We have a plan

I’ve been watching the weather forecast for tomorrow with interest.  To begin with, all looked fair but towards the end of last week, the gloom set in.  Not only was it likely to pour with rain, hurricane force winds were threatened.

Oh heck.

Perhaps an extra hat pin or two would be a good idea?

Someone on the Facebook group mentioned that she’d bought a plastic rain poncho “just in case”.  After all, there’s no room for a raincoat in a handbag and anyway, who wants to cover up their carefully thought through outfit with a mac?

I bought four in Cirencester this morning, one for each of my gang.

Comfortable shoes are ready, I’ve got a capacious handbag in which to put all the required items and my fancy umbrella has been opened and tested, just to make sure it is still in one piece.  After all, the last time it had an outing was to the very same venue, but several years ago.

Emails have been flying to and fro this afternoon, with fast-changing arrangements for the 128 coaches which will be making the same manoeuvre tomorrow afternoon, dropping off and picking up the elegantly dressed guests somewhere (anywhere!) along Park Lane.

Yes, we will be amongst them.

But however hard he tries, Olaf will have to stay at home.  The invitations are strictly for the named guest only.

Please, keep everything crossed for us tomorrow, then, as Mary and I join 7998 of our friends at Buckingham Palace for a Garden Party to celebrate 100 years of the WI.  Though it would be lovely if the sun shone, we’d be happy if it simply stays dry.

We all think a vest under the posh frock might be a good idea anyway. 

Just in case.

A day off. A day out.

I’d seen the notices about this exhibition here and there.  When I pinned an image from Laura Kemshall’s blog to my Pinterest board, it provoked a couple of enthusiastic responses from friends who had already visited and who recommended it highly.  So yesterday, my Hero and I took the day off to visit Wolverhampton.

As you do.

Bilston Craft Gallery is an interesting place to visit regardless and from the minute we stepped inside, we were glad we’d come.  It was friendly, very accessible and there was an interesting permanent collection to see and in some cases, handle.

Amusing local relevance too, like this canal boat full of polar bears – legend has it that some polar bears escaped from Dudley Zoo!  We were captivated and hadn’t even seen a quilt yet!

When we did turn the corner and see quilts, we were equally delighted.  Quite a few of them were right up my street, including this piece by Alicia Merrett inspired by a map of a port.

If I move right along to this piece by Clare Smith (“Bitter Harvest”), you’ll get an idea of what’s floating my boat right now.  If you follow my Pinterest boards, then you’ll have noticed a lot of pojagi appearing and this clever, clever piece was the one which provoked my interest in this exhibition.

It’s actually part of an installation, with small dyepots dripping dye into the white, seamed cloth.  The piece is a commentary on the environmental damage as a result of textile manufacture and dyeing and is so original, so thought-provoking.  Love it.

Other exhibits which really caught our eye were Olga Prins Lukowski’s Maya Temple, where the exquisite stitching and geometry pressed all of my Hero’s buttons!

What textile artist couldn’t love the sight of Annabel Rainbow’s “studio”?  It made me feel right at home!

I enjoyed Susan Lenz’ I do/I don’t installation too – imagine creating that for a significant wedding anniversary?  Once again, there was a “handle carefully” label on her sketchbook, so of course, I did!

Love it.

Lettering is another interest and the idea of free machining all those phrases onto tulle sends a shiver down my spine, even if it was done with water soluble fabric as well.

So the detail of Sarah Impey’s “Stitch by Stitch” had me peering at it with my nose to the fabric.  The regularity of the lettering and the even stitches would have you believe that a computer was involved….but every bit was free machined.  Wow.

Of course, there were other works which provoked our curiosity but there are so many reviews and reports online, I’ll leave it there.

Suffice to say that, if you are at a loose end and within travelling distance of Wolverhampton/Bilston, then there can be few better ways of spending the day.

Just don’t go car cruising whilst you are there, will you?

Walk with us in the Square Mile

When a couple of dear friends from half a world away told us they’d be in London this weekend, of course, we just had to engineer a get together, didn’t we?  So it was that for the second time this week, I caught the train to Paddington Station, with time with my Hero by my side.

We caught my favourite #23 bus and nabbed seats upstairs, almost at the front.  The chap in front was fast asleep, so thankfully, i could still get a great view!

We like to meet people in memorable places and Eleanor’s Cross was mutually convenient if a little dangerous – who knew it was a kind of roundabout for taxis turning in front of Charing Cross Station? (My excuse for cutting the top off my photo)   As it happens, we didn’t meet there anyway, but bumped into one another in the station itself, by Caffe Nero.

After a bit of catching up – it’s almost a year since we last saw them – we jumped back on another 23 and headed up The Strand and beyond, getting off at The Bank of England.

A few years ago, I joined Mary, Diana and Kristy on a Photographic Walking Tour of this area, and I thought it would be a great foundation for a walk this morning.  So we began in the Royal Exchange and set off along Cornhill.  Are you with us?

I’d created a google map of a few places to head for, including the cream coloured pillar down there near the letter box.  It was blue when we were last there, and strangely, it’s blue in some of the google street views and cream in others!   The pillar itself is a water pump – but not any old water pump, needless to say.

This area is full of history and though we didn’t want to linger too long, it was fun to spot a few landmarks, such as the site of one of the coffee houses.  Having seen the grasshopper on the top of the Royal Exchange, we began to spot the motif all over the place, too.

We wandered through the alleys to Lombard Street and dropped into the church of St Edmund for a few minutes.

I mean, could you have passed this by?

All the time, we were looking up, enjoying the contrasts between the very old, historical sites around us and the towering modern ones above.  Looming especially large was the Walkie Talkie which has acquired the nickname of the “fryscraper” as a result of the solar glare caused by the curved glass panels.

Though we’d intended to make a left turn through an alley back onto Cornhill, we found ourselves distracted by the Monument.  Of course, we needed a closer look, though none of us felt like a climb!

Retracing our steps then, back to the alleys and in particular, to St Michaels Alley, where George and the Vulture is to be found.

We couldn’t resist a peek inside the church of St Michael, another Wren masterpiece with significant input from his colleague Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Our next stop wasn’t quite the same haven of peace and tranquillity but by now, we were feeling in need of a short sit down and a little refreshment.   The Counting House fitted the bill perfectly!

By now, we were nicely settled into our groove.  “Oh yes, there’s another Wren church…” “of course, there was the great fire, wasn’t there?”  “Hmmm…oh look, there’s the Walkie Talkie again”…  But we had a little gem up our sleeve which was just around the corner.  We waited for the reaction of our friends…

Oh wow!  Leadenhall Market never fails to amaze.  Just around the corner from all the commercial HQs, on this Friday lunchtime it was buzzing.

We love it.

It’s here where the contrast of old and new is really apparent.  The Lloyds building is immediately outside the market and comes as quite a surprise!

There’s steel and concrete and glass by the ton, and there, peeping from behind the curved glass wall, is the Gherkin.

Even so, the history is never far away.

Mixed opinions on the Lloyds building, though I think it’s worn well; better than the Centre Pompidou, perhaps?

Just across the road there’s the cheese grater. 

But the Gherkin remains our favourite!

We made a little side trip to take a look at Konditor and Cook whilst we were here, though I can’t say it was as impressive as the website and reputation had me believe.  Oh well…

From here, it was just a short, unremarkable walk up to and along Bishopsgate and a right turn into the new Spitalfields market, confusingly referred to as “old” Spitalfields Market.

Plenty to do and see here, of course, but you know, we were starting to get hungry!

We snooked into the top of Folgate Street to take a quick look at the exterior of Dennis Sever’s house before heading back to Spital Square and lunch.

From the outside, it doesn’t look much, but believe me, Galvin La Chapelle isn’t one of our favourite restaurants for nothing!  On this Friday lunchtime, it was buzzing and with Chef himself in the kitchen, every plate was a delight.  Not only that, but Edward was there to meet us! 

After a couple of hours of good food, lively conversation and the best of company, we just had to ease ourselves out of the comfy chairs and resume our peregrinations.

We couldn’t be in this area without showing our friends another equally fascinating side to this part of London, so retraced r steps through the market and out to the old Trumans Brewery site.  Always visually exciting, there’s usually something different to see and yesterday was no exception.  But we were getting a little footsore, so we mooched on through to Brick Lane, where the invitations to step inside every curry house on the street for lunch were coming thick and fast!

So we turned right into Fournier Street and admired the fine houses on both sides, yet another side to this fascinating corner of the city.  Well, not “The City”, now, of course, because we are in Tower Hamlets, but we’ll use the term loosely!

Who lives in a house like this?  (Someone with bottomless pockets, I imagine, for these houses must be incredibly expensive to buy, to restore and to maintain)

With a final short stop at the Superga store in Spitalfields market to buy a pair of silver sandshoes for me, our afternoon was drawing to a close.  We made our way back to Liverpool Street station and the #23 bus stop to begin our journey home.

Our goodbyes were said on the bus, somewhere along the Strand.  Our friends had tickets for the theatre, we had tickets for the train.  We’d had such a lovely day in their company and look forward to more days with them later in the year, when we’ll go on a bigger adventure together. 

There might just be more than a little craic to look forward to!

Where did that week go?

Hard to say, really!  It’s been the kind of week when it feels as though there’s not been anything special going on and yet, actually, we’ve been enjoying ourselves quite a bit.  Clearly, we’ve been enjoying ourselves quietly.

No, that’s not my studio but the window of Anthropologie in Regent Street.  There’s always interesting things to see in there and their visual merchandising is first class.  Sorry about the reflection, but I just had to get a picture of what was described as Yves St Laurent’s studio, not least because I just heard there will be an exhibition of his work which will be going on my “want to see” list for later in the year.

We always enjoy the colourful tableware in there too, and my Hero spotted some really cheerful mugs which he rather liked the look of.  Fortunately, the handle which fell off one of them before we even got it home was easily superglued back on at the same time as I repaired the poppy.

So, shopping, lunch with friends, a bit of DIY back home…what else?

Oh yes, a wedding!  Well, not the actual vows and signing of the papers, because that was done in Guatemala a couple of weeks ago, but the fun part; the celebration with friends and family.  It was a really super occasion, with just the right degree of Guatemalan content, including a Mayan temple for a wedding cake.

Thankfully, it waited until Monday to snow.  It was here and gone in no time at all but for a short time everything in the garden glistened in the sunshine.  Since then, we’ve had sunshine, frost, showers, everything.

Everything except storms that is.  For that, we had to go to the cinema.  We were a bit slow in picking up the Royal Opera House’s live transmission of The Flying Dutchman and by the time we went to book, our usual Cheltenham venue was full.  We decided we’d go to Gloucester instead, which turned out to be a great choice!

It was a super performance, even if the whole affair did lack some of the pizazz which accompany the “Live from the Met” operas.  Critics reckoned that the ghostly crew weren’t quite spooky enough, that perhaps Senta’s last moments weren’t as dramatic as they might have been and perhaps she should have leapt into the sea or at least, done more than simply fall to the floor. 

Me?  I simply niggled that the women who were singing about spinning were sewing!  Artistic licence, perhaps, but nevertheless…

A beautiful day to be out and about

We had an errand to run at some point this week and when thinking about our plans, decided to make a bit more of it and have a day out.  We mentioned it to friends, who liked the idea and who agreed to meet us for lunch at a favourite spot. 

Could we have chosen a better day for a jaunt up country?

First stop was here.

We have several Whichford pots in our garden and as I was saying to the potter who spoke to my WI last week, they are the only ones we’ve found which reliably withstand low temperatures without damage – we love them.

Choosing a pot wasn’t difficult and having accomplished the main task of the day we still had an hour or so to spare.

So we headed for Mary’s favourite place.  We were too late for coffee so simply pootled around and ooohed and aaaahed (at the prices, mostly). 

Everything here looks beautiful, though!

Great minds think alike and having already bumped into our friends there amidst the beautiful people, we made our way a little further up the road for some lunch.  Same owners, same gorgeous aesthetic but rather quieter than the farm shop on a Tuesday half term lunchtime. 

The food was delicious.  We each indulged in starters, main courses and puddings and not one of those twelve plates was returned with a scrap on it.  My plate of rhubarb was beautiful and believe me, tasted as good as it looks.

Only one thing was missing.

Pancakes!