gold, gone

I hope you're reading this before it's too late. I found the name of the show about gold, it's called The History of Art in Three Colours, presented by Dr. James Fox on BBCFour, but Gold is gone. GONE. It's too late for gold.

It's not too late for Blue, though: that ends tonight (on iPlayer, I mean: it will linger in our memories) at 9:00. So anyone reading this in the UK, if you're having a lazy snowy lie in today, definitely watch it. White, the last in the trilogy, is airing next week.

James Fox is a youngish guy, a professor, I suppose, with Dr. in front of his name, who dresses like the early Beatles: I love that style of white shirts, suit jacket, skinny black tie: he does his with a twist sometimes, like hiking in the German alps, in the snow, to find the perfect blue flower from an early novel that put blue on the romance map, with jeans and loafers below his black suit and tie.  I can't work out whether his area is science or culture or art.. it doesn't matter. He leads you on this journey, through history, in the case of blue arriving by vote to Venice carrying a huge piece of real Lapis, the way the traders did, from a cave in Afghanistan, the only place it's mined, that one cave, to trade for gold.

We - husband and I both - LOVE the series. We like to watch stuff together, and to find something we both love - like the Killing, which we're now devouring on dvd - is rare. This weekend, after I go out to meet a good friend, and he swims in the gym, we're planning to dive back under the duvet and have a Killathon.

This is Carry Sommers, who created Pachacuti, the wonderful ethical hat company, at the WEBA awards, where she was nominated. She had her golden dress made by a designer friend, whose name, alas, eludes me. I love gold at the moment - nearly as much as I love blue - and especially now. When it's cold out, I want to wear something warm, and gold feels warm. I think, though, I might wear a powder blue jumper and white jeans and thick warm boots. We've got a ball coming up on Monday, and it's 'black tie optional' so I'm wearing one of the cocktail dresses I've had made in the late 20th Century. Jackie Kennedy with a twist. I wish I could wear this dress, but I think I'm going for shimmery, silken, golden lime green.

Definitely watch the show on Blue: I'd love to hear what you think.

gold

I seem to have moved from a silver phase, into gold.

It's been happening for a while - subtly - but last December, when I was at a church Christmas sale thingy with the Mum-in-Law in Herefordshire, my eye was drawn to something sparkly and golden: a chain choker, the scale of the one shown here on Rhiannon. It cost something like £4, and the woman who sold it to me told us a lovely story about going with her late husband, to Egypt, and the man who sold it to THEM said it was real 'Egyptian gold'.

It's light as a feather - which is a plus for me if I'm wearing it round my neck (I don't do necklaces, as a rule, and especially not 'statement necklaces'. Pearls - a gift from my husband before we were married - is about as heavy as I like to go. Same reason I don't usually do turtle necks. And even the work choker makes me feel.. you know). I'm usually more of a bangles girl - I don't at all mind the danglingness around my wrists -  but this gold chain - and the story - caught my imagination. I pictured them knowing it wasn't real - or wanting to believe it was - and then paying a small fee, gong off with their treasure, knowing they'd made the man who sold it to them happy that he'd got away with something. Everyone won.

And then they packed it in their bag, and it left Egypt, and found its way to a church in rural England.

And I'm finding now, I'm drawn to it, and to all things gold -  just as I'm drawn to golden light.

There was a great show on recently, on the BBC, called the History of Art in Three Colours. If I hurry I'll catch my favourite colour, Blue. But the first- which I found fascinating - Gold, is gone. I'm fascinated with the idea that ancient civilisations believed that wearing gold - not as accessories, but we're talking sheaths of it, top to bottom - would protect them from the Gods in the sky. I read this at a little museum at the top of the World Trade Centre - the one time I ever went - and it always stayed with me. Because they also said that scientists have discovered that wearing told as a protective suit is the best ways to block out radioactive rays. For example, in case of nuclear attack.

But also, it looks really good with a tan, and - more than black, which is nice too - I really love the way my gold chain looks with a soft grey jumper.