Tweed Run

Tea and Bicycles.

I hear this charity bike ride is going on tomorrow. It looks like great fun! The photo gallery from previous years shows evidence of lots of moustaches, vintage dress and cups of tea.
Twee at it's very, very best!


(Images linked and via Tweed Run.)

Friday Favourite

(Art Historically / Sunshine themed) Manet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe c.1863

The heat and sunshine this week has been the cause of many irrationally good moods. It has also provided a good excuse for long lunches and early departures on normally busy days... Concentration was certainly not intended for weeks like this!

...These heady feelings are captured in this painting by Manet, (owned The Courtauld Gallery). It's all very strange; the naked lady juxtaposed by those two dapper men and that bathing nymph-like woman in the background. It really freaked out the squares when it was first displayed.
It's a satirical nod towards the representation of women, (a subject we might discuss for hours) Though, for today, I prefer to centre on the heady excitement the balmy weather does to a person and this very bizarre painting.... mmm.

Enjoy the weather everyone!
(Image via The Courtauld Gallery. Just to clarify, this is the smaller version of Le Dejeuner surl'herbe owned by The Courtauld Gallery - the full size one resides in in the Musee d'Orsay Paris.)

Interview Series (3)

Getting inside the minds of creative people. Today: Rachel Cobb, aka Rae / aka: Autumn Hair...

..I continue with a nice interview getting to know the creative life of a certain performance artist / dear friend of mine. She is currently writing her dissertation and splits her time between Leeds and London. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did..


1.How do you start your day?
Almost every morning, my cat, Rufus, wakes me. He will knock on my door until I let him in, or, purr loudly in my face and try to lick my neck. I proceed to the kitchen and feed him, then race into the shower to get out of the cold. I shower every morning otherwise I can’t function for the day. I have a black tea and peanut butter on toast most days whilst I decide what to wear. I rarely wear make up so can be ready to leave the house within an hour of waking up.

2. What/ Who inspires you?
I thought long and hard about this answer, and I feel in light of all the terrible things that have happened in Japan it made me thin of the disastrous earthquake that happened in Haiti. Since I was 15, my dad and me have both been helping with charities that help Haitian refuges in the Dominican Republic. My last visit really inspired me. Their incredible attitude towards life is just admirable and meeting them was so humbling.

3. Your guilty pleasure?
I think it’s no secret to anyone who knows me that soaps, especially Eastenders, are my absolute weakness. This one is a bit more embarrassing, but I honestly love historic novels, Philippa Gregory is my favourite author of this kind. It’s a shame they ruined her book with The Other Boleyn Girl by making it into a film. I also love all things Tudor, actually anything to do with the Royal family. Ha.
4. How do you unwind?
Not wanting to sound cliché but cooking and having a nice meal with my boyfriend is one of my favourite things to do, especially with a glass of red wine. If I had more time I would definitely read more books.5. Plans for 2011?
I’m going to be graduating this July so for now my plan is to get through all my work and finish my final project. I want to go away with my friends and have some time to reflect on the last three years really. I’m looking to work abroad in New York for a while and then eventually move to London by the end of the year.

6. Your best piece of advice?
It might sound like obvious advice but I think something I feel I’ve learnt with hindsight is to truly seize every moment. Never let life pass you by and say yes to everything.

(All images via Autumn Hair.)

Work Wear Wednesday

Jeans.

Ah, a good pair of jeans can look very smart when paired with a lovely shirt and fitted jacket. I tend to only wear jeans to work occasionally, on a Friday.

However, this is all subject to change hoping that I can get my mitts on a pair of MIH (made in heaven) jeans this evening, at their sample sale. It's rumoured that the price will be about £40 for a pair which normally retail at £190.
I have heard that with this brand, it's best to buy a size down from your regular size as they do tend to shrink. But apart from that, these jeans are alleged to be close to perfect. I am very much hoping that word hasn't spread too quickly and that I will be able to nab a pair of perfect skinny blue jeans which will last a very long time.

(Details about the MIH sale can be found here, Photos via The Satorialist)

A Cup of Cocoa

during those 'awful wonderful early days..' (A few thoughts for fellow graduates / interns.)

I read this article by Al Kennedy, called 'The Best Gift for a Writer is a Good Reader and a cup of cocoa;' I found it very comforting, not that I am trying to build my career as a writer - but I am trying to build my career. So I have picked out the universal sentiments from the article which everyone might appreciate...

I particularly wish to highlight his mention of the tender solace of a cup of cocoa. For just one moment, in between the restless feelings and the erosion of your soul; the ritual of making a cup of cocoa, or indeed making it for someone else, is a reassuring little lighthouse, beaming hope.

Above all else; it's nice to know you're not the first to battle through those frightful hours when you wake up, wide eyed, at 5.30am and ask 'what in the name of sanity am I doing!?' - And, you certainly won't be the last.


'I was more often disappointed than not, but I was also learning that I cared about this. I cared so much that I would start again after every sad envelope flopped in, write something else, forget that it hurt to be knocked back.'

'You're flinging out the best love letters you can, you're breaking your heart and no one's answering, but on you go regardless –'


And of course, a wonderful sentiment for when you are feeling sick with anxiety:
'...he read my material while I felt nauseous. Then he showed me how to make cocoa. Thinking back on it, making cocoa is probably all he could think of to do with someone who was clearly a ball of pure tension and liable to cry, if not faint, at any moment.'

(The image is linked, read the full article here, at The Guardian online.)

Sunday Poetry

Piano - D. H Lawrence

Here's a nice poem. It's a little melancholic, though that's not always a bad thing. Sometimes suffering in the depths of sadness can be very enjoyable, and it often comes at the end of a weekend filled with too much booze and not enough sleep. It's absolutely fine once in a while - so long as the affliction is fleeting!

Piano by DH Lawrence.

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

(Images are from tumblr.)

Friday Favourite..

A very quick post today - a nice sentiment for an extremely tired yet rather excited Friday. mmm.


Quite.
(Image via Bohemian Musings.)