PRETTY LITTLE ENGLAND ..........

Our daughter lives in Stamford, Lincolnshire. One of the most beautiful, fully preserved Georgian towns. They used to live in Crouch End, London but, to buy anything bigger than a flat was in the triple millions so they chose Stamford. Crouch End is an amazing place to live when single, then a couple but, when children come along, the countryside sometimes beckons { especially the price of property ! }. I remember when I worked in London ..... there was such a buzz, amazing shops, restaurants, clubs, so much to do and see and, of course , the history, which was taken for granted when you were there every day. My sister lived in Cambridge when she was first married as her husband was doing his PhD there and they lived in an old cottage which belonged to the college. She worked in London and she walked past the Bridge of Sighs and all of the stunning colleges every day on her way to the station. She always said how people from all over the world would save to visit or only be able to look at photographs but she lived amongst it all. I lived in London for a while and I learned a lot in my twenties but, when I married and had children, we moved to Hertfordshire.  When we had children, we would travel all over the UK ..... Cornwall, Devon, Wales, the South Coast, Scotland to name but a few places. Then, when our children were choosing Universities, we visited quite a few cities, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, some of which we hadn't been to before. But, when our daughter moved to Stamford, I realised the Midlands had gone completely under the radar. It is so pretty. So many beautiful villages, very much like The Cotswolds and, I think the houses are built of Lincolnshire Limestone..... that pretty honey coloured stone.  We see a great deal of our children and grandchildren and we all went to visit her yesterday and had lunch in the pub in the above photograph. I had to take a photo of the rose and the thatched roof. It looked stunning, the weather making everything look even prettier, although, photographs never seem to capture how lovely these things look somehow. Do you find that ? 

Enjoy the beautiful weather ..... we have a week or more of it.

My New Years Resolution of posting more often doesn't seem to be working !!! I will try harder. 

XXXX

HAIR STORY ..........

Two posts in a week ..... that's something for me !

I've had long, straight hair pretty much all of my life Throughout my childhood, it was mostly in a ponytail, swishing backwards and forwards as I walked. It wasn't anything special ..... it was also mousey in colour ! By about the third form in Senior school, the pony tail was ditched as I was now a teenager of the 60's and wanted to look like Patti Boyd ! 

My hair remained that way as I left school, stayed the same in further education and then the big, outside world beckoned and I had to find a job ! 

Lucky me landed a job in Mount Street in Mayfair ..... one of the poshest streets in London. Paul McCartney and the like would buy their suits from Dougie Hayward and celebrities/MP's would all dine in Scotts restaurant. Residents bought their meat from Allens of Mayfair { which opened in 1830 .... sadly it closed in 2015 } and purchased their cigars from Sautters. 

My bosses were a husband and wife couple and, for my birthday, they paid for me to have my hair highlighted and cut at Michaeljohn ..... Michael & John met when they were hair stylists at Leonards { he who did the famous haircut for Twiggy } They attracted celebrities including Mick Jagger and even Princess Anne. I was only about 19 so it was pretty special to have my hair done there. I doubt Michael or John did my hair but it didn't matter ..... it was still amazing ! 

A few years later, London was even more swinging and, the place to have your hair done was Smile , Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. Smile was owned by Keith Wainwright and his two partners Lesley Russell and Paul Owen. Clients included Roy Wood, The Move, Cat Stevens, The Walker Brothers and Elton John. Keith worked with chemists  and hair technicians  to create unnatural hair colours which were later popularised by the British punk movement. So, my next birthday present was an appointment with Paul at Smile ! 

I worked in Mount Street for quite a few years and then went on to get married and have children. Highlights continued up until this day and I think I have been to most of the hairdressers in the surrounding area of my home !!! But, for the last fifteen years I have had the same guy highlight and cut my hair. During Covid, things went a bit wrong for him and he had to close his salon, but, during this past year, he came to our home and did our hair. Then, he started to work for a hairdresser quite a long way from us so I needed to find another hairdresser. A friend that I have known for many years has highlights and said her hairdresser was very good. I booked an appointment even though a mutual friend had made an appointment there but didn't even cross the threshold as she didn't like the look of it !!!!

WELL ..... I went yesterday ! I arrived dead on time ..... dusty, old plastic flowers sat on the reception desk and about seven old { I know I'm old but these ladies were OLD } sat having perms ..... they all had those tiny little rollers in, some were still having the rollers put in , some were sat under those old fashioned dryers. One lady was being helped by two other ladies to the wash basin. I did think how the mighty have fallen { joke } but, I didn't run away !!! I actually thought how brilliant it was that these ladies still wanted to look nice and have their hair done. 

The girl who did mine was Polish, young and very friendly. More and more old ladies arrived for perms ..... it was like a perm conveyor belt ..... I did think it would have made for a brilliant sit com or play ! 

Well ..... here is the result .....

I am SO pleased with it ..... she got rid of the brassiness and, I've been telling my last hairdresser it looked a bit ginger on the ends which he said was how my hair took the colour ..... she got rid of that. It's a bit darker around the front but she said she will add a little more blond next time. I think when you stay with the same hairdresser they get in a rut. It just goes to show that all the frills and frippery of a posh salon doesn't always mean it's better ..... oh, and the other thing was that it was about half the price .....

RESULT !!!

XXXX

SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM .......

Last Tuesday ... a beautiful blue sky winter's day ... very best friend's, recently retired ... 

SO ...

we took ourselves off to Sir John Soane's Museum.

The home of neo-classical architect John Soane, the Sir John Soane Museum holds the collection of paintings, antiquities and drawings that he amassed, along with his models and projects.

Situated on the north side of Lincolns Inn Fields, Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses between 1792 and 1812.

Your visit begins in the kitchens ... rooms that would not look out of place today ... 

... you then move into the Catacombs, a subterranean space filled to the brim with sculptures, plaster casts, marble fragments of architectural decoration, Greek and Roman bronzes, mosaics, vases, Greek and Roman busts, heads from statues, fragments of sculpture, tiles and stained glass and so much more.

Located in the centre of the museums catacombs, The Sepulchral Chamber houses the sarcophagus of Seti 1, one of the most important Egyptian antiquities ever to be discovered. The surrounding walls of the chamber are adorned with sculptures from Soane's vast and varied collection.  Looking up from the Sepulchral Chamber, the visitor gazes at the Dome, the central light well where Soane created a full height tribune to display his choicest antiquities ...

I bought the above 3-d card as a reminder of our visit ... you needed an o-level in engineering to put it together !!! { slight exaggeration !! }

Next is the Picture Room ... Soane's ingeniously designed gallery has walls composed of large ' moveable planes ' that allow it to house three times as many items as a space of this size could normally accommodate - it's like seeing hidden treasure inside walls. When the Picture Room was first opened it housed more paintings than the entire collection of the National Gallery.

A wonderful place to visit and ....... 

IT'S FREE !!!!!!! ... we also walked around eight miles so it was not only educational but we had our daily dose of exersise too !!!  

On the way back to the station, we popped into The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel for a nose !!!
A beautiful building, outside and in , luxuriously Gothic ... I wouldn't mind spending a night or two there !!

XXXX

image 1: via jarmundo, image 2: via soane.org, image 3: via design boom, image 4: via the spaces, image 5: via my art prints, image 6: via htc experiments, images 7 & 12: via pinterest, image 8 : via daily mail, image 9: via me, image 10 : via life on sundays, image 11: via tdclassicist, image 13: via dressing room interiors, image 14: via indulge, image 15: via rose mount flooring

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LONDON, OH LONDON ..........

I LOVE London ....... I've lived on the outskirts all of my life ... we now live in the Hertfordshire countryside, but we are still only twenty minutes from the City of London.

Apart from all of the iconic London landmarks, there is a multitude of wonderful spots to visit and, I have seen a lot of it in my 65 years but I have only touched the surface and will never see everything it has to offer. Here are a few places that you might like to visit if you find yourself in Londinium !!

Sir Christopher Wren's Temple Bar is the only surviving gateway to the City of London and stood at the junction where The Strand meets Fleet Street for 200 years. But, because the road needed widening, it had to be removed.

On January 2nd 1878 it was dismantled. 

Ten years later, it caught the eye of Lady Meux, a banjo playing barmaid who had married into a very wealthy family of London brewers. Forever trying to convince Victorian high society of her respectability, she decided to rebuild the impressive Temple Bar to grace her Hertfordshire Estate at Theobalds Park. My Dad remembered it well as it was only a cycle ride away and he remembered climbing up and looking inside the upper chamber and seeing a dining table, candlesticks and paintings. Lady Meux regularly entertained the likes of Edward v11, the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill 

Temple Bar then started to fall into disrepair ..... I also remember it well as my husband and I used to park up there for a bit of ' how's your Father !! '  

Temple Bar has now been restored and rebuilt at Paternoster Square and is back in it's rightful place.

One of my favourite places to visit is Dennis Severs House ..... The house is both a breathtaking and an intimate portrait of the lives of a family of Huguenot silk-weavers from 1724 to the dawn of the 20th century. We are going again in December when they dress the house for Christmas.

Wilton's Music Hall is one of very few surviving music halls and retains many original features. 

Sir John Soane's museum, housing his unusual collection, preserved exactly as it would have been at the time of his death in 1837

Neal's Yard in Covent Garden.

St Dunstan-in-the-East ... originally built in 1100, severely damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666, damaged again in the Blitz in 1941 after which it was decided not to rebuild. In 1970 it was opened as a public garden ... a beautiful secluded gem.

Dinner at Les Trois Garcon's ..... an unusual dining experience !!

Strolling along the Thames at dusk, you might just catch the end of Sand Art on the Thames. 

You can even have a Cockney experience when taking money out of the hole in the wall !!

Just a few more experiences of London ... it is never-ending.

XXXX

images 1, 10 & 12: via me, image 2: via architecture, image 3: via open buildings, image 4: via wordpress, images 5 & 7: via buzzfeed, image 6: via hidden london, image 8: via album of random, image 9: via time out, image 11: via hand luggage 

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A QUIET HAVEN, ART IN THE SQUARE MILE AND CITY DRINKING ............

Within the square mile in the City of London, not a stones throw from The Gherkin, is a quiet little hamlet. When you saunter along the peaceful little streets, you would be forgiven in thinking that you were in a small English village.

Old and new sit happily side by side .....

The church of St Helen's of Bishopsgate dates from the 12th century and was the parish church of William Shakespeare when he lived in the area in the 1590's.

Sculpture in the City is now in it's 6th year and transforms the Square Mile with open air contemporary sculptures set in and around architectural landmarks.

We went last year and saw, amongst others, Ai Weiwei's bicycles ' Forever ' ,

Laura Ford's Cats 1 & 2 were there which we also saw when we went to visit Strawberry Hill.

Sigalit Landau's ' Shoes '

..... and Damien Hirst's ' Charity '

If you're ever in the Square Mile on a summer's day, the pubs are full .....

..... everyone enjoying a drink in the late afternoon sunshine.

Just a quick word about blogging ..... when I started blogging in 2009, I gradually started to accumulate followers, building up to nearly 2, 000. Blogger then decided to get rid of a few hundred, which was OK but, I now seem to lose followers rather than gain any !! Should I take this as a sign to stop blogging  or is this just the way of the blogging world now ? I think that many have moved on to Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. 

The world of social media seems very fickle and moves at a fast pace ......... c'est la vie !!!!!!

XXXX 

images 1 - 9 & 12 - 15: via me, image 10: via it's nice that, image 11: via suzidepingu, image 16: via david jones