This Butterfly Mind

Living in a Ghost Town

2012-01-27T12:35:00.001Z

Today I walked to work on the other side of the road. I know, a change is as good as a rest, right? And guess what, I looked up ...

I am slightly obsessed by ghost signs. I love the Peter Ackroyd-esque psychogeographical concept of layers upon layers of local history. And I hanker back to the days of drapers and haberdashers. Tesco Extra just isn't the same.

Clearly I am not alone:
Faded London | Ghost signs
Jane's London | Ghost signs of Camden High Street
Google Images | Ghost signs of London

Things I Liked at Brick Lane Today

2012-01-22T18:43:00.001Z

Goodbye Kodak

2012-01-20T12:57:00.002Z

Lunchtime browsing brought me to this lovely slideshow on The Guardian of Kodak ads through the ages.
And this rather lovely collection of readers' Kodak pictures.

Goodbye Kodak ...

Bells, bursting into stars

2012-01-20T08:29:00.001Z

Delicate pink bells, bursting into stars. Lush green spikes, triumphant.

My hyacinths have opened: come on, spring!

Sack Boris

2012-01-08T17:20:00.001Z

The boy picked up one of these for his Oystercard.

Great, huh?!

Reading List

2012-01-07T09:25:00.003Z

It was a good Christmas for books, thank you friends and family.

I have already rampaged through P.D.James's murder mystery sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Death Comes to Pemberley. Despite steering clear in general of 'sequels' and other related imaginings as not possibly anything other than second-rate cash-ins that toy unforgivingly and insensitively with the themes of the original, I risked this one - I think due to the genre shift, it seemed safer that my impression and interpretation of the original would remain intact. Brilliant read, although I could have managed without the didactic digression on the history of the jury system and judicial appeals...

The Vintage re-release of Westwood is also a thing of beauty and a joy forever: a lovely matt paperback with lustrous thick cream pages and a evocative front cover. With Stella Gibbons's best known novel Cold Comfort Farm being one of my standard rainy day / 'mean reds' books, I naturally expected similar scouring literary satire and witty, quotable lines. Not so. This is maturer, sadder - as cynical, yet bittersweet and melancholy. Perhaps because it is a later-life novel, perhaps influenced by the impact of the Second World War. Beautiful reflection on infatuation, love and the intersection of seemingly unconnected lives.

Guardian Style has already been dipped into post-prandially over quite a few dinner tables. Finally, I know how to spell Gandhi (never Ghandi) and what the singular form of referendum is.

I am plunged into Claire Tomalin's biography of Jane Austen right now. I love her. Claire Tomalin, I mean, although, of course, also Miss Austen. Her biography of Nellie Tiernan (The Invisible Woman) was, for me, the first to open my eyes to alternative insights to the myth of Dickens, National Treasure. Already, the Austen novels' emphasis on money, class and power is becoming beautifully contextualised and Jane's only just been born.

Back to the sofa, I think, to pick up where I left off...

Boxing Day

2011-12-26T15:08:00.001Z

Warkworth, Northumbria.
Wild and windy. Somewhat bracing.

It must be Christmas time

2011-12-24T23:27:00.001Z

Peace on earth and good will to all (wo)men...

Hope Father Christmas is good to you!

My First Christmas Cake

2011-12-22T18:58:00.003Z

One fruity and boozy Christmas cake, baked, fed, marzipan-ed, iced and be-ribboned by my own fair hand.

Oh alright, I cheated with a Delia pre-weighed mix... And on the icing... But hey. I made this.

Cool Yule, courtesy of Louis Armstrong

2011-12-19T09:44:00.000Z

Quite possibly the best Christmas song ever?

Making a list and checking it twice

2011-12-17T17:33:00.001Z

Waxing festive around the house.

Well, it's far too cold to go out, and puss has absolutely the right idea ...

To Paraphrase Noddy Holder, It's (Not Quite) Christmas

2011-11-15T22:29:00.001Z

To paraphrase Noddy Holder, it's (not quite) Christmas, but I've been busy listing lots of gorgeous vintage greetings cards on Etsy.

My grandfather worked for a greetings card company in Preston, Lancashire, UK for forty years. When the company closed, he bought the original sketches and drawing that the cards were printed from. Most date from the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sadly, the drawings are largely anonymous, being done by commercial artists employed by the company. He gave me an old suitcase full of these, and a good many more, from sentimental mottos to tall ships in full sail to kitschy cottage gardens.

Fab, aren't they?

Easy as A B C

2011-11-14T20:29:00.001Z

Love love love this typography themed Etsy treasury, perfect for feeding the type / letter obsession ... Also love that it features vintage ornamental numbered arrows from my Etsy shop, hurrah.

John Bull Special

2011-11-12T11:57:00.000Z

New eBay purchase ... A nostalgic treat to myself, as there was a set at my Nanna's for the cousins to share. Grandad was a litho printer, you see. We used to print and draw on paper samples and offcuts.

It was pre-owned by some small boy called Philip, and hails from, of all places, Chorley, Lancs, my birthplace. I feel I was destined to own this.

Love the 'John Bull' font: the rubber type is more like a pre-Helvetica simple sans serif.

Prepare for many a handprinted birthday-slash-Christmas card, friends and acquaintances!

Insipidity and Intrigue‏

2011-11-09T10:11:00.002Z

Image originally uploaded to Flickr by shawnzrossi

I have been re-reading Mansfield Park, my least favourite Jane Austen. My favourite is Persuasion, for romance, although Pride and Prejudice is funnier.

I am finding Fanny Price much less insipid than previously: I am surprised at her wry insight and sly observations, and am discovering that she has a more vivid and animated inner life than I recall. I think this passed me by on first reading, perhaps because I was too young?

Also, I am noticing inordinate amounts of seduction and intrigue, frequently openly discussed by the characters. Noblemen kidnapping innocent young ladies, unwed mothers, underage elopements, co-habitation, runaway wives and women "under the protection" of men who are not their husbands ... I wonder ... What a fab PhD that would make!

Amphorae and Monkey Tails

2011-11-06T08:41:00.000Z

Image originally uploaded to Flickr by ushtey

Courtesy of Simon Garfield, I was delighted to learn this morning that the symbol @ - which in English is called an "amphora" (as in a jar or unit of measurement) or an "ampersat" but is more often known as the "at sign" - is called "monkey's tail" in German, "pig's tail" in Danish, or "dog's tail" in Russian. In French, it is "snail", and in Czech, "rollmop herring" ...

All far more evocative, no?

For the love of ... CathrineHolm

2011-11-04T19:36:00.001Z

CathrineHolm Lotus Enamel Coffee Pot, for sale on Ebay

There is just something so satisfying about the CathrineHolm Lotus pattern enamel ware. I think it's the primary colours and the nice clean cutouts, oh, and the sleek modernist shape.

Looks like I'm not the only one! This is definitely on my wish list ...

Gorgeous print featuring CathrineHolm Lotus, for sale on Etsy

There's a lovely little Flickr group too, for a bit of enamel eye candy ...

According to this appreciation site, CathrineHolm was an ironworks company, rather than a person. I am so disappointed, I was imagining some kind of Joan Holloway 1950s style goddess ...

Image from wikipedia

Just My Type

2011-10-23T17:10:00.002+01:00

I've been savouring Simon Garfield's book about fonts and typography Just My Type.

I am a self-confessed type geek - not sure if its down to granddad being a printer all his life or just my obsession with books and words. This is like a holy book. Garfield's thesis, so far, seems to be the importance of the relationship between type and meaning, rather than type and syntax. The book is a tour of the history of typeface and issues and anecdotes beyond.

How can you not love a book that has as an epigraph a story about a printer's apprentice who set his lover's name in type and swallowed it? And he devotes an entire chapter to my favourite character (and close contender for my favourite English language word), the ampersand! My hero.

He begins with a discussion of the Marmite font, Comic Sans, which attracts a fair amount of vilification and scorn in the font world. Comic Sans is widely used - for the ropier side of home desktop publishing, yes, I mean you church newsletter writers - and is widely despised, as the Ban Comic Sans website shows.

I do dislike Comic Sans myself, for its ubiquitousness and for its blandness - ok for comic books, not ok for medical leaflets and powerpoint - and because it's just not that appealing a design. But I was reminded, while reading, that it has its uses: we used it frequently when I taught ESOL in Manchester for students who were illiterate or unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet, as it closely resembles handwriting and has no confusing serifs or formally shaped letters like 'g' and 'a'. I think it is also used for dyslexics as well.

I was also reminded of the sheer joy of playing with fonts. I was a kid when the Apple Mackintosh was born and my computer geek dad had one of these:

Image from Wikipedia

I think we forget now how revolutionary the visual nature of the Mac operating system was - surely the late Steve Jobs's real legacy? Me and my best mate, the Pink Floyd fan (yes, you!), would play around on it for hours constructing newspapers and writing stories, making full use of the entire range of fonts available. San Francisco for the ransom notes, and Gothic for anything 'antique', of course. Happy days.

San Francisco font on Wikipedia

On the same theme, I just love this witty greetings card, a recent Etsy find ...

'You're just my type' greetings card by a.favorite on etsy

I Thank You

2011-10-22T14:17:00.001+01:00

Recently, little signs have been popping up imploring you to water the trees in the street. Council cutbacks, I suppose.

This irreverent take on the concept, spotted outside the tube stations, tickled me ...

New Addition

2011-10-15T11:34:00.002+01:00

I picked this sweet vintage book up recently: I love books with dedications and old-fashioned illustrations. Can't decide whether to keep it or Etsy it. Maybe I'll just gaze at it for a while and then make up my mind...

Vague Science - The Cartoons of Stephen Collins

2011-10-13T10:02:00.000+01:00

Loved this cartoon in the Guardian Weekend mag on Saturday by their new cartoonist Stephen Collins...

Image by Stephen Collins from Guardian.co.uk

See more on the Guardian website - also love the 'I am the Internet'one. Genius.

Hwyl

2011-10-12T10:02:00.005+01:00

Image of Welsh Scrabble originally uploaded to Flickr by afagen

I heard this rather lovely word being discussed on the radio this morning - on the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 of all places. I was stuck in traffic on the M11 and had grown bored of the Today programme. They were using it to talk about the Welsh rugby success.

"Hwyl".

It's Welsh and means, according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, "a stirring feeling of emotional motivation and energy".

How poetic.

Another favourite Welsh word - I only know two so far, of course - is "cwtch", which means "a cosy corner" or a "safe place". Sianuska uses it in the name of her splendid blog A Cwtch and a Cuppa, which I recommend you visit when in need of beauty and sustenance.

Please can I live in Downton Abbey?

2011-10-09T10:45:00.000+01:00

I am so enamoured of these Clarks 'Colour Wheel' heeled brogues.

[image from www.clarks.co.uk]

They are so Edwardian, so Downton Abbey.

[image from enchantedserenityperiodfilms]

Hope they have them in my size!

Junk-a-holic

2011-10-08T21:28:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely day, the boy and I, pursuing our favourite past-time: hunting for treasure.

After a frustrating visit to an auction house - the words "As seen on 'Flog It'" should probably have warned us no bargains were to be had - we ventured to Lewisham to the best salvage yard in the world.

I just wish I needed gigantic crystal chandeliers, cast iron radiators and a million mismatch chairs. Not to mention the five foot bronze of a parrot ... One day ...

National Poetry Day

2011-10-06T11:17:00.000+01:00

[Picture from http://www.poetryarchive.org]

I just realised it's National Poetry Day. Go over to Poetry Archive immediately and read this gorgeous poem - you can even listen to the great man himself reading it.

Poetry Archive | The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin

Like Totally

2011-10-06T09:48:00.001+01:00

Revisiting my teens and indulging in a little 1990s nostalgia thanks to this splendid post over on Design*Sponge...

Design*Sponge | Living in: Clueless

Remember this?

Such a witty film. Best moment has to be Cher's debate club speech on offering aid to Haiti

And so if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in conclusion may I please remind you it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty. Thank you very much.

I never rocked the knee highs and mary janes look, but still ... like way influential....

[uploaded to YouTube by www.wornjournal.com]

Enjoy!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Jammy Dodgers

2011-10-04T21:18:00.000+01:00

First steps in jam making.

Rather pleased. Much easier than expected, set but not too set, and ever so strawberryish. Yum.

Highest praise from my friend's three year old, Little O, who must have it on crumpets for breakfast..

Frolics

2011-09-22T17:55:00.000+01:00

Last night, while all were sleeping, I heard a Noise. Like someone was in the garden. And the security light came on. And stayed on. You can imagine how my heart leapt into my mouth. The boy L slumbered peacefully on, so I screwed up my courage and stuck my head between the curtains.

I saw a vixen and a small cub frolicking around on the patio, nipping each other affectionately and wheeling round and round playfully. They were about a foot from the bedroom doors, but couldn't see me - I guess because of the reflection - so they came close and were completely unspooked. It was delightful.

Originally uploaded to Flickr by kevinb_irl

Some people consider them a menace, I know, what with tipping over the bins and strewing the ground with greasy chicken boxes and babies' nappies, but it was beautiful, graceful and, well, kind of sweet.

It was a real reminder that while human may rule the school in the daytime, the night belongs to the animals ... even in the suburbs of London!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Vintage pop-up at goes monthly

2011-09-22T17:43:00.000+01:00

Vintage pop-up at Alice House NW6 6NJ goes monthly, hurrah!

One week to go!

2011-09-08T21:48:00.000+01:00

Vintage-tastic

2011-08-29T16:32:00.000+01:00

We'll be there with mountains of vintage gorgeousness.

See you there?

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Vintage-tastic

2011-08-29T16:29:00.000+01:00

We'll be there with mountains of vintage loveliness.

See you there?

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Yon Bonnie Banks

2011-08-28T15:47:00.000+01:00

This time last weekend, we were regretfully driving away from the brilliant wedding of my doc cousin and his fab lady and towards an Easyjet flight back to London and reality.

The wedding was held at Boturich Castle and the scenery of Loch Lomond and the mountains beyond was simply breathtaking.

It took me back to my misspent youth / awkward teenage years listening to - among other things, I hasten to add - Scots rockers Runrig. Here for your delectation is their interpretation of the traditional folk song Long Lomond (Enjoy, Jo!).

Congratulations Tom and Fi, and thanks so much for inviting us to celebrate with you!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Full of Promise

2011-08-27T09:36:00.000+01:00

All that hard work in Spring seems to be paying off...

For I Will Consider My Cat

2011-08-25T10:55:00.002+01:00

I recently rediscovered this eighteenth century poem by Christopher Smart in a (rather odd) collection of patriotic poems I found in a charity shop.

It is the very picture of feline behaviour.

I especially like the line 'wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness', which I think of every time our puss gets comfy on the sofa - inevitably in the exact spot you were about to sit it.

For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry (Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart)

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having consider'd God and himself he will consider his neighbour.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness ...'

This is just a snippet, you can read the whole Jeoffry section here.

There's also a version set to music by Benjamin Britten here.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com/]

This is not my London

2011-08-09T17:37:00.001+01:00

You may have noticed things have gone a little crazy in London (and beyond) lately.

This is not my London:

Originally uploaded to Flickr by hozinja

This, however, is:

Originally uploaded to Flickr by me!

Angel Tube Thought for the Day:

Originally uploaded to Flickr by Annie Mole

Here's hoping for calm and peace, and reclaiming our beloved streets soon from this violence and greed.

Check out #RiotCleanUp on Twitter for some community fightback - recommended if you need your faith in humanity restoring!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot]

A Small Obsession

2011-08-03T11:06:00.000+01:00

I have a small obsession with vintage typography, and particularly numbers ...

[www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The Smell of Summer

2011-07-31T09:39:00.000+01:00

Sweet peas are one of my favourite smells - like freesias, they smell like all flowers ever concentrated into a single bud. They smell heady, ethereal, angelic - like early summer mornings when the sun is just risen, the city noise is quiet, the birds are singing, and the dew is on the grass. Heavenly.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Weekend Remake - Dining Chairs

2011-07-26T08:47:00.000+01:00

Weekend remake - a pair of dining chairs bought for £5 and a metre and a half of teal tweed bought for 50p from an Essex car boot sale.

I am pretty pleased with myself ...

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Harvest Time

2011-07-22T08:49:00.000+01:00

Harvest time, in a modest way. Also excited about my single dwarf courgette...

Camera joy

2011-07-11T17:20:00.000+01:00

Knowing how much I enjoyed playing about with the Sahib's new camera, my dad has very sweetly given me his old D-SLR - for my very own, for keepsies.

So, I've been having fun...

And just so you know - I'm not all about close ups of flowers, I take close ups of random bits of architecture too!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

I ♥ making

2011-07-09T18:46:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy ol' day, with lots of making ... And I do love making.

I've recovered a sixties magazine rack with a bamboo handle, made some cushion covers and planted our new baby apple tree.

Love!

Fourth of July - Rye, Sussex

2011-07-08T15:03:00.000+01:00

Family get together in Sussex, in beautiful Rye. Lots of cobble stones and old houses drenched in roses and wisteria, sudden vistas of the marshes at the end of ancient narrow streets, smugglers' inns and fantastic handmade pork pies.

I strongly recommend a visit - and I'm in good company. The splendid Rob Ryan also has a soft spot for Rye.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Childhood nostalgia

2011-07-05T09:30:00.000+01:00

Etsy treasuries - a bit addictive, really!

This one is full of childhood nostalgia: Tunnock teacakes, dunagrees, My Little Pony stickers and Blackpool.

Happy days!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Vintage-tastic

2011-06-28T19:43:00.001+01:00

Lots of loveliness soon to be added to Butterfly Mind Vintage ... take a peek!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Sunny Southend-on-Sea

2011-06-28T18:42:00.001+01:00

A proper English seaside ... stripy deck-chairs, ice creams and chips.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Conan Doyle and monstrous orchids

2011-06-21T18:21:00.004+01:00

Two more essays done and dusted.

First, for the Victorian Fin de Siecle course, "Metaphors as monstrous as orchids: the language of flowers in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray."

I wrote on The Picture of Dorian Gray as a work which embodies Aestheticism's belief in 'art for art's sake' in its narrative and in the richly gilded prose. Redolent of fin de siècle decorative excess, I find the novel's symbolic schemes are in themselves rich and productive. I looked at the creation and application of a symbolic language of flowers by Wilde, aiming to demonstrate the influence of contemporary ideas on his construction of an Aesthetic language of flowers in the novel. A veritable whirlwind through Paterian ‘Art for Art’s Sake’, formalism in garden design, Grant Allen’s Physiological Aesthetics and Darwin’s evolutionary botany, Linnaean botanical naming, and Huysmans.

Phew.

Next up, for Race and the Victorians, "The house is full of Indian curiosities: Colony, metropole and imperial interaction in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four."

Here I looked at Edward Said’s idea that a key narrative of the nineteenth century is the sustaining of British imperial policy through oppositional identities: occident, us, home, metropole set against orient, them, away, colony. I argue that, as a story of a collision between metropole and colony, Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four is an interesting framework through which to consider the ideological representation of these binaries, the blurring of boundaries of race and difference, and Conan Doyle’s view of Empire.

Loved ‘em both. Funny how you write better when you’re passionate about the subject.

I feel a bit melancholic as that’s the end of the taught courses, but it’s been a deeply deeply satisfying time. Possibly one of my better decisions! It’s been creative, challenging and full of original thought … I’m also a lot clearer on what I want from my work life too, having really enjoyed the various digital projects I’ve worked on as a freelancer. Time has rather zoomed by, though!

I’m on my own now with ‘the big one', a 15K word dissertation on Edith Nesbit’s Fabianism to produce by the end of September. Here we go …

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Wildflowers

2011-06-17T10:21:00.000+01:00

Lovely wildflowers - including poppies and cornflowers - growing randomly at the end of someone's very urban driveway. Gorgeous, huh? You could almost be in a meadow!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Modernism in the sunshine

2011-06-17T09:33:00.000+01:00

A rare moment of sunshine in Gospel Oak, and a chance walk-by these amazing Modernist Isokon flats in Lawn Rd. Love those clean white curves...

Greenwich at May Day

2011-06-07T19:34:00.000+01:00

Beautiful Greenwich - and a little folkloric May Day green magic.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Macro

2011-05-29T16:16:00.000+01:00

Playing around with the Sahib's camera in mamma's garden ...

Aren't they lovely?

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The Toy Maker's Workshop

2011-05-26T10:20:00.002+01:00

This amazing toy maker's shop is always closed when I go past it on my way from Gospel Oak overground to Anthony Nolan, where I volunteer on the web team one day a week.

The windows are dusty but full of promise. The jumble of doll's houses, mechanical toys, rocking horses and the like are so evocative, a 'box of delights' of nostalgia and memory.

I can't help peering in the window, it's a bit like one of those sentimental Victorian Christmas card scene of urchins gathered around shop windows.

Maybe one day, I might magically find it open!

I think this guy - possibly the best ever 'Weekender' in the Saturday Guardian, beating the usual Hoxtonite crowd that grace these pages - is connected somehow.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Confession

2011-05-25T08:24:00.000+01:00

Alright, I confess: some vintage homewares never make it to my Etsy shop ...
[http://www.butterflymindvintage.etsy.com]

East Dulwich

2011-05-14T22:10:00.000+01:00

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The Cult of Beauty at the V&A

2011-05-11T11:59:00.000+01:00

If you haven't been, you must...

Peacocks. Sunflowers. PreRaphaelite hair. Morris wallpaper. Du Maurier Punch cartoons. Liberty dresses.

What more could a girl want? My heart is full ...

Here's a taster from YouTube:

The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900

I only wish I'd been before I submitted my Dorian Gray essay, ah well...

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The only way is ... Essex?‏

2011-05-08T08:05:00.000+01:00

Yes indeedy, this is Essex, Chelmsford in fact. Such pretty buildings and a lovely river too. Enough wisteria to cheer any heart.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

This Week

2011-05-06T07:20:00.002+01:00

This week, I have been mostly:

- feeling conflicted as I'm a republican but enjoyed 'the dress' and the cakes

- trying to keep the cat off the keyboard ...

- starting to obsess over Edith Nesbit and the Fabians ... "Sounds like a rock band" - thanks Dad!

Image from Wikipedia Commons

- rediscovering collections of turn-of-the-century cigarette cards - Cissy is my favourite, love the white lace / black opaques combo

- dusting off the SLR for a sunny, windy day in Greenwich

- and picking up gems for the Butterfly Mind Vintage Etsy shop.

What have you been up to?

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Happy Easter, everyone!

2011-04-24T09:07:00.002+01:00

Flickr photo credits:
1. Happy Easter, 2. I hope your Easter was filled with beautiful surprises!, 3. Chick,

4. Easter, 5. Easter Flare, 6. daffodil crying, 7. Crocus, 8. 20110422 #02, 9. Lamb

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Good Friday

2011-04-22T19:11:00.002+01:00

The garden is looking lovely in all this glorious sunshine. We have been cracking on with the veg - the lettuce and salad leaves are in, as are the courgettes, carrots, broad beans and sweetpeas. There are lots of promising looking blossoms on the strawberries, and the mint is riotous (of course). The tomatoes are coming along beautifully behind glass, and it's Good Friday today so the 'tatties will be going in tomorrow - not an old wives tale I'm reliably informed, but related to the lunar calendar...

Meanwhile, I've been taking study breaks from my 'Fin de Siècle' and 'Race and the Victorians' essays to tackle the thistles in the lawn with my trusty fork - most satisfying!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Coast

2011-04-10T09:46:00.001+01:00

The English seaside in March. Note the grey skies.

But, of course, complete with all necessary elements of childhood seaside holiday nostalgia:

And some rather lovely things too:

Yes, I've been experimenting with Picnik - I'll calm down now, promise!

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Pop goes the vintage: Pop-Up Shop SE1 Sat 9th April

2011-03-29T10:24:00.000+01:00

Hurrah, another new vintage event!

We'll be there with the lovely ladies from Frocks That Rock: come along and see us!

Taking wing

2011-03-25T10:04:00.004Z

'Fly bird fly' image originally uploaded to Flickr by deannabeth.

Ruskin takes wing. One of the most beautiful passages in English prose:

The charts of the world which have been drawn up by modern science have thrown into a narrow space the expression of a vast amount of knowledge, but I have never yet seen any one pictorial enough to enable the spectator to imagine the kind of contrast in physical character which exists between Northern and Southern countries. We know the differences in detail, but we have not that broad glance and grasp which would enable us to feel them in their fulness. We know that gentians grow on the Alps, and olives on the Apennines; but we do not enough conceive for ourselves that variegated mosaic of the world’s surface which a bird sees in its migration, that difference between the district of the gentian and of the olive which the stork and the swallow see far off, as they lean upon the sirocco wind.

Let us, for a moment, try to raise ourselves even above the level of their flight, and imagine the Mediterranean lying beneath us like an irregular lake, and all its ancient promontories sleeping in the sun: here and there an angry spot of thunder, a grey stain of storm, moving upon the burning field; and here and there a fixed wreath of white volcano smoke, surrounded by its circle of ashes; but for the most part a great peacefulness of light, Syria and Greece, Italy and Spain, laid like pieces of a golden pavement into the sea-blue, chased, as we stoop nearer to them, with bossy beaten work of mountain chains, and glowing softly with terraced gardens, and flowers heavy with frankincense, mixed among masses of laurel, and orange and plumy palm, that abate with their grey-green shadows the burning of the marble rocks, and of the ledges of porphyry sloping under lucent sand.

Then let us pass farther towards the north, until we see the orient colors change gradually into a vast belt of rainy green, where the pastures of Switzerland, and poplar valleys of France, and dark forests of the Danube and Carpathians stretch from the mouths of the Loire to those of the Volga, seen through clefts in grey swirls of rain-cloud and flaky veils of the mist of the brooks, spreading low along the pasture lands: and then, farther north still, to see the earth heave into mighty masses of leaden rock and heathy moor, bordering with a broad waste of gloomy purple that belt of field and wood, and splintering into irregular and grisly islands amidst the northern seas, beaten by storm and chilled by ice-drift, and tormented by furious pulses of contending tide, until the roots of the last forests fail from among the hill ravines, and the hunger of the north wind bites their peaks into barrenness; and, at last, the wall of ice, durable like iron, sets, deathlike, its white teeth against us out of the polar twilight.

And, having once traversed in thought its gradation of the zoned iris of the earth in all its material vastness, let us go down nearer to it, and watch the parallel change in the belt of animal life: the multitudes of swift and brilliant creatures that glance in the air and sea, or tread the sands of the southern zone; striped zebras and spotted leopards, glistening serpents, and birds arrayed in purple and scarlet. Let us contrast their delicacy and brilliancy of color, and swiftness of motion, with the frost-cramped strength, and shaggy covering, and dusky plumage of the northern tribes; contrast the Arabian horse with the Shetland, the tiger and leopard with the wolf and bear, the antelope with the elk, the bird of paradise with the osprey: and then, submissively acknowledging the great laws by which the earth and all that it bears are ruled throughout their being, let us not condemn, but rejoice at the expression by man of his own rest in the statutes of the lands that gave him birth.

Taken from 'The Nature of Gothic' in The Stones of Venice (Vol II)

I feel exhilarated, as if I have been swooping and gliding at dizzying heights with the birds.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Blossom and Scent

2011-03-19T10:51:00.002Z

Bright blue sunshiny skies, and the plum tree is an explosion of blossom and delicate scent.

Doesn't it just make you think of Anne Shirley, "all spirit, fire and dew" and her "White Way of Delight"?

Nostalgic indulgence moment:

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M.Montgomery - Chapter Two 'Mr. Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised'

She came out of her reverie with a deep sigh and looked at him with the dreamy gaze of a soul that had been wandering afar, star-led.
"Oh, Mr. Cuthbert," she whispered, "that place we came through—that white place—what was it?"
"Well now, you must mean the Avenue," said Matthew after a few moments' profound reflection. "It is a kind of pretty place."
"Pretty? Oh, PRETTY doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful—wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. It just satisfies me here"—she put one hand on her breast—"it made a queer funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache. Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr. Cuthbert?"
"Well now, I just can't recollect that I ever had."
"I have it lots of time—whenever I see anything royally beautiful. But they shouldn't call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it—let me see—the White Way of Delight. Isn't that a nice imaginative name?

I adored this book as a child: even now, something about the power of the imagination and the joy of living sticks with me still.

You can read it in HTML or Kindle format on Project Gutenberg.

Happy days!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

2011-03-13T10:59:00.000Z

With all the terrible news coming out of Japan, my thoughts and love go out to all my friends in Tokyo and all the Japanese people affected.

And to think we were pretty blasé about the long overdue "big one", when I lived there... thank goodness Japan is so well-prepared.

The British Red Cross is running an appeal: you can donate online.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Let particular care be taken

2011-02-22T17:54:00.000Z

There's an intensely moving exhibition 'Threads of Feeling' at the Foundling Hospital at Coram's Fields in Fitzrovia. When mothers left babies to be cared for, a meticulous record was kept of the new arrival. This included details of the baby's given name, baptism status and clothing. Mothers often also left tokens, in order that they might be able to identify the baby on a future, happier date. These ranged from rings and beads, to letters, to scraps of ribbon or fabric.

The sense of thwarted love and hope is almost unbearable. While some children were reclaimed, thousands weren't.

This note, with a scrap of printed cotton pinned to it, reads "Florella Burney Born june the 19th: 1758: In The Parish off St. Ann's So Ho. Not baptiz'ed. Pray Let particulare care be take'en off this Child As it will be call'd for again ..."

Heartbreakingly, she was not claimed and was eventually apprenticed to a millner in Barking.

On a happier note, I also saw the 'Evolving English' exhibition at the British Library. This, as well as having the earliest known manuscripts of Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Caxton's bible, had some fantastic nineteenth century posters.

This one was posted wherever the Riot Act had been declaimed as a warning to protesters to disperse,

while this one advertises a fantastical sounding circus, complete with a giant rat, a skeleton man and a fat child,

And both were free! The London museums are wonderful things.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Ne Me Quitte Pas

2011-02-21T14:22:00.000Z

There was a whole lot of love for Jacques Brel in the 'Stow last night, where we went to watch the fantastic deadbelgian play at Ye Olde Rose and Crown.

The singer has an intensity of vocal and emotional power that is compelling and we loved the flat-cap wearing, red-wine drinking accordian player, the versatile guy who swapped effortlessly between uke, flute, clarinet and sax, and the wisecracking drummer.

The best bit, though, had to be the collective sigh that ran through the audience when 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' was announced: it certainly lived up to the anticipation, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. See for yourself on the YouTube vid above - if you can zone out the annoying chatter of the audience. Or you can listen to more songs, including 'Amsterdam' and 'Jacky', on MySpace.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Cutting and sticking

2011-02-17T22:39:00.001Z

I do hate throwing away nice glossy magazines, so a bit of collaging was in order this evening.

I like a bit of cutting and sticking! No themes today, just random pretty thing that caught my eye... Yep, it's that unsophisticated!

The fruits of my labours:

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Reggae Britannia

2011-02-16T22:52:00.001Z

If you haven't seen this yet, get yourself over to BBC iPlayer ...

Fantastic documentary making from the Beeb charting the history of reggae in the UK. Archive footage of Notting Hill, Brixton and the Jamaican sound systems. Insightful talking heads from the good and the great. And lots and lots and lots of brilliant music.

You can watch the full programme over at iPlayer if you're in the UK, I'm not sure how long it'll be there for so go get some!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Vintage event: The Alice House, Queens Park, March 6th

2011-02-14T22:09:00.002Z

Butterfly Mind Vintage will be doing our first event in March!

Those lovely ladies at Frocks That Rock are working in collaboration with The Alice House to host a brand new Vintage Event, and we'll be there as guest seller.

There will be fabulous frocks, cocktails and afternoon tea, and of course, our splendid retro, vintage, secondhand, remade and preloved homewares.

Do come along and see us! To find out more, check out the event page on Facebook or see the Frocks That Rock blog.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Flea Market Dawn

2011-02-12T13:40:00.000Z

Up at the crack of dawn for some flea market fun ... and a lovely cuppa in a converted train carriage.

♥ ♥ Vintage Love ♥ ♥

2011-01-28T19:02:00.000Z

My little Etsy shop grows and grows: I've had superb hunting this week and found some splendours. I wish I could keep them all but there just isn't any space what with my lust for vintage homewares (especially teapots) and the Boy's growing expertise in upholstery and generally rescuing unloved furniture..

A quick round up, then, of my absolute favourites:

Don't you just love this? It so cool and stylish, even without a classic camera inside.

This one breaks my heart to sell, I love the geometric pattern so much and it's a complete set, which you hardly ever see - milk jug and everything!

How seventies is this? More the Boy's kind of thing than mine, but I love the way the light shows through and the depth of orangey colour.

This looks really French to somehow, like it might have been uncovered in a dusty oak dresser in a chateau somewhere - and aren't the roses gorgeous? A gift to myself to cheer myself up as the weather's turned bitterly cold again. Where has that faint promise of Spring gone?

And last but not least, and not strictly new, but too dainty and Cath Kidston-y to pass by. More tea, vicar? and yes, I'm sticking out my little finger as I write, of course...

If you've not seen the shop, come on by - something might tickle your fancy! Or find me on Twitter for stock updates and more vintage-related loveliness.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

This week on t'internet of great wonders

2011-01-26T23:41:00.000Z

[ eastbourne november 2010 by Mr Boniface, on Flickr ]

Another lazy post as I have been busy busy busy this week - reading up on New Women novelists, doing a spot of freelancing as a digital publishing consultant, looking for part-time work and sourcing loveliness for my vintage shop on Etsy...

Here are some things that caught my eye on t'internet of great wonders:

Eerie and ethereal, traditional Chinese painting crossed with photography | Storque: This Handmade Life

The splendid Jo Shapcott reading her poems and talking about On Mutability | The Thought Fox

This made me come over all nostalgic for Japan, as these could almost be the streets behind my old apartment in Nishi Kokobunji | Hilda Grahnat

Man, I am so out of my era ... I wish I lived in a Merchant Ivory film | Design*Sponge

Freesias. My favourites. Just so you know. | Design*Sponge

Gorgeous celebration of colour, just what the doctor ordered on this gloomy, rainy January day | Craft Cargo Cult

Compare and contrast: beautiful concept, juxtaposing Marilyn Monroe and John White Alexander's 'June' | Miss Moss

Beautiful close up photographs of details on vintage clothes. Lots of lace and silk ribbons | Dear Golden

Enjoy!

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

My new baby

2011-01-21T20:24:00.001Z

Meet my new baby:

Possibly the most appropriate leaving present ever?

I am already smitten...

I wonder if it will alter my reading habits at all?

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The Lion comes back to life?

2011-01-18T16:45:00.000Z

How lovely! The Boy and I just wandered up the High Street and it looks like the lovely old Red Lion pub has been rescued.

The Red Lion is a seventeenth century coaching inn, which was sadly crumbling into a state of disrepair, having survived many incarnations of various shades of repute. You can see what a splendid building it once was / could be again, and we were afraid it was going to disintegrate so badly that it could only be knocked down ...

But now it's sporting a huge banner, courtesy of the pub company Antic Ltd, who have taken it over. They list it on their website with a fantastic nineteenth century photo of the pub at the height of its glory:

via The Red Lion Leytonstone

This article on the Waltham Forest Guardian website shows the flavour of the reaction locally, both good and bad...

We look forward to it opening, both to see it saved, and because a decent local would be ace!

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Weekend loveliness

2011-01-17T09:04:00.002Z

Image via chad_loves_laura on flickr

Or, what I read on the internet this weekend... a lazy post, I suppose, but I have some lovely stuff to share

Decals that make your iphone look like a retro polaroid camera | Design*Sponge

Wonderful eccentricity of Parisian ladies | LifestyleEtc

I want this. Vintage 1950s Still Life dress | Dear Golden

Mid-Century home deco is back. And folk. And beach. | HomeShoppingSpy

Love this snowballing Very Hungry Caterpillar Treasury, good collaborative marketing idea | Etsy

Abandon your resolutions, says Olive Burkeman: hear, hear, sez I | The Guardian

Rescued negatives lead to discovery of lost street photography master | This Handmade Life

I also:

read P Curtin The Image of Africa and Conan Doyle The Sign of The Four
ate superb Eggs Royale at The Ambassador on Exmouth Market
re-watched The Young Victoria (sob)
got a haircut (less is more, people...)

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Writing, writing, writing

2011-01-16T09:30:00.000Z

First term of the Victorian Studies MA is over: I spent Christmas writing, writing, writing, and the essays were submitted, heart in mouth, the day before the deadline.

For the 'Progress and Anxiety' module, I wrote on Dickens' Bleak House – I looked at the highly ambivalent representation of domestic and household spaces, focusing on the way that the novel abounds with dirt, disorder and disoriented domestic life. I argued that Dickens sets up a moral spectrum of 'approved' and 'disapproved' household systems and domestic topographies, and that it is difficult to establish if this should be read as a radical or conservative moral project. I was so happy writing it!

For the 'Faith and Doubt' module, I wrote on Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Christina Rossetti – I compared the way the two poets explore the efficacy of the poetic voice in approaching an understanding of the divine, arguing that, despite their different poetic styles and belief systems, a shared approach can been seen, even down to shared metaphorical and lexical registers, and both sensing that language is limited and inadequate when it comes to faith. This one was more problematic for me: I will have to think very, very carefully when choosing my dissertation topic, to make sure I have enthusiasm enough to carry me through the required 15,000 words!

This term, 'Race and the Victorians' and 'Fin de Siècle'...

I feel a bit sad that it's one third over already as I am thoroughly enjoying myself – but no time for brooding, there's so much more to do!

Scented candles in vintage tea cups

2011-01-11T20:22:00.000Z

One of my more successful homemade presents: scented candles made from vintage tea cups and saucers.

Take one candle making kit, lavender essence, a bunch of thrifted china (great fun to source) and some pretty wrappings and trimmings - and hey presto. The only tricky bit was getting the wicks dead-centre when pouring the warmed wax.

A bit of cellophane, a bit of ribbon - I even did little cards using hand-carved stamps and a "made by me" stamp drawn for me by the talented Sianuska ...

Such fun, and so quaint and pretty.

And they seemed to go down quite well. Well, better than buying people random stuff they don't need or want for the sake of it, I guess!

Right, what can I make next?I wonder ...

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Experiments in weekday baking

2011-01-06T19:54:00.002Z

Hurrah for the divine Nigel Slater: this soda bread recipe is a beauty, and quick enough for after-work baking. He has you cook it in a casserole dish with a lid, which sounds weird, but makes for a light, crisp crust.

Mmmm.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

New Year

2011-01-02T11:31:00.000Z

It's time again for those resolutions...

… although, as a rather thought-provoking article in this month's Psychologies magazine points out, everything else in Nature is, at this time of year, hibernating, rather than resolving to make a new start!

Given it is going to be a year of changes and new starts, my resolution is simple and straightforward:

To live honest.

By this I mean saying 'yes' to my strengths and 'no' to pretending to be what I am not because I think people think I should.

That's it! I think it's going to take some practice...

What are yours?

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Race and the Victorians

2010-12-30T12:40:00.000Z

The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins

I've been trying to come up with a list of nineteenth century (UK only, I'm afraid) novels with black or Asian characters, as I'm taking a class on “Race and the Victorians” next term.

Remarkably, the internet has failed to provide – or I haven't searched effectively!

I've been canvassing friends, and so far we've got:

The Moonstone
The first Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre
Arguably Heathcliff?
H Rider Haggard
Vanity Fair – I think there was a mixed race child at the school, or am I misremembering?
Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four & The Man with the Twisted Lip
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Ivanhoe
Rudyard Kipling's "white man's burden"
Tattycoram in Little Dorrit, and Nipper in Dombey and Sons?
Conrad's Heart of Darkness
Robert Louis Stephenson short stories: Beach of Fales and The Isle of Voices.

If you think of any more, please stick them in the comments!

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-25T14:16:00.000Z

...and God bless us, every one, said Tiny Tim ...

In the bleak midwinter

2010-12-24T10:53:00.007Z

13:365
Originally uploaded by ByBlanca

Because it's Christmas Eve, because it's -2oC outside, and because I have just completed the first draft of my Christina Rossetti essay:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Photo is from ByBlanca's lovely Flickr photostream.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Ceaselessly beginning

2010-12-18T10:57:00.003Z

stricken
Originally uploaded by verethragma

So, it's been a hectic couple of months and I've been meaning to blog the whys and wherefores. I've resigned my job to do an MA in Victorian Studies, after two years (some of my nearest and dearest would argue longer, I'm sure!) of vacillating and trying to decide if I should stay or I should go.

It's all very exciting and I am looking forward to January very much.

Classes have started and I am currently juggling work and classes and reading which is hard going but it's so much fun and so endlessly rewarding. I gave a seminar talk on Bleak House a few weeks ago, and am in the middle of two essays: one on Tennyson and Christina Rossetti, and the efficacy of the poet's voice in exploring the divine, and one on the moral interpretations of the disordered domestic space in Dickens – and goodness me, I know I've done the right thing!

At work, as I've progressed, I've moved further and further away from the things that motivate me, doing very little creative and lots that requires me to ...well, not really be myself. The gap between 'real' me and 'work' was just getting wider and wider, and that can't be healthy. This is something I've wanted to do for a long, long time: I find academic work so challenging, rewarding, fulfilling, exciting. This is a chance to have a bit of a career sabbatical and think carefully about who I am, what makes me happiest, and what I really want from a career. I'm going to try to keep my hand in, through, by doing part-time/temping/freelance work in digital or publishing (publishing friends: fair warning, I'll be in touch soon, for a little of what they call “leveraging your network”) so I keep my options open. Here's to a portfolio career for the next six months or so.

Who knows what will come next?

As a person who is usually so concerned with the future and doing the “right” thing, I am strangely relaxed about all this ambiguity and uncertainty. Which, I guess, is all part of the process of getting back to where I want to be – wherever that turns out to be!

Hurrah for new starts.

"To be alive is to be ceaselessly beginning." George Eliot – thanks, Jude, for such an apt quote, and from a nineteenth century author too!

(The photo is from my very talented friend Verethragma's Flickr photostream: go and have a look, it's full of beauty)

The kindness of strangers

2010-12-17T10:02:00.002Z

London bus
Originally uploaded by E01

Yesterday, at the opposite ends of the day, I saw two things that reminded me London is not simply a giant, inhumane metropolis… and shamed me a little too.

In the morning, a youth got on the bus with an invalid pass and a viable explanation that he was waiting for a new one – he also gave the driver plenty of lip and attitude, being all of about 10 years of and “hard as nails,” as we used to say round my way when I was a child. So the driver pulled over and turned off the engine, and refused to move until the boy got off the bus. After five minutes or so, patience wore thin among the passengers and people started shouting at the boy to get off. This made ‘old toughie’ dig in all the more, with a glare of defiance. At this point, in the midst of shouts of “Come on!” and “Get off!”, something happened that really made an impression on me as the right and proper way to go about things – a lady with a strong northern accent began to reason with the boy in a kind and rational way, treating him as an equal and appealing to his better name to “Do us all a favour, we understood, but it wasn’t our fault”. The boy dismounted, with a little more grace. It was so well-handled. She was kind, polite, firm, without being condescending or overbearing. Too often, we look at these tough kids and just see trouble. I guess the kindest thing would have been for the driver to just let him on in the first place, or for someone to stump up the fare, but I was impressed.

In the evening, returning from class on the Central Line, I looked up from my book and at the far end of the carriage, a young woman with a red sequin Stetson was softly weeping to herself. Most people looked away, and I confess, I assumed she was drunk – but some young women near her offered her tissues and a friendly ear. It turned out a song on her iPod had triggered memories of her recently deceased father. I was shamefaced and so impressed with those ladies who saw beyond the sequin Stetson to the fellow human in distress.

I think what I am taking away from this is that I must try to overcome that peculiar London conditioning which says ‘look away for self-preservation’ in favour of seeing human beneath, before I become too hardened by big city life.

Must be nearly Christmas ...

2010-12-13T12:50:00.000Z

This weekend’s baking, courtesy of the lovely Kirstie and Phil’s Perfect Christmas show…

Gingerbread

6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup shortening, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift the dry ingredients together
Mix the wet ingredients, and gradually add dry.
Chill dough for 3 hours.
Roll out and cut with cookie cutters.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350F /175C / gas mark four

Very yummy, although I think I’ll up the ginger content next time to make them super-spicy!

City of dreaming spires

2010-11-28T18:03:00.001Z

And one very cool house in Portobello Road. Pretty much anything looks good if you use Scrabble tiles...

A Foggy Day in London Town

2010-11-19T07:32:00.002Z

A foggy day,
In London Town,
It had me low,
And it had me down
I viewed the morning,
With much alarm,
The British Museum,
Had lost it's charm
How long I wondered,
Could this thing last,
But the age of miracles
Hadn't past
And suddenly,
I saw you standing there
And in foggy London Town,
The sun was shining everywhere

Saturday morning in Islington

2010-11-13T12:39:00.000Z

Cold, crisp and autumnal. Lots of pretty things to see in my way to Make Lounge for knitting class.

Autumn Walk

2010-11-01T14:36:00.000Z

Out of London, via poor old Waterloo where the beautifully engineered ceiling is overshadowed by the hurlyburly and the nasty 'sixties architecture, into the countryside. Well, not the countryside but some very picturesque Surrey suburbs.

We walked along the canal towpath for about five miles. And the dog swam most of the way.

I felt clearheaded and energised by being in nature, despite the rain. Just like a Romantic poet.

Cosy times

2010-10-24T18:43:00.000+01:00

This weekend, quality time with the cat, apple and pear cake, and a trip to the Affordable Vintage Fair. Next, lasagne and Downton Abbey. Yep, we're getting cosy as it's definitely Autumn out there...

Hello Autumn

2010-10-11T19:16:00.001+01:00

What a glorious weekend it was. Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, indeed. We took a saunter by the river at Hammersmith and had a gorgeous roast at the Old Ship. Oh, and basked in the hot sunshine too. More of the same for a beautiful Autumn, please!

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com/]

Retro Knitting

2010-10-02T11:01:00.001+01:00

Having inherited this fabulous book from my mum,

I opened it up for the first time today, and found this collection of handwritten patterns - love the idea of inheriting something that has been tried, tested and annotated, like getting a secondhand book with a stranger's name and notes in, so personal and somehow "connected". Plus, if you look closely, you can see the book is one year older than me! It also contained this very stylish 80s lovely.

It has some amazing photography: I especially like this motorcycle chick, modelling a sweater!

And this is very glamorous - but a cable knit bikini? Hardly practical!

I think I'll be sticking to hats for the moment ...

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com/]

Salamanca is

2010-09-26T16:40:00.001+01:00

We've spent a splendid long weekend in Spain for the "boda" of a dear friend.

To me, Salamanca is:

An intensely romantic castle to stay in and celebrate in

Tapas in the Placa Mayor with friends-of-friends, who just became friends

A happy bride dancing to "You're The One That I Want" in red Converse

Churros y chocolate for the morning after the night before

Some serious Gothic architecture

And some rather less serious surprises!

We loved it! Felicidades a B y J - muchas gracias para invitarnos, fue un privilegio.

Attention, please?

2010-09-09T10:03:00.001+01:00

I am finding at the moment that I have a really short attention span.

Maybe it's down too much multimedia multitasking, of which I am often guilty, juggling laptop and TV and iPhone. Maybe it's down to tiredness at the end of the taxing day. Maybe it's just that modern malaise of being time-poor with 'Wonder Woman' syndrome, i.e. trying to have it all and ending up doing too much.

Whatever the reason, I have a buzzing brain and a true butterfly mind - flitting from flower to flower and never settling for long - these days. And to think I used to be such a "reflector"...

Time to embrace slow and train myself back into mindfulness and thoughtfulness.

As a countermeasure, I am keeping a journal where I try to think critically and analytically about my reading, recording impressions, thoughts and feelings.

I think it's working. Recent books have included Peter Ackroyd's Dickens biography (hagiographic, overly strained prose), Jenny Uglow's History of British Gardening (interesting on liberation and self-expression of women and working classes via gardening), and Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (kids' classic, can't believe I never read it, moving and tough, emotionally honest). I certainly feel I am reading more deeply and responsively, and I find I remember the content better and more profoundly.

It hasn't stopped me reading several books at once though - currently Nights at the Circus, The Spirit Level (as Kindle eBook) and A Room with a View (on iPhone) - and the pile of material by the bed hasn't diminished any but it's a start.

A weekend of making

2010-09-08T21:33:00.000+01:00

It's been a hectic old summer, especially workwise, but this weekend I finally made some time for making.

I finished The Boy's bobble hat,

knocked up a very stylish (if I say so myself) knitting bag from an old skirt to prevent the cat from running around the house with my half-finished knitting in her mouth,

and baked this fantastic pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting, mmmmm:

Having swapped a creative marketing job for a responsible middle management job about two years ago, I really find these weekend things very satisfying. I think it helps me bridge the gap between the "work me" and the "real me", which feel pretty separate these days. Now, to find a way to bring those two closer together ...

Rain, rain, rain

2010-08-26T09:15:00.006+01:00

Rain on spiderweb
Originally uploaded by IanEv

A poem for the rainy windy weather:

Like Rain it sounded till it curved
- Emily Dickinson

Like Rain it sounded till it curved
And then I knew 'twas Wind --
It walked as wet as any Wave
But swept as dry as sand --
When it had pushed itself away
To some remotest Plain
A coming as of Hosts was heard
It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools
It warbled in the Road --
It pulled the spigot from the Hills
And let the Floods abroad --
It loosened acres, lifted seas
The sites of Centres stirred
Then like Elijah rode away
Upon a Wheel of Cloud.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Seaside wedding

2010-08-20T19:09:00.003+01:00

Last weekend saw us at Wedding No. 1 of the summer, the wedding of my cousin and his lovely bride.

It was glorious, a touching church ceremony with gorgeous sacred music, and a proper knees up. They looked so happy.

I got to wear The Dress, and my handmade homemade fascinator, constructed from a vintage brooch, ribbon and feathers.

And we got to ride on a carousel!

Northumbria holiday in pictures

2010-08-17T21:55:00.004+01:00

We've been to the North-East for a little holiday at The Boy's mum's house.

We exercised our inner junkaholic, scrutinising car boot finds and doing a little antique-ing ourselves.

We found this sweet vintage camera in a thrift shop - and searched in vain online for a UK source of Kodak 126 film.

We looked up in Newcastle - isn't it great what you notice when you look up?

We admired art - on walls ...

and in these beautiful surroundings at Belsay Hall - a ruined castle ...

and a quarry garden!

We were startled and fascinated in equal measure by Mat Collishaw's 'The Garden of Unearthly Delights' zoetrope of creepy cupids smashing robins' eggs and spearing snails.

We ate a lot. From tapas to curry to birthday cake.

We chilled out, and enjoyed the last of summer.

(Thanks Carol!)

http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com/

A timely warning

2010-08-16T21:10:00.000+01:00

Excellent notice I saw at head office today. 1917 vintage. Thieves
beware.

Upcycle

2010-07-31T10:13:00.002+01:00

I am pretty pleased with this rather successful upcycle.

I couldn't find a denim skirt I liked in the shops - this season seems to be all super-short minis, buckles and similar interesting details - and I was about to "charity shop" some old jeans in my summer wardrobe purge.

So with two panel inserts and a bit of Liberty print bias binding, voilà, a whole new skirt for nought pence.

There also follows a gratuitous cat picture, because she's sweet and didn't mind the sewing machine one bit.