KATHERINE MANSFIELD

I love this place; I love mountains and big skies and forests. And the weather is still supremely beautiful even though the lower peaks are powdered with fresh snow. But Heavens! What sun. It never has an ending. I am basking at this minute - half past four - too hot without a hat, & the sky is that transparent blue only to be seen in autumn - the forest trees steeped in light.

But this is such a beautiful country. Oh! It is so marvellous. Never the same - the air like old, still wine - sounds of bells & birds and grasshoppers playing their fiddles & the wind shaking the trees. It rains & the drops in the fir trees afterwards are so flashing-bright & burning that one feels all is enchanted. It is cloudy - we live in fine white clouds for days & then suddenly at night all is crystal clear & the moon has gold wings.