Flora Thompson: So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that esc...

happiness depends more upon the state of mind - and body, perhaps - than upon circumstances and events.

Flora Thompson

events mind happiness

You can lock up from a thief, but you can't from a liar.

Flora Thompson

thieves liars lying

It was a morning of ground mist, yellow sunshine, and high rifts of blue, white-cloud-dappled sky. The leaves were still thick on the trees, but de-spangled gossamer threads hung on the bushes and the shrill little cries of unrest of the swallows skimming the green open park spaces of the park told of autumn and change.

Flora Thompson

autumn sunshine morning

Manner and morals have improved, improved wages and world travel during the war have had effect, and the farm labourer now is an intelligent, self respecting workman, on a level at least with the town artisan. The village rustic of the past no longer exists outside of the comic papers.

Flora Thompson

intelligent war past

Nature knows no calendar, the seasons move in a circle.

Flora Thompson

calendars circles moving

Other days, other ways; and, although they have now been greatly improved upon, the old country midwives did at least succeed in bringing into the world many generations of our forefathers, or where should we be now? —

Flora Thompson

generations country world

We cannot bring the good old days back but, if we must eat mass-made foods, get laws passed to insist upon its goodness and purity.

Flora Thompson

goodness purity law

It was still the custom of the countryside to build with local materials produced as close to the selected site as possible, for transport was difficult, even the best of country roads being more fitted for horseback traffic rather than heavy loads.

Flora Thompson

traffic heavy country

The wife ought to have the first child and the husband the second, then there wouldn't ever be any more.

Flora Thompson

wife husband children

Candleford Green was but a small village and there were fields and meadows and woods all around it. As soon as Laura crossed the doorstep, she could see some of these. But mere seeing from a distance did not satisfy her; she longed to go alone far into the fields and hear the birds singing, the brooks tinkling, and the wind rustling through the corn, as she had when a child. To smell things and touch things, warm earth and flowers and grasses, and to stand and gaze where no one could see her, drinking it all in.

Flora Thompson

distance drinking children

Readers have no doubt noticed how seldom builders live in houses of their own construction. You will find a town or village expanding in all directions with their masterpieces of modernity in the way of houses and bungalows; but the builder himself you will usually find living nearer the heart of things, snugly and comfortably housed in some more substantial, if less convenient, building of less recent date.

Flora Thompson

doubt house heart

Some great poet or philosopher once said that " he who goes to nature for comfort must go to her empty handed " , and I think he was right.

Flora Thompson

philosopher comfort thinking

It was ordained that our earthly pilgrammage should be a struggle, and life would be a tame affair if everything went smoothly.

Flora Thompson

affair struggle would-be

A liar did ought to have a good memory.

Flora Thompson

liars memories lying

Pale purple as the bloom om a ripe plum, veined with the gold of late flowering gorse, set with small slender birches,just turning yellow,with red-berried rowans and thicket of bracken, the heath lay steeped in sunshine.

Flora Thompson

purple sunshine yellow

Words as to the inner emotions do not come readily to me, for I have led an isolated life mentally and spiritually.

Flora Thompson

isolated emotion

No age can have everthing and in material ways ours is more fortunate than any preceding one. Our ancestors appear to have mastered the art of living better than we are able to when an easy conscience, largely due to the unshaken faith of the time, left a marging of spiritual energy with which to enjoy life.

Flora Thompson

enjoy-life spiritual art

The harvest-home or supper is a thing of the past. To those who feel the fascination of the past this may appear sad, but it is not so really for, even while it existed, this surface goodwill was often an empty show.

Flora Thompson

fascination home past

Special qualities are required of the essayist. A poem or a novel may spring from the inner consciousness of an author. Reasoning poers must be brought to reinforce imagination.

Flora Thompson

imagination special spring

Now, with the glamour of the past upon them we are inclined to look back on old world festivities with regret and consider present day dances as a poor substitute for the old. From an artistic point of view, they maybe, but in individual freedom and independence of spirit they mark a stage upward.

Flora Thompson

regret views past

So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that escapes the notice of many people their whole lives through. Colour gives way to form: every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky. New vistas, obscured all Summer by leafage, now open up.