A day spent...

A day spent. School drop off. After I went on a long run - using my favourite and most relied-upon route. I run around the roads where I grew up (one advantage of living in the same town for over 30 years; I know the way everywhere). I passed the theatre in my town where they were unloading sets. I passed the University and observed students piling in for their lectures. I ran on; pondering the days when I used to go to lectures, my attendance usually prompted by my friend Nikki, who was way more conscientious than I and could probably still recite our English Literature timetable, even now. I passed my doctor's surgery, then my childhood home, through the avenue of chestnut trees, leaves and conkers crunching underfoot.

via crush cul de sac

Home. A dog walk with my friend and new doggie partner-in-crime (she has my puppy's sister) around the fields. We discussed the single-worst-ever dinner party she attended at the weekend. Why would a host say the attire is 'informal' when she herself opens the door wearing a cocktail dress??! Nothing worse than turning up under-dressed.

Osteopath visit. My pain issue still not better, oh how I wish it were. It's very, very slow progress. I am developing patience unlike I have ever exhibited before.

A condensed shopping trip to salve my frustrations...where I purchased a short skirt not dissimilar to one I owned when I was 19. Is this a sign?

via crush cul de sac

School pick-up and home again. Homework hour. Where I established that I really can not do maths. English however; I managed.

A part showing of the film 'Mary Poppins' before their bed. A spoonful of sugar, helps the medicine go down.

Bubble and Squeak for dinner, as is Autumn's tradition. A Sunday roast must be followed by a Monday Bubble and Squeak. It is the law of our house.

And so my day was spent. You know how people ask: can the minutiae of someone's day really be of any interest to the masses? I do consider when I write this; really, who cares? But then I think of that line in 'You've Got Mail' and my small life...so good night, dear void!

Things of beauty...

Hello! So, I am incredulous that it is my little boy's birthday tomorrow; Boo 2 will be six years old! How did that happen?? So tonight I need to deck the house out with birthday bunting - as I do whenever it's someone's birthday - and wrap quite a few presents (yes, I went a tad overboard at Toys R Us), to get ready for the big day. A family tea party with cake will follow. Of course this time of year always makes me think about when I had him, especially as it's when the rugby season draws to a close and on the day I was in labour, my husband insisted on playing rugby and then called me from the sideline to check my progress (contractions still regular, but not alarming!). Oh how different things are with the second child! We both knew it might take some time, but still! The weather has turned back to its seasonal norm so no sun and overcast. Exactly as it was this time six year's ago.

My thoughts this week have been quite exclusively on what I eat and drink. I have been on a detox all week and to say it's been an obsession would be an understatement. I live for food and spend most of my time wondering what I will eat next so it's been very hard to get excited about juices, soups and steamed vegetables. An interesting sojourn into dieting though, and one I hope not to persist with; I did it for health and for a kick start (see, I am already talking in the past tense...I am near the end!). But it does make me see what discipline is required to keep to a diet.

There have been beach days and country walk days this week, as predicted. We are nearing the middle point of Easter holidays - 2 week's down, 2 to go!

Things of beauty here with a delicate, lace-thin disposition....

Sigrid Agren at Elie Saab, Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2011

I love this image...I studied Jane Eyre for my dissertation at University...oh Mr Rochester!

via day dream lily, photograph by Candice Lesage

I like this scarf...

scarf by artlab via etsy

How beautiful is this? A tree-lined boulevard in Prague - photograph by my friend Natasha - If you want to read a love story to brighten your day read her blog ...

Spring time in Prague..

Ooops, look, he just creeps in the mix sometimes...soooo lovely.

gorgeous George...

Photograph by Polly Wreford

photograph by Mikkel Vang

Keira Knightley

from Cabbages and Roses

from jcrew

jil sander uniqlo

 Natalia Vodianova by Jean Baptiste Mondino via Beauty Fetishist

via swoon photograph by Juliet Elizabeth Photography via The Wedding Row

This symmetrical window and chair arrangement speaks to me...

styled by Tricia Foley

Absolutely stunning picture here from Vogue China...

photograph by Paolo Roversi 

Here's to a healthy weekend that features Birthday cake!!

Downtime...

I am unwell! Ugh...like clockwork I have this every year; my body has a way of telling me to slow down. I've got tonsillitis. It's a warning sign to take some time out as I am running too fast at everything, all the time. Somethings gotta give...

via everything fabulous from Rue magazine

Funnily enough this morning, after I had accepted I would be spending a couple of days in bed on antibiotics, I got a delivery of a book that I forgot I ordered. It's written by someone I consider a friend - Tania Kindersley and her colleague Sarah Vine, it's called 'Backwards in High Heels'. There is a blog of the same name. Getting this book, today of all days, is like the literary equivalent of finding lost money in pockets. My plan is to lay in bed and read it cover to cover and not feel guilty!

Do you get the same thing? A warning sign to slow down? Any advice on how to catch it early would be greatly appreciated!

A bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils...

It's that time of year for back to school sensibilities. That wonderful quote from 'You've Got Mail' where Kathleen Kelly (she is 'enchanting') talks about sending a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils. What an expression; I recall hearing that for the first time and thinking YES, EXACTLY, that is exactly what this time of year is like. I am the one who loiters over the back to school supplies in a stationery shop, casually touching HB pencils and lined notepads. I am the one who buys journals at this time of year with intentions of becoming a diarist. Incidentally, I did write a dairy until the age of 22; I have them in a box still. They are a treasure and a burden at the same time. If I ever re-read them I am both joyful and mortified that I recorded every waking thought from ages 12 to 22. I stopped when life required living, not just writing about. Let me know if you want me to transcribe extracts - I am fairly sure they would be hysterical...

via are so happy

I am in a 1990's funk at the moment. I blame this book: 'One Day' which has been raved about on other blogs. I am certainly not the only one who loved it. I loved that it captured that 1990's era so accurately. I lived through that era and at the time felt nothing occurred that was note-worthy; it seemed to me to be a decade of nothingness from a cultural and social perspective. But then I read 'One Day' and after countless wide smiles of recognition and snorts of 'I sooo remember that' I realised, the 1990's were defining. I know I have read a good book when my instinct is to tell my University friends about it. I still associate reading with them; as I did an English degree, my main scholastic pastime at University was to read. So after finishing this book I immediately texted to say 'you must read this! It's about OUR time'.

So at the moment you'll find me watching films like 'The Bodyguard' and 'Indecent Proposal', reminiscing. Whilst on the topic of 'Indecdent Proposal', can I just say Demi had a great wardrobe in that film; it really was quite progressive for its time, don't you think? I always loved that black cocktail dress she got from the hotel lobby and recall at my University Ball that year someone (her name was Amanda) had a perfect copy and the same hair.

I am ever so slightly nostalgic at the moment (read: complete sentimental and an over-emotional mess) for various reasons. Life is changing and I am clinging to what I know. It's something in me; an instinct that makes me look back with fondness. Must now look to the future...move on.

So maybe the answer is to just think about today. Not yet tomorrow. Here are apples from my garden, complete with bruises and bugs, in a Sussex trug, ready to be made into apple sauce or apple crumble. Time to start...

1963

I like the 60s. I know, its odd, I wasn't there, but I have a fascination with it as an era. In 1963 my parents got married, and ask anyone who was alive then the question: 'where were you when Kennedy was shot?' and most will recall in minute detail.

One of my favourite ever books is 'Couples' by John Updike, which is set in 1963. I have read this book over and over; this book I love. The subject matter however is dark, its about adultery in suburban New England. Its such an intimate view of a listless marriage, its almost painful to read at times but the way he writes, the accuracy of human emotion, is well...its amazing.

This image appeared in Vogue in 1963...and the Vogue cover below it...what is with that headscarf? And that is some 'do' underneath...

Under Parasols at the Beach photographed by Louise Dahl-Wolfe- Vogue 1963

I have a first edition of the book...I saw it in an antique book shop, just there alone on a shelf - I could not believe my luck!



Here is John Updike, who died in 2009. He was a genius...


Christine Keeler in 1963 when the Profumo scandal broke...an iconic image with the Arne Jacobsen chair...

Lewis Morley Portrait of Christine Keeler 1963

John F Kennedy in another iconic White House picture...he was assassinated in November 1963.

JFK painting by Aaron Shikler

Jackie Kennedy looking radiant...

'Mad Men' is set in 1963...the styling on that programme is a dream. The dresses! These shots appeared in Vanity Fair and capture completely the sentiment of John Updike's 'Couples' novel..

Relax...

Easier said than done...to relax...but how true is this statement?

Recently I have seen a homeopath to try to fix something that conventional medicine just hasn't healed. Alternative therapies...ever so slightly hippy-dippy, hocus-pocus, but I was willing to try. The homeopathic consultation is a surreal experience where you are asked lots of questions to establish what remedy will suit. Like do you like the ocean? (yes). Do you like to be on the ocean or facing the ocean? (facing, not on; I get travel sick). Do you have salt with your food? (yes). So, I am open to new things, I went with it and got prescribed a set of these tiny odourless, tasteless pills which freakily you can't touch with your fingers! Bizarre. Anyway, I did it. Despite myself, I think it might have worked...

In the past I have been a fan of alternative therapies, like aromatherapy...I have always liked that lavender scented, relaxing vibe you get when you have a massage...oh if only there were more time for such pursuits...


Along with the hocus-pocus I am also trying to relax more. This is a challenge for me; relaxing is not really my thing. I am trying to read - currently revisiting 'Wuthering Heights'; if in doubt I find a work by Bronte generally does the trick to get you back on the literary track.

Unfortunately I am abit of a slave to time - always have something else to do, somewhere else to be...I clock-watch.

Plus I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make my house look like this...tidy house, tidy mind.

Or this...(my new found love is styling by Selina Lake - who styled this picture and the one of palest pink books below - how lovely?)

I love that bit in the SATC film where they read love poems in bed...

Anyway...back to relaxing. My definition of relaxing is reading in the sun. I am a sun worshipper - I know its wrong and bad, but still...


I said I was lusting after the sun. Beach + sun+ book = my heaven. Sandy toes...

And then back to reality...well not quite...but how adorable is this picture?

Ballet days...

I love little more than going to the ballet. This time last year my husband took me to the Royal Opera House in London, for my birthday, to see Swan Lake. Seriously by the time it got to the final scene, with Tchaikovsky's score, I literally had tears rolling down my face with the excellence, beauty and tragedy of it. I love the ballet. Its also one of the guilty pleasures of having a daughter that I can take her to see the Nutcracker ballet at Christmas; its a tradition we have had from the age she could manage a whole performance.

There is something about the combination of discipline and grace in ballet that fascinates me, even though I know its a punishing profession to actually be in. Here are some of my favourite images...


A row of tutus...I adore this...

Little girl dancers...Boo does ballet at school, she gets tired of it sometimes, but I make her persevere. I am hoping she will thank me when she has beautiful posture later on...

Tutus and ballet shoes...




The ballet bun...a classic. How pretty these ballerina/models are...


This is the Royal Opera House, in London which is the most magical place, home of the Royal Ballet.

This is from Swan Lake at the ROH...the signets...


Darcey Bussell's ballet shoes - I saw her dance just before she retired as a principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet.

I think my fascination started here...as a child...reading 'Ballet Shoes' by Noel Streatfield. A must for every little girl in my opinion!