Wood Stove

“Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut’s only good they say,
If for logs ’tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E’en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter’s cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.”

by Celia Congreve

Poem and photo via Cold Splinters.

Icon - Sofia Coppola

I’m not a girl, nor will I ever be. But if I were a girl, I’d like to be Sofia. She’s very feminine. And she’s very quiet. But then, her movie’s done. She loves fashion and music and art and film, and she is able to combine them in a way that all seems to be quite natural. There’s nothing forced about it — she doesn’t have that gritty hunger to prove what she knows. There are certain people who have confidence and absolutely adore themselves and, five minutes around them, I just want to not be around them anymore. Sofia is confident in such a lovely way. It’s not aggressive or arrogant, and that’s a gift. I’m sure she works quite hard, but it all seems effortless.

--Marc Jacobs on Sofia Coppola via sofiacoppola

Icon - Alexa Chung

My gripe is that a lot of young girls aspire to be super sexy and I don’t see why. What is attractive or alluring is not necessarily how much flesh you bare, but how good your brain is, or how much charm you have. Fake tan, fake tits - this porn thing has become embedded in our culture. It’s a shame. Maybe it’s because I’m a country girl, but I hate it when women only dress for men. I think it’s more exciting to reveal less. Maybe wear layers of smocks and then have super-sexy underwear on. Dress like a pilgrim on the outside and a whore underneath.

--Alexa Chung

Via wastoldtheredbecake.

Icon - Princess Grace Kelly

You just trusted Grace´s beauty, you knew that it had nothing to do with clothes or makeup. In New York she always came to my studio in a pullover, a skirt and slippers. In Jamaica, there was no difference: pulled-back hair, a simple shirt. That was Grace - natural, unpretentious.

--Howell Conant discusses Grace Kelly

Godard's Alphaville

Your voice, your eyes, your hands, your lips... Our silences, our words... Light that goes, light that returns. A single smile between us. In quest of knowledge, I watched night create day while we seemed unchanged. O beloved all, beloved of one alone, your mouth silently promised to be happy. Away, away says hate; Closer, closer says love. A caress leads us from our infancy. Increasingly I see the human form as a lovers' dialogue. The heart has but one mouth. Everything by chance. All words without thought. Sentiments adrift. Men roam the city. A glance, a word. Because I love you, everything moves. We must advance to live. Aim straight ahead towards those you love. I went toward you, endlessly toward the light. If you smile, it enfolds me all the better. The rays of your arms pierce the mist.

-Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville: Une etrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

Via This Cruelest Month.

Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust

"Art Is A Way Out."

"Do not let life overwhelm you. When the old paths are choked with debris of failure, look for newer and fresher paths. Art is just such a path. Art is distilled from suffering. As Mr. Polnikoff exclaimed through his fine Russian beard, when at the age of eighty-six he gave up the business to learn Chinese, 'We are, as yet, only at the beginning...'"

"Art Is One Of Life's Richest Offerings."

"For those who have not the talent to create there is appreciation. For those..."

"Go on from there."

--Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West

Replace Fear

FFFFOUND.

Education

All, all, becomes profitable. Education is of the most satisfying and available nature. I am at Smith! Which two years ago was a doubtful dream -- and that fortuitous change of dream to reality has lead me to desire more and to lash myself onward, onward.

--Sylvia Plath

Rebecca Bailey

This poem describes a perfect summer evening for me. Via Cold Splinters.