When the Swallows Return to Capistrano

Does anyone other than me remember that old song recorded in 1957 by Pat Boone?
  

When the swallows return to Capistrano,

that's the day you promised you'd come back to me.

It was not known as much as its flip side, April Love, which was a #1 Billboard hit from the movie by the same name. Pat Boone starred as Nick, a slightly bad boy sent to a Kentucky horse farm belonging to his aunt and uncle as a condition of his parole for joyriding in a stolen car. 

Shirley Jones as Liz was a local girl falling for Nick, who at first only had eyes for her older sister. By the end of the movie, the two were in love and almost kissed. 

You had to be a very young teenager to have appreciated the corny movie. I was.

 Ah, Spring love! As tender as the chartreuse green leaves on the trees here in Middle Tennessee. 

After coming home from shopping and errands the other day I put these lavender tulips from Trader Joe's in a vase in front of an old streaky mirror and was inspired to put this plate of swallows I found at Goodwill beside them.

 The pattern of the plate is fittingly named 'Capistrano' and immediately made me think of Pat Boone singing the old love song about the swallows of Capistrano.

Capistrano is San Juan Capistrano in Southern California and sadly, the swallows have stopped returning there each Spring. I found several theories about this online, from the insects the birds ate no longer being in the polluted creeks due to development, to there not being enough mud now for their cliff nests, again due to development.

The swallows used to arrive in Capistrano from late February to about March 19. Isn't the migration of birds fascinating?

Purple Martins flew in last week here, to the clean condos in the sky that our neighbor always has ready for them. But the martins leave us about mid-July whereas the Capistrano swallows stayed in Capistrano until October 23 before their flight to Argentina.

The martins here are such a welcome sight here at Home Hill as they soar and swoop, catching insects in the air over the pond. And I remember the barn swallows at our old house were lovely to watch also as we sat on the patio before supper watching them.

I understand that San Juan Capistrano is trying all kinds of things to bring the swallows back and I hope they succeed, don't you?

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying them on this one plate found at Goodwill by Trend China from Japan.

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments at my previous post on the woman in the green dress and her French Normandy home! 

So many of you wrote that you live in older houses with the craftsmanship of days gone by and that you too wonder about the history of those who lived there before you. One of you even picked out your dream house from the slideshow of beautiful homes in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ruth mentioned the little windows near the front doors on many of the houses, wondering if they could be in a cloakroom. I bet they are, Ruth, and it's a long time since I've heard that word.

One of you had visited Normandy, Madame Là-bas, and wrote that Canada had many settlers from that region. 

And then Mary Ann wrote about her own mother's experience during the Depression, one that so many went through of wondering where the next meal would come from.

My own father talked often of being a child during that time. They were lucky in that they were farmers and grew and raised much of what they ate. 

Not everything in my 1930s magazines were the reality of most women reading them, were they?

Perhaps no closer to reality than for many of us the stylish blogs we avidly follow? 

But we certainly do love them and are inspired by them, don't you think? Just as my mother was by the women's magazines of the 1950s that I remember her reading with so much enjoyment.

I'm wishing you all an April as tender as Spring Love!

It's chilly here now but I already packed away the red wool blanket folded at the end of my bed and spread out the old peacock embroidered sheet that RH and I found at the Nashville flea market over forty years ago, two small children in tow.

Spring will turn into Summer before we know it, won't it? And with Easter late this year it will feel like summer days will be upon us after that.

What have you done to welcome Spring to your home?

I wake up every morning to see this old picture across from me, so it's always Summer in my bedroom!

P.S. First lilac sprig sighted outside the window this morning!

 

 

The Enchanted April

"To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine.

Small mediaeval Italian Castle on the shores of the

          Mediterranean to be Let Furnished 

                      for the month of April.

                  Necessary servants remain.

                                     Z., Box 1000, The Times."

via

And thus did Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot reply to the above advertisement and rent San Salvatore for the month of April, escaping their miserable lives in London. Along with a Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester they awoke one April morning in Paradise.

via

"Such beauty; and she there to see it.

Such beauty; and she alive to feel it.

Her face was bathed in light.

Lovely scents came up to the window and caressed her.

A tiny breeze gently lifted her hair…

How beautiful.

Not to have died before this…

to have been allowed to see, breathe, feel this."

from The Enchanted April

by Elizabeth von Armin

My 1924 copy of The Enchanted April reads: "By the Author of "Elizabeth and Her German Garden." Now we know that both books, and others, were written by Elizabeth von Armin. 

via

I reread this book every April and watch the gorgeous movie. Perhaps it should be required reading for all engaged couples and at every wedding anniversary.

Mrs. Wilkins' husband, Mellersh, "a solicitor, encouraged thrift, except that branch of it which got into his food. He did not call that thrift, he called it bad housekeeping." 

When Mrs. Wilkins' and Mrs. Arbuthnot's husbands arrived at San Salvatore, Mr. Wilkins was impressed that his Lotty had made the acquaintance of wealthy Lady Caroline.

via

Mellersh is played by one of my favorite actors, Alfred Molina:

Lotty Wilkins is played by Josie Lawrence, who unlike Lotty is obviously noticed at parties:

via

Mrs. Wilkins is "the kind of person who is not noticed at parties. Her clothes, infested by thrift, made her practically invisible. Her face was non-arresting; her conversation was reluctant, she was shy."

Rose Arbuthnot is played by Miranda Richardson:

via

Mrs. Arbuthnot's husband Frederick is played by the incomparable Jim Broadbent:

via

"Frederick had been the kind of husband whose wife betakes herself early to the feet of God."

via

Clearly, Frederick has been besotted with Lady Caroline. Rose is, by all accounts, a neglected wife. But at San Salvatore the madonna-like beauty of Rose attracts Mr. Briggs, their landlord.

Mr. Briggs is played by Michael Kitchen, the star of "Foyle's War":

via

He finds something in Rose Arbuthnot that Mr. Arbuthnot has not seen.

via

"…the more Mr. Briggs thought Rose charming the more charming she became."

via

Rose became quite captivating, as husband Frederick soon realized.

via

And there is reluctant femme fatale Lady Caroline, played by beautiful Polly Walker:

via

Lady Caroline is at San Salvatore to be left alone, or so she thinks, to sleep, not to be called upon to give orders to the servants in her fluent Italian. 

"I haven't come here to housekeep, and I won't."

She was tired of her mother telling her what to do, tired of men grasping at her, tired of silly women being jealous of her.

"She didn't want their tiresome men."

via

And then there is autocratic Mrs. Fisher, played by indomitable Dame Joan Plowright:

via

Plowright, once married to Laurence Olivier, plays the role of Mrs. Fisher with all the determination in those dark brown eyes that appear almost black. Stubborn, proud, insistent on her own way, but Lotty Wilkins senses her vulnerability.

via

Lotty "sees" Mrs. Fisher's hidden needs, Lady Caroline's, Mr. Briggs', the Arbuthnots'. She even finally sees her husband Mellersh's, because she believes the best of everyone. 

San Salvatore causes her to "see" it all, in the magic of "The Enchanted April."

"The View from Mrs. Wilkins's Bedroom

After a Water-Colour by the Hon. Lady Mallet"