Zebedee's shower tea

We had a lovely girly afternoon tea yesterday. Twelve of us got together to celebrate baby Zebedee's 101st day on the planet.
When he was born, he weighed one pound...now he's three pounds and four ounces.
Unfortunately his Royal tinieness couldn't attend because he's still in hospital. But here's a bad copy of a good photo of him with his gorgeous Mum Clarissa
Everyone brought something to eat. We had cucumber sandwiches & zillions of cups of tea, lemon shortbreads & tiny stuffed crab. Tessie made the most amazing cup cakes with edible glitter & chrystalized violets on top.
Clarissa's sister Emma made a splendid cake for Zebedee with a model of him inside their bell tent.
Here's a picture of the little blanket that Robyn & I & Di Langley made for him.
Afterwards I asked Clarissa if she felt showered, she sat there with one hand draped over her Mum's knees & the other hand on her sisters back & she said "I feel Fuckin' showered", and they all laughed hysterically.

Quote for the day

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you'll be a mile away and have their shoes.
Frieda Norris

2 cheeky monkeys in Paris

We are back from a very, very romantic trip to Gay Paris.
We did it all...

• Dinner on a Bateau Parisienne on the Seine.

• Fabulous Passementerie inside the Opera house.

• La Tour Eiffel at night.

• Sacre Couer.

• Furnishing fabric shops including Pierre Frey, Sahco Hesslein & Robert Allen.

• My friend Greg Everingham, the same as ever, cute dimples & all.

• Gallery Vivienne, where Richard had lived for a while in the 70's.

• A fabulously hilarious dinner at Richard's friend Lizz's.

• Morrocan dinner with Liz & William Fairbank and a very cute french bulldog at the next table.

• Lunch at the 'Amelie Cafe'. Café des deux Moulins

• The Decorative arts Museum complete with Jean Lanvin's apartment interior.

• A shop that sold ribbon for medals. (I had a very hard time choosing the 50cm pieces I managed to buy from the very crabby shop assistant).

• The Joyce Ma shop with an outfit made of black & white check, with a 3 dimensional deer across the shoulders made in the same fabric with matching tiny deer antler hat. Her knitted humans as brooch seen here. Also her white feather concoction. Stuff I would love to make but never thought there could possibly be a market for it.
  
• There are more photo's over at my Flickr page.
  

I love Paris in the Fall....

I keep singing 'La Vie en Rose' & 'I love Paris'...because WE are going to Paris on Wednesday 18th October. On the Eurostar. 2 for 1 tickets. That's only £58 for the 2 of us return!!! The honeymoon we never had. Yay. Thanks Dad. xxxxx
I CAN'T WAIT'.
The last time I went was 20 years ago. I loved it and hated it.
I loved the architecture. (What kind of people would erect golden statues of winged creatures at every vantage point?)
I loved the cakes & chocolates (I didn't walk past ONE chocolate shop. Thus not being able to poo for 2 weeks.....Too much information?)
I loved the amazing French style that was evident everywhere.
I loved the Musee Rodin and this sculpture especially of 'The Danaide'.

But... I stayed with people who really weren't on my wave length.
He was the Australian Defense Attache and I thought it would be exciting to stay at the Australian embassy....instead of my dreams of parquet floors & chandeliers with balconies, it was a building designed by Harry Seidler of concrete & glass, with a lonely weeping cherry in the central courtyard. I sympathised with that cherry.
The attache & his wife (who shall remain nameless because I've forgotten their names) hated being in Paris. She was pregnant again with their second child & never went out, other than to go to the supermarket or to take their son to pre school. He was the naughtiest little boy I have ever met, mostly because he had become immune to his mother yelling at him all day "Don't touch that Darren. Get away from there Darren. Get to your room Darren." All of which simply passed over his head.
I remember I took him to the Eiffel tower to give his Mum a break & he ran away from me on the 2nd floor. I lost him completely for a while & thought my life was over. When I found him again I gripped his wrist so tightly that it left a red mark for the rest of the day. As we approached his home again I relaxed my vice like grip, he ran across a busy road, turned & threw a stone which hit a passing taxi. Now normaly I would never ever hit a child but at that stage I must admit I whacked him on the bum & told him if he told his mother I'd get him later. He seemed totally unaffected.

Here is the multi map of where we are staying. The Hotel de Lille, cheap & hopefully cheerful. We are intending to meet up with Richard's lovely friend Liz (Hi Liz) and have dinner on a boat on the Seine.
We are also going to visit my friends Jeff & Christine who live near Fontainbleu. There may be mushroom hunting involved.


Life is good, except for a client who is giving me grief at the moment, so it will be doubly nice to get away from it all.

Mr Ricky Royale

Here we have for the first time on the net...Mr Ricky Royale (without the Swingin' Crown Jewels this time). Singing some vintage Bakersfield honky-tonk
'If you aint lovin (then you aint livin')'written by Tommy Collins.

Tall tales & true from the legendary past

Yesterday Richard took a rare day off. He went to buy canvas for the boat (Blog coming soon) and visited friends he hasn't seen for many, many years.
One of them was a man named Richard Barnes.
We have a black & white photo on our wall that Richard Barnes took in the 70's, of Richard L & his friend William Fairbank sitting atop a horse drawn cart on their way to Barsham fair.
It speaks of two young adventurers reliving the past & hoping to move on to a brighter future.


(See also this photo from the Albion kids show).

Richard Barnes is a member of the Long riders guild; he rode the length & breadth of England, Scotland & Wales. An incredible task; it seems there are lots of courageous & brave individuals & groups out there hitting the road with just horses for companions.
Here's a quote from the enormously time consuming & fascinating website......
"The Long Riders' Guild is the world's first international association of equestrian explorers, and is an invitation-only organisation. It was formed in 1994 to represent men and women of all nations who have ridden more than 1,000 continuous miles on a single equestrian journey. "
There is also this website 'Nomads united' which is guaranteed to create an aching wanderlust in all who read it. Here's a photo from it.

Pinkness

Thanks to Kelly, I've realized that October is Breast cancer awareness month so without further ado I've gone pink for the month.
There is a lovely site here that tells you a little more about it.
Also, I just happen to have a picture of me in my new cardie too that happens to be hmmmm what colour do you think.........




PINK

Blakeney Point

Last Saturday, the sun shone on 5 very happy people.

We had perfect weather, for the perfect outing....to Blakeney Point in North Norfolk, UK to see the seals that laze around in the shallow water off the peninsula there.

Blakeney Point is one of the largest expanses of undeveloped coastal habitats of its type in Europe.

" Blakeney Point has over 1,000 acres of sand dunes and is a nature reserve, home to the common and grey seal. It is also a bird sanctuary with a wealth of bird life including Terns, Oyster Catchers, Plovers and Redshank. It is possible to walk out to Blakeney Point from Cley but it is a ten mile hike of rough walking. During the season one can take advantage of boat trips from Blakeney and Morston Quay to get to the point."from www.norfolkcoast.co.uk

It was all Iris's idea . . unfortunately her lovely daughter Lucy couldn't come, but her grandaughter Molly & good friend Dominic could.
We went out in a small boat with about 25 other people.
We took a picnic & explored the reaches of the Blakeney peninsula. It's a weirdly isolated piece of heaven with dunes & dips & secret hollows.

Here's Richard doing a seal impersonation...

The National Trust keep their eye onthe Blakeney Point & have a beautiful building there that used to be the lifeboat launching station.
It's the perfect backdrop for a picture of my new dress. I know you've all been waiting for it...Amy...Kelly.

After we did the wildlife thang, we went to Holt & I managed to let myself spend a little bit of money at a sensational Vintage clothing shop.
I got a pink & white short sleeved cardie with pearl buttons, a pink 40's party dress & the most gorgeous pair of 1920's satin pyjamas with a chinoiserie kind of print.
Here's a pic of me in the pink dress on our way to William Fairbank's for a party.