“It is necessary
to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the
net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten;
the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his
fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.” Vita Sackville-West
I'm taking this to heart right now.
One of my favourite books (and one of the best short series made for TV starring the brilliant Dame Wendy Hiller) is Sackville-West's "All Passion Spent." I do not have my own copy of this book and order it from the library each time - for fear they will one day remove it. Ordering books keeps them alive in the library system!
We visited Sackville-West's garden at Sussinghurst when we were in England. Magnificent!
I have always had real flowers somewhere in my home - picked from my own small garden or from anywhere I can find a pretty bunch of them for sale in the winter. So I agree with Vita Sackville-West when she says:
"A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but
even one solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it."
Vita Sackville-West
even one solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it."
Vita Sackville-West
Vita's Desk,
Sissinghurst Tower
2 comments:
I agree whole heartedly with both quotations... but I kill houseplants... Maybe I'll start buying flowers to have around... in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the library... just sitting quietly spreading joy...
That's exactly it! They sit like little bits of spring and summer scattered through the house. We often buy Alstroemerias - I call them butterfly flowers - they come in shades of yellow, white, pink and dull reds. You can get a big bouquet at Costco for around $10 and I put them here and there in vases - and you can find them often in any grocery store. I like them because they can last sometimes up to two weeks or more. Now I'm waiting for tulips, daffs and hyacinths!
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