the sheepish narcissist

duck boots

2010-10-29T01:22:00.000+01:00

I don't need you

but I do like you

hoss

2010-10-18T22:09:00.000+01:00

A day out in the country

somewhere near Swindon

Gelati

2010-10-17T18:44:00.000+01:00

Yum

Il Pranzo

2010-10-10T16:01:00.000+01:00

Artichoke with Pecorino, Rocket and Lemon

Bruschetta with Finocchiona

classic

2010-10-07T00:33:00.000+01:00

Can anything beat a Campari and soda?

camera nerds

2010-10-06T23:19:00.000+01:00

Holga and Diana on the Ponte Vecchio

Italia

2010-09-29T22:19:00.000+01:00

Florence

Here I come!

hepburn

2010-09-27T22:26:00.001+01:00

Audrey + Mancini + BFI = Bliss
Must get myself a grey sweatshirt.

slap

2010-09-27T20:59:00.000+01:00

Some mornings, having to go to work is like a slap in the face.

This morning, I literally had a slap in the face.

Some guy let his lazy hand drop,

I was rising from my seat and he had turned to exit the tube.

His fat hand whacked me square on the dial.

No sorry.

No oops (or oopsy daisy)

The woman next to me gasped.

The guy just strutted off.

Monkey.

Forster

2010-09-22T22:32:00.001+01:00

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to finally read some EM Forster.

I am reading Howards End and it is brilliant.

Tube journeys fly.

I love this:

'A short-frocked edition of Charles also regards them placidly;

a perambulator edition is squeaking; a third edition is expected shortly.

Nature is turning out Wilcoxes in this peaceful abode, so that they may inherit the earth.'

Photograph is totally unrelated... just pretty yellow flowers in a Suffolk winery after some rain

strike

2010-09-12T00:56:00.000+01:00

Some lines were running but my station was closed

Some buses were too full to stop

Trotting

Bus-ing (finally)

More bus-ing

and a boat

Left early and arrived late

A two hour and fifty minute journey

Cheers London

cool sky above the wharf snapped on my antique nokia

(ok, not so antique - only three years old)

the sea

2010-08-30T22:36:00.001+01:00

Pebbles at Dunwich

G

2010-08-27T00:30:00.000+01:00

I traipsed around Kew Gardens a weekend or two ago.

I know I take altogether too many pictures of flowers and bees

but here come some more.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure whether these (above and below) are bees or wasps

These strange flowers had the most extraordinary scent.

I believe they are Lantana Camara

And here is a fluffy bee,

one you can actually see

(unlike the one in the little movie)

I never saw a bee so fluffy

It looks like it is wearing a bee suit

That is all

missing the malta

2010-08-22T20:50:00.000+01:00

summer is all too brief

bee movie

2010-08-22T17:08:00.000+01:00

Bee stalking in Kew Gardens

Violet

2010-08-15T20:42:00.000+01:00

Where would you keep the prettiest thing in your flat?

Bakerloo II (Piano)

2010-08-14T19:57:00.000+01:00

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.

- D. H. Lawrence

spoilt

2010-08-08T22:34:00.000+01:00

Banoffee Truffles

from Charbonnel et Walker

Fish

2010-07-31T18:14:00.000+01:00

I love Arnold Bennett Omelettes

Made using this recipe by Sophie Dahl

Love's Philosophy

2010-07-29T22:47:00.000+01:00

The fountains mingle with the river,

And the rivers with the ocean;

The winds of heaven mix forever,

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine

In one another's being mingle;--

Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven, 

And the waves clasp one another; 

No sister flower would be forgiven, 

If it disdained it's brother; 

And the sunlight clasps the earth, 

And the moonbeams kiss the sea;-- 

What are all these kissings worth, 

If thou kiss not me?

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

framlingham (framlingham)

2010-07-25T12:55:00.000+01:00

far

2010-07-22T23:41:00.000+01:00

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

- Henry David Thoreau

crouch

2010-07-22T23:24:00.000+01:00

Spent a little bit of time roaming around a backyard in Suffolk on the weekend, trusty G9 in hand.

Have come to realise penchant for bird photos has nearly (maybe) been overtaken by a penchant for macro flower pictures.

While admiring one of the tiny yellow flowers growing in the grass and crouching down to poke my camera at it

was astonished to find that what I took to be a pretty black pattern on the flower was actually a bunch of hungry little beetles.

* I have no idea whether they were actually hungry

water lillies

2010-07-21T23:54:00.000+01:00

In a Suffolk pond

Mr Concentration

2010-07-16T10:38:00.002+01:00

hb2me

2010-07-04T15:40:00.003+01:00

Afternoon Tea at The Langham

Supreme

2010-06-28T18:22:00.005+01:00

I was lucky enough to see Stevie Wonder perform at Glastonbury yesterday.

What an absolute legend.

Some would say genius.

Thinking about musical legends made me think about the Supremes,

and how much I would love to have seen them perform.
(here comes the segue)

I love this album cover

Maybe mostly because I have a t-shirt copy of the jumper
sported here by Diana Ross

(procured from the V&A at The Story of the Supremes exhibition in 2008)

flora

2010-06-20T23:34:00.000+01:00

In the garden of a Maltese villa

and out and about

Kinnie

2010-06-19T12:04:00.000+01:00

My new favourite soft drink

*Also grand as a Ginnie (Gin + Kinnie + Ice + Lemon)

the bees knees

2010-06-16T00:49:00.000+01:00

Maltese Bees on Dingli Cliffs

ok, the last one isn't a bee (I think) but it was involved in bee like activities

Word

2010-05-29T15:02:00.003+01:00

celerity

/silerriti/
• noun archaic or literary swiftness of movement.
— ORIGIN Latin celeritas, from celer ‘swift’.

eleemosynary

/elli-eemossinri/
• adjective formal charitable.
— ORIGIN from Greek eleemosune ‘compassion’.

pedagogy

/peddgogi, -goji/
• noun the profession, science, or theory of teaching.
— DERIVATIVES pedagogic (also pedagogical) adjective.

definitions from the Oxford Dictionary

Arnold Bennett

2010-05-29T14:28:00.000+01:00

Tall, thin and ungainly in every motion, he had the look of a ninny.

- Arnold Bennett in Anna of the Five Towns

PB & PS

2010-05-26T20:50:00.001+01:00

Sometimes I make things

*Inspired by Violent Veg

flowers on a tuesday

2010-05-12T21:06:00.000+01:00

Sometimes...

There is an upside to feeling unwell

If I could tell you

2010-05-06T00:32:00.000+01:00

Time will say nothing but I told you so,

Time only knows the price we have to pay;

If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,

If we should stumble when musicians play,

Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,

Because I love you more than I can say,

If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,

There must be reasons why the leaves decay;

Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,

The vision seriously intends to stay;

If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,

And all the brooks and soldiers run away;

Will Time say nothing but I told you so?

If I could tell you I would let you know.

- W. H. Auden

e e cummings

2010-04-27T21:12:00.004+01:00

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

*yes, this is a poem that is quoted in a movie but that does not dilute how lovely it is.
this poem was written by the very talented e e cummings

Bellus

2010-04-24T10:36:00.001+01:00

Some little flowers outside Belas Knap

Rapeseed Flowers

Bluebells

Pretty fungus

Holly

I can't figure out what this one is but I think it is lovely

Photos taken on walks near Winchcombe and Ebrington

Beware of the Baa

2010-04-21T21:38:00.001+01:00

A dignified and confident ewe with her two lambs

Photos taken in a field in the Cotswolds

A little bit of London

2010-04-17T00:32:00.000+01:00

Various holgas

Tomato

2010-04-11T19:26:00.000+01:00

The stages of a little tomato soup...

Loosely based on a recipe recently seen on Delicious Miss Dahl

and gobbled with some cheese quesadilla

unintentionally served with a bubble on a chipped plate

Deauville at the Vaudeville

2010-04-10T12:07:00.000+01:00

"Very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. It all depends on a combination of circumstances. If all the various cosmic thingummys fuse at the same moment, and the right spark is struck, there's no knowing what one mightn't do."

- Amanda from Private Lives by Noel Coward

I would have loved to have seen Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence play this.

I did however have the pleasure of seeing a performance by Kim Cattrall and Matthew MacFayden.

They were sharp, brilliant and hilarious.

Sollocks!

Brown

2010-04-07T22:22:00.000+01:00

Can't stop eating

(these are chocolate)

Frozen

2010-03-31T01:23:00.000+01:00

Can Can Can

2010-03-25T00:37:00.002Z

Eggling

2010-03-22T20:23:00.008Z

From this little egg
A sunflower will (maybe) grow

Here's hoping

Everyone needs a project

Rhani

2010-03-21T00:31:00.001Z

a hundred years ago

Wheels

2010-03-21T00:28:00.000Z

I love to zigzag across the city on buses

meandering through London

and taking hours longer to get home than I need to

the first diana

Keats

2010-03-17T20:54:00.003Z

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

- John Keats

Immeasurably

2010-03-14T09:31:00.000Z


I am troubled 
Immeasurably 
By your eyes 
I am struck
By the feather 
Of your soft 
Reply
The sound of glass 
Speaks quick 
Disdain 
And conceals 
What your eyes fight 
To explain.

- Jim Morrison


Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

Holga in Paris

2010-03-12T18:01:00.000Z

Gare du Nord

Luxembourg Palace

Pantheon from Jardin du Luxembourg

Flowers at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

This is not a film set

2010-02-28T20:25:00.002Z

It just looks like one

Beautiful Paris

February 2010

merci monsieur porter

2010-02-24T09:49:00.001Z

I love paris in the spring time
I love paris in the fall

I love paris in the summer when it sizzles

I love paris in the winter when it drizzles

I love paris every moment

Every moment of the year

I love paris, why oh why do I love paris

Because my love is here

- Cole Porter

Diary vol. 5

2010-02-16T20:53:00.001Z

We write to lure and enchant and console others.

We write to serenade our lovers.

We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection.

- Anaïs Nin

near Kensington Palace

feather

2010-02-14T09:04:00.004Z

I need to get some film developed.

It's been a while

and

I'm yet to see my first holgas.

i spy with my little eye

2010-02-13T14:09:00.002Z

homesick

2010-02-08T21:48:00.004Z

This was taken after she buried a pikelet in the mud

'saving it for later'

Silly Kia

(Thanks Mum)

bouquet

2010-02-07T19:36:00.011Z

Hyacinths (genus Hyacinthus)

Daffodils (genus Narcissus)

Taken with the aid of my mini tripod, a stack of books and a travel chess set.

The books that were used include - Lonely Planet guide to Russia, A-Z mini London, Europe on a Shoestring, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, Anthropology by Dan Rhodes (genius), Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, A Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Jane Austen's Emma, The Worst-case Scenario survival handbook: travel and the London Lomo Notebook.

horse head

2010-02-02T00:06:00.003Z

Photo taken in Vienna

November 2009

Wellies

2010-01-13T21:33:00.005Z

With all this snow about lately

it is imperative that one has reliable footwear.

I try and wear something like this as often as possible...

Eggers

2010-01-12T23:04:00.005Z

heartbreaking - yes

genius - yes

I shall mention that this book should be read from cover to cover.

Especially the acknowledgements.

If I were to pick a favourite acknowledgement it would be

C) THE PAINFULLY, ENDLESSLY SELF-CONSCIOUS BOOK ASPECT

and

C.2) THE KNOWINGNESS ABOUT THE BOOK'S SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS ASPECT

welcome to the family

2010-01-07T20:34:00.003Z

what a lucky girl i am

Golden

2009-12-31T14:06:00.002Z

Highly recommend cuddling a puppy.

Tis rather good.

Bakerloo

2009-12-01T21:50:00.005Z

Her Anxiety

Earth in beauty dressed

Awaits returning spring.

All true love must die,

Alter at the best

Into some lesser thing.

Prove that I lie.

Such body lovers have,

Such exacting breath,

That they touch or sigh.

Every touch they give,

Love is nearer death.

Prove that I lie.

by WB Yeats

photo taken with diana

Klimt

2009-11-23T21:54:00.003Z

I had the pleasure of seeing this in the flesh.

Beautiful

The Kiss

painted by Gustav Klimt

1907-8

Vienna

2009-11-19T22:02:00.003Z

I will come again

Photo taken with G9

Feet

2009-11-17T22:28:00.003Z

in Wien

A bit of brioche

2009-11-01T17:03:00.006Z

If clever cookie flatmate asks 'shall we have french toast for lunch?'

the answer is yes.... always yes!

Thanks J!

photo taken with G9 on very little battery power

Cambridge Duck

2009-10-31T12:04:00.002Z

Yet another bird photo

Can't help it

Photo taken with G9

It's going to have to be a black beret

2009-10-19T22:17:00.004+01:00

London is suddenly rather chilly and I would rather like a hat.

Having recently watched Bonnie and Clyde (at the Prince Charles) the choice seems obvious.

photo from imdb.com

I have a thing for birds

2009-10-14T21:19:00.006+01:00

Or at least taking photos of them

Swans at Windsor

Pigeons at the Park

Yes, these were taken with Tokyo Rising Diana

Graham Greene

2009-10-10T00:28:00.003+01:00

Brighton Rock

He put out his mouth and kissed her on the cheek;

he was afraid of the mouth -

thoughts travel too easily from lip to lip.

by Graham Greene

photo taken with G9

Monday Martinis

2009-10-07T00:58:00.000+01:00

shaken not stirred

dirty and dry

gin (of course)

with as many olives as possible

best enjoyed with just one good friend

(the wharf will do)

Late at Tate Britain

2009-10-04T15:07:00.004+01:00

Sketch for 'Hadleigh Castle'

John Constable

circa 1828-9

Oh London No

2009-09-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

It is a depressing and (an assumedly) little known fact that the iconic red telephone boxes of London are full to the brim with porn.

Maybe not quite 'full to the brim' and not exactly porn - specifically sleazy leaflets advertising the kind of phone numbers that one should never call (if you get my drift).

It is for this reason, and this reason only, that potentially hundreds of photos of me grinning excitedly from within these telephone boxes do not exist.

That being said, they are still very pretty from the outside ... especially when it snows.

Photo taken using trusty G9 after record snowfall in February this year

La Dame aux Camélias

2009-09-26T11:28:00.007+01:00

La Dame aux Camélias has never been a novel for which persons of taste

and discernment have been able to confess outright enthusiasm.

- David Coward

'Men have a mania for wanting to know things that upset them.'

Marguerite

as written by Alexandre Dumas fils

Favourite Thing to do in London No 2

2009-09-21T22:40:00.011+01:00

Watch old movies on the big screen

Casablanca played at The Prince Charles Cinema just off Leicester Square.

Two things

1. I love that this cinema is right next to Chinatown

(and hence in close proximity to cheap and delicious Won Ton soup)

2. I'm absolutely a sucker for Captain Renault (played by Claude Rains)

Is it just me or does he have some of the best lines?

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much...
Everybody out at once!

Captain Renault: Oh, please, monsieur. It is a little game we play.

They put it on the bill, I tear up the bill. It is very convenient.

Captain Renault: She was asking about you earlier in a way that made me very jealous...

Final note: Bogey and Bergman are very beautiful in their hats

Picnic Bar

2009-09-21T22:21:00.005+01:00

Is there anything more embarrassing than eating a chocolate bar in a public place?

Yes, I am unwrapping this while I am walking

Yes, I am too greedy to wait until I'm in private

Yes, I am trying to pretend this isn't happening

Yes, I have caramel in my teeth

Yes, I realise you can hear the rustling plastic

Yes I am mortified

And no, all this doesn't stop me

Photo taken with Tokyo Rising Diana

Ode to Library

2009-09-12T10:52:00.006+01:00

Oh Library

I have loved you so long

Faithful friend

Provider of free reading materials

Quiet haven

Happy monument to the written word

Rustling pages

Ordered shelves

Limitless possibilities

I love you even more in London

Last Day of Summer

2009-08-31T18:27:00.006+01:00

Sun-soaked and stretched out on a stripey picnic blanket

The terribly talented Louis de Bernières keeping me company

A moleskine to scribble in

A full batteried ipod

Amusing messages

the soles of my feet a little more tanned than they used to be

And a cold bottle of water

Sociable bees buzzed about

Was pretty much laying in the garden bed

Dappled sunlight

Nicest monday in ages

That's right .... I live in London

2009-08-26T20:41:00.005+01:00

Although it has been a year

this still surprises me

Hello Tower Bridge

Hello Gherkin

I ♥ London

photos taken using Tokyo Rising Diana

A Horse is a Horse

2009-08-26T01:58:00.005+01:00

Of course

and some trotted past my flat last Sunday.

Nearly missed them.

One does not normally move so quickly in the morning.

The Mill on the Floss

2009-08-25T22:01:00.006+01:00

'We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it, - if it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers as we sat lisping to ourselves on the grass - the same hips and haws on the autumn hedgegrows - the same redbreasts that we used to call 'God's birds' because they did no harm to the precious crops. What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known and loved because it is known?'

- George Eliot

Image of The Lady Clare painted by J.W. Waterhouse circa 1900

9 Crimes

2009-08-23T15:35:00.003+01:00

This is what it might look like when the ones you love are on the other side of the world.

Favourite Thing to do in London No 1

2009-08-22T18:49:00.002+01:00

Review Dianas from a bench in Little Venice