A Story of Three Rings.....

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

Oh no! It is an ever fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Times's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved....

As I cannot play you the music of Mozart that runs in my head (although if I could it would, today, be 'Dove Sono' from The Marriage of Figaro) I wanted to give you a gift for Valentine's Day from the Wolfgang of Words - the incomparable William Shakespeare. His Sonnet No. 116 is so wonderful that a lump comes to my throat whenever I think about it! And if I need further illustration of it's beauty, I watch the fragile & lovelorn Marianne Dashwood - so beautifully played by Kate Winslet - reciting it in the cold, driving rain while looking down the hillside at the house of her lost love Willoughby in Ang Lee's 'Sense & Sensibility'. Pure magic.

But I like to think that Valentines are not just for those we love romantically...I always send my niece and three young nephews a card each - handwriting suitably disguised, of course! And I remember the joy of receiving a card from my Grandfather each year (signed from 'Snowy', which was the colour of his hair!) and, once, my Dad. It made us feel so special and loved.

The rings above are the three that I always wear, come what may. As you can see, I'm a silver girl! The one on the left is engraved with the words 'Come back, come back to me' and was handmade by the wonderful Kathryn Riechert. My sister & I both wear the same one. The quote is from one of our favourite movies, Atonement, and it symbolises our love for each other & the fact we're apart in body but always together in spirit. The one on the right is engraved with my motto 'Carpe Diem' and was a birthday gift from one of my very best friends. Looking at it reminds me to try & live by it's sentiment and also brings her close to me each day. The middle one is my wedding ring - no further explanation necessary, but so so dear to me. I didn't have an engagement ring as we decided to get married only 3 weeks before the ceremony...so the little diamond stands for that too.

My very favourite rings may not be the most expensive or even the most beautiful that I possess. But they are the dearest to me. For they represent the three types of love that I want to always have close: marriage, family & friendship.

Wishing every one of you love and happiness this St Valentine's Day & always xox