You know what dream is worth following?
The Mother Abbess says it best, in The Sound of Music:
"A dream that will need all the love you can give, every day of your life for as long as you live.”
Laying your life down, daily. That’s the dream.
A painting worth viewing:
The Frost in Giverny by Claude Monet (1885)
A poem worth pondering:
The Travel-Pictures by Anne Porter
"This is the mountaintop Clouds' castle, eagles' nest And granite cradle Of a great river And here's a lavish Heap of cloud In pure blue sky A feature of this country This is the fresh And glowing green Of snow-fed grasses In a steep mountain pasture Where sheep and lambs are grazing This is a mountain farmer And his bride Here you can see Their country faces And his ill-fitting suit Her heavy satin Borrowed for their wedding They leave the church on horseback The bride's long veil is flying And here she's throwing The beggar children Her bouquet of roses And here's a harsh archaic Wayside Calvary That's blotched with lichen Here are some gypsy children They're decorating it With empty soda-cans And rows of pebbles Here's an old man Drunk or asleep beside it On the bare ground A small black dog Is guarding him Later we learned That the dog's name is Balthazar And he has one blue eye Here is a living Cypress-tree 'Planted the year The Lord was born' A gypsy told us The children Are peeling off Some strips of bark They braid them into baskets This is a bloodstained rabbit Hanging head-downwards from a peg Outside a poacher's hut Stuck in a wall beside it Is the skinning-knife And here's an acre of Sweet lavender And here's an almond-orchard That's all in flower This is a fishing village In the evening twilight Lamplight in cottages The fleet at anchor Luster of evening On the harbor water And in the dusky heavens Hesperus shining."
Music worth listening to (on repeat):
Solo Piano (album) by Chilly Gonzales
A quote:
“No animal is a better judge of comfort than a cat”
James Herriot
From IG: @looneytunes_backgrounds
Book business:
FINALLY finished Gone with the Wind - it immediately made it to my “Top 5 of all time” book list. Highly recommend. I’ve never highly disliked while also simultaneously endlessly cheered for a character like Scarlett O’Hara.
Moving on to Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Also reading Anne Porter’s Living Things: Collected Poems
What I’m watching:
All Creatures Great & Small - Season 4: I put the debut date of the new season in our family calendar…that’s how excited I was for more episodes of this wonderful, wholesome, quietly joyous show.
McDonald & Dodds - Season 3: enjoyable British detective/murder mystery show. It is of the lighthearted variety.
Substacks worth sharing:
That’s all for now!
All my best,
Alexandra