THRIFT SHOP TREASURE HUNTING

It’s rather like going down the rabbit hole – this Thrift Shop treasure hunting.  One simply jumps in and the fun begins.

Sharp eyes are required to ferret out the gold from the dross.

To find the  brand-new pink linen Max Mara jacket consorting with   black polyester jacket from Le Chateau.   It’s not my size but it would look fab on my dear-to-my-heart friend Amy.   How can I go wrong at four dollars.

When you’re in the rabbit hole it is a good idea to always look up.

Way way up on the top shelves.

To find the second treasure of the day.  Three gorgeous Panama straw hats dreaming  together and ignoring the gray clouds and rain.    Magenta, red, and black hats and just one dollar each.

Panama hats are actually made in Ecuador from the pleated leaves of the toquilla straw plant.    Originally they were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama and from there to the rest of the world.    Now you know why they call them Panama hats.       Glorified since the 19th century the Panama hat is considered the prince of straw hats,   or in this case the princess.

 

My beauties simply called out to be dolled up.  Spiffed up and tricked out to become the soigné of all Panamas.   I riffle my trunk  filled with ribbons and trims.  A red Panama will be crowned with an enormous red rose and trimmed with a little grograin ribbon.   A hat to wear on the beach at Cap Ferrat.

 

 

A black Panama speaks of Paris  and late night supper.    I trimmed it simply with Chanel inspired ribbon.   A hat for Deuville should be able to go to the beach or to  the races.

 

 

 

When a hat is pink it should speak of romance.  Of  lingering looks across a crowded room.  Of dancing on the beach  under the  stars .  Gray silk flowers the colour of moon light caress this hat of love.

 

All you have to do is follow me down the rabbit hole.   Have tea with the Mad Hatter  and dance in the moonlight.  All it takes is a Panama Hat.

THE PARIS WIFE

 

“It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that was important.” -Gertrude Stein

 

 

 

“There is no one thing that’s true.  It’s all true.” -Ernest Hemingway

 

I’ve been away again.

My shoes are covered with silvery dust.

My head filled with wailing jazz music.

I brush aside a curtain of cigarette smoke.

The cafe is awash with artists and alcohol.

It is the l920′s and I am in Paris.

Reluctantly I turn the last page in my book.

 

 

I finish the final chapter in Paula McLain’s  book The Paris Wife.  A book so intensely personal I feel like a voyeur.

 

After a whirlwind courtship and wedding Hadley Richardson and  Ernest Hemingway set sail for Paris.    This is the Paris of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

 

 

It’s fiction so intimate one feels that you must cast your eyes aside.   We shouldn’t continue reading.   We are intruding on private lives of real people.  It is  sad to read that Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.   She was his first wife.  His Paris Wife.

 

Why am I not surprised that this week  my thoughts have been in Paris.

There’s six degrees of separation in this story of Hemingway.    Ten years ago when our son was married a good friend photographed the wedding.  His name was Patrick Hemingway.  He is Ernest Hemingway’s grandson.  (www.patrickhemingway.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROMANTIC READS

So many books on my list of favorites .  To simplify  I am putting my books into categories.  This is the first one.  They will  be a lot more to come.  Keep reading.

This is a fairly new release.  I  couldn’t stop reading it.  There’s intrigue but there is no question this is a book about a great romance.  VENETIA KELLY’S TRAVELING SHOW  by Frank Delaney

I would like to introduce you to Marlene de Blast (if you haven’t already met this author).  Her books are prose that read like poetry.  There’s recipes (she’s a chef) but there is great romance and it is non fiction.  Read in the proper sequence.

A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE

A THOUSAND DAYS IN TUSCANY

THAT SUMMER IN SICILY

THE LADY IN THE PALAZZO; AN UMBRIAN LOVE STORY

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”   Read the book and rent the movie!    OUT OF AFRICA by Karen Blix

A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forester(A Merchant Ivory movie  rent it)

A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forester (A Merchant Ivory movie rent it)

AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Warton

HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Warton

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro

POSSESSION by A.S. Byatt

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur S. Golden

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier

THE ENGLISH PATIENT by Michael Ondaatje  Read the book by this fine Canadian writer.  Rent the movie.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell (my first adult book read in l948)  Rent the movie.

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS by Ernest Hemingway  Rent the movie.

(the list will grow.  Send me the names of your favorite romantic books)