Royal Weddings...

I was watching a clip tonight from the wonderful musical, Royal Wedding, with Jane Powell and Fred Astair, and I realized I should probably do a little post about the Royal Wedding of our day, starring William and Kate. I don't think there will ever be anyone like princess Diana (I slipped a pic of her in here too), there was something very special about her...like the Audrey Hepburn of the royals, sweet and genuine. But, Kate and William are quite a lovely couple, and somehow also seem more real as a couple then Charles and Diana, and it was a treat for me to be here as the festivities of the big day took place! I was not quite as gung ho as my flatmates, who went down to Westminster Abbey to catch a glimpse of the beautiful couple at 6am in the morning, but I did dash down to a nearby pub in Hampstead around 11 when the ceremony was happening. I arrived just in time to see Kate walking down the aisle in her classic gown, which I thought was perfect for the occasion. It was fun to be see all the Flags and fanfare all over London working up to the big day in late April. I added the clip from Royal Wedding of Jane Powell singing one of my favorite songs from the movie...she's just so adorable! I also found this really touching clip of Judy Garland singing the same song....it's heartbreaking. You can just feel the emotion and sadness in her voice. What a tragic but beautiful lady...

A lady of adventure..

I'm living East London at the moment, but I spent a few weeks in North London in the beautiful area of Hampstead. Traipsing around heath a few weeks ago, I came across a beautiful hidden glen of trees and purple heather, (I imagine its heather and I am going to pretend it's heather for the sake of not having to look up what it really is...feel free to enlighten me, but for now, it's lavender colored heather. Or better yet lupines!), and it reminded me of one of my favorite books from when I was little. It is called Miss Rumphius, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. It is a tale of Alice's adventures of exploration around the world and her quest to make the world a more beautiful place, which she does by planting beautiful purple lupine flowers. I have always loved this book, of wonderful travels and exotic destinations...it seemed such a comfortable kind of fairytale, where the heroine lives a life of adventure and ends her days with the sentiment to leave the world a better place than she found it. Barbara Cooney's illustrations are so great and take you to lands of far away in such a homey way...I have always liked how she portrayed Miss Rumphius. What style! And the pretty red hair is so perfect for an independent lady of spirit. :)

My new favorite artist, AND this weeks....Artist of the week. A.A. Bondy....nice you are.

Into the Wild

Dear family, friends and interested readers,


I write this for myself and for those that have a shared fascination with the music of Mumford and Sons, The Head and the Heart, Gregory Allen Isokov, strong, earthy, true sounds. For all of us who are looking for community, local foods, grass-roots ways of living, organic, green, traditional, core and simple ways of not just changing, but revolutionizing. My friends, I am looking for something different and true...captured in my imagination from somewhere in the "olden days" of my childhood, but meshed with the urbane, fresh, and hopeful independence of today. To me, an ideal I was born with, (ask my mom!), is that we were not mean't to live our lives, socio or economically focused, enslaved to a concept which we have all just accepted as "what we do". Inherently, we are mean't for something else.  (Which is why I have quit my job, sold my car, and moved to the other side of the world to put this plan into affect! I really believe it you see...). One of my favorite quotes ever by Herman Melville talks of this. (Also, one of my favorite artists!! JH Pierneef...his work is so epic I had to include some of his pieces here too).

"Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began. Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life". ~ Herman Melville

We are, all of us I feel, pulled to return to an old way of life that is calling to each of us, (to one extent or another). You know who you are! In my life at least, starting with my parents, with gardening, non-conformity, taking responsibilty for their children, questioning and seeking in terms of family, religion, philosophy, heath, lives and education. And many, (most!), people I have met, are looking to contribute something rare, unique, creative, or individual in their own way. This is my letter, inspiration and aesthetic, which I am looking to dedicate to these ideals: incapsulated in this is BEAUTY. Truly, we all seek this in the end, (in creation, nature, art, music, freedom, truth and people for me!), but where ever it is found. 


The longing way. It is fast, fleet, decisive like lightning, strong....clean, and crisp as fall leaves, earthy like the deep down core of the world....and deep as the universe, kind, gentle, real like the wind, slow and still as the seeds grow, dandelions blow, fall...sway, drift, float, down, falling gently falling...loving like the sun and moon is always sinking into me warm and restful, light and dark, deep and strange glowing as the moon, sparkling and brilliant as witty, mischievous, twinkling stars but hushed, silent, unprepossessing and humble as thankfulness....passionate as a storm and seeking, a future stretching before us, clean, like a twisting, twining winding stream...clear, calm, peaceful, whispering, tinkling, talking, constant, yet quiet, always there, steady, trusting, guiding and supportive as a ship counts on the moon and stars at sea, loyal as trees...protecting, bending, shielding, shading, there beneath me, and...belonged, as beloved, belonged, I like that word. In our roots, in our blood and of our people....


One last thing for my first post! You have to listen to this music...I love the line, "back to where we started...".