Mood board for spring

In a perfect world. No, let's go with better, perfection is boring. In a better world I'm sitting in a rattan chair on the patio, feeling the warmth of the sun through the awning. On the table is a stack of books; notebooks next to my cup of coffee and the French press. Supporting my back, a thick, soft cushion with a cover made of any of the patterned textiles in my image above, which I call: My spring mood board with Annie Ernaux and Schuyler Samperton Textiles.

In reality I'm indoors. That harsh light of early spring still lingers and even though buds have bloomed, promising, sunny days suddenly turned colder (today we had hail). Waiting for spring is not my forte. The good news is that one of my current reads, Annie Ernaux's memoir The Years, translated from French by Alison L Strayer, has been shortlisted for The Man Booker International Prize. Apart from being smitten with my copy, a Fitzcarraldo Editions publication, the narrative voice, written in the third person, intrigues me. I don't remember having read a memoir in the third person. It covers the years 1941 to 2006 'told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present, photos, books, songs, radio, television, advertising, and news headlines.' I haven't finished it yet, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. It's rewarding when a book one has wanted to read not only lives up to its expectations but exceeds them.

Magnolia in bloom, Antwerp 2011

We lived in Antwerp when I shot the blooming magnolia above. I cherish the photo - it was my first Belgian spring and I still remember the street corner - but it no longer appears on my old blog. An album connected to it seems to have vanished, which is why I decided to create a new link for the blog, with a slightly different layout. I haven't changed the blog name: I still note down my ideas for blog entries over lunch and latte.

Back to the textiles: Schuyler Samperton Textiles is an American brand my readers should recognise. Schuyler is one of my favourite textile designers. On the blog I have featured many designs from her growing collection. I have been waiting for spring to show you the two designs in my top image. Eden is the design at the top: The pale pink fabric is Eden/Sweet Pea, the pale green is Eden/Meadow. Shalimar is the floral fabric with the white background. The sample with the tag is Shalimar/Mist, a blue and green pattern. Shalimar/Cielo is the blue one. All these are 100% linen fabrics.

Dora Carrington, Farm at Watendlath, 1921

The green palette in the painting Farm at Watendlath by artist Dora Carrington fits my spring mood. In 1921 she spent a summer holiday in the Lake District. The little I know about her life is from the film Carrington (1995), which focuses on her relationship with writer Lytton Strachey, and from descriptions in the volumes I have read of Virginia Woolf's diaries. At first she doesn't seem to have made a favourable impression on Woolf, but in August 1920 the tone in her diary is different: 'Carrington is ardent, robust, scatterbrained, appreciative, a very humble disciple, but with enough character to prevent insipidity' (Vol. 2).

I will be back soon with a new reading list.

images by me | Dora Carrington art via Tate

Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey

This setting is starting to look familiar; me, sitting on a cushion on the floor surrounded with books (that's Vassily Kandisky's Capricious Forms, 1937, on the page) and magazines, sometimes with a film or a drama series in the player. Only the cup of coffee is missing. On Netflix they have added The Honourable Woman, a gripping BBC mini series that I enjoyed watching again. The cast is great but for me Stephen Rea stands out. You will also find there a favourite of mine, the First World War drama Testament of Youth (2014), starring Alicia Vikander, based on Vera Brittain's memoir with the same name. Its set design is gorgeous; the costumes too. One of my own DVDs that I have been watching is Carrington (1995), about the interesting relationship between artist Dora Carrington (1893-1932) and writer Lytton Strachey (1880-1932).

Carrington and Strachey, played by Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, belonged to the Bloomsbury group. Strachey was gay but he and Carrington had a special relationship and set up a home together. (If you visit the National Portrait Gallery in London you can view Carrington's portrait of Strachey.) Their story is certainly a love story, but of a different kind, with a tragic ending. Carrington took her own life following Strachey's death from cancer. Thompson is wonderful in her role but Strachey's wittiness helps Pryce steal the show. Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley in Downton Abbey) as Lady Ottoline Morrell is also a scene-stealer. She is simply fabulous. In everything she does.

I am constantly adding books to my reading list and Strachey is on it. I want to read Lytton Strachey: The New Biography by Michael Holroyd and also The Letters of Lytton Strachey, edited by Paul Levy. I just haven't decided which one to read first. Have you read them?