Camellias and Shakespeare

"Love... is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark."

-- Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

 

 Camellias at Robinson Gardens

With Valentine's Day coming up I couldn't resist going to the beautiful Virginia Robinson Gardens to hear a lecture on Shakespeare's Sonnets.  After all, the sonnets may be the most beautiful and famous meditations on love ever written. In his excellent discussion the lecturer compared the formality of the sonnet to the formality of French gardens during Shakespeare's time.

Since I was in one of the most beautiful gardens in Los Angeles I decided to take a walk after the lecture to see what was in bloom.  Tim Lindsay, executive director of Robinson Gardens, told me not to miss the camellias.  He was right, they are magnificent.   

Gardens and Shakespeare --  a winning combination to provide inspiration for Valentine's Day.  And  isn't this the perfect Shakespearean sonnet for your Valentine?

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"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."  --  Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Here's to a Valentine's Day of love, flowers and poetry.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Romance of the Sketchbook

Like many people, I have always been fascinated with the talent of artists to render the world around them in drawings and paintings.  And so when I opened up this gift from a lovely friend it struck a chord in my imagination.  At first I wasn't sure what this object was.  There was an enticing tag from the company that made it:   

 "Our many free-spirited travel adventures and time spent admiring the splendours of nature has inspired us." 

When I untied it and spread it open, I discovered that it was a sketchbook with a dozen colored pencils.  The little silver object at the end of the tie is a pencil sharpener.  Looking at it made me smile.  I thought about travelers in the past who would sketch the wonders they saw on their travels in a sketchbook such as this.  I thought about the lost art of drawing which was typically taught to young people in the nineteenth-century.  Many young men and women at that time could actually draw fairly well.  I  also thought about many of the books I have read with characters who did not venture further than their small village, but because they learned how to draw and paint would spend hours sketching a lovely view or members of their family.   This seems to occur regularly in the novels of Jane Austen.

  

I remembered a book filled with sketches by Queen Victoria that I owned and I pulled it off my bookshelf to have a look.  I flipped through the pages and saw many charming drawings and watercolors done by Victoria throughout her life. Here was a young woman who learned how to draw and paint and immortalized many events and scenes in her life, including travels to her beloved Scottish Highlands.  She was a passionate recorder of everything around her.  We learn a lot about her from a book like this; her sketches show her delight and pleasure in the ballet and opera,  her coronation and wedding, her ever-increasing family, and her travels abroad.  In her case keeping a sketchbook was just another way of keeping a diary.  And she was a prolific writer of diaries throughout her lifetime.  Here are a few images from the book: 

On the right is Lord Melbourne shown at Victoria's coronation in Westminster Abbey 

On the left is the view of Westminster Abbey from Buckingham Palace 

A family scene at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight where Victoria lived with her family 

Ardverikie Lodge in Scotland with the dramatic scenery that Victoria loved

Her children dressed in Highland costumes

This sketchbook also made me think about the great artists such as John Singer Sargent and their romantic fascination with travel to places such as Italy.  Sargent had a lifelong love of Italy where he was born and he painted many watercolors there out of his passion for Italy's people, land and culture. 

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Thinking about those who would chronicle their daily life and record their travels in drawings and watercolors has made me think about the quickness of everything we do today.  The camera is the tool  that most of us choose to record the moments we want to preserve.  But wouldn't it be fun to travel to a country we love such as Italy or Scotland and take art classes, learning how to draw and paint landscapes or other scenes   It would be a luxury to take the time and sketch the things we see.  To draw and paint our world would require us to really look at things.  I would imagine that we would be more connected to the beauty all around us if we tried to capture all those moments that really touch us through drawing or painting.  

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." 

--  Oscar Wilde 

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."

--  Leo Tolstoy

Here's to noticing the beauty all around us and doing something new.  Is there an art class in my future?

Happy Monday

How was your weekend?  We have been having the most beautiful weather!  I have been appreciating the simple pleasures that come at this time of the year in Los Angeles. 

  I love going to the local farmers market in February and gazing at all the beauty there, such as these luscious tangerines and lemons.

I am inspired by the promise of spring in these beautiful flowers from Holly Flora

  Of course nothing is cozier right now than staying home and cooking.  I love pulling out my favorite cookbooks, they are like old friends.

And speaking of old friends, I am rereading "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and in awe of the beauty of Truman Capote's nostalgic masterpiece.  I wonder if it is a uniquely American trait to write about characters reinventing themselves.  ("The Great Gatsby" comes to mind)   This love letter to New York conjures up youth and glamour, and is a great book to revisit.  Did Truman Capote know he was creating an iconic figure with Holly Golightly?

Yesterday I saw the magical film "Hugo" -- if you haven't seen it, go immediately!  Part "Oliver Twist" and part "Amelie," this movie is pure magic.  And it is about the birth of motion pictures.  I think I cried the whole time.  Part of me was in awe of the beauty of this film and the other was truly touched by the poignant story.

And finally this is where I went on the last weekend of January with my college alumni group from the east coast. They were so happy about the weather!   The Getty Center has views that go on forever and the day we went was beautiful and crystal clear.  Although we were there to see the incredible art exhibition "Pacific Standard Time," we could barely tear ourselves away from the views and spent much of our time outside enjoying one of the prettiest days in January I have ever seen.

The Queen and Her Diamond Jubilee

 Heir to the throne, Princess Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 1946

Photo via New York Times

With Julian Fellowes of "Downton Abbey" bringing the Edwardian England of our imagination to life each Sunday night on television,  many of us have been thinking about English history and it's been exciting to read about Queen Elizabeth II who is going to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, a truly historic occasion.

Did anyone see this gorgeous picture of a young Queen Elizabeth in the New York Times on Sunday?  You can read the accompanying article here.  There is a new book on Queen Elizabeth "Elizabeth The Queen" by Sally Bedell Smith and also a new book on her husband "Prince Phillip" by Phillip Eade.  This year is the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth's reign, which is only the second Diamond Jubilee in British history.  Queen Victoria's in 1897 was the first.  In the year 2015 Queen Elizabeth will have been Queen longer than Victoria or any other British monarch. With her Diamond Jubilee coming up, there are new books about her and Prince Phillip, upcoming museum exhibitions, as well as some big events in London this summer connected to this historic event.

Maybe it is the pomp and pageantry of the monarchy or the thousand-year history of Great Britain with the many kings and queens that have gone before and the continuity from one generation to another that captures my imagination,  but I get goosebumps when I watch an event such as the recent wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton or anticipate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

The remarkable story of how Elizabeth became Queen involves much fascinating English history.  It is a saga that includes the love story of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.  Elizabeth was not supposed to be the Queen.  Her uncle King Edward VIII was expected to be King, which is what happened.  But when he surprisingly abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, the woman he loved, Elizabeth's father -- Edward's brother --  reluctantly became King. We saw this story last year in the movie "The King's Speech, which starred Colin Firth.

I recently read that on hearing the news of their father's accession to the throne, Princess Margaret asked her older sibling, "Does that mean that you will have to be the next Queen?"  "Yes, someday," Elizabeth answered.  "Poor you," replied Margaret.

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I have been spotting some great articles here and here about Queen Elizabeth and have also started reading the book "Elizabeth The Queen" by Sally Bedell Smith and am learning some fascinating details about her life and the life of Prince Phillip.  She fell in love with Prince Phillip of Greece when she was 13.  A distant cousin, he was a dashing and handsome young man with an interesting life.  In 1922 when he was a baby, he was smuggled out of Greece in a fruit crate as his father King Andrew of Greece was escaping execution. His mother was institutionalized when he was 8 and after that his father spent most of his time  in Monte Carlo and Paris, abandoning his son.  The young prince was basically homeless, and would spend boarding school vacations with his mother's relatives.

When he began courting Princess Elizabeth he was a 22-year old naval lieutenant who had spent the previous summer on a British destroyer.  After the war ended the young war hero began courting the princess and would arrive at Buckingham Palace, driving up in his MG.  She was quite smitten with him.  They married on November 20, 1947 during Britain's bleak post-war era.

Five years later her father King George VI died at age 56 and she and Phillip were in Kenya when she got the news. They were in a treetop hotel, filming elephants and unaware of the drama unfolding in London.  They descended to discover the momentous news.  Elizabeth's cousin Lady Pamela Mountbatten said that Elizabeth had "climbed up that ladder as a princess" but "she was going to have to climb down again as a queen."  She was 25 years old.

It is fascinating to think, as Sally Bedell Smith reminds us in "Elizabeth The Queen," that from the mid-nineteenth century to the present time -- for 123 of the past 174 years --  the British monarchy has been dominated by two remarkable women, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.  No one else has had a longer reign.

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And so there will be many celebrations in London in her honor.  One of the most exciting is happening at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  The museum is celebrating the event with what looks like a fabulous photography exhibition:  "Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton:  A Diamond Jubilee Celebration."  It opens this month.

Princess Elizabeth by Cecil Beaton, 1945

via Victoria and Albert Museum

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, on June 2, 1953 at her coronation
via Victoria and Albert Museum

Queen Elizabeth was still a young princess when she first sat for Beaton in 1942.  He was the Queen's official photographer and over the next three decades he would be invited to photograph the Queen on many special occasions, including her Coronation Day. This exhibition will include many of these famous photographs.  Photographs, diaries, personal letters, and press clippings have all been included in the exhibition to tell the story of this collaboration between Elizabeth the  Queen and Cecil Beaton the photographer.  Oh to be in London for this exhibition!

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With the new books on Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, the Cecil Beaton art exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum, recent films such as "Young Victoria," "The Queen," and "The King's Speech," and of course the hit television show "Downton Abbey," it is obvious that there is an insatiable appetite for the fascinating topic of English history.

If you would like to know what is happening in London to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, read a recent post from one of my favorite bloggers Jeanne Henriques at "Finding my way... in England."  Jeanne lists many official events happening in June of 2012, including additional art exhibitions, concerts and a royal river procession that will include the ringing of church bells, fireworks, and music.  It looks like London will be having quite a summer!    

Garden Books and Dreams

I love books about gardens. There is something so hopeful about them. The writer often tell an inspiring story of dreams and goals. There is the search for the house with enough land for a garden. It can be small or big, it just has to feel right. Sometimes the land is bare or there already may be a garden, but it is awful and needs to be torn out. Then the dreaming begins and such exciting planning. Garden books are studied and advice is sought. The space needs to be plotted out and the soil has to be prepared. 

The actual planting begins with all its mistakes, happy accidents, and well-thought out choices. There is the inevitable tearing out of things that didn't work, the advise from fellow gardeners, and the happiness at seeing something take root and flourish. Searching for garden ornaments is an ongoing project and designing garden structures such as arbors and pergolas is a creative part of the process. And oh what joy when treasures are found! Finding the perfect fountain to anchor the garden can be a glorious moment. There is the satisfaction as the years go by and the garden matures. One is in awe at the beauty and romance of the pear tree when it blossoms with the most beautiful and delicate white flowers. The result of all that effort is the peace and serenity of sitting in the garden and enjoying the magical retreat that has been created.

At this time of the year I love pulling out my favorite garden books. There are two kinds that I read. First, there are the how-to books. They have the lists of all the different kinds of roses, peonies, geraniums and any other flower you desire. They give advice on which vines will grow best on your pergola. They tell you what kinds of conditions that magnolia tree you want so badly requires. There are instructions on how to trim boxwood or how much sun your hydrangeas need. This information is necessary and crucial to figuring it all out.  

But I also love reading the classic garden books such as those by Elizabeth Von Armin, Beverley Nichols and Frances Hodgson Burnett. These are not how-to books, but are instead inspiring reads about hopeful gardeners and dreamers. Often the story of the garden is a metaphor for discovering meaning and hope in their own lives. Somehow the garden helps them get there. It is the process and the work that allows them to forget about their problems. There is also the joy of being outside in nature with the sun warming their backs, the community of fellow gardeners they meet along the way, the visible results of their efforts, and the paradise they have created that leads them to a greater state of happiness. It is as if creating a garden is a formula for finding happiness. 

As I looked at our garden in the shadows of a late afternoon on a recent day in January, I remembered the days when it was just a dream. I have to say that much of its creation is due to the wonderful books about gardens I have been reading most of my life. Spending time out here on a warm summer day with a good book or just dreaming about the next new plant to introduce into the garden is true happiness.        

Weekend Miscellany

A few things I am excited about right now...

I can't let the week go by without mentioning Edith Wharton's birthday on January 24.  This year is the 150th anniversary of her birth.  There is probably no American writer who gets mentioned more often than Edith Wharton, especially in terms of old New York.

For example, the enchanting new book "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles ( a love letter to New York) has a lovely tribute to Edith Wharton.  My book club just discussed it yesterday and loved it!  As the characters celebrate New Year's eve the narrator describes the scene:

"Powdered with snow, Washington Square looked as lovely as it could.  The snow had dusted every tree and gate. The once tony brownstones that on summer days now lowered their gaze in misery were lost for the moment in sentimental memories.  At No. 25, a curtain on the second floor was drawn back and the ghost of Edith Wharton looked out with shy envy.  Sweet, insightful, unsexed, she watched the three of us pass wondering when the love that she had so artfully imagined would work up the courage to rap on her door.  When would it present itself at an inconvenient hour, insist upon being admitted, brush past the butler and rush up the Puritan staircase urgently calling her name?
Never, I'm afraid."

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The Fifth Avenue Hotel, center of the gilded age social scene

Photo from the New York Times

Th New York Times recently featured a long and fascinating article with many great photos about Edith Wharton in honor of her 150th birthday.  The author of this excellent article entitled "Tales of New York," with a subtitle: "For Edith Wharton's Birthday, Hail Ultimate Social Climbers" writes about the New York heiresses of that time and the locations "where Edith and the gilded girls roamed," including the photo above.  What a great piece about the world in which Edith lived.

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The Mount, Edith Wharton's House in Lenox, Massachusetts

If you go to the website at The Mount, Edith's home in Lenox, Massachusetts, you will find many articles about and tributes to Edith Wharton in celebration of her big birthday.  One interesting piece of information I read was that Julian Fellowes cited Wharton's "The Custom of the Country" as one of the influences on "Downton Abbey."  In that book Edith was writing about American girls going to England in the late nineteenth century and marrying English aristocrats. I think you will enjoy this website as it gives so many examples of the influence of Edith Wharton on writers and filmmakers.

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I seem to be on a roll right now with some really good books.  I just finished "Old Filth" and "The Man in the Wooden Hat" by the English writer Jane Gardam.  Old Filth is the nickname of the main character, whose real name is Edward Feathers.  "Filth" is an acronym for "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong."  Feathers is an English solicitor and judge who made a great success in Hong Kong and has retired in his later years to Dorset, England with his wife Betty.  He is an elderly man who is looking back on his life and his story is fascinating, funny and heartbreaking.  The second book "The Man in the Wooden Hat" is the same story, but told from the wife's perspective.  What a portrait of a marriage! You are in for a treat.  I loved these books and recommend them both, but read "Old Filth" first.

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"Midnight in Paris"
Photo from the New York Times

The Academy Award nominations just came out and Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" got four nominations!  I was thrilled because "Midnight in Paris" is my favorite movie of the year.   There is a great article in today's New York Times, "Unlikely Routes Lead to Oscars," about how this movie almost didn't get made.  One producer wondered who would want to see this film since nobody even knows who Gertrude Stein is anymore.  But Woody argued that you don't really need to know those people to appreciate the film.  The film turned out to be his most successful.  Let's hope it wins some Oscars!

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So many people have been saying good things about the new biography of Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin.  I just started it and I can tell I am going to be swept away by this one.  

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What are you up to this weekend?  I would love to hear what books you are reading and which movies you have seen lately.  I'm going to the Getty Center this weekend to see the new art exhibition "Pacific Standard Time."  We are having gorgeous weather in Los Angeles and it should be a beautiful day up at the Getty with its amazing views of the city.  Have a great weekend!

Virginia, Of Course

Virginia Woolf

Photo in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Virginia Woolf's birthday falls this week on January 25.  She was born in London in 1882.  Most people know that Virginia Woolf was a brilliant and groundbreaking writer who wrote "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse."  Along with Proust and Joyce, she broke with the conventions of the past and ushered in the modern novel.  Her books contain some of the most beautiful writing you will ever read.  But there are many things about her that are not known. The English poet Edith Sitwell wrote the following about Virginia Woolf shortly after her death in 1941.

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"A short while ago this exquisite being, with the sensibility of Dorothy Wordsworth and the talent of Jane Austen, was still with us.  She was allied to many things in nature; she had the profundity of a deep well of water.  But when she was talking, and listening to the talk of others, you felt that she was like a happy child chasing butterflies over the fields of an undying summer.  Only there was no cruelty; she would catch the lovely creature for a moment, see the colours on their wings, and then set them free again, their beauty undimmed.

There was no happiness that you could not imagine her sharing, nor could you ever guess that there was a shadow in the world.  Brave and shining, darkness could have no part in her.


After her tragic death a friend wrote of her that she had 'an unearthly beauty.'  I would have said 'an unworldly beauty,' for part of her delightfulness lay in the fact that she enjoyed earthly things.  Her beauty was great and she had the kind of unconscious elegance of some tall thin bird, with its long legs and delicate feet, and wondering turn of the head. With this she had a charm which had an innocently mischievous character, like that of a child.


In conversation with her, everything became exciting.  She made thoughts fly to and fro more quickly. She had a swift and flashing sympathy like that which Dorothy Wordsworth must have possessed, her luminous mind lightened and heightened all subjects.  Equally enchanting as talker and listener, she encouraged the conversation of her friends, she teased them gently, clapping her hands with pleasure and excitement when they scored some point.  She was never tired of questioning;  but questions were never wearisome when she asked them, for they led somewhere and often made the answerer see a new truth.


Such was her personality: and her work and her character were indivisible.  Hers was a work more of radiance than of fire.  It had no quality of danger in it.  The beings in her novels and in that enchanting work, 'The Common Reader,' are living creatures: we meet them as we meet our acquaintances, they talk with us, laugh with us.  I do not think that they tell us the secrets of their hearts.  But then, many charming beings are unravaged by passions, undevastated by fires in the heart.  They do not live dangerously, the great adventures are not theirs.  But the flying happiness of the hour, the light on the wings of the bird, the dew on the morning world: these she seemed to hold in  her long and beautiful hands, and as she touched them for a moment they became more real to us and it seemed that they must be unfading."

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I found this tribute to Virginia Woolf by Edith Sitwell in the book "English Women" which is part of the "Britain in Pictures" series.  What I love about this description of Virginia Woolf is that it shows a side of her that many people don't know.  It captures the light and happy side of her personality, the enchanting and charming side that her friends loved.  We all know about the darkness and the tragic end it led to, but when we read her letters or the memories of her by friends such as Clive Bell, we get an idea of the fun and spirit that was such a large part of her conversation. She had a great sense of fun, loved practical jokes, and was an incorrigible gossip.  When she told a story it was often embroidered with exaggeration, whimsey and many colorful details, and her friends loved her for the magic she brought to their social circle.

Clive Bell tells a story about the effect of Virginia on her close friends:

"I remember spending some dark, uneasy, winter days during the first war in the depth of the country with Lytton Strachey.  After lunch, as we watched the rain pour down and premature darkness roll up, he said, in his searching, personal way, 'Loves apart, whom would you most like to see coming up the drive?'  I hesitated a moment, and he supplied the answer:  'Virginia, of course.'"


Happy Birthday, Virginia!