Happy summer solstice! There’s luck and magic in the air.
This hot, still weather always reminds me of my paternal grandmother, who would stand outside on summer mornings and declare, in a disapproving but also deeply satisfied way, ‘il n’y a pas un souffle de vent’ - ‘there isn’t a breath of wind’. My maternal grandmother would make us yogurt drinks, which is what I’m going to do as soon as I post this (except salted, with cumin).
As well as being the longest day, today is also forecast to be the hottest here in the UK. As I’m sure you know, the best way of keeping a space relatively cool is to close the windows and draw the curtains, if you have them, as if they were wooden shutters. Very good for bedrooms - if you do it after you get up, it will make a noticeable difference tonight.
Here are some things I liked this week.
Roses
I had to zhuzz up the house on Thursday so I put garden flowers everywhere, meaning I’ve been waking up to this. It sounds winsome and inane, but flowers really are an extremely uplifting thing to see the moment you ping open your eyes.
The rose is You’re Beautiful, which I raved about recently for obvious reasons. I must recommend it again - the prolific flowers are this incredible, almost joke sugar-pink, they look like froufrou lingerie (never a bad idea in a flower, in my view) and they just keep on going all summer. If you’re short of space, this rose is perfectly happy in a pot.
Rachel Zegler
I love Rachel Zegler being Eva Perón on the balcony of the Palladium theatre in London every night. She’s starring in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Evita, and for Don’t Cry For Me Argentina she moves from the auditorium to the balcony and sings to the street.
Some paid ticket holders have complained - they see live footage of this bit of the performance on a screen - but I think it is a genius bit of staging. The entire point of the song is that she is addressing the people. Of course she’d sing it to the street! It’s perfect.
No one knew this was going to happen and the above clip is from the first night of previews, i.e. days before press night. Imagine being near Argyle Street and thinking ‘what’s that?’ and then following the sound and seeing this.
Needless to say there are now crowds waiting outside every night, and also needless to say they give Rachel Zegler a standing ovation - well, they’re standing already, but you know what I mean. The whole thing gives me goosebumps. And a lump in my throat, tbh. When musical theatre is amazing, it is really amazing.
Here it is from another angle:
Eating outside, again
Reposting myself from last year about all things outdoors, plus recipes, in case it comes in handy this weekend.
Food 13: Lunch outside
Nice as it would be to be on a terrace by an Italian lake (I assume the above photo is taken by an Italian lakeside), for me very few things beat being in your own outside sp…
Laundry drying outdoors
A summer washing line is one of the most joyous sights of life. I loved Raffaella Barker’s, and all the washing lines in the replies to her Note. If anyone feels like starting a washing line thread in our Chat, please go right ahead. (I wish we could post pics in the comments, it would be so much easier).
Here’s mine last might, complete with Lupin and annoying black stains that won’t come out of the tablecloth, on which I can’t use Vanish because it’s too delicate.
This stripy fringed parasol, also in blue-green, is currently £34.30 in the Dunelm sale.
Paintings of interiors
If you’re in east London today, Eleanor Crow’s exhibition of her paintings of interiors and still lives opens in the gallery space at Townhouse Spitalfields, one of my very favourite shops anywhere (also it’s in an old Huguenot townhouse and it has a lovely café in the basement, a useful thing to know if you’re in that neck of the woods and fancy some calm and a cake).
It’s on until July 6 and Eleanor is going to be there all day today, so you could meet her and look at the paintings and have a glass of wine. If not, the show will be online later today.