Mrs. Minerva - The English Home magazine

 August 31, 2020 – Mrs. Minerva - The English Home magazine

 

         On reflection, one good thing came out of having a broken foot and being laid up twiddling my fingers last year.  The first week I was in bed with my foot propped up on countless pillows last summer, I pulled all of the magazine subscriptions solicitations and I selected several magazines I’d never had before.- Veranda, The English Gardens, The English Home, Cats, etc.

          I let a few expire, but The English Home I simply adore because of the column – usually on the last page starting with Mrs. Minerva writes . . . then there is a photograph of an elegant lady’s back in a black dress and black hat.

         First, you want to know what she looks like, you want her to turn around, but she doesn’t. You are forced to imagine her. Her column has a strong “voice”.  It is like being invited to tea by the lady of the manor, the one behind wrought iron gates surrounded by lush gardens and with perhaps the best view in the county.

         I simply adore her column.

          Each title starts with “The art of” followed by the topic, for example:

         The art of Spring Cleaning

         The art of Celebrations

         The art of Owning a Dog

         The art of Country Living in Lockdown

          I have searched the internet and came up without finding out who the author actually is to see if she [I presume a she] has written anything else.  If any of my readers to this blog can identify her or anything else she has written, please clue me in.  Just reply to my comments or email listed in this blog.

         As I prowled around the internet this weekend I found a quote attributed to her way of thinking on the The English Home website put out for the world. 

“American women expect to find in their

husbands a perfection that English women

only hope to find in their butlers.” 

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) 

         Made me smile, laugh, and then ponder it.  You know me, I love a good quote and a good laugh.  

         An additional quote this week comes from a girlfriend who told her mate, “My car is messy, I haven’t picked up lately . . .” as he is opening the door and looked at the passenger’s floor boards and commented. 

         “You know what these look like - used condom wrappers.” 

         It was a good laugh for the pair of them, but I laughed because I use the same hand sanitizer wipes that come in small silver foil packets. I, too, toss them on the floorboard in my car, and don’t pick them up for few days at a time. 

         I have immediately stopped doing that and now sequester them in an oversized straw carry bag that has extra masks, my cell phone, my small purse, and a canister of antiseptic wipes I use on door handles and my steering wheel. I save the nicely scented wipes in the foil packets for my hands only. 

         Another quip from this friend was a couple of weeks ago when she was house sitting her brother’s place, taking advantage of his amenities.  It was sort of a vacation from constant togetherness due to lockdown with her significant other. 

         On one phone call to her other-half he said to her, 

         “I think you need to come on home so you stop missing me.” 

         What a sweet sentiment. I hope everyone remembers and shares it next time you are parted from a loved one who misses you. 

         Another quote I noticed either in a magazine, or on a t-shirt – I got a smile out of: 

I am not everyone’s favorite

but, cheers to those who appreciate me.

 

         And lastly, for some bittersweet.  I used to love the following quote by Audrey Hepburn, as Regina Lampert, in the movie Charade, (1963).  It used to tickle me, now it has a completely different meaning as we have all these Covid19 deaths. 

         Cary Grant is meeting Audrey Hepburn for the first time in a ski resort in the Alps and she is eating at an open-air restaurant. The view is gorgeous. 

         Cary Grant uses that lame pickup line, “Do I know you?”. 

         Audrey replies, “I already know an awful lot of people and until one of them dies I couldn’t possibly meet anyone else.” 

         That sarcastic and amusing line has lost all of its charm now when you color it with today’s Covid19. 

         Now I feel that life, as we know it, will never be the same, when one of my favorite quotes is no longer charming. 

         I lift up my prayers to all those battling Covid19 this minute.  Join me in sending up prayers for your family, friends and neighbors who are in throes of this horrible virus.