Thursday 20 January 2011

A Room with a View


I’ve mentioned before that we’re doing some major building work at our property, and that the builders are great craftsmen. But the person who has had the vision to bring everything together into a glorious whole is the architect, Olivier. He has a gift for transforming problems and crumbly, dark corners into wonderful spaces that, inside and outside, further enhance the beauty of this magical place.

Here’s one of those happy instances where it all comes together: the view from one of the windows in our guardian’s newly-restored cottage. The first time I walked in I thought, just for a moment, that there was a bright picture hanging on the wall, so beautifully is the view framed.

                                                                                 
 Beyond, in the rising hills to the east, the first shivers of the Alps heft the land further into the sky. There the fields are corded purple; forever that long ago summer when she scythed and bent with the other girls, the women and the elderly to pick lavender flowers for the perfume factory.
   Higher still the land is stubbled with sheep. They say that that each troop of sheep keeps the scents of its particular grazing land deep in its fleeces, so that its provenance can be established by what the nose detects in the matted, unwashed wool: thyme and dry rocks, acorn-mashed mud, slopes where the herb savory grows in abundance, the pollen of gentian fields, hollows where leaves rot with wind-blown spikes of lavender.  
           
                                                                                               from The Lantern

5 comments:

Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I'm a new follower!

Debra L Martin said...

That is a beautiful view indeed!

Getting Your Read On said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. You have a beautiful view out your window. Best of luck with your writing.

Aimee

emanproject said...

Beautiful blog...it shows who you are as a person...

Anonymous said...

Deborah, I don't know what to say first -- after visiting your blog I'm hungry for the taste of cherries, lonely for missing the light and the shades of yellow and purple that can only be found in the South of France, and deeply curious about your new book! My congratulations on The Lantern. I'm looking forward to reading it and to getting to know you more on SW. Joanne

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