chelsea

another great day today, i keep thinking that each day is better than the last. we walked through battersea park over chelsea bridge to chelsea. the neighborhood is gorgeous. we go on lots of amazing strolls every day, but the destination today was the chelsea physic garden which was on my list of things to do and on leigh's as well. we were lucky to get another sunny morning and soon stripped off our jackets and sweaters and we were still really warm.



the homes surrounding the garden are so beautiful, you can tell this neighborhood is ritzy.

lots of lavender in this section, lots of bees, too!




the dark brown building behind the greenhouse above is so stunning, i want to go inside.


old greenhouses, filled with botanicals from different parts of the world.


so many lovely poppies and aliums all over.



after a long stroll around the paths and lots of photos we were ready for lunch. we stopped at daylesford organic and had a two wine lunch - lois was a handful and we needed the juice.

east side

leigh and i had a great day today on the east side. andrew was feeling generous (when is he not) and offered to stay with lois all day which made our day nice and long. we started at the columbia road flower market which was jam packed with people so i didn't take a single photo. after that we went into some of leigh's favorite stores and i had to force myself not to buy something in each one.


we started at jessie & buddug, so many cute embroidered things. after that it was tea at vintage heaven, where we had cream tea in the back tea room. there were so many things in this store that i wanted, but just got the two of these blue and pink cups.




next we were off to labour and wait, which i was so excited to see. i bought a few items to take home as gifts: this pale green lasagne dish, two of these little tumblers, a few bone egg spoons, a nail brush, and this folding pocket knife. i'd been wanting to go to this store since reading about it in gourmet or dwell so i didn't hold back.


we popped into caravan and i really wanted one of these lamps, but too large to carry home since i need to bring a lamp post home for cristal. aesop is a new addition to the neighborhood and i was sucked in my the simple packaging and beautiful ingredients. our last stop was the spitalfields covered market in shortage where we had a really nice, light lunch of wine and cheese. we've had that a lot because we are eating so much.

we got on the bus to come home and it was a very long ride, over an hour (i picked the bus...). i didn't mind though. we were upstairs in the very front seats and i just spent the hour enjoying chatting with leigh, sitting, and seeing london.

long days

i've been in london since early wednesday morning and seem to have avoided jet lag pretty well. leigh was sleepy the day i arrived from being up sick the entire night before, so after we strolled around her neighborhood a bit (and i bought a dress from emily and fin just hours after landing), we came back home to take a short nap. it's light here from around 5 am until close to 10 pm, so the days are really long.

thursday leigh took me out for a long day of shopping after she dropped lois at school for her first full day. we found a seat upstairs on a double decker bus and enjoyed the drive across town. our first stop was liberty and i managed to only purchase some post cards and an umbrella, which i really did need. then we hopped on the tube to lamb's conduit for lunch at cigala, then stopped in a few stores and persephone books.


after a stop at the espresso room, we popped into the top shop so i could get another pair of jeans (it's colder and rainier here than i expected) and then into office for some shoe shopping where i got some lace ups and these little flat converse.


last night we made a nice dinner and then had a few too many drinks. lois was in bed early after her long day at school, so this morning she was up bright and early at 5:30 am! we've all just finished a nap and we're getting ready to head out for a coffee and sweet. leigh is reading a list of things to do in paris from the the people who we're renting our apartment from. next week this time we'll be there!

pre travel travel

i'm in north carolina visiting my family before i head over to london. i always spend the days running around to see everyone because my entire family is here and it gets exhausting, but i wouldn't have it any other way.



this week me, mom and sis scooped up my 93 year old grandmother, genevieve, and drove from raleigh to asheboro to visit her sister, aunt mary, 89 years old. our goal was to capture some family history for story corps, and for ourselves. too bad i bungled the first part of the recording, we need to get that written down. but we did get some great details on great granddaddy and grandmommy kirkman (my namesake - middle name). aunt mary has an amazing yard and we have some great memories from playing there. it was really nice to go back because my grandmother has long since moved from the house she lived in when we were young. i wish i had more photographs of it and the lake nearby. i photographed some really old photographs on my aunt mary had, they are a bit hard to see.

great grandparents in front of their farm house holding danielle, their granddaughter (4 months) and a kitten who walked into the frame.

lloyd, aunt mary and grandmommy's brother who died as a young boy.

great granddaddy kirkman in his wheat field.

great granddaddy again with his collie, ted. the back of the photo says that after "grandpa died and grandma wasn't home all the time - he grieved himself to death." and aunt mary told us this story as well, which made me so sad!

tonight we're heading over to my sister's to cook a huge birthday dinner. her birthday was yesterday and mine is in two weeks. i'll be spending the weekend in paris with leigh for my birthday, but i'm just as excited about celebrating tonight.

gettin out of town

in about a month i'll be leaving for a month. i'm going to visit leigh in london after stopping in nc for a week to see my family. we've got two side trips planned, one is a few days in paris over my birthday weekend, and another few days in bath. work is crazy right now and i'm writing on my blog because i'm so tired that i don't want to write my paper or study for my first of three finals (which is tomorrow at 10am). i just want to dream about london, paris, leaving it all behind for a month - no work, no school, no nothing. i haven't even had time to think about where i want to go when i get there, but leigh has got a good list going for us and i can read and plan stuff on the plane right?

or maybe just sleep.

bye bye spring break

mr apple tree

the cabin was so fun this weekend, even though it rained most of the time. we tried a new method of departure. i hopped on the bus at 3 and al picked me up on the corner with a huge, heavy back of all we'd forgotten to put in his car the night before. we got up north before 6 and it was still light outside. i had gotten all my homework done so i didn't even take a text book with me. we both took friday off and it felt like more than a long weekend.

$3 gardening supply carrier (estate sale)

i turned the garden bed, added some new compost, and replanted the stragglers from last year. not sure they will hold out, but i didn't want to toss them. we want to put another bed in as this one doesn't get much sun. we've planted some blueberry bushes but they won't fruit for a few years.

caroline's chair

al's chair

we didn't sit outside much, it was pretty cold and windy.



i got some nice shots of the forget-me-nots and my rain boots. as usual, i was sad to come home. back to school and work!

yurit

well here it is again, months since i've posted last. that's sad. work is busy and school just has me heads down all the time. i'm on the computer so much that i don't even want to post on here because it's just another 6 minutes on the computer.

it's definitely spring at the cabin. the last few weekends up there are all about fruit tree blooms, porch sittin', grilling dinner, and trying to get in some relaxation. al went to ridge and got us a case of their 2007 carignane so sitting on the porch with a cheese plate and a glass is rounding me out a bit.

yetti moved away, and i've been missing him, but last weekend a new friend came around. he's another young kitty, full grown, but so obviously a kitty still. he just hung out with us, talked to us, and tripped us trying desperately to get close to us as we walked around outside. we finally started to play "you're it" with him to see who could pass by without being rubbed on, and decided on his new name.

back home to the best

i'm back from a few weeks in nc, it was rushed as usual with lots of coordinating to be sure i saw everyone, and i still didn't see everyone. i try to keep christmas really low key and don't exchange or get many gifts, but was thrilled to come home to al and a really lovely gift from him. he found some swedish (whisky?) glasses at an estate sale while i was gone. they are housed in a burgundy leather box, and each glass can rest upon it's own coaster of a different golden crown—we're rich! happy new year, we're probably in for just chilling at home with some of that fine wine we got up at the rr and trying out these new glasses.

freedom

now that school is done for the semester i sort of don't know what to do with myself. it's weird. i've been waiting for this for 15 long computer-driven weeks, and now i'm stumped. i need a project but i don't want a project. i keep trying to talk myself into making a design to gocco cards for this year, but then i don't want to write and send the cards. then i think i should just sit around and read all day, after all it's cold and rainy. but i am enjoying my current book so much that i don't want to finish it too quickly, and i talked al into reading it with me so he's trying to catch up. i decided i needed another book to read as well, so i got the the portable mlis from the library to see if i want to buy it, but that just feels like reading school stuff and i can't get into it. maybe it's time to start baking again, something from breakfast, lunch, tea looks good. i went to sandbox bakery this week with sarah, it's really good but we wanted to sit so had to walk back to her house. hopefully tricia and i will venture out to eat something yummy today. i should go check out the prelinger library. also probably time to go back to outerlands, and i want to go to farm:table. crap now i have all this stuff to do before i leave for nc next week for two weeks.

fall at the river

i haven't been up to the cabin in a long time, it feels like two months, but it might be less than that. the light is gorgeous up there now, and the weather was really great this weekend. i didn't work on my paper as i had planned, but there's always tomorrow. i actually relaxed and enjoyed it. i made this bouquet out of our winter yard, complete with figs and mushrooms.




we finally went wine tasting for the first time and found two great wineries; lambert bridge and hop kiln, then stumbled onto the dry creek general store. got some great photos down on mother's beach.





i'm planning our next trip, post holidays and school, when i have absolutely nothing to do but read, drink wine, and walk around the woods.

home stretch

holga

i'm almost done. three more weeks of school and just two more papers to go along with the regular stuff. i'm tired of writing, i'm tired of metadata schemas, and i'm tired of not reading for fun. just 2 or so more years! i'm finding small escapes every now and then. last week i read about camera bag on leigh's blog and used it at flora grubb over the weekend. take a photo, apply a filter, and your shot is transformed.

lolo

instant

this break brought to you by my fried brain.

recent acqusitions

no harm in talking like a librarian already. i need a break from all the information retrieval speak.


we found some amazing stuff at estate sales, some a month ago, i just never posted. i love this painting found up in santa rosa at a great sale. i think the gentleman was an art professor, his home was filled with books, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and i wanted to move in. al doesn't like this painting and said it can't hang in the bedroom. i absolutely love it and the rough wooden frame that houses it.


bernardo gave us a painting for the cabin, but i don't know if we can bare to take it up there and leave it alone all week. we were so touched. yes, that's wood veneer and a bad set of photos trying to capture the colors.


and finally a needlepoint pillow, another estate sale find.


back to the books!