A lovely old friend from Strasbourg days sent me a teeny leetle Kodak camera, battery charger, & batteries (so thoughtful). He thought this might keep me from total madness until the real bigger deal comes along. A terrific photographer, he said, "I prefer film, always will...". I hear you, buddy. Already, I'm swearing up a storm. Many bisous, baci, & asstd xoxo to B & his kind wife Mary Lou in NY.
Julie the Cat is exceedingly annoyed because I keep moving her around to take a snap. Poor bunny. It's so cold & windy here that moving back into the bedroom (with The Dragon space heater) is necessary. On Netflix Instant (if you have it or the UK/Euro-zone equivalent) are, in no particular order: Hannah & Her Sisters, Manhattan, About A Boy, 84 Charing Cross Road (highly recommend), Charade, The September Issue. Vanessa in Berlin recommended Metropolitan & I hope to watch it tonight.
Liberty London Girl (aka Sasha Wilkins) is here in town for the TEDWomen conference. Highly recommend checking in on her blog. It's a terrific mix of the fun, stylish, & serious. And the seriously stylish.
The sun is sinking & so is the temperature--inside. Sometime soon I hope to regain energy to post on what's happening here. (One thing is that Patti Smith will be at the Portrait Gallery on Saturday--naturally, I have an ironclad commitment that afternoon. Bah.)(photograph via Rebecca Schley via Pinterest)
I hesitate asking "do this in honor of" but I've been trying to decide for an entire week about what to do, hence the non-posts, the "hey look at this pretty picture (more than usual)" business. A very close friend's son died last week. He was studying to be a veterinarian & he also worked with children on his holidays & summer breaks. This was a sudden & horrible event & so please do this on his behalf.
I hope to return to regular posting soon. Giulia's blog will post daily as it is easier to set up & not so very personal (in the first-person sense).
Cheers & have a good weekend. I hope you will pass on the information or do a post yourself. There is a toolkit on each IKEA website. Below is the text from GG's site:
Join GG in the Soft Toy Movement for every child's right to education. Please go to your country's IKEA website & click on Soft Toy campaign at the bottom of the homepage. There you will find all the information you need to pass the word on. It has downloadable wallpapers, a coloring book, a banner for blogs & Facebook pages, & videos.
This year, from November 1–December 24, for every soft toy sold, 1 euro (USD $1.35) will go to IKEA global partners UNICEF and Save the Children to extend and start new children's educational programs in 22 countries.
Pick up an inexpensive soft toy at IKEA & put it in a holiday gift donation basket if you don't need it. Giulia is holding a meow-in this very moment because she wants a soft toy this year. The spring has gone out of Celeste the IKEA Pig's curly tail. We'll see about an addition but Celeste the IKEA Pig (her full name) is not going anywhere...there's a familiar orange & white pink-nosed feline draped over her every day. (images via IKEA website)
"A previously unseen work by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is to go on show at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery next year."BBC
&
Dr. Zhivago was playing at the Paramount Theater in St. Cloud. That afternoon, we went into Russia,
and when we came out, the snow was falling—the same snow that fell in Moscow.
The sky had turned black velvet. We'd been through the Revolution and the frozen winters.--rest of November, 1967
If I seem overly-reliant on the BBC website lately--what can I say? Guilty. That it's about Mnemosyne (Memory) makes it even better. Here's a link to the Delaware Museum of Art's Pre-Raphaelite Collection where the Rossetti painting is currently on view. (It's in a private collection.) I would love to see the new exhibit in January titled The Poetry of Drawing. (Here's the Birmingham Pre-Raphaelite Collection link.)
The poem because no less than 4 people emailed to ask, did you hear/read that poem on Writer's Almanac? (It was a few days ago.)
That's not a photo of Mnemosyne. It appears to be Tim Walker's take on Ophelia. I like the pearlized gray folds in the gown. (I most certainly do not identify with Ophelia, so let's nip that one in the bud.)
Pure heaven (if I can't see the Northern Lights) is a rose bath. In a house with electricity. Wireless & cable. Mad Men on a big screen, here I come. (If I can remember the instructions for turning it on.) Thanks to friends-at-the-beach who entrusted their lovely house & garden (not to mention Hermione the Cat) to me. Julie the Cat is trying her very best to be a humble house guest. (I'm dubious but she is giving it a go.) I am rediscovering the joys of refrigeration. A L'Occitane rose gel bath in the whirly-thingy bathtub - most excellent. Must be careful not to pull "a Lucy" & have great fluffs of foam topping the tub. A bit of the gel goes a very long way (I just rediscovered, uh huh). That's it, it's Sunday but wanted to proclaim my excitement at a real (& mold-free) bathtub/room.
Update - I think I just found the very "headboard" I'm looking for, here on From London With Love (via The Clever Pup). Off to shop. Seriously.
Mille grazie to Maria Caterina di Perugia for a wonderful day at her house. She even picked me up & brought me back; I'm rather tottery lately, so this was a huge help. Lovely lunch. Discussed possibility of trip to Bath, Wales, & Cornwall within a reasonable time-frame (well, you have to plan these things). MCat received a gorgeous red-fabric bound set of collected Jane Austen from the Jane Austen Centre for her first anniversary (yesterday). My haul: three kinds of tomatoes, little peppers, heaps of basil, rosemary, sage, black-eyed Susans, & marigolds. Yay. I look forward to house-sitting whilst they are away at the beach later this month. Birds, two cats (one being My Julie), breezy house, & garden. No weirdo neighbor with secret meth lab. (I'm only half-kidding.)
All clean & tidy & happy-ish, claws sheathed, I logged on to see (as I did this a.m.) where/why iTunes had not downloaded the second episode of Mad Men (yes, it is a priority...you should read & look at the stuff I have to, then you'd know why). Thought it was me; no it was not. That was no small sum I paid for a season pass. Bad Apple!
Hope you had a great Monday. If you're a Bachelorette fan, Joanna at Cup of Jo is holding a series finale confab, here. (Me? No, but have a good time.) See ya in the funny papers.
On verge of birthing a cow as I'm running late & afraid I'll look like one in my dress. Ah well. Here's what I'm taking to hosts (whom I don't know well). Flowers, chocolate, & stinky cheese. That should do it. (Arriving with half-a-Frenchie famille, so this won't be out of order). Hope everyone has a happy & safe holiday.
A lovely old friend from Strasbourg days sent me a teeny leetle Kodak camera, battery charger, & batteries (so thoughtful). He thought this might keep me from total madness until the real bigger deal comes along. A terrific photographer, he said, "I prefer film, always will...". I hear you, buddy. Already, I'm swearing up a storm. Many bisous, baci, & asstd xoxo to B & his kind wife Mary Lou in NY.
