"Ah .. umm ... so-so" - one glance out of the window and you know it is -
WHAT? The first day of SUMMER?? June?? You bet!
13°C in the morning, but the radio cheers us with the promise that it will get up to 15°.
Mmmh.
Might be a golden opportunity to show you the two books I found in London, and make a cuppa and thumb through a bit.
At Foyles, of course, I found them. (As with migrating birds the way to that bookshop is engraved into my brain's navigation system. Kind of magnetism. I went there oh so often - and you are welcome to talk of e-books and clouds and whatsoever: I love to see books presented on shelves, love them humming at me - love to feel them, their sort of paper, their heaviness).
And this year there were two books I always came back to:
"London, You're Beautiful. An Artists Year" by David Gentleman is really - beautiful!
Drawings and sketches as I like them - month by month, and interesting little texts.
I draw myself a bit, because I think a sketch sometimes gets more to the gist then a photo (yes, in my next life I will re-appear as a Geisha: I can do all these Arts a little bit in a good amateurish way: draw, write, sing and so on, whatever is required in that profession - come to think of it I might be a typical "Höhere Tochter", a German term for young Ladies from the Upper Class in the last(!) century).
So the second book I bought that had caught my eye by it's design AND its content is on a subject that always fascinates me: "The Perfectly Imperfect Home" by Deborah Needleman.
Not "Art" - just "witty and pretty".
"Any house or room remembered with pleasure has the look of being loved by those who live in it",
said Billy Baldwin.
And he is right. Today, I think, I'll spend quite a lot of time in our home.
Ah, and don't forget: switch the light on - that makes even a dark 1. June look bright :-)
20 comments:
"I can do all the Arts a little bit in a good amateurish way" I love that. Britta you are very funny indeed.
The books look very lovely especially London you're beautiful. I often think about how we cart around massive volumes of guide books when we travel when perhaps small guide book with simple sketches and basic information like this book allows the traveller time to discover a place for themselves without being spoonfed.......
It could be a musical travel book and you could do sketches sing and write, Surely a bestseller in Foyles.
Dear Paul,
yes - I see that in my mind - and you will understand now my admiration of Lucia, always carrying the torch of culture in front of her :-) Such a multimedia book will bring me to London even more often, and with the money earned I will buy a flat in ...(now, what do you think, which part of London will it be? Mind: you spoke of a bestseller!).
Good morning, dear Britta!
A geisha, eh? Now, that is something I would not have expected!
I love your description of your hard-wired relationship with Foyles and the way you speak of the heaviness of paper.
Lovely.
I agree Britta, the feel and smell of books is part of the appeal. David Gentleman must have seen different areas of London than I did when I lived there. Mind you, I was on the Isle of Dogs and it is rough down there.
Dear Suze,
always in for a surprise :-) A good bookshop is a godsent. you get ideas while you look. We have some good in Berlin too - their existence is hard.
Dear Tony,
the Isle of dog is not in his book, though he did not exclude 'rough' areas. I stayed in Clapham; and the farthest I got (by error - I wanted to go to Hackney :) was Engfield Town. Ha.
I cannot see your blog on my blogroll - will try to find out what happened.
I love the sketches in these books--watercolors all, is that right? Puts me in mind of a little book about various kinds of teas we have somewhere on our shelves. The watercolor sketches were just right for that little book. I can see them in my mind's eye now.
Dear Sue,
and that's the way I like to draw: watercolours without 'limiting' lines around (as in the deco-book), or with a wild ink-sketch and a few daubs of watercolour as in Gentleman's book.
I would love to have that facility! I have tried my hand at watercolor sketches--and may yet again. I always end up doing too much and spoiling whatever little effect I may have had going.
Dear Sue,
watercolour sketches are 'meditating' for me - the result is not that important, more the looking attentively at a thing.
But I understand your hint: it is easy to use too much colour (my shere ink drawings often are better).
You'll make such a good geisha. ;) These books are lovely - thanks for sharing them.
Dear Nicki,
thank you :-) I have a problem with my blog-list - a few 'follower-blogs' are only to be seen on the tool 'Your blog-list' - will try to remedy that (concerning at least four blogs).
The second book is one I've read and enjoyed - poured over, actually. I don't know the first one at all, but it looks like quite a find.
I've only ever been to London once, and I spent a lot of my time in Foyles. It would be such a treat to go visit again!
Dear Pondside,
I'm glad that you liked the book! I will be back in London in September - for us it is only a short hop - from Canada it is far.
Hi, Britta,-
being (quote:'a little bit') able to draw, write, sing, and so on (which 'so-ons' are that, I wonder?) might all be very well but REAL geishas and hoehere toechter are/were experts in exercising modesty and unobtrusiveness. So bear that in mind when considering reincarnation.I'm sure, a Jane Austen heroine might suit you much better, if you improved your 'amateurish ways' in the above mentioned skills.
Dear Anonymous,
didn't see you for a while! Again: interesting advice. You might be assured that I was educated to the ideal of the 'Höhere Tochter'. Modesty and onubtrusiveness I changed deliberately at a certain age, seeing that woman in beige&brown, complaining to be invisible, often become catty and censorious. As you seem to know REAL geishas so well, I think you put a rhetoric question? They decided how to please, as I. :-)
PS: When I read your comment to husband, he only said: "Hohoho!"
Is your hubby Father Christmas??
Dear Britta,
Your choice of books are is appreciable. especially when you mentioned your interest in drawing, I too think those books must be awesome..
13 degree in Germany is good weather or bad weather?
Dear Tomz,
thirteen degrees is cold weather - too cold for the season, it should be around 20°C or more (though it slowly works up to it now). Soon I will be on your blog - at the moment I am in a project of work.
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