To flowers. Some may argue on the case of the peche Carnation but I’m not so sure. 6O’s flower fashion at its best courtesy of Robert Doisneau and his camera.

Swoon , I even love the dodgy curled upwallpaper. My friends Carolineno and Tim introduced me to the wonders of The Selby a while back and this week, inspired, I’m tarting up the boat for a potential location shoot and getting the book.

In a last fit of rebellion before adulthood I’m going to haphazardly hang a garden swing from a beam in our boat, am sure there’ll be tutts and disapproval but the sort of people who live in Selby residences do this too, so it’s okay.

Read on….ideas to steal, clashing punk rock vases of flowers to disapprove of and delicious nosey parkering.

xxx

Getting dizzy with impending mamadom ( yup the fear is kicking in now), I’ve been told to spend the next seven weeks reading and watching films thus avoiding all Gypsy Rose style charging about. In short no ladders, heavo ho’ing, travelling or getting in a tizzy. Hmm does this include painting?

Ravishing reads are getting stock piled (love these covers and Nancy in her lilac pose), the yanking of captains chain about music mixes is in progress and tho I’ve utterly depleted my Agatha selection am now on to other heroines. Miss Mitford is amusing, a few angsty Iris Murdoch secrets are on order and St Trinians naughtinesses is rife.

This week The Lady Killers and brrr, Love in a Cold Climate…

xxx

I have become less of a foodie floosey but something of a baker whilst pregaloo, my courgette cake as promised alas crumbled so no pictures but I can still make a tart with a heart. Rainy day fodder.

Food blogging has been a discussion of late, mixed with marigold mayhem is this too much of a deft homage to Constance Spry? Hey there is a chive flower in there.

A full Captain thinks the jury’s out, my fave still inspires, as for Mr Coren…

xxx

P.S This post was interrupted by a dishy baker on BBC2.

So this is our pretty new rowboat acquired last weekend. A romantic new addition to the family, she leaks and is fairly wobbly but rather Arthur Ransome …

xxx

Last of the floppy guelder and spring tulips and a hello to honeysuckle. Flowers can take a funny long journey…

xxx

Between Carole King and acquiring a new rowing boat (more on that soon) I got reminded about just how much I love Karen Nicol’s work…

This old flower lark can sometimes feel like painting or doing intricate sewing with an awful lot of pin pricking and spilt terps along the way so this lovely work is a perfect antitdote…wish I could fluff up my whole boatola with it – dreamy.

This week, courgette cake, a creepy clematis and the disappearing icecream cones.

xxx

Leg in brace due to boat fall, theme tune for a love song- Terry Callier. Attire? Stripes mon dieu. Interior yearn – victorian tiles for the kitchen. Lovely things in the shape of lupins and god daughters.

And finally having a Miss Jean Brodie moment with Margery Allingham.

xxx

If anyone deserves an upgraded George Melly-esque buttonhole it’s Ms Dearies pal, Bob Dorough. This week an evening with Fran Landesman saw me Captain and bump amongst swingers and sharp tongued songstrels at the Southbank.

It takes a lot to get me off the boat but the event of his jazz cat paws on the piano was a must…more of his lovely music here.

More hoorays tho as Blossom of the petal variety beckons over the next few days with some Rivoli rosettes and a sweet pea extravaganza.

xxx

I’ve been having something of a love affair with hessian this summer…

This weekend a wild country party at a grange down in Berkshire saw Captain and I bombing through country lanes – we were on Vivien Leigh soil and I got to make flowery tiaras so all was good.

Elsewhere canal fun….Hattie Jaques and her voracious appetites, lunch for ten under the cherry tree, my sailors new look and cooking with abandon in barefeet.

Wild guelder, cosmos, salvia, hydrangeas and aquilegia.

Yay, summer is here.

XXX