Those glasses look ideal - I do love a paper-thin glass but need something rather less smashable! If anyone can recommend a nice water jug to use with them then please point me in the right direction...
PS I did own two Tamworth pigs. When we picked them up they sat on my lap. By the time Piggy and Winkle were huge and ready for slaughter I was completely in love with them. I have never since been able to keep animals that aren’t meant to live their lives out.
No, I quite understand. People kept telling me about having pigs called things like Christmas and Easter and I'm afraid I just could not. Pets all the way!
Even though I can cook, and I know the recipe reads far longer than it will take, I looked at the Ottolenghi mushroom lasagne recipe and immediately thought, no. But I do make the black pepper tofu one and it’s thrilling (and also brilliant over a bowl of rice, viz Tap is Fine).
As for Maura Brannigan's piece, the irony for me is that she bothered to waste her life writing it. I have really have had it with the onslaught of female me-and-my-angst writing. Just put on the bloody clothes you like and stop fretting!
The egg is so cute! And I know what you mean about interior sets. I worked on Brookside, the C4 soap, in the 80s, and one of the most exciting things about it was having a good nose around the sets and seeing how miraculously they brought the characters to life. Wardrobe gave me a similar thrill, though I can't say I coveted Sheila Grant's cardigans!
God, I LOVED Brookside best of all the soaps. I could never quite work out if I fancied Barry - I mean yes, but there was also something slightly sickly about his complexion and it put me off. Casa Bevron! Those lacy cards! What a great job.
Barry did have a bit of a pasty complexion. And Casa Bevron 😂 I'd forgotten that storyline. You've got a great memory! I do remember accompanying Damon Grant - the lovely Simon O'Brien - on a personal appearance (I was press officer back then), and one of his fans thought I was his mother. I was only 23!
The la Rochere glasses are fab. I long to be the sort of person who casually uses beautiful vintage Baccarat crystal but am too clumsy, impoverished, and have small children. But ikea everyday is seriously lacking in joy. Bought a whole lot of these exact glasses - the ones with bees felt a little too twee - about five years ago (wine glasses too, but regularly slop wine into these as well) and they’re holding up brilliantly, despite daily wear and tear. Nice to have nice things that also hold up. It’s why we have a huge long nineteenth-century French farmhouse table in the kitchen - it seats eight, ten at a push, and can handle a bit of marker and stickers and spills etc. Something fancy and modern and designery would look shit instantly, but anything solid enough to last this long which isn’t immaculate to begin with is ideal.
So, yes, I totally get the ‘old’ Hampstead vibe you describe, as it’s what I grew up with too. Both mother and grandmother incurably sniffy about people who kept sofas immaculate with perfectly plumped cushions at all times. You had good things but it was déclassé to be precious about them. There needed to be dogs and Welsh blankets the moths might or mightn’t have attacked yet and good art on the wall in probably battered frames with maybe an ancient palm cross or a metro ticket or something equally random tucked into a corner.
The only thing I deplore about the new Bridget Jones film is that there’s a tantalising scene of Isla Fisher playing a fictionalised version of Helena Bonham Carter and I dearly wanted to see more!
Yes, absolutely to nice things that also hold up, I couldn't agree more. And YES in caps to farmhouse table (me too) example - you're so right re sleek contemporary equivalent.
I am quite sniffy about immaculate sofas too.
Will keep eye out for Isla Fisher, how intriguing.
Why oh why am I cry/laughing at that ridiculous TicTok when I spend my whole life telling my children that they are throwing away their valuable lives watching pointless drivel? And yes, I am going to replay it now...
The pigs! I always wanted a pair too - have you read ‘The Garden Farmer’ by Francine Raymond? (Except she does fatten them to eat every year. But there is a chapter on how to choose your ducks!) V good to know they will root through the garden though, one for the countryside idyll with a walled garden for me & lots of fields for them. And the horse. And goats. And maybe the tiniest pair of Dexter cows.
Francine Raymond was who got me started with the hens - I didn't know about The Garden Farmer, but I'm thinking it might be all her mini-books collected into one. Pigs - NO to eating. I once read the most traumatic book called Big Pig, Little Pig - the author moved to rural France and they had pigs for self sufficiency reasons (also the book's narrative arc I suspect). Anyway - she really grew to love these pigs, who were endearing, amusing, intelligent, affectionate etc. But she killed and butchered and ate them anyway (herself). There is unbearable passage where Pig 1 is dispatched and Pig 2 comes looking for his friend and then is so desperately lonely, really pretty much broken-hearted - they're v sociable animals - that it walks through the electric fence, even at maximum setting, just to be near the people and the dog. It self-harms just to be close to them. And then they eat him too. I am haunted by this book.
Ducks - you have to get them in at night and they make a giant mess, so I reluctantly decided against, also we get loads of duck visitors anyway. What I really want is DONKEYS, but they need hard standing for their porous hooves. Dexter cows are lovely.
Ah how lovely! She is so clever. It’s a dreamy book, lovely photographs.
Oh that is so sad on Pig 1 and Pig 2! How could the author after becoming friends with them?!
I lapsed from pescatarianism after Mia was born, but still can’t bring myself to eat pigs or lambs. (Do a sort of doublethink with the other animals, or prob wouldn’t be able to either.)
Ha, I didn’t know on the mess - heard ducks were good for slugs. How interesting on the donkeys! Maybe an attractively tiled rather than concrete paddock…?!
Sorry - thought I’d just mention - a beautiful, hypnotic film with gorgeous interiors is the last black man in San Francisco. It is sad, beautiful meditative all at once.
This was entirely joyous! So criss-crossed with lovely things - thank you!!!!! The Bridget Jones film is gorgeous- warm, tender and moving and laugh out funny - hope you enjoy!
Those glasses look ideal - I do love a paper-thin glass but need something rather less smashable! If anyone can recommend a nice water jug to use with them then please point me in the right direction...
Yes, thin ones just break much too easily. What sort of water jug - like, also glass?
PS I did own two Tamworth pigs. When we picked them up they sat on my lap. By the time Piggy and Winkle were huge and ready for slaughter I was completely in love with them. I have never since been able to keep animals that aren’t meant to live their lives out.
No, I quite understand. People kept telling me about having pigs called things like Christmas and Easter and I'm afraid I just could not. Pets all the way!
Even though I can cook, and I know the recipe reads far longer than it will take, I looked at the Ottolenghi mushroom lasagne recipe and immediately thought, no. But I do make the black pepper tofu one and it’s thrilling (and also brilliant over a bowl of rice, viz Tap is Fine).
As for Maura Brannigan's piece, the irony for me is that she bothered to waste her life writing it. I have really have had it with the onslaught of female me-and-my-angst writing. Just put on the bloody clothes you like and stop fretting!
The egg is so cute! And I know what you mean about interior sets. I worked on Brookside, the C4 soap, in the 80s, and one of the most exciting things about it was having a good nose around the sets and seeing how miraculously they brought the characters to life. Wardrobe gave me a similar thrill, though I can't say I coveted Sheila Grant's cardigans!
PS Egg available as a keyring - https://www.johnlewis.com/jellycat-amuseables-happy-boiled-egg-bag-charm/p112153082?s_ppc=2dx_mixed_home_BAU&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD2el1xGPhXbvGo4x56uKs7qcPZj6&gclid=CjwKCAiA5eC9BhAuEiwA3CKwQgNU7JgnoVQ9NnrwhFf0z2uOGRSOpSyspRi2sbrKEMeKUD0dBcFbvBoCbKcQAvD_BwE
God, I LOVED Brookside best of all the soaps. I could never quite work out if I fancied Barry - I mean yes, but there was also something slightly sickly about his complexion and it put me off. Casa Bevron! Those lacy cards! What a great job.
Barry did have a bit of a pasty complexion. And Casa Bevron 😂 I'd forgotten that storyline. You've got a great memory! I do remember accompanying Damon Grant - the lovely Simon O'Brien - on a personal appearance (I was press officer back then), and one of his fans thought I was his mother. I was only 23!
The la Rochere glasses are fab. I long to be the sort of person who casually uses beautiful vintage Baccarat crystal but am too clumsy, impoverished, and have small children. But ikea everyday is seriously lacking in joy. Bought a whole lot of these exact glasses - the ones with bees felt a little too twee - about five years ago (wine glasses too, but regularly slop wine into these as well) and they’re holding up brilliantly, despite daily wear and tear. Nice to have nice things that also hold up. It’s why we have a huge long nineteenth-century French farmhouse table in the kitchen - it seats eight, ten at a push, and can handle a bit of marker and stickers and spills etc. Something fancy and modern and designery would look shit instantly, but anything solid enough to last this long which isn’t immaculate to begin with is ideal.
So, yes, I totally get the ‘old’ Hampstead vibe you describe, as it’s what I grew up with too. Both mother and grandmother incurably sniffy about people who kept sofas immaculate with perfectly plumped cushions at all times. You had good things but it was déclassé to be precious about them. There needed to be dogs and Welsh blankets the moths might or mightn’t have attacked yet and good art on the wall in probably battered frames with maybe an ancient palm cross or a metro ticket or something equally random tucked into a corner.
The only thing I deplore about the new Bridget Jones film is that there’s a tantalising scene of Isla Fisher playing a fictionalised version of Helena Bonham Carter and I dearly wanted to see more!
Yes, absolutely to nice things that also hold up, I couldn't agree more. And YES in caps to farmhouse table (me too) example - you're so right re sleek contemporary equivalent.
I am quite sniffy about immaculate sofas too.
Will keep eye out for Isla Fisher, how intriguing.
I have just noticed that at the top of your posts it says Ho Me.
Which I take as a cheerful greeting.
Glad you don't take it in the more street slang sense.
I can't imagine what you mean!
I love these posts, they’re so comforting and useful *adds glasses to basket immediately* and inspiring. They really are a joy to read so thanks XX
That's so nice to hear - thank you VERY much.
Why oh why am I cry/laughing at that ridiculous TicTok when I spend my whole life telling my children that they are throwing away their valuable lives watching pointless drivel? And yes, I am going to replay it now...
Hahaha, I hear you, me too. I've watched it maybe 12 times in three days. I keep going back to see if it's still funny and - YES.
Love the Bridget house! There’s a few bedroom scenes in the movie and I loved all the clutter on the bedside tables.
I love the look of the whole thing.
This is quite an interesting (if ever so slightly snarky) history of the Daunt tote bag and how it became so popular… the manager sounds like such a lovely man I always thought! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/daunt-books-tote-bag-celebrity-fashion-status-symbol/
Ha! And yes, he sounds lovely. I love the 'Has anyone ever been to Daunt Books' comment on Reddit.
Haha I know, like it’s a very hard-to-find secret society…
The pigs! I always wanted a pair too - have you read ‘The Garden Farmer’ by Francine Raymond? (Except she does fatten them to eat every year. But there is a chapter on how to choose your ducks!) V good to know they will root through the garden though, one for the countryside idyll with a walled garden for me & lots of fields for them. And the horse. And goats. And maybe the tiniest pair of Dexter cows.
Francine Raymond was who got me started with the hens - I didn't know about The Garden Farmer, but I'm thinking it might be all her mini-books collected into one. Pigs - NO to eating. I once read the most traumatic book called Big Pig, Little Pig - the author moved to rural France and they had pigs for self sufficiency reasons (also the book's narrative arc I suspect). Anyway - she really grew to love these pigs, who were endearing, amusing, intelligent, affectionate etc. But she killed and butchered and ate them anyway (herself). There is unbearable passage where Pig 1 is dispatched and Pig 2 comes looking for his friend and then is so desperately lonely, really pretty much broken-hearted - they're v sociable animals - that it walks through the electric fence, even at maximum setting, just to be near the people and the dog. It self-harms just to be close to them. And then they eat him too. I am haunted by this book.
Ducks - you have to get them in at night and they make a giant mess, so I reluctantly decided against, also we get loads of duck visitors anyway. What I really want is DONKEYS, but they need hard standing for their porous hooves. Dexter cows are lovely.
Ah how lovely! She is so clever. It’s a dreamy book, lovely photographs.
Oh that is so sad on Pig 1 and Pig 2! How could the author after becoming friends with them?!
I lapsed from pescatarianism after Mia was born, but still can’t bring myself to eat pigs or lambs. (Do a sort of doublethink with the other animals, or prob wouldn’t be able to either.)
Ha, I didn’t know on the mess - heard ducks were good for slugs. How interesting on the donkeys! Maybe an attractively tiled rather than concrete paddock…?!
Sorry - thought I’d just mention - a beautiful, hypnotic film with gorgeous interiors is the last black man in San Francisco. It is sad, beautiful meditative all at once.
This was entirely joyous! So criss-crossed with lovely things - thank you!!!!! The Bridget Jones film is gorgeous- warm, tender and moving and laugh out funny - hope you enjoy!
Can't wait to see it. Thank you, and for the film recommendation above - not seen it but now I will.
I love these Friday posts. Thank you for your trouble. Such an excellent mix- and a warm delay to getting up on a miserable grey Friday
I thought it was supposed to be warm and lovely - it's bleak here. And thank you!
What a great start to Friday. A mention in India’s always brilliant lists. Thank you.
You are MORE than welcome.
Have urge to go to Spain now....
Hahaha!