Sunday 22 November 2015

The Perfect B and B

Dear Reader,


A Linnet

Since we have have all been distressed this week with terrible world news I thought I might share with you quotations from two authors from other, gentler, times. We have had the first frosty nights this week in the Cotswolds, for which I was very glad, not liking the warm unseasonable weather we had been having.

So on November 13th, l872, Thomas Hardy said in his Dorset journal:

 "The first frost of autumn.  Outdoor folk look reflective.  The scarlet runners are dishevelled: geraniums wounded in the leaf, open-air cucumber leaves have collapsed like green umbrellas with all the stays broken".

And Jane Austen said on November 17th, 1798 writing from Hampshire:

"What fine weather this is!  Not very becoming perhaps early in the morning, but very pleasant out of doors at noon, and very wholesome - at least everybody fancies so, and imagination is everything".

Ah, Jane Austen, we miss you.......

I must say I find the weather a very interesting subject, as most English people do, probably because it is ever unpredictable and baffles us all, much of the time.

                          *                                              


The Perfect B & B

Soft red brick, covered in roses,
the hall floor Cotswold stone,
the doors and furniture
applewood, mahogany, old pine,
chintz curtains in pretty bedrooms,
thick woollen carpets
and large white towels,
long and lovely views of distant hills,
sweet smells of lilies and lavender,
fresh asparagus for dinner,
duck and strawberries.

On the garden table,
its soft green feathers
ruffling gently in the wind,
lies a dead linnet.

                                                                       *

Very best wishes, Patricia

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