Status Updates From The Rosemary Tree

I think this is gonna be cheesy but cozy vibes 🥰

~ In lives where there had been no change for so long there had suddenly been cataclysmic change, as startling as this change from cold grey rain to brilliant sunshine.

~ It was easy to be a clever sinner, for the race to an earthly visible goal was short to run, so impossibly hard to be a wise saint, with the goal set at so vast a distance from this world and clouded with such uncertainty.

~ Beauty awakened such intolerable longing that people often shut their eyes to it, unaware that the longing was the greatest treasure that they had, their very lifeline, uniting the country of their lost innocence with the heavenly country for which their sails were set.

~ With what bounty and withal with what humor did heaven answer prayer.

~ I don’t believe in economizing on food. You only end in a nursing home, which costs more a week than decent food.

Me: Miss Wentworth, amen

Gloire de Dijon roses are the ones mom likes

Oh my…Michael is the fiancé who left Daphne?? The scandal!

~ The way God squandered Himself had always hurt her; and annoyed her too. The sky full of wings and only the shepherds awake. That golden voice speaking and only a few fishermen there to hear; and perhaps some of the words He spoke carried away on the wind or lost in the sound of the waves lapping against the side of the boat.

~ He was aware of inconsistency in loving souls and hating visitors, but the fact was that try as he might he found it hard to realize that the well-clothed body of a visitor was inhabited by an immortal soul.

~ It is the difference between beasts and men that the first desert each other in pain and the second go in to each other and bear each other company.

Will probably put this in the comfort read category

And her real name is Henrietta

Oh! Winkle, the youngest, is a nickname, acquired from Mrs Tiggy Winkle

~ Once she had known a far more wonderful language than the earthly one, but she had forgotten it now, and heard only vague echoes of it in the song of the birds and the sound of the wind blowing.

~ Winkle never knew quite what it would be that cradled her. It might be golden praise or the blue of purity or scarlet courage, or just light, or just darkness. It depended on the day and the time. They were all good, but the light was very good because it enabled her to see right to the horizons of the country where the mountains were.

The Lady of Shalott was just referenced! Anne Shirley tried to reenact that and almost drowned

~ Though it is true that for the power of God all things are superfluous it is also true that for the mercy of God nothing is. Every sparrow. Every hair. Every soul. Every nut.

~ When the sun was out the world was a young knight riding out with armor flashing and pennon flying, but on a day like this it was an old beadsman turned to his prayers, wrapped in a dun cloak of stillness and silence.

The George Peele’s knight poem at the beginning makes me miss reading poetry

We will have to see if I can fit this into ATY somewhere.

I've LOVED the two Elizabeth Goudge books I've read so far. The Scent of Water and Green Dolphin Street. Will this live up to the others?

Pre-read: seems like I'm off to an excellent start to my March reading! I have quite a load of historical fiction this time, so I'm trying to alternate between historical fictions and other genres. My last book was a fantasy, and the one before that was a historical fiction, so might be a good time to pick up this one.

Beautiful.

Oh, wow. She really knows people and human nature and all the stuffness!

This one is definitely up there with The Dean's Watch and The Little White Horse. I really do love it. It has all that I loved about The Middle Window without the bits I didn't love quite so much, too.

John is amazing, and I wish he were my friend.

OUCH! When someone loves us enough to say the hard things... OUCH. And beautiful at the same time.

Okay, wow. I knew it would go here, but I had no idea it would make such a huge impact. With Goudge, you can't expect every plot line to have a neat and tidy bow slapped on top. She lets things get ugly, and I'm getting nervous. (in all the best ways)

Can I just smack Daphne? Yes, John would be crazy annoying if you chose to look at it that way. Or, you could choose to embrace his beautiful qualities and manage to recall that you aren't exactly perfect either.

I thought I saw where this was going at the appearance of a character. Now I'm sure of it, and I can't figure out how Goudge is going to make it work.