The Beautiful Visit

I am taking a day to myself today and enjoying great music and a book that I recently discovered. It started with an Audio CD to escape the morning traffic doldrums and has turned out to be the most delightful surprise. Written in 1950 by English author Elizabeth Jane Howard, 'The Beautiful Visit' is offering some of the most engaging passages that I have read in some time. After a search around the local libraries I was finally able to obtain a copy of the book. I particulary like the following passage, it conjures up so many memories.  It reminds me of a visit we made to a wonderful old hotel in the country last year.

'We walked back through the arch, pushed open the green front door, and were in a large hall. I shall never forget the smell of that house.  Logs, lavender and damp, the old scent of a house that has been full of flowers for so many eras that the very pollen and flower pots stay behind intangibly enchanting ~ candles and drapes ~ weak aged taffeta stretched on the chairs ~ drops of sherry left in fragile shallow glasses ~ nectarines and strawberries ~ the warm earthy confidential odour of enormous books and butterfly smell of the pages, a combination of leather and moth ~ dense glassy mahogany ripe with polishing and the sun ~ guns and old coats ~ smooth dead fur on the glaring sentimental deers' heads ~ beeswax, brown sugar, and smoke ~ it smelled of everything I first remember seeing there, and I shall never forget it.'

Images taken by me

The Elms

Abberley, Worcestershire, UK