September 2010

September 24th, 2010

Beautiful clarity

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Ah, the beautiful whiteness of home. So I can photograph again – something I have so been looking forward to and I can’t wait to get the house in order and begin to style everything and make it all cosy. It’s midnight already and I’ve not even begun to look on eBay tonight.

Tomorrow we are off to Ella Doran in Shoreditch for their book launch party of the new Paumes book as part of the London Design Festival. Astrid is super excited as I’ve told her it’s a tea party.

On Sunday we have new parents day at Astrid’s new school – it’s a full day which will be loads of fun. Such a shame I’ll be missing Michaelmas festival and class picnic next week. But I’m back at work now – and it’s been a really hard, but hard in a good way week. I’ve used my brain 100% and have had to very quickly get myself back into illustrator mode having been in photoshop or pen and paper mode for the past few years. It took a few days of feeling very stupid but I know what I’m doing now so my software can keep up with what I want it to do now. Super good.

The other day after dropping Astrid off in Islington the busses all decided to not go through the lights at Angel and I got out at Cross Street and did my usual urban running (now I have my Adidas pumps I’m all set for that) – and I happened to undershoot my destination, and being in such a desperate rush I thought it better for forge ahead than go back to correct my mistake and ended up in East London. A small adventure and a bit of bus mix and matching and a fair old bit of jogging along – I made it to work in time to not look too late at all.

Work is so awesome and brilliant. I feel so brainy being there. And I feel very very priviledged to have been invited to work on such an amazing interaction design project. Really really lucky. I think I must be a grown up London designer now. Everyone has short nails and wears strange clothes. Perfect.

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September 19th, 2010

In the kitchen

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Making the most of my last week off work I appear to have begun writing and photographing my recipes and even written a table of contents. I say I appear to have, because I was sitting down to plan out an entirely differnent book and when I put pen to paper about sixty recipes reeled themselves off in what most definitely did not appear to be a children’s story. Children’s cookbook perhaps. Story, not really, no.

Currently feeling so unmotivated to write, when what I really most need to be doing now is writing. And lots of it, having just set up Lovely UK. And my writing blog – my memories blog, because I also need to write those down – the ones that happened in the thirty four odd years before I began writing here.

So as usual I have a load of different projects on the go, all being attended to as my mood desires. All having small amounts of time dedicated to them and eventually they are completed, bit by bit. That’s my way – my attention darting here and there, then drifting, perhaps stopping a while to complete something and then swimming in another direction entirely becoming immersed in something for weeks upon end.

Which is precisely how I have gone from a full week of intense focus on setting up Lovely UK, packing up and moving house, to now spending most of a week in the kitchen cooking, baking and photographing – making notes on the backs of postcards, remembering and re-inventing recipes for cake, figuring out how to shift ingredients over – what to swap, how to make things more delicious, how to bring out flavour in the simplest possible way and along the way rediscovering the wonderful taste of farm-fresh meat and vegetables. Which has of course led me to wonder about the authenticity of the organics in supermarkets – which, really, considering how cynical I am I can’t believe I’ve not figured this out beforehand. I read this comment on a guardian article with great interest – time to dig a little further.

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September 16th, 2010

Home, again

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It feels like the run for the finish line is over. Almost. Unpacking and sorting aside. The home we’ve dreamed of. The big London home. With a proper country kitchen. And all white walls. And wooden floors. The home with the sage green front door and a huge old rambling rose tree in the front garden. The home in a beautiful street lined with old old apple trees. The home right next to Hampstead Heath; a home we can spend many years in – now Astrid has started school, Kevin and I have our careers sorted and a big long list of projects; all now begun and finally set up these past few weeks – a lifelong job to write for, to photograph for and to grow.

Children to nuture, who need to stay in one place. Happy children. The difference in Astrid since she began kindergarten is just magic. She now eats three proper meals a day, sleeps like clockwork and she now finally seems settled and happy. Edith too is sleeping properly and even the cats seem so happy in their new proper, final, settled home.

Edith however seems to have just begun the terrible twos which does involve a fair amount of shouting and wailing every afternoon on her return home. The only respite is a swift batch of scrambled eggs, mixed quickly in the pan using our new, divine, real eggs from Riverford.

Perhaps it’s the new farm fresh food. Perhaps it’s the permanence of a long term real home and a new school that will be school for many years to come. Whatever it is there’s much happiness around, infusing us, infusing our new space, infusing the future with much love and peace and happiness and hope.

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September 5th, 2010

Through the rabbit hole

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It’s feels as though I’ve fallen through the rabbit hole and I think I landed somewhere really really good this time. The past few weekends I’ve not gone to Pilates which has allowed me time with the family for a long Saturday morning walk – something we’ve not had since we’ve been back.

There is nothing quite as lovely as a long, beautiful, late Summer walk on Hampstead Heath without any timetable, just walking, wandering, up to the playground, across to the village shops and back home for a late lunch.

On the advice of my doctor I finished my contract a week early and I’ve had the most slow, marvellous week of just getting myself back. I’ve been quietly working on a project of my own, which has been an utter joy. Days of utter focus, walks under a beautiful blue sky. Slow mornings reading the paper with a cup of tea at the local café after dropping the girls off.

I am just so happy we are here. I really couldn’t think of anywhere I would rather be.

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