Hope, Sunshine, and Flowers


A virtual trip to Italy has brought immense pleasure in a snowbound (and it’s still only November!) Canadian winter. 

The Enchanted April 
I had watched the screen adaptation of The Enchanted April more than once but had never read the book. I can now highly recommend it. 

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim is a delight and brimming over with hope and joy. Four women, fearful and dissatisfied with their lives, are renewed in Italy’s spring sunshine. Lotty is the first to feel the transformation. “And how astonishing to feel this sheer bliss, for here she was, not doing and not going to do a single unselfish thing, not going to do a thing she didn’t want to do. According to everybody she had ever come across she ought to at least have twinges. She had not one twinge. . . . Wonderful that at home she had been so good, so terribly good, and merely felt tormented. . . . Now she had taken off her goodness and left it behind her like a heap of rain-soaked clothes, and she only felt joy.” 

The women have rented a castle, high on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean. The gardens descend the steep slope with one set of blooms succeeding the last. “In the garden that second week the poet’s eyed narcissus disappeared out of the long grass at the edge of the zigzag path, and wild gladiolus, slender and rose-coloured, came in their stead, white pinks bloomed in the borders, filling the whole place with their smoky-sweet smell, and a bush nobody had noticed burst into glory and fragrance, and it was a purple lilac bush. Such a jumble of spring and summer was not to be believed in, except by those who dwelt in those gardens.” 

Originally published in 1922, The Enchanted April is timeless. It will make you laugh and instill a new zest for life as you move through your week. 


Gardens of Sicily 
Another book that has brought me tremendous pleasure this month is Gardens of Sicily by Clare Littlewood. The tropical island is full of exotic plants and blossoms and it’s sheer pleasure to view the full-page photographs. Gardens of Sicily is part of a series of garden books, so if you’d prefer, you can head to Portugal or Japan (all available from the Saskatoon Public Library). 

Coming Up Next 
I promise to light up December with coloured lights and fantasy. 

See Also 

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