It's Coming Up

What a full October it has been already and promising yet more.

The good news is that summer has returned to L.A. which I really needed, since I lost three weeks of mine to a windowless courtroom in July.  I have another walk for you, but of an entirely other part of the world and different vibe altogether.  I just realized I took 192 (!!!!) pictures of that neighborhood so I am still editing down.  With luck, I'll have that all on Thursday.  

Until then linditos!

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: The Eyes Have It

Left over from my London visit.  Can I suggest another nice walk?  Are you one of those people who LOVES London? But?  Sometimes the rain and the crowds, the jet lag and having to think about which way to look before you cross the street, gets a little overwhelming?  If you are one of those people, then this is the stroll for you.  Which is easy on the eyes, as well as the nerves.  The sidewalks are broad, the other shoppers are attractive (rich) and relaxed, you will only be required to make two 90 degree turns, and you will never be faced with one of those intersections where six curving streets come together and you have to figure out which one to cross first.  

And this one is for a weekend, too, when bargains are to be had:

On decorative tomes.  Featuring those you know and love.  Really, how can you lose, on faded jewel colored covers with gilt imprint titles?  These were all a pound a piece (about $1.50) you could (I should have!) bring a whole box home to beautify your library and lend it some distinction.

Find this bookshop at "Worlds End", a part of the King's Road where the (Rolling) Stone's used to spend quite alot of time in the early 60's.  And where you'll still find Vivienne Westwood's shop with its wonky clock outside.  This bookshop also has a good selection of gently used gardening and art books.  It is tiny so you won't use up all your day getting lost in its offerings.

Heading east it will be hard to miss Bluebird (see also first picture) on the left, Sir Terence Conran's long converted car salesroom which is now a destination cafe/restaurant/boutique/deli

Where you'll find sandwiches, pastries, charcuterie, salads and other little things to take with you

that are slightly special.  But save room somewhere (or think of a friend) because.......



right across the street is Rococo Chocolates (definitely click the link, their site is gorgeous and includes a map).  And what is more exciting when shopping here, what's inside the wrappings or the wrappings themselves?

Further along you will find Designers Guild where you can buy the cloud lamps that once were sold in in Paris out of that tiny shop behind the Bastille.  If you missed my Designers Guild post, you can find it here.

Next stop, Green and Stone, where all you could want in the way of art supplies and some very vintage home and studio accessories is on offer.  For beautiful (still?) life making.

After Noah (below) specializes in an offbeat sepia colored, American noir, style of furnishings



augmented by fun accessories to fill your oak desks and gracefully distressed steelcase cabinets with.

If you were to turn left at Sydney Street, just at the Heals....you could pass the Chelsea Gardener (on the left) and find yourself shortly at Fulham Road via posh dress shops (of the new AND used persuasion) once frequented by a certain blonde storybook Princess. Turning right onto the Fulham Road, find yourself soon, (if you don't dally too long at Ralph Lauren or Agnes B en route, or Butler and Wilson)

at the Conran Shop which has ideas for home and hearth

that will never leave you feeling "olde world-ey".  This Conran family, Sir Terence, his sister Priscilla,

and now offspring Jasper, Tom and Kate have succeeded fabulously over many years in implanting

'''jolly old" in the terra firma of the NOW,  With nonetheless, a stalwart

and savvy commitment to what is classic and enduringly relevant when it comes to the very-est essential accoutrements of life.

Such as, here at Priscilla Conran Carluccio's Few and Far, (follow Fulham Road as it curves left past Aubaine across the street and when you see the Brompton Oratory - that big white cake building ahead - Few and Far will be beckoning on the left) the perfect wooly sweater to go from country to city

and then city to country, with the classic clean summer ensemble, both in colors that whisper of the ocean.

Also to be found at Few and Far, Fermob. (again!)  Well that is kind of a no-brainer.  What else can I say?

Now.  OK.

Time for a cup of tea.  Having lingeringly exited Few and Far with it's quirky elegant mix of arty, classic, ethnic, high, and low brow, enticements, you will now be in spitting distance in one direction, of Harvey Nichols and Harrods, and in the other, the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Inside of each of which and in- between, every choice of pub, tea, cake and sandwich shop, or wine bar that a weary tourist could desire, so I will let you contemplate your next direction and any damage done to the credit cards.  While you rest your weary feet and shed any chills.

*************

Now.  ALTERNATIVELY.  If you, instead of turning left at Sydney St., had continued straight at Heals along the Kings Road,  past the red-brick Chelsea Town Hall on the right, and its windowboxes full of begonias and confetti on the pavement from a recent wedding......

You would have had the option of the Barclay Bike (brand new and just like the Paris Velib's - only you have to register in advance to use them) before or after sticking your nose into the Habitat and the new

Anthropologie store.  You could have snuck pictures of the Kings Road fashion kids, or the Golden People and their Rolls/Ferraris that particularly populate this stretch of retail paradise.  OR you could have gone straight  (if you manage it tell me, but I won't believe it!)

to Peter Jones.  The erstwhile department store that anchors the east end of the Kings Road at Sloane Square (see also my post).  Where EVERYBODY in West London shops for EVERYTHING from school uniforms, stripey jumpers, fancy crystal, to toasters.  And where the art of MAKING continues to be a legitimate and life-enhancing accessible-to-all philosophy.  Witness:

Pink.  Yes, I said PINK!!!!!!  sewing machines (to match your Smeg refrigerator, no? They also come in fire engine red and at least two other colors) for 50 pounds.  That is about 75 dollars in case you're wondering.  (DEAL!?, BARGAIN?!)  (A whole lot of form and function in a perfect candy-colored package?  Say yes!)

And if you're afraid of needles, maybe you won't need one for this: Nifty.  Colorful.  Kit.  (Just one of many!)

  OK, I rest my case.  Tell me, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is it true or is it not?

Do the Eyes Have It?  (Good?)

(For more London shopping neighborhoods see also this link)

It's That TIme Again

Well L.A. is looking a bit more like this today.  Now that we've had almost three days and nights straight of rain. What a shock that was to the collective system!  Sorry if I'm still not quite on my game again guys, the picture glitch has me having to reorganize (and delete an unbelievable number of duplicates) from scratch.

And yes a couple other projects cooking.  Watch this space!  

Hope everybody has a great weekend!  I think an Indian summer is on the way for some of you?  

Toodles!

  

Wells Pottery

Journey if you will..........

to one of Los Angeles' older neighborhoods, Echo Park

and along that mythic roadway, Sunset Boulevard.

to a neighborhood you might recognize from the books of Raymond Chandler.

As colorful and textured as these tiles.

A place that time has not quite forgot......

Here you will find something with which to ornament your dreams or to stoke reveries of stylish eras past........................(!!!!)

(Now you are making me think I need to start hitting open houses on Sundays in L.A.

so I can show you the gorgeous ways in which these tiles are used in L.A. homes.)

.......Whether you are pouring tea......

Or aching to liberate your inner Snow White,

At Wells Pottery, (click the link!) you will find lustrous sleek variations on that most humble and ubiquitous of alchemical miracles:  fired earth!  And a little bit of California history and romance.

Corner View - Orange

Orange rooftops of Provence.  Les Baux de Provence.  Not my picture but you can still say how beautiful it is!

More Corner Views here:  jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele,

caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, allison, lise, cate, otli, ida, lisa, dorte, kimmie, nicola, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale, samantha, kristina, goldensunfamily, sophie, mcgillicutty, aimee, sunnymama, britta, juanita, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, jodi, gillian, travelingmama

athena, pienduzz, kelleyn, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria, lisa, liza, juliette, mulot, lucy, leonor, elizabeth, helene, shokoofeh, cole, jenna, podane, grey-lemon, line, nihal, inner toddler, puna, lucylaine, adrienne, lynn, skywriting, eliane, the wanderer´s daughter, carole, anna, dorit, kenza, sherry, conny, susan, l´atelier, elis, kamana, anne, rosamaría, marinik, elisabelle, victoria, malo, the yellow door paperie, tikjewit, juniper, ocean girl, emily, marcie, annabel, andrea, valerie, karin, michelle, merel, pia, soisses, angie, adèle, latisha, mlle paradis, 24 ruel, cacahuete, wander chow, debra, linnea and emily, barbara, emily, maryline, tally, therese, nadine, matilda, don, cheryl, flowtops, susanna, katy, suzana, castor

Fall Comes to California

What a difference a week makes.  Last Monday it was pushing 100 degrees in Los Angeles.  Today it is rainy and foggy.  Very much a tucking up in bed with tea and a good book kind of day.  Too bad most of us don't actually get to do that!  Instead it is just.  THE USUAL.

Thanks everybody for all the very nice and thoughtful comments you made to my last post.  I won't go on and on but compassion and kindness is a quality I will be thinking a little more deeply about for awhile.  I can think of "old fashioned" models of kindness - such as Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck - and/or the characters they have played in movies.  But who do you think of as today's icons or role models for kindness?  We seem to have fewer of them in the public arena.  And when ever are we able to see them demonstrating those qualities?  Do you know anybody that you care about, that has played a role in your community or family, that you could describe with that seemingly old-fashioned expression:  "unfailingly kind"?  I'm not sure that it is a personality trait that is particularly valued anymore.  Was our world a kinder place when more people valued such a trait?   Are there kinder places than others, still in the world?

Anyway enough!  The picture is of San Francisco.  Quite a kind city, no?  In many peoples' perceptions.

I spent the weekend there.  It has become a "tradition" now three years in the making for the Paradise family to attend "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" a huge, free festival in Golden Gate park entirely paid for by a (what do you think?) very kind Hedge Fund Manager or something (well, rich guy) that features three days of roots music making on six stages around the park.   It is more or less paradisiacal depending on which bands are playing, how warm vs. cold you are, what your seating strategy is, and whether you are Mr., or Ms., Paradis.  This year, Ms. Paradis decided MORE paradisiacal would be just to skip it altogether and spend my brief time there (we had to rush back to L.A. on Sun.) nosing around a neighborhood or two.  

Even though we are in L.A. our life is not sufficiently organized that we are able to get to S.F. more than this one time a year so far.   But it's a city that I love, for it's rollicking style and topography.  No.  REALLY!  Like a roller coaster that town.  And I love to look down it's streets.  Or up it's streets, and see the hills rising or descending and the mists curling around the landscape or withdrawing sweetly to let a pale sun shine in.  I would not want to live there, since it seems to be FALL in S.F. ALL the time!  But to visit, to eat, to labor up and down its streets like my adventuring, enterprising Chinese and Italian forebears (who have so marked that city in delightful and poignant ways), and to feel the beat of the poets in it's pulse.  Yes.  I like that.  Very much.

But anyhoo, how was YOUR weekend?

Weekend Wishes

So all, still in the throes of this blog-is-tential moment, but making progress with the pics.  How was your week?

I have to say, aside from the technical issues, it's been a depressing week for me.  If anyone watched Jon Stewart last night, they would have learned something that I had not so far encountered in the two major newspapers that I check in with everyday - The New York Times and the LA Times.   I don't know which is worse, that noone has so far reported this to the American people, or that we have a system that allows this: a Republican lawmaker from Oklahoma has been able to singlehandedly block the 1 billion dollars in aid pledged to Haiti by the United States of America nine months ago when the earthquake hit there.   In case you don't know, there is virtually no reconstruction that has been achieved in Port au Prince.  And most of its inhabitants are still living in hopelessness under blue tarps.

And then what WAS reported, out of New Jersey, was the case of the college student who threw himself off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson after his roommate and another dorm-mate secretly video-taped him having sex with another male student and broadcast it on the internet. 

Where is the compassion?  Do we even know the meaning of the word anymore?   Our starting point in human relationships in America these days seems to be overwhelmingly adversarial, even gladiatorial. We seem to consume each others' misfortune as entertainment, a two-dimensional image that cannot feel or bleed as we do.  Or, in some twisted way, we glory in others' vulnerability as if somehow parading and bearing witness to their pain will somehow be an inoculation against misfortune befalling us.    I find the latter to be a kind of primitive superstition.  And then we turn away falsely re-armed.

I'm hearing more and more people feeling overwhelmed by the ugliness of the external world and focusing in, or tucking into their personal circles, because it's the only place where they feel they can have any real positive impact, or feel safe.

I think I have always wished that the best of our outside and inside worlds could more harmoniously resemble each other.  These photos (from what I believe was a UK Elle Decoration earlier this year) is a nice visual metaphor for that.  

Hope your weekend is a good one.   And if you have some encouraging news for me, share it please!