“‘Oh!’ cried Mrs. Wilkins.
All the radiance of April in Italy lay gathered together at her feet. The sun poured in
on her. The sea lay asleep in it, hardly stirring. Across the bay the lovely mountains, exquisitely
dierent in colour, were asleep too in the light; and underneath her window, at the bottom of the
ower-starred grass slope from which the wall of the castle rose up, was a great cypress, cutting
through the delicate blues and violets and rose-colours of the mountains and the sea like a great
black sword.
She stared. Such beauty; and she there to see it. Such beauty; and she alive to feel it. Her face was
bathed in light. Lovely scents came up to the window and caressed her. A tiny breeze gently lifted
her hair. Far out in the bay a cluster of almost motionless shing boats hovered like a ock of
white birds on the tranquil sea. How beautiful, how beautiful. Not to have died before this . . .
to have been allowed to see, breathe, feel this. . . . She stared, her lips parted. Happy? Poor,
ordinary, everyday word. But what could one say, how could one describe it? It was as though
she could hardly stay inside herself, it was as though she were too small to hold so much of joy,
it was as though she were washed through with light.”
I am a reader of Anne of Green Gables. The whole series. Although I came to it as an adult after traveling to the place where it was born I am almost glad I was an adult.
This autumn I take comfort in the words I love from the books that are like a hug to me.
"She opened her eyes and looked about her. They were on the crest of a hill. The sun had set some time since, but the landscape was still clear in the mellow afterlight. To the west a dark church spire rose up against a marigold sky. Below was a little valley and beyond a long, gently-rising slope with snug farmsteads scattered along it. From one to another the child's eyes darted, eager and wistful. At last they lingered on one away to the left, far back from the road, dimly white with blossoming trees in the twilight of the surrounding woods. Over it, in the stainless southwest sky, a great crystal-white star was shining like a lamp of guidance and promise."
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Isn't that passage just exquisite? Just like this Valley of Light painting I have.
I love this print in our dining room - from
Lore Pemberton. The way she so elegantly captures feeling and mood through light.
Perfect for our autumn dining room - it goes lovely with wooden candle sticks annnnd...
... the tea cups match the roof of the house just perfectly. I love when things come together like that.
I love to steal a minute away here or there from correcting, planning lesson, mommying and all 'the things' to decorate. Even just a little. More pictures to come when I can.
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