Storage Solutions

Over this lovely weekend, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen since Michigan days: we exchanged about two sentences before she said "Oh my God you haven't changed *at all*. Did you watch Eerie Indiana? Foreverware..."

And there we were, straight back into our regular pattern of chat. A treat.

Ah, Foreverware: "Vacuum-seal yourself for 8 hours a day and keep the wrinkles away..." Eerie Indiana was so kooky-with-gusto.

And it had Elvis in it. Can't beat that.



Meanwhile, amongst the chatting, a little girl took some pictures with my camera. There were oodles of faces (none of whom I asked permission to use their photos, so all of those omitted for now). But humans aside, I enjoyed her more random shots of life above and below and around. Nice colours & textures :-)

I'm resisting the urge to start streaming Eerie Indiana in earnest. Back to my day's To Do Guide...

Ending on a high note

A lovely weekend, beautifully topped off with Gomez in d'Olympia.


Loved 'em!

All a flutter

Lovely weekend: lazy breakfasts with crosaires, theatre (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), family, yoga, books (reading, buying and gazing upon in the Chester Beatty Library), gardening, flumping and to finish up: I began learning how to fold origami butterflies :-)

Good fun.

Last weekend of winter

A pretty wholesome weekend: lazy breakfasts, knitting, writing, yoga, reading, catch-up with family & friends, planning dinners and outings, letter-writing (a rare treat) and curled-up evenings in the cottage with my little black cat.

Pretty scrumptious :-)

And so onwards with the week!

Me Time

Way back when, friends of mine were getting married, and I was making the wedding cake for them. We had agreed on a two-tiers-plus-one-extra plan, and I took a couple of days off work and got baking (day 1) and icing/decorating (day 2). The idea was to have slabs of white chocolate layered around the tiers, decorated with chocolate hearts in white, dark and milk chocolate. And a heart painted gold, I seem to recall.

Day 2 was the hottest day of the year. While all the fecky hearts went okay, trying to ease 40 or 50 slabs of chocolate off a warm surface was... challenging. And the decoration vision needed to be tweaked. In the end the slabs became triangles, so the cake looked kinda like an enormous crown - very Alice in Wonderland (and the bride was called Alice, so it all worked out fine).

Anyhoo, something about this weekend felt similar, though the decorating was housey not cakey. Taking time off work; racing against the heat; anxiously hoping that it's okay for the intended recipient, that it's good enough for them. And through it, the sense of... offering. There's something very satisfying about spending a batch of time in effort for another. Sometimes, the inclination is to consider it not 'your own' time, but the time this weekend - and the Wedding Cake-a-thon - felt all mine. Treasured, solitary, devoted-to-another time.

I still have furniture to shimmy back into place, and curtains to hang, and general tidying, but it's pretty much done. And it refreshed me. Back to writing now :-)

Weekend Hideaway

Saturday night we got all glammed up and headed to the Hideaway Club in Streatham to listen to Lillian Boutté. She is a powerhouse of a singer: named 'New Orleans Musical Ambassador' in 1986, she was the second jazz legend in the city's history so honoured (the first being Louis Armstrong).

The laydee's got charisma. She and her supersassy niece Tanya sang a great mix of laid-back New Orleans jazz and funky R&B. Highlights included Louisiana 1927 (written for an earlier deluge, updated for Katrina) and a phenomenal rendition of Proud Mary, which ended the show.

The club was pretty mood-lit, and the stage shots didn't come out great. Therefore, the images are mostly concerned with the Superglam Eyelash Plan. Mine went a smidge awry, when my sleek black feathery lashes self-destructed upon opening. Luckily we had a spare set (in krayzee purple). Fun fun fun :-)



Sunday was a FlumpFest, which went smooth and by the numbers :-)

Such delights...

Word work is at a scene with an art nouveau backdrop, which means I nip online to check some detail and return hours later, dizzied by purdy things, determined to visit the Horta museum when next in Brussels...



...and hoping that someone rescued this fairytale four-hearth fireplace from Tiffany's New York home before they tore the building down.



In Life News, another weekend blinked by... our little group was in Waterloo on Friday (yep, Abba's stuck in my head too); we sampled local delights on Saturday, and Sunday afternoon strolled the leafy avenues of Primrose Hill.

I haven't quite figured out how to define the North-South London divide yet, but I recognise it at least... pondering pondering.

Everything's Coming Up Rosies

A weekend of two Rosies.

First, the Rosie Leak exhibition at The Glebe. Pete Perry gave a wonderful introduction, talking about the baggage that artists bring to the canvas, and how long it can take to let that go. He used Matisse as an example, who spent his career mastering the great known styles, and then let them go, over and over, until he reached the minimalist, clean-cut works of his final years. And then he pointed out a few of Rosie's pieces, and wistfully said how happy he would be if he had produced such unburdened art.

The 'Sold' dots went up quickly, and buyers (and family) took the opportunity to pose with the artist. (I meant to get a photo of Rosie's personal favourite - a swimming pool triptych of shallow, deeper, deep. Great blues...)

You can click to enlarge the collage

And on Sunday, following the Easter Egg Hard Target Search (I'm surprised there's so much as a leaf left in the Glebe) we settled down for Nosey Rosie Storytime. The audience was a mix of locals (who know NR from school visits) and slightly dazed visitors who weren't quite sure what all the hats were about. Then we had photos, and a signing of books (when we ran out of books, I signed Easter baskets instead). And after Nosey Rosie, there was coffee and friends and chocolate cake.



And when I got home, Sharon Rose texted through a prescription for a large glass o'wine, pronto. What kind of lunatic would ignore such sage advice :-)

Thanks to Jean for running the mini-shop, to Liz for fab-and-much-needed coffee, and to Aisling for the NR photos - great job!

The week beginneth

I'm back on Irish time now, after indulging in the spirit of the UK's Bank Holiday weekend :-)

Well, the goldfish are missing their house guest, who is back in London, safe and sound. And while you can still catch the lingering maple-syruppy scrumminess of this morning's pancakes, the lovely lady is most certainly gone. Little sigh.

The weekend was a classic mix for us: lazy breakfasts and old buildings and plants and purdy stained glass and conversations over wine and bemusing encounters with every eccentric within a twenty-mile radius (I swear, it's like we're drawn along ley lines straight to the quirky folk). Anyhoo, a lovely weekend.

One stop along our travels was the Wishing Tree, which stands sentinel over a holy well (supposed to be good for eyesight). Actually, the tree is 'trees', at least two. On first sight, it was a bit Blair Witchey for me, but I was soon won over. It's festooned with all kinds of things and mementos: ribbons, stones, crystals, coins, a Pink Floyd cassette...



Luckily, I always have ribbon on hand for such occasions :-)

Festival Central

Pretty full-on weekend, without so much as a disco nap to keep me going.

Well, Friday began with the serene sanctuary of The Algiers, before heading on to a lively Square where music & O'Driscolls abounded. Saturday was all about Shakespeare: workshopped the Bard all day (which was glorious, on all levels) and then an evening of sunshiney pints talk music talk pints dusk talk pints pints.

Didn't even make it out to Sherkin on Sunday, due to weather of the manky sort (but lots of glowing reports back about fine food and ceoil and craic). The lovely folk at Inis Beg were having an open day in aid of the Simon Community, so I nipped out there to show support through the mankiness. Not that anything could detract from their beautiful gardens: ah, those delphinium spires glittering...

Sunday was also the wrap up of the O'Driscoll gathering, including the farewell from the outgoing Clan Chieftain and the inauguration of the new. Having been in Canada for the last two years, the base of the new Chieftain is all the way over in Skibbereen. Lovely speeches, and a great mix of attendees from all over the world.



Stretch-ey yawwwwwwnn. Back to work.