Springtime on the patio

The Scottish spring kept us waiting until two days ago when it arrived in all its glory, sunny and warm. The patio was swept, the garden table scrubbed and the wicker chairs brought outside. It was time for our first al fresco dining this season. These last days have been heavenly, mainly spent on the patio under a cherry tree in full bloom. That's where I am at this moment, with a cup of coffee, books and magazines. In a recent blog post the tree was getting ready to bloom and then one morning I saw it through our son's bedroom window and it felt as if it had exploded. Sublime!

These days I'm reading The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by American novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux. It's his first travelogue, first published in 1975. I had meant to read Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town but then I thought it best to read his travel books in chronological order - perhaps a foolish decision on my part with the latter being his twelfth! In The Great Railway Bazaar we travel with Theroux by rail through Asia, starting with the Direct-Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul. His style is wonderful and witty. He had me cracking up at regular intervals and frequently quoting him in my notebook. Before the end of chapter two I had realised that I would have to put my notebook aside if I were to finish the book before Christmas.

Speaking of Istanbul. I'm virtually on my way there from China, with the help of historian Sam Willis and the BBC Player. On BBC Four they are showing The Silk Road, where Willis takes us through Central Asia to Istanbul and Venice. On the programme's website you can view a photo diary of his journey. In the latest episode he was on Registan Square in the ancient city of Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, where he met craftsmen making tiles used for the restoration of the Bibi Khanum Mosque. It was fascinating. In the city of Khiva, farther west, he sat down with his guide to enjoy a meal in gorgeously decorated kitchenware. Even the flatbread had a pattern!

I don't post my Instagram images on my blog but today I had to make an exception, to preserve a precious moment. Yesterday I took the photo below with my tablet, just when my daughter and I were about to sit down to enjoy our lunch - a long lunch on the patio (she's studying at home these days; taking her final exams). It pictured the mood perfectly. I love how overexposed it looks and how there seems to be a blank space beyond the patio, instead of the ivy-covered garden wall.

Have a wonderful day!

Our lunch table (from my Instagram account, taken yesterday)

BBC's Life in Squares: The Bloomsbury group

Did you watch the miniseries Life in Squares on BBC? It was introduced as a three-part drama about the relationship between English painter Vanessa Bell and her sister, writer Virginia Woolf. To me it felt more like the story of Vanessa and artist Duncan Grant's relationship. Not that I'm complaining, I thoroughly enjoyed the series and its beautiful set design and costumes. Actress Phoebe Fox plays the younger Vanessa and Eve Best the older. I hadn't seen Fox in anything before and was very impressed with her performance; she fit well into my idea of Vanessa. James Norton is memorable in the role of younger Duncan (I first saw him as Tommy in Happy Valley) and so is Rupert Penry-Jones in that of the older. In fact, the entire cast is wonderful, an assembly of fine British actors who give great performances and bring to life on screen the famous avant-garde Bloomsbury group and its bohemian lifestyle, with the help of screenwriter Amanda Coe and Swedish director Simon Kaijser.

The series is still available on the BBC iPlayer but will soon be released on DVD. If you haven't already watched it I have to warn you about the first episode. A lot of material is crammed into it - love affairs and deaths - that will make much more sense to those already familiar with the individuals of the Bloomsbury circle. It's my personal opinion that there should have been four episodes instead of three to better introduce the characters. In episode 2 the storytelling becomes much more flowing and easier to follow.

Maybe it's a cliché to call the lifestyle of the Bloomsbury group bohemian, as I did above, but the mise en scène certainly is. Think paintings, art supplies, desks, books, letters, etc. During the World War I, Vanessa Bell set up a home in the Charleston House in Sussex, where the main part of the Life in Squares takes place. You will find beautiful images of its artistic interiors on the website of House & Garden.

For me the timing of the series is interesting because in the beginning of this summer I picked up Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, which I tend to read in summertime. During the reading I started thinking about the sisters, watched The Hours (2002) for the hundredth time, and pre-ordered the paperback edition of Vanessa Bell by Frances Spalding. I realised my focus had always been on Virginia and her story, and I didn't know enough about Vanessa. The series has now given me a better idea and I'm even more eager to receive the biography in the mail.

The World of Interiors, September 2014, p. 146

I have what I can only call a longstanding infatuation with Virginia Woolf. I cannot remember when it started, and I cannot remember which of her work I read first. So much has been written about her life and if you are interested in her story I can recommend the book Moments Of Being: Autobiographical Writings. Then there is her nephew Quentin Bell's (son of Vanessa and Clive Bell) biography about her life from the year 1912 to 1941, Virginia Woolf: A Biography. Her husband Leonard Woolf edited her diaries and published them after her death (see A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf).

After watching Life in Squares I'm eager to go a little Bloomsbury-group crazy. I'm looking forward to reading the aforementioned biography of Vanessa Bell and then I would love to watch again Carrington (1995), starring two of my favourites, Emma Thompson as Dora Carrington and Jonathan Pryce as Lytton Strachey (see trailer). There is a film in the making by Dutch director Sacha Polak called Vita & Virginia, about Virginia's relationship with Vita Sackville-West. More to look forward to!