To Moro and To Moro and To Moro - And Finding, Instead, Morito

From Islington it's an easy stroll to Exmouth Market and Morito,

 little sister to the famed Moro, London's venerated Spanish/Moroccan destination eatery.

Morito will serve you yummy tapas earlier in the evening or late in an afternoon

when Moro is still not ready to serve dinner.

Since it's almost always a felicitous time for drink if you're Mr. Paradis.......

and EVERYTIME is a felicitous moment for something to eat if you're myself

then it seemed that we landed well....because Morito does not disappoint.

With lots of veggie and fishy options for us not so meaty eaters.  

Simplicity AND saveur.  Shall we say.

We did not regret finishing our meal with malaga raisin ice cream in a puddle of sherry.

On Exmouth Market, life is a lark.  Especially when the sun shines.

  The mess of "Brexit" was still a month away.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive."

- Sir Walter Scott

Late June Lagniappe

Little lovelies piling up in my photo files........

(Ben Pentreath Inspiration)

that I hope will put

(new Amsterdam map from Famille Summerbelle)

as big a smile on your faces as they put

(this and the following two pics via Tahitian Vanilla or Bohemian Wornest)

on mine.

It's hard to overstate the blood-pressure lowering effects

of furry things

(the Chelsea Flower Show source unknown)

and flowery things

(Bungalow Classic)

and furry things.

Including our "new" girl - still impossibly cute.



Hope it was a good weekend!
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Pub Perfected - The Old Queen's Head, Islington

You know the old expression - "never judge a book by its cover".

This Islington pub is the perfect embodiment of that.  A very ordinary exterior on a drizzly

London day gives way to.........

Utter tranquility and deliciousness on the day of our visit.

Little bouquets.  Miss-matched chairs.  A faint festive Scottish flair in the tartans and the antler chandeliers.  It's hard not to feel every so slightly transported to somewhere extra and special.

Old paintings.  BIG bouquets.  And that (Turquoise! Tiled!) BAR!

An intimate courtyard at the rear.  Overhung with vines and overlooked by poets (?)

A slightly louche and spooky staircase.....

and THAT BAR!  (I wanted to take that bar home with me - or sit with my knees against it for forever.....)

YE OLDE SECURITY DETAIL.

Ye Olde  fireplace details.....  (ye old wood fire)

ye olde fireplace swept clean on a spring day details.......

 Ye olde great big windows for the rare bright sunny days when the rain has stopped.

Star-i-ly covered stools (more details after mine own heart!)

Squishy leatherette banquettes.

"Ye olde Queen's Head"?  Neighborhood  in-joke?  (I wonder.)

You can check out the website here.  The Old Queen's Head in Islington is a pub of many faces.  You might find one or two that you like.

It's All GARBAGE! Stuart Haygarth via the Guardian

Found these via the Guardian the other week.

I thought we'd take a break from strict

London tourism.

Love these collections.

If you did artwork like this it would give you a license to be a very happy packrat.

Something some of us can only dream of, but not everyone attains.

The artist's website is here.

I'm hoping he's a very busy guy because the last bit of "news"

posted there dates from 2015.

This little collection of "dummy's" as they call them in England is kind of poignant isn't it?  I kind of miss the sweet little mouths that each must have once belonged too.  And I wonder, where did these pacifiers end up?  Covered in sand on a beach, washed ashore on a dark stormy day?   Dug out of a storm drain or crushed under a tire and left to bob along an asphalt roadway?  Left in the seat pocket of an airplane?

There's a formal abstraction to these "vignettes".

But they are also poetic and evocative.  Don't you think?  Mr. Heygarth also does some very much more "serious" and large scale stuff.  Though some of it still IS garbage.  Check out his website!

And have a lovely weekend?  Yes?  Please?

(it's been such a sad week.  stay safe too.)

Color by Conran - The Conran Shop London

Mr. Paradis and I rarely agree on much.  Is it the English vs. American thing and each always driving 

on "the wrong" side of the road?  Is it the male/female thing?  Is it the right brain left brain thing?

Maybe we've just been married too long?  In any case what we always DO agree on.....

is a visit to the Conran Shop* as part of our "re-entry" ritual whenever we visit London.

And yes it might be because of those sofas - that make you feel like you're at HOME away from home.  Plus, there is always something NEW going on at the Conran Shop.  

This time it's their new paint line.... what better to way to announce it than with a delicious lozenge-y wall graphic like this.  So very Conran.

Mr. Paradis and I do seem to agree that the Conran Shop offers modern minimal esthetics married to the sunny, the textured, the rustic - that allows you to fantasize when you visit there, that you could trade in your ordinary life for something kind of AMAZING somewhere between Italy, Morocco and Formentera.

You can be beguiled into thinking that even if you won't be taking home a giant stainless steel kitchen unit - 

that a woven/wrapped wine jug in folkloric/tribal colors will produce the same cheering and carefree effect in your home, with far less maintenance.  

I asked Mr. Paradis after our visit what he thought of these nifty jugs.

"What nifty jugs?"  he said.

"You know - those nifty colored plastic reed wrapped......uhhhhhhh never mind!"  (See what I mean?)

We rarely notice the same things.  Much less LOVE the same things (besides our cats).

This midnight blue chair was more his kind of thing.  I can appreciate why.  Somehow your tushy would HAVE to be happier, set atop this midnight blue velour.

But he was puzzled as to why anyone would need, or want,  to buy a bar of soap with an old dude and a cow on the paper wrapper.  (Me?  "Pretty cow, pretty brown cow.  Come home with me.")

But that's why you go to the Conran Shop, to discover what it is that is the newest "cool".  And the classically charming.  As in these Japanesey fish soaps.

Moi, I fell for these colorful French soaps.  (If you know me at all, that shouldn't surprise at all.  Couleurs!!!!!!!)  The problem was, of course, CHOOSING which couleur.  Or deux.  (Mission eventually accomplished.)

Hubby and I DO agree that we couldn't imagine a world, or a visit to London, without the Conran Shop.  It's kind of unique in the world.  I do hope it stays that way.  So we can continue our ritual unaltered.

And that there will always be a nice pub nearby for afterwards!  Priorities!  And.  ACCORD!

CHEERS!  (How was your weekend?)

  

*  I am not paid for these Conran posts.  Nor do I spend a lot of money there.  I post because I find visual and creative inspiration there as much as everywhere else.  Just a fan!