was only when I was in my mid twenties and realised that perhaps one day I could lose my breasts through breast cancer that I realised how much a part of me they were and no longer were they these things that made dressing difficult but there to be relished and proud of.

'...to chart your body, to map its poles, its contours and terrain, its inner regions, both temperate and torrid - a whole topography of skin and muscle and bone.
... I imagined a life time as your cartographer, years of exploration and discovery that would keep changing the look of my map. it would always need to be redrawn and reconfigured to keep up with you.' Siri Hustvedt What I loved

pink

Wishing you a Pink Friday

clotted-cream clouds

"A lilac band of heat haze spread all along the horizon line, and out of this dim region a few upward-curling, clotted-cream clouds had half emerged, got caught in the pink sunset rays, and remained suspended, voluptuous-looking and completely motionless, all through dinner time." Julia Strachey Cheerful weather for the wedding

dinner

The drinks are poured, the candles are lit and any moment the food will be ready. 

Shall we sit and enjoy the sunset?

Mischief going on

An unusual peony quote, but one nonetheless and straight from the mouth of the formidable Aunt March.

"But what is father's friend saying, to make you look like a peony? There's mischief going on, and I insist upon knowing what it is!" Louisa May Alcott Little Women

peony

This has made me think. If I was to look like a flower which would I choose? Although I love roses I wouldn't want the thorns so maybe a peony. Some days I can be all neat and tidy and then gradually more and more relaxed changing in shape. I could also be a variety of shades of pink and coral. What flower would you choose?

Dowdy

The cold and wet weather was really making me feel dowdy. Fed up with my winter clothes, itching to wear warmer weather clothes but knowing I'd have been cold.

''Miss Kinsman was dowdy, another of the words that couldn't be translated in to Russian, because there was no way of suggesting a dismal unfashionableness which was not intentional, not slovenly, not disreputable, but simply Miss Kinsman's way of looking herself .'Penelope Fitzgerald the begining of spring

pink

Roll on summer and summer clothes... But I know come September I'll be looking forward to snuggling in autumnal layers.

A dash of yellow

Let's brighten things up. Shake the possible January gloom away and think of flowers.
'Lady Slane liked them [his little offerings] best when they took the form of flowers... He would make daring and surprising combinations of colour and form, till the result was more like a still-life painting than like a bunch of living flowers, yet informed with a life that no paint could rival. Set upon their window-sill, luminous in the sun... he would produce a bunch as garish as a gipsy, all blue and purple and orange, but next week a bunch discreet as a pastel, all rose and grey with a dash of yellow..' Vita Sackville-West All Passion Spent

yellow

The pleasantest week

"...and the second week in December, when she chose her Christmas presents for all her nieces and nephews, was the pleasantest week in the year to her." F.M. Mayor The Third Miss Symons

Some how I don't think Miss Symon's would buy this many, wrapped in pink and piled high on a car - but maybe she'll suprise us.

How is your Christmas shopping going?

Wishing you all a most pleasant week.

Verity and Ken

Dear Verity and Ken,
On this your wedding day,

A poem,

Hinterhof by James Fenton

Stay near to me and I'll stay near to you -
As near as you are dear to me will do,
Near as the rainbow to the rain,
The west wind to the window pane,
As fire to the hearth, as dawn to dew.

Stay true to me and I'll stay true to you -
As true as you are new to me will do,
New as the rainbow in the spray,
Utterly new in everyway,
New in the way that you say is true.

Stay near to me, stay true to me. I'll stay
As near, as true to you as heart could pray.
Heart never hoped that one might be
Half of the things you are to me -
The dawn, the fire, the rainbow and the day.

James Fenton

Flowers and books.


A gluten free pink wedding cake for you.


Just Married bicycles for you and Ken, knowing that Ken likes cycling.

And balloons - well what's a virtual celebration without virtual balloons?

Wishing you both a wonderful day, honeymoon, celebration lunch and marriage.

xrachel

Eyes surfeited with beauty

I'm enjoying reading Ripening Seed by Colette for passages like this. Although it is making me want to be on holiday, by the coast, in France.

'An off-shore breeze wafted the scent of the new-mown after-crop, farmyard smells, and the fragrance of bruised mint: little by little, along the level of the sea a dusty pink was usurping the domain of blue unchallenged since the early morning. Phillippe did not know how to express such a thought as: 'All too few are the occasions in life when with mind content, eyes surfeited with beauty, heart light, retentive, and almost empty, there comes a moment for the senses to be filled to overflowing: I shall remember this as just such a moment.' Colette Ripening SeedWhat moments are you remembering this month?

The Month of March

The month started well. A cold cold day. Home early due to a course and the door bell rang. My Brora clearance sale goodies arrived. Pink finger warmers and green bed socks. Spring like yet warm. Alas I'd double clicked and so then the next day another complete order arrived. Eeek. Managing to dress for World Book Day and not look out of place either on the train or more importantly when... Celebrating Great Uncle Henry's 100th birthday at The Crown A 60th birthday party just down the road... Operation Buy Home has expanded to Eltham now. We are determined and serious in trying to find somewhere. This included six viewings in one weekend. We now have an offer excepted on a house... Meeting a local fellow book blogger for tea at The Teapot. Exploring a new bar. Describing itself as a cross between a Victorian gin palace and a speakeasy. Purl. Book a booth, read the cocktail list and sit back... My hairdresser had a pop up shop. Oh if we had a home I would have bought. Celebrating a biggish birthday for Mama Warmth at Baltic. There will be more celebrations... Meeting Twin at Angel for a touch of shopping, peach bellini, supper and then to Sadler's Wells to see 'The Most Incredible Thing' Music by the Pet Shop Boys, one of the main reasons Twin arranged the tickets, and story by Hans Christian Anderson. It was incredible. A journey across to our old patch of London to see friends. It made me reflect on this post. A lovely walk along the river, drinks outside, wearing sunglasses. A Friday supper out just Warmth and I to Wine Wharf. We should do this more often. Celebrating dearest friend's Hen celebration with afternoon at The Lanesborough Nurses and teachers battling through the uncut marches to celebrate felt a little strange. Then to Barnes to meet up with the Warmth family who'd been celebrating The Boat Race. Reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Started Family album by Penelope Lively but have also bought American Wife by Curtis Sittenfield for Book Club read. Films watched - Frost/Nixon. Warmth watched The Hurt Locker, I read Vogue. Varnish - OPI Plunging into Plum. Hmm not sure a little too bright. A new Chanel - Black Pearl. A terrible broken nail - feels like it's so short it will never grow back...

The feeling that Spring has Sprung.

Jane Eyre

Monday's Sense and Sensibility post was due to reading it for book club. Whilst discussing it we spoke about books that have changed for us as we grow older. We may find a greater depth to them or somehow the sparkle we felt on first reading isn't quite there on the second... That book for me is Jane Eyre. Reading the posts about the Vilette read along brings back memories of loving Jane Eyre so much that I immediately read another of her novels, Vilette. Then Rachel posted about the forth coming film. There was nothing else I could do but find my copy and see if any pages were turned down. This is the only page eighteen year old me turned down.

'Yes,' he replied, 'absolutely sans mademoiselle; for I am to take mademoiselle to the moon, and there I shall seek a cave in one of the white valleys among the volcano-tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me there, and only me.
'She shall have nothing to eat: you will starve her,' observed Adele.
'I shall gather manna for her morning and night: the plains and hillsides in the moon are bleached with manna, Adele.'
'She will want to warm herself: what shall she do for fire?'
'Fire rises out of the lunar mountains: when she is cold I will carry her up to a peak, and lay her down on the edge of a crater.'
'Oh qu'elle y sera mal - peu comfortable! and her clothes, they will wear out: how can she get new ones?'
Mr Rochester professed to be puzzled. 'Hem!' said he. '...How would a white or pink cloud answer for a gown, do you think? And one could cut a pretty enough scarf out of a rainbow.' Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre

rainbow
I'm now itching for a re read, before the film comes out in the UK.

Miss Buncle's Book

Aah my Persephone Secret Santa. Miss Buncle's Book. Village life and how we show ourselves - in private and in public. There are many characters whom we meet and as a reader we get to see them in both spheres. We think we're showing who we are but are we? We think we're hiding who we really are but are we?

There's silly Mrs Greensleeves
'She was a pretty woman and she liked pretty things. The pink satin quilt, the frilled pillows with their pink silk bows, the breakfast tray with its white cloth and pink china were carefully chosen. Mrs Greensleeves liked to think they expressed her personality, and perhaps they did. Nobody saw her in bed except her maid... but the mirror was adjusted so that she could see herself and she enjoyed the picture.'


The vicar - trying to live just off his stipend however....
'Ernest... had never been poor, and he was not really poor now. This poverty of his... was merely a sort of a game. Sometimes it was a troublesome, worrying sort of game, but there was nothing bitter, and real, and grinding about it.'

Our eponymous heroine Barbara Buncle.

'Barbara got up and had a hot bath. Her new garments had arrived... and Barbara decided to wear one of her new frocks this afternoon. A bath seemed a fitting preliminary to the donning of the slinky, soft wine-coloured creation which lay curled up in its neat brown box all padded out with rustling tissue paper.
When she had bathed, and dressed, and finished doing her hair, Barbara slipped the frock very carefully over her head and turned to look at herself in the long mirror... She was quite startled at the change in her appearance - it was Elizabeth Wade who looked back at her from the quicksilver depths of the mirror (not Barbara Buncle at all).'

A gentle book yet on reflection a whole lot more than meets the eye.

I believe in Pink

So this time last year it was my very very lovely hen night. I think you know by now how important my girlfriends are to me so this was an extra special day. Being a quote and gift girl and by way of saying 'Thank you for your continued friendship' and because the theme was 'pink', a truly favourite colour of mine. I decided to give each dear friend a single pink rose, a cherry cupcake recipe and this quotation..

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing
is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing,
kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when
everything seems to be going wrong. I believe
that happy girls are the prettiest girls.
I believe that tomorrow is another day
and I believe in miracles."

Audrey Hepburn

We met for afternoon tea here.

My what delicious food, pink champagne, friendship we had...

And then a red velvet cake.... with heart sparklers

Peonies - my favourite flower in teapots...

After eating loads, drinking lots of pink champagne we left with a goodie bag and went to a private room at The Perseverance for more fizz, food and friendship.

Thank you for a lovely evening x

Blossom

So the blossom has finally arrived and I can post this. I've been waiting. I think you've been waiting too. 'every tree appeared to be entirely covered with a waving mass of pink or mauve tissue paper.' Nancy Mitford The Pursuit of Love I like to walk under blossom trees. To look up and see blue sky and the twinkling gold gem of sunlight glistening through. There are certain streets where I know the blossom will be. I stalk them waiting for the first glimpse. I want masses of blossom. Maybe more than one tree. Just in case I can't get my fix some blossom inspiration so it can pervade the whole of life. A clutch for when a coat is still needed but one wants to feel spring like. Welcome to our cherry blossom flat. Where blossom is everywhere. Even the mundane like the door mat. A wall of blossom in the bedroom, or the bathroom. To gaze at contemplate. A lifting of spirits. For days when there's no blossom. Or perhaps I should resist these and stop searching for more images. Store the picture of blossom in my memory. Is blossom so special because it's temporary? We can't catch it. Keep it for ourselves. It needs to stay on the trees. And then stay in our minds until spring time comes once more.