Monday, September 28, 2015

A Bloomsbury Fall


  “I can only note that the past is beautiful because one ever realizes an emotion at the time.  It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”
                                                                                                                                        Virginia Woolf

All during this current month of September, I've been remembering a beautiful past September in 2004. I was leaving my Silverado Canyon garden for England, and beginning a journey to research and write a book.  I was searching for Vanessa Bell.  Staying in the Bloomsbury area of London, I sought her everywhere...gazing out an upstairs window, crossing busy Bedford Place, taking tea in Russell Square.  She had moved to the same area one hundred years before, in 1904.  On my way to the British Library every morning, I walked past other leafy gardens and past 46 Gordon Square. I imagined her easel and paints among spare bedroom furnishings and light streaming in, onto white distempered walls.  I spent long days in the British Library, pouring over biographies, memoirs, art reviews and more.  I spent rainy afternoons in the dusty basement of the Courtauld puzzling over long ago and faded art exhibition catalogs.  I often wanted to ask her, why this blue, why that  line and composition, why the Matisse like high-keyed color there?  Virginia Woolf once wrote, "Mrs. Bell says nothing.  Mrs. Bell is as silent as the grave."  But, I beg to differ.  Woolf was wrong.  Vanessa Bell spoke to me. This enigmatic, resilient, and experimental painter captured my curiosity, my heart, and my imagination.  The book was published eleven years later in 2015.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

May Garden

“…At the moment it is divinely lovely here..."
                                               Virginia Woolf




My Orinda garden is divinely lovely in the early evenings,  after the sun has set and the lights come on. It casts an almost  magical spell. Everything it seems, is in bloom.  The dogs follow me about as I clip spent roses, pull a rogue weed here and there, and enjoy the last few hours of the day.  

Six tomato plants were planted last week, red and yellow bell peppers, and basil....always basil.  We are eager for the black mission figs to ripen and add a touch of sweetness to the end of a good meal.  I'm also considering making the fig pie mentioned in Jans Ondaatje Rolls The Bloomsbury Cookbook.  But what exactly is treacle?  And, will I be able to find it at any of my local markets?

Thursday, March 26, 2015

March Musings


“It’s lovely in the garden;….flowers suddenly light up in the evening.”
                                       Virginia Woolf

A gentle mid March rain has done wonders
      for the garden.  The rhododendrons, camellias, and lavenders are providing a blaze of color lighting up each evening.  The rain also provided an opportunity to work on an art project---cataloging five paintings by Vanessa Bell and then creating five art pieces....works on paper....to be submitted to the 25th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf juried exhibition The Mark on the Wall. 
It's been a fascinating process; mentally  conceiving each piece, carefully selecting materials and colors, and arranging each piece.  I found the process remarkably similar to working with my hands to plant and grow a garden.