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

All Passion Spent

Reading All Passion Spent provoked many thoughts. Reading it whilst surrounded by all the Royal Wedding excitement and enthusiasm provoked thoughts about Kate Middleton. How will she feel about her life when Lady Slane's age? Will she have put her desires, wishes on hold for her husband, and country? Is there a secret artist, dreamer waiting to escape from her?

And this is how it all started....

'Those words which he must utter so earnestly, in order that his tone might carry their full weight; those words which he seemed to produce from some serious and secret place, hauling them up from the bottom of the well of his personality; those words which belonged to the region of weighty and adult things... He had gone. He had left her. Even while she conscientiously gazed at him and listened, she knew that he was already miles away. He had passed into the sphere where people marry, beget and bear children, bring them up, give orders to servants, pay income-tax, understand about dividends, speak mysteriously in the presence of the young, take decisions for themselves, eat what they like, and go to bed at the hour which pleases them. Mr. Holland was asking her to accompany him into that sphere. He was asking her to be his wife.' Vita Sackville-West All Passion Spent

Despite what seems a negative post on this royal wedding day I am excited and shall be watching...

Happy Extra Bank Holiday To You!

Beautiful and Gracious

Not when I am an old woman I shall wear purple but when I grow old I would like to be like Lady Slane.


'She was a beautiful old woman. Tall slender, and pale, she had never lost her grace or her carriage. Clothes upon her ceased to be clothes and became draperies; she had the secret of line. A fluid loveliness ran over all her limbs. Her eyes were grey and deeply set; her nose was short and straight; her tranquil hands the hands of a Van-dyck; ...Looking at her, one could believe that it was easy for a woman to be beautiful and gracious, as all works of genius persuade us that they were effortless achievement.' Vita Sackville-West All Passion Spent

The Sartorialist

How are you hoping to be in your older age?

The Edible Woman

So after yesterday's quote from sixteen year old me. These two Virago quotes about how we change seem appropriate.

'It was one thing to be admired because one was lovely, and quite another thing to be admired because one was still so lovely. She did not belong to the sort of woman who, half-way through her life, can change her manner and inaugarate a new existence;' Vita Sackville-West The Edwardians 1930

'Whatever was going to happen to Clara had already happened: she had turned into what she was going to be... She only wanted to know what she was becoming, what direction she was taking, so she could be prepared.' Margaret Atwood The Edible Woman 1969

woman
I've mentioned before that many of the quotes I save refer to travelling through life. Do we stay the same, how do we change? I've changed alot since I was sixteen yet yesterday's quote still strikes a chord with me.
Virago, or indeed books in general, speak to the teenager, the young adult, the adult and journey with us as we mature and beyond.

Which Virago has travelled with you through your changing life?

The Edwardians

I have started watching Downton Abbey and it made me think of how life would have been in a country home. As Knole is the one I know best, I thought of The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West. Then reading this passage it connected to our earlier one by Chinua Achebe and ancestors. We may cross so much more than centuries and continents but still ancestors journey with us.

'Then...there is another danger which you can scarcely hope to escape. It is the weight of the past. Not only will you esteem material objects because they are old.... you will venerate ideas and institutions because they have remained for a long time in force;... You inherit your code ready made. That waxwork figure labelled Gentleman will be forever mopping and mowing at you. Thus you would never forget your manners, but you would break a heart, and think yourself a rather fine fellow for doing it... You will never tell lies - avoidable lies - but you will always be afraid of the truth. You will never wonder why you pursue it because it is a thing to do. And the past is to blame for all this; inheritance, tradition, upbringing; your nurse, your father, your tutor, your public school, Chevron, your ancestors.' Vita Sackville-West The Edwardians

Knole

Sissinghurst

Vita Sackville-West