MY NEW BIRD

Thursday, May 31, 2012
I know taxidermy isn't for everyone, but love it ....
I really got an appreciation for taxidermy after visiting here
years ago ....
and lately the work of Polly Morgan (who happens to live in this space with Mat Collishaw)
and Melbourne girl Julia deVille has reignited my interest .....

 so this is my first taxidermy purchase ....
a pigeon (not sure of his breed) but he is very beautiful ....
all of the birds from the taxidermist I bought it from have either died of natural causes or had unpreventable deaths ..... 








I really like how he peeks his head around the corner into the living room .....

..... looks like he's hiding from the cat in the picture !!!

Soooo .... do you like him or (like a recent dinner guest) are you a little creeped out by taxidermy ?



NICE

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Really liking this kitchen space ....
via here

DACHSHUND U.N.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Looking so forward to seeing Dachshund U.N. by Bennett Miller at the
 MCA on Saturday ..... 
"47 specially recruited live dachshunds engage in vigorous debate in this performance work examining the role of the United Nations as a risk management organisation. Bennett Miller creates both a joyful and chaotic experiment and a meditation on the utopian aspirations of the United Nations"



 









..... crazy but true, 
and I'm excited !!!

you can see a video here
and the very fun recruiting BBQ here


Under the Protection of Trees

Monday, May 28, 2012

Under the Protection of Trees
All day long they had stretched out their boughs to an azure sky, green and blue mingling to create an aquamarine sea in the air all around us.  Light from a golden sun dripped down like honey through leaves slowly waving in an afternoon breeze.  It was a day made for May, a near perfect creation with nary a hint of drama nor fear.
The darkening of the sky was imperceptible at first, a mere triviality this close to nightfall.  The wind remained in the wings until the very last moment, when it suddenly rushed on stage as in act three of Lear, coaxing ominous tunes from the wind chimes as it whipped round the garden, an invisible portent of the chaos to come.  The old trees took notice.  Before our eyes they seemed to grow taller, every sprig and spray of green burgeoning, billowing, to link arms with each other over our roof.  Like eagle’s wings they covered us as the hail began to fall.  
Blown in by the theatrical wind, it crashed into our garden with a deafening sound, an artillery of ice as unusual as it was destructive.  The floor of the garden turned white, a macabre snowfall on the doorstep of summer.  For at least twenty minutes it continued to fall as we stood at the window as helpless as kittens.  And then, like a dream, it was over.
As an otherworldly fog rose up from the icy ground, like Dorothy on arrival in Oz, we stepped out our door, expecting to see the garden in ruins. 
 But the hydrangea blossoms were smiling.
  The rose was untouched. 
 The yellow petunias, crystal-fragile and translucent, still cascaded over the stone planters, as fresh and unspoiled as morning.  We looked up at the trees - the magnolia, the poplar, the pine and the oak - our giant sentinels, our protectors - and not for the first time, we nodded our thanks. 
***********************
The hailstorm of last week was an unusual one.  It lasted much longer than any we’ve ever experienced and gave us a violent pounding that caused me to put my fingers in my ears.  We got out afterwards to look round the neighbourhood.  The streets were covered in pine needles and thick with a fog unlike any we’ve seen.  The ground was white.  Most gardens had a good deal of destruction, but our big trees broke the fall of the ice and we escaped any damage.  
One more reason to love them. 

A LITTLE VISITOR

 I had a little visitor on the weekend  ....
 she is the daughter of a very good friend of mine and she is the cutest, funniest kid ever ....
 





 
   she also happens to be very fond of ice cream .....


 and hamming it up for the camera .....








 ..... and I adore her !!!!

FRIDAY FAVORITES

Friday, May 25, 2012
This bag ....
via here

this beautifil skirt Renilde found in a thrift shop
(she plans to make it into a dress) .....


this work by Alexandre Day ......


.... and Jodi 's recent trip to Melbourne with her adorable little family
(such beautiful pics)
..... I need a trip to Melbourne !!!

These stairs ....
via here


these beautiful over -dyed vintage rugs ....
via here 

these cafe chairs ....
via here

very Doctor Seuss ...
(think I will have to give it a go) ...

Looking forward to a very cozy night in tonight ....
it is freezing here at the moment ....
Hope you have a lovely weekend
XXX

NICE

Thursday, May 24, 2012
Love this wall .... 
and the chairs !!!
via here

LITTLE CHANGES

Wednesday, May 23, 2012
 A few little changes to the Mantel since here
 the best thing about having a mantel is that it can be forever
 changing ..... 
it's fun to play around with ...




I've changed the plant holder from this to a beautiful old copper pot I found in a junk shop ....


the little man here has been replaced with this bigger guy ....





a lovely framed (real) butterfly .....


this great leather stool from my friend Georgina pretty much 
stays put ....

and my little Anna-Wili Highfield robin is getting his turn
(the Raven and the robin get swapped around quite a bit !!!)
Anna-Wili's mantel in her link photo was what got me wanting a mantel in the first place .....

.... lets see how long it stays like this !!!

Exotic Marigolds

Tuesday, May 22, 2012


Exotic Marigolds

My love of Scotland, and Britain in general, is such that whenever I board a plane with my passport in my pocket, it is usually headed in that direction.  Delightfully, my general appearance - pale skin, blonde hair, light eyes - grants me passage as a local most of the time, at least until I open my mouth, thus allowing the escape of a faint hint of a southern accent, an accent that I myself am totally unaware of but which, apparently, others can detect at twenty paces.  Even then, when my accent reveals me as an outsider, Edinburgh cab drivers still ask me over for tea upon finding out my mother was a MacDonald.  I’ve been stopped on a London street by lost tourists inquiring the best route to the British Museum and was once, during the presidency of George Bush Jr., included in an amusing “can you believe these Americans” conversation with an elderly gentleman one rainy afternoon outside Holyrood Castle. 
Nothing is sweeter than disappearing into the everyday life of another country.  It’s truly the best way to experience travel, at least for me.  However, after spending two hours in India on Saturday, that may be about to change. I had such a wonderful trip.  Of course it would have been, for I had some charming traveling companions.  Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith.  Yes, I went to see the new movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and now I want to go again.  I also think I want to go to India, even though I would most certainly not fit in as I seem to do in Britain.  Locals would pick me out in a nanosecond.  The heat might cause me to swoon and I would, no doubt, get woozy riding backwards in a tuk tuk.  
But, still.
  I want to go.
I want to see the colours of India.  Yellows and oranges unlike any on the colour wheels of my experience.
  I want to stroll down a dusty road alongside a grey elephant. 
 I want to see camels waiting curbside like taxis.
 I want to stand knee deep in marigolds the colour of fire.
 I want to hear unusual sounds, stare into smiling black eyes, drink strange tea.
  I want to wear a blue sari.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a wise little film.  In eloquent fashion, it tells us that life, though indeed short, never loses its capacity for adventure but that we can, by living a life of negativity and fear, lose our own.  And what a sad state that is.  If we turn away from beauty often enough, we soon cease to see it at all.  If we plod through our days with our ideas chiseled in stone - eyes shut, ears closed - our lives slowly evaporate down into something hard, something cold.  Life is, at least to my eyes, so full of beauty and serendipity my only worry is how to stretch my arms wide enough to contain it all.  
So yes, now I want to go to India. 
 And if Bill Nighy, or you, want to come along.... more’s the better for me.
Here’s the guidebook I’m buying!





STRANGE INTERLUDE

So looking forward to seeing Strange Interlude
at Belvoir Theatre on Thursday night .....
my daughter saw it on preview night and loved it (so much so she is seeing it again with me) .....
 
I really love these photographs from rehearsals ....














 


 



 and these production shots ....


 






...... should be one interesting play !!!

you can read an interview with writer and director Simon Stone here