faded penciled notes

One of the books I've enjoyed having the time to read this holiday is Mrs Bridge. But oh my the ending. This passage has been me this week enjoying preparing for aunt Violet and my parents for lunch today and then friends for supper this evening.

"...she went to the cupboard where the old recipe books were stored.... Mrs Bridge began looking through them, seeing pencil notations in her own handwriting, scarcely legible anymore. Her husband liked more pepper in this, no bay leaves in that - whatever he wanted and whatever he did not like was expertly registered in the margins, and as she turned through these recipes she thought how strangely intimate the faded penciled notes remained; they brought back many scenes, many sweet and private memories; they brought back youth." Evan S. Connell Mrs Bridge

kitchen

My recipes books do have faded and splattered pencil notes in them, about who they've been cooked for, whether they were adapted, how they turned out. They do not have any comments about how Warmth likes his food though!

International Women's Day

It's International Women's Day today and I'd been thinking of what to post from what I've read this year. It came down to either L.M. Alcott or Winifred Holtby and her protagonist Sarah Burton in South Riding.

"But I tell you what is my business, and that's the kind of woman you are and the teacher you will be. Up till lately you've always been pretty successful, haven't you? Scholarships, honours, promotions. You're good-looking in a queer sort of way. You're attractive. You're young for your age, and strong, and confident. And you did your work well - up to a point, I think. You were good with the bright ones, Lydia Holly and Biddy Peckover, and the scholarship girls... But what about the stupid and dull and ineffective? The rather dreamy sort of defeated women? You hadn't much use for the defeated, had you? Not much patience with failure. Well, now at last you know what it is to be defeated." Winifred Holtby South Riding

reading

Maybe not the most uplifting but in context I think it is. I like that South Riding celebrates strong female friendships that aren't bound by being the same age, friendships that help us learn from each other, about each other and about ourselves.

The Counting of Years

One of the fun things about blogging is, like The Queen, one can celebrate two birthdays a year. Blog Birthday and Real Rirthday.
Today is Real Birthday.

'But what did the counting of years mean if he felt himself young in his soul, as he had been twenty years ago? Was it not youth, the feeling he experienced now, when, coming out to the edge of the wood again from the other side, he saw in the bright light of the sun's slanting rays Varenka's graceful figure, in a yellow dress and with her basket , walking with a light step past the trunk of an old birch...' Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina
birthdayballoons

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.

To be young

Twin and I used to joke about my mother's letters. About once a year we'd receive what became termed 'spread your wings' letters. They'd be encouraging us for what we'd done or encouraging us to reach further. I think I received my last one in the week leading up to our wedding. This quote came from one of these letters.

'To be young means to be hopeful, energetic, smiling and clear-sighted.' Teilard de Chardin

I don't know where mum found this quote from but all I do know that I think I've inherited my storing of quotations from her!

@

To me balloons really sum up hopeful, energetic, smiling....