pottering in petersham, take three

It may have been cold and dank this afternoon, but Petersham still had sprightly greens in its glasshouses

and in the Teahouse:

And the main shop, unlike the sky, was suffused with blue. The tables were laden with Murano glass,

including Scavo glass, crafted to resemble vessels excavated from ancient Roman ruins:

I was captivated by the sensuously smooth wooden pots, too:

But this is what really set my heart aflutter,

because who knew perfectly proper Petersham could be a Little Shop of Horrors!

beautiful beans

Just as I'm the only blogger within reach of London to have missed Origin, I fear I'll be the only one to miss the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. Sigh.

But it's not the yarn stands I'm bothered about, as the wonderful Mrs Moon is just down the road, and I really do have plenty of skeins stashed away. I'm sad about missing milliner Deirdre Hawken, who has an artist's stand this year.

I was fascinated by her beaded Cauliflower Headpiece in the 2009 Hats exhibition at the V&A. And later, having corresponded with Deirdre via email and seen more of her work, I fell head-over-heels for her Broad Bean Salad Hat:

image: Deirdre Hawken

Our fresh-picked beans from the plot may be good, but Deirdre's beans are fabulous!

happy in hampstead

Ginger & White was heaving yesterday morning, so rather than elbow our way through, Miranda, her mum, and I headed down the street to Gail's, where I discovered true bakery heaven.

The cinnamon roll of my dreams--

really a cinnamon-sugar croissant--to eat in and a bag of two-inch-high English muffins for breakfast the next morning.

After browsing through the books at Waterstones, we headed to Judy Green's Garden Store, which was just as magical as Miranda had promised. Being a garden shop, there were spectacular orchids, new and vintage tools, and reels of twine:

But there were also simple and stylish homewares

and lovely linen and woolen accessories. Of course, these were what really caught my eye:

And they were in my size. But I was very good and left them on the shelf, as it wasn't my birthday yesterday--it was Miranda's! Happy Birthday, Miranda!

sargent and the sea

G and I just managed to catch Sargent and the Sea at the Royal Academy on Sunday. My mum, who'd seen the exhibition in Washington, had insisted we mustn't miss it.

There were crashing waves, decks and rigging, beaches and coves, tide pools and fisherfolk:

John Singer Sargent, En Route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish), 1878, oil on canvas, 78.8 x 122.8 cm, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

We basked in the sometimes menacing, sometimes scintillating light and atmosphere, comparing and contrasting studies with completed works, and in the case of En Route pour la pêche, one finished work with another.

But most exciting was finding a painting owned by my former employer in the penultimate gallery:

John Singer Sargent, Neapolitan Children Bathing, 1879, oil on canvas, 16.8 x 41.1 cm, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

While I actually prefer the many studies Sargent made to the painting itself, there's one detail I've always loved...the animal bladder water wings! Now who needs plastic swimmies?

autumn apples

Moving on to things more autumnal, the old orchard in Langdon Park is once again groaning with apples, which means there's plenty of opportunity for picking,

and even with the schoolboys using them as missiles (!),

there's more than enough for batch after batch of fresh applesauce:

This year, I've been using the recipe from Forgotten Skills of Cooking, which has worked perfectly. The ratio of apples to sugar is just right, unlike in my old American recipe, which wasn't written for cooking apples.

Such a super book in general. Though I haven't forgotten the skills--I just never knew them!

falling for kew

Before Tracy and I purchased our Kew memberships, I never would have dreamed of going on a damp day. Kew visits were reserved for sunny days, which meant G and I rarely went, as those were also our allotmenting days!

But having cancelled our last Kew visit due to threatening rain, which never actually fell, Tracy and I decided to brave it this time. The rain did come, but between showers we walked and walked and observed Kew shifting into autumn mode: horse chestnuts bouncing along the paths,

the colors changing on the trees,

and autumn crocuses emerging through the leaf litter:

And while our last visit was memorable for the plethora of blossom, this time we encountered berries in every color, from the familiar red to pink,

white,

and green:

Now if only the red berries hadn't put me in mind of a certain December holiday, which I'm definitely not ready to think about yet!

hello!

Here I am! Back in England and back to blogging after an unexpectedly long time away.

But before beginning the inevitable essay on what I did on my summer vacation, I'll start with what I did before my summer vacation, because the day before I flew home to America, I met Tracy and Diana for tea and coffee at Petersham.

Unfortunately, the Teahouse had been taken over by a fashion event, and as much as the models looked like they could use nice big slices of cake, there was not a slice to be seen. So we had no choice but to wander round the shop,

where we happened upon Petersham Nurseries' Murano Glass Collection. Tablefuls of gorgeous paperweights and elegant vases. I fell head-over-heels in love with this one,

but sadly not its price tag, so we continued on toward the front, where I discovered Petersham plimsolls!

But even such fabby shoes couldn't make up for the absence of coffee and cake. So we drove on to St Margarets, where a good hour of yarn smooshing at Mrs Moon and a long natter over ham and cheese croissants set all to rights.

At least until the next morning and my flight--arghhh!