Fire Gardens

The IFMK arts festival has been taking place in Milton Keynes during July. Fire Gardens was an installation and event in Campbell Park staged by La Compagnie Carabosse. It was really impressive!

(27 photos under the cut)

Trip to Birmingham

I went to Birmingham to visit the German Christmas market, although first I looked round the city's art gallery.  I really enjoyed their large Pre-Raphaelite collection, and a small but rewarding collection of prints called A Life in Prints: The Tessa Sidey Bequest.  But I suppose like many people I was most charmed by the 1890 painting Dominicans in Feathers by Henry Stacey Marks:

Here are my photos from the day out.  (Edited using the Instagram iPhone app.)

Happy Christmas Birmingham

My new friend!  I bought this big felted Triceratops.  I love his wonky horns.

NT Visit

My lovely and talented schoolfriend Steve is currently acting in Emperor and Galilean at the National Theatre.  He very kindly gave me and Emily a backstage tour after the show.  I ran around the Olivier stage like an idiot, thrilled to be walking in the footsteps of many of my favourite actors.  When Steve took us downstairs to look at the drum mechanism of the revolving stage, I honestly felt like I was meeting a celebrity.

Puppet Performance

Barcelona 2011 - The City

70 photos under the cut...  A selection by Julie, Gigi and me.

Barcelona 2011 - Primavera Sound Festival

60 photos under the cut...  A selection by Gigi and me.

A Visit to Downing Street

My friend Emily, who works at No 11 Downing Street, gave us a tour of the Chancellor's offices.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but we did bump into David Cameron and George Osborne on the stairs.  In the photo are schoolfriends Laura and Emma.

Easter Photos: 2

16 photos under the cut...

1950s Dress Snapshots

This is my full-skirted 1950s swing dress from Vivien of Holloway.  (Bought in March, but this is its first proper outing.)

Happy New Year!

New Year drinks with schoolfriends Bobbie, Lucy, Celia and Philippa.  30 December was a great time to meet up to celebrate New Year: the bars were quiet and there was none of the tension of the actual Eve part, but it was still really festive.

The chimneypiece behind us was decorated with little jigsaw pieces, attached with those tiny plastic bits that attach price tags onto clothes.  This was a) a brilliant design idea, b) intriguing: how was it done?

Me, Emma and Lorna

This evening I went to dinner with some friends to celebrate Lorna's birthday. It was very exciting to meet Emma there! We've been internet friends since c.2003, but this was the first time we'd ever met.

Birthday girl Lorna.

Day Trip to Brighton

I spent a sunny afternoon in Brighton with my friend Chris.

11 photos under the cut...

New Coats for Spring [2]

I much prefer this one! It's a thin boiled wool coat with sweet buttons.

New Coats for Spring [1]

I thought I'd better get some new coats for the spring weather.

I'm not sure about this one. I wore it to the office, and my colleague very diplomatically said, 'It's a statement coat.' I agreed. 'And that statement is: this pattern didn't look quite so loud in the shop.' I like the buttons, though.