There is whimsy here and solace for the lonely, for the frustrated writer, for the introvert, for those who have an ambivalent relationship with winter. Read it all at once and then go back and open the book at random. I have long been an admirer of Shawna's and this book is another great opportunity to enjoy her wisdom, her openness and her close attention.This is a book to carry around with you in your purse or pocket, to take out when you are sitting at a cafe on a patio in the summer or huddling under the blankets while the snow falls on a winter afternoon, your hand cradling a big mug of tea.
Through the book there are references to books and art. In this book, Shawna shares her insecurities about being a writer and talks about her shyness while also celebrating light, beauty and the ever changing flower. I’m a long-time fan of Shawna Lemay’s thoughtful and illuminating blog posts and her gorgeous photos of flowers, always changing, and it’s a pleasure to read her work in print as well as online.įor those who have never read any of Shawna Lemay's delightful blog entries through Transactions with Beauty or her previous blogs, you are in for a treat. And I love that the title comes from a diary entry by Virginia Woolf: “A lamp and a flower pot in the center. I also love that there are references to the sponge-cakes Jane Austen talks about in a letter to her sister Cassandra, and to the ha-ha in Austen’s Mansfield Park. If winter has left us depleted, we know how disconcertedly fine it will be to soon fill up again, soaking in the sun and the slowly warming air. If winter has made us brittle, it means we have felt it all the way to our bones, and we know winter because we have looked at it carefully and with awe. The good news is that if there is despair, there is also gentleness and tenderness.
The time it takes for art to move out into the world and to be accepted or admired or understood is often longer than the artist’s life. I want to say winter strengthens me but I know the grocery store flowers are the only reason I make it through. Some of my favourite passages are about winter. The book is small and lovely, and it would be perfect as a stocking stuffer. This is a beautiful book of meditations on flowers, light, photography, art, and writing-on discouragement and inspiration, disappointment and resilience, the long slow process of creating and experiencing art.
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