Each year as I am reading, I keep an eye out for quotes about three things. The first is books. If a passage which talks about books, libraries, reading or anything else bookish catches my attention, I save it ready to post on a rainy day.
The second thing is food. It may be a quote that inspires me to make something or about a particular ingredient which I then save to use for a Weekend Cooking post.
Wait, there are four things. The third is quotes about Paris and France.
And now, the whole reason for this long intro. The last quotes that I save are related to Christmas, and so over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of the quotes with you all.
Today I am starting with this quote from Karen Swan's The Christmas Party:
"Oh my God," Ottie gasped in amazement again.
Was this still Lorne, Willow asked herself? Unlike Ottie, she at least seen some of the transition from what it had been to this: she had seen the tatty stair carpet lifted, the million and one rugs rolled away, the stern ancestors no longer bearing down from the walls. She had helped pack away all the photos and vases, jugs and trinkets, shields and heraldic memorabilia, the hall tables and chairs, Rusty, their entire lives, so that all that remained was this basic framework - the imposing split staircase, coffered panelling, galleried landing.
But where once the wooden walls and floor had been a rich, polished, almost burgundy oak, now it was pale and stripped back to a raw, texturized blonde. And she had certainly never anticipated seeing, hanging from the centre of the ceiling, almost filling the gallery space, four metres tall and upside down, a Christmas tree! There wasn't a bauble or swag of tinsel to be seen on it, instead its bushy branches splaying floorwards as though reaching for the guest as they passed underneath, its lush verdancy so tactile she wanted to reach out and brush her palms against it. There was a purity to this bold design statement that felt modern but also timeless, putting a stress on the natural, the raw, the crafted - and not the grand, as she had expected.
"That thing's not going to fall on us, is it?" Ottie muttered under her breath, as they heard the gasps of the other guests coming in behind them.
"This place!"
"Ohmigod, how did they get that tree up there?"
"Imagine living here...."
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