darlings
after the Gorgeous Roses from yesterday at The Huntingdon, we picked up the copy of The Surprising Life of Constance Spry which had arrived from a second-hand bookshop in england a week or so ago and polished it off before breakfast (sometimes books are more nourishing than half a grapefruit or a salted italian cracker you see).
the Telegraph has a nice review here, for a very Transatlantic perspective.
and the brilliant Design Museum had a wonderful exhibition with catalog(ue) notes here.
of course the Most Surprising aspect of the inspirational Mrs. Spry was not only her rise to the Tips of Society from somewhat humble beginnings but also her relationship with the painter Gluck which could have Scandalized Society (had they not already been rather up in arms about the American Woman) apart from the fact that the British (once) turned a blind eye to anything that seemed beyond the Pale.
naturally Anything To Do with an Heiress to a Fortune (as Gluck was) somehow made the affair just something those-crazy-rich-people could get-away-with.
and the Flowers that Connie did were #divine, especially during bleak wartime and subsequent rationing and dark skies and the Unknown future. 
it is always the people who take what they have and make it into something Beautiful that impresses us (you too? we are so pleased). 
Constance wrote like a dream – she touched on inspirational depths and Made Do with what was around (many of her beautiful arrangements were notorious for the usage of cabbage leaves and other quotidian garden products pressed into attention at society Gatherings among the roses and the Ferns).
isn’t this a Lovely verse?
here’s the full piece in all its glory.
Fare Well
by: Walter de la Mare (b. 1873)
-
HEN I lie where shades of darkness -
Shall no more assail mine eyes,
-
Nor the rain make lamentation
- When the wind sighs;
-
How will fare the world whose wonder
-
Was the very proof of me?
-
Memory fades, must the remember’d
- Perishing be?
-
Oh, when this my dust surrenders
-
Hand, foot, lip, to dust again,
-
May these loved and loving faces
- Please other men!
-
May the rusting harvest hedgerow
-
Still the Traveller’s Joy entwine,
-
And as happy children gather
- Posies once mine.
-
Look thy last on all things lovely,
Every hour. Let no night -
Seal thy sense in deathly slumber
- Till to delight
- Thou have paid thy utmost blessing;
- Since that all things thou wouldst praise
- Beauty took from those who loved them
- In other days.
and so we take what we read and learn and feel-inspired-by and bring it into our own (humble) abode. 
and feel calmed and rested and ready to take on another day with a modicum of grace. 
these are the books we read (or finished, finally) this past week!
as you may recall, we tend to read (a lot) and then donate or give away books-to-friends after reading as we rarely re-read books unless we adore the way the writer swims-in-words.
so today we’re going to pop by and make some new friends by donating these books.
and then there’s a Very Full day ahead (it’s still just 08:49AM in Los Angeles you see) of tasks and goals and a meeting – actually two – one is a professional event this evening which we’ll be writing about Tomorrow, no doubt, and some writing (two pieces) and a Proposal and – well – *exhales* – some more coffee Might be required it seems.
but all throughout the day, whenever we see a white picture frame we shall think of Gluck and any vibrant and blowsy-blooms shall make us smile about Constancy Spry.
which is such a Nice way to drift through one’s day, non?
happy monday.
