Went to tea at a friend's house.
I like the blue in her fruit bowl. I like looking round other people's houses to see how they live, how they interpret the world. L. still had her Christmas tree up because she said it kept her cheery through dull January.
I tried to explain about Twelth Night and bad fairies and all the rest of it. If she enjoys the tree, all power to her. Her chessmen look Japanese and martial.
Her tray is bamboo and the (delicious) shortbread gluten-free.
What quirks we all have! What very small rituals make us happy.
I've just finished reading Tim Bonyhady's Good Living Street about his absurdly wealthy Viennese forebears who made fortunes from gas mantles and patronized Klimt and the Wiener Werkstätte and ended up in Australia. Similar in some ways to Edmund deWaal's wonderful The Hare With Amber Eyes but in others very different. What a sucker I am for history and family histories in particular.
Other than that, the day has turned chilly.
Excellent reading weather.
