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.

Tidy Bookshelves

Christmas Decorations

Brilliant Wonka-esque pink decorations balanced on the cocktail bar at the Taylor Taylor hair salon in Commercial Street.

Tickets

Helping my friend Lucy, who's collecting photographs of people's collections.

Giant Custard Cream Tin

The Giant Custard Cream biscuit tin pleases me very much. It is from Marks and Spencer.

DOGS by Akane Takayama

I was walking through Holland Park and discovered it was teeming with life-sized origami dogs! It was an enchanting art installation by Akane Takayama. You can learn more about the DOGS project here.

11 photos under the cut...

Project Morrinho: The South Bank Favela

Look! There's a toytown made of bricks lit up by fairylights by the RFH.


It's Project Morrinho, the South Bank Favela (more info): "It is a collaboration between teenagers from Stockwell Park Estate and young people from the Pereira da Silva favela in Rio de Janeiro, and is a version of the full-sized Morrinho project, a social and cultural project created 12 years ago that aims to challenge the negative perceptions of Brazil's favelas -- namely, that they are entirely dominated by guns, drugs and violence." (Even more info.)

Insect Book Club

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.

Marzipan Menagerie

I got these for my birthday, they came from Patisserie Valerie.

13 photos under the cut...

Petal Carpet

Today it was overcast and humid, with a few spots of rain during the day which turned into a downpour in the evening. In the park, I saw that a brisk wind had blown the blossom off the trees sideways -- so that it hadn't dropped evenly all around the trunk, but in patches next to the trees; like a bedside carpet made of petals. So I took a snap.



I was a bit disappointed that the weather had made the lighting for these pictures rubbish, but I decided it couldn't be helped. Five minutes later, just as I got back to the office, sharp, clear sunlight burst through the clouds, making everything beautiful. Damn it.

Red Legs

I was wearing bright red tights today, and they made me feel unreasonably happy.

Birthday 2010

Some photos from my birthday yesterday. I wish I'd taken more, but I was just too busy! It was quite a good birthday with a few nice surprises and no particular catastrophes.

This was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes in the morning:

I met up with my friend Bridget for tea at a café called Yumchaa, which I thoroughly recommend:

This was my cake. I love Easter chicks, they're so expressive and sweet and sad, and they remind me of Bitter with Baggage:



In the evening I went with some friends to a smashing comedy night called Karaoke Circus, a regular night at which comedians and volunteers from the audience sing accompanied by a live band. I brought my camera, but as ever, I forgot that it was even in my handbag. (And knowing that I always do that, I'd even planned to task one of my friends with being the official photographer for the evening, but I even forgot to do that.) I do wish I'd at least taken a photo of my dress, though. Oh well.