Up in the Highlands last weekend, and around every corner was a blaze of glorious autumn colour. The rose garden was still filled with pink petals, and the Michaelmas daisies blooming in the borders, alongside the rose hips and hawthorn berries. The acer leaves seemed even more vivid than I've seen anywhere else before, and the heathers brighter than August (the last time I was at Tillypronie). I walked through long grasses on the hill, and jumped over a burn, then climbed breathless across heather, and down into the woods. All was quiet, as if in a silent dream, even the roe deer, standing motionless as statues, waiting for me to pass, and then leaping up, disappearing towards the skyline...
14 comments:
what beautiful colors!
Those photos could win prizes! Very beautiful. I haven't seen enough of Scotland.
Lovely photos, love the grouping too.
Beautiful images and all laid out like a patchwork quilt. You are a magician with words and pictures. Hope to see you soon.
Gorgeous! I love this time of year, the bright leaves falling from trees, the last flowers clinging until a chill wind blows them away, the silvery pearlescence of the sky just before dusk sets in. It's quite cold now, alternating fog and sun, but the rains haven't begun yet. Time to settle into fleece and snuggle up with my new, gorgeous Penguin Threads editions of Emma and The Secret Garden!
Thanks for the comments; I'm glad you all like the pictures (just taken on my iphone).
Oh, and I love the Secret Garden; I haven't read it for ages, and can't find my battered old copy, so this might be the moment to order a new one.
Cold in London today, and rainy; clocks going back this weekend... trying not to feel dread at the prospect of encroaching darkness.
We once did what to read in summer and winter so now I am asking what to read on a plane trip from Cape Town to London. Any ideas ?
Some new books I loved this year: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, We Had it So Good, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (nonfiction). Some perennial traveling favorites: Enchanted April, A Room with a View, anything by Angela Thirkell. Although for long-haul flights I prefer to slip on an eye-mask and do my best to sleep through it!
I am in Middle School, and as a project I have to write a newspaper article. I have chosen to write about your fabulous book,Coco Chanel The Legend and The Life, and my review on it. I am still in the process of reading it and I think that it is amazing and so inspiring!! I love reading Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, drawing clothes and outfits, and shopping of course! I have loved fashion since I was little, and Coco Chanel is one of my favorite designers. I have seen movies on her, and read about her, but I think your book shows a new perspective on her life, and I am fascinated! My dream is to travel to Paris and get to see the House of Chanel, and see one of the Chanel fashion shows. I was wondering what inspired you to write a book on her? And what you find the most fascinating about Coco Chanel? Thank you so much for your time, and I wanted to tell you how much I love your book!
Liza -- thanks for getting in touch. Here are some answers for you:
1. What inspired you to write a biography about Chanel now?
I’ve wanted to write a biography of Chanel ever since I first went to her private apartment in Paris, over a decade ago. I started researching her life and work there and then; but it took the encouragement of my publisher, Harper Collins, to get a book into print, complete with hundreds of previously unseen photographs.
2. With everything that's already been said about Chanel, where did you begin your 'Chanel' journey?
I began my journey on that first visit to her private apartment at 31 Rue Cambon, above the Chanel boutique. It still seems to me filled with her presence, as well as her possessions. I was allowed to write part of my book in the apartment, at the very desk where she worked. I could see the score marks and scratches from her fountain pen on the leather top of the desk, which was incredibly evocative and inspiring. And that was just one of many extraordinarily revelatory episodes in my journey in the footsteps of Coco Chanel – from the convent in Aubazine, where she had been abandoned by her father as a child after the death of her mother, to the riverbank in the Highlands of Scotland where she fished for salmon with her lover, the Duke of Westminster, to the Mayfair mansion that they shared together in London, to La Pausa, the house she built as a retreat on the French Riviera, to the bedroom at the Ritz where she died.
Wow! I am sure that was an amazing experience! I hope that someday I will get to go to Paris and see the Chanel store on 31 Rue Cambon! Do they ever allow tourists to see her apartment?
The apartment isn't open to the public, I'm afraid -- but hopefully you will get a real sense of what it's like in my book.
Love the photos! It's turning into a great autumn in Scotland this year.
Dear Justine,
my name is Marina Syutaeva, I'm Beauty Editor at Interview Russia Magazine. I would like to ask you some questions for my article. Could you email me, please? My e-mail is m.syutaeva@interviewrussia.ru
I would very appreciate if you write me.
Thank you so much,
Marina
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