Blog Birthday

As it's Flowers and Stripes second birthday tomorrow I thought a cake, flowers, balloons and a new party dress were desired....

 cake

flowers

balloons

Oscar de la Renta

And here's a little gift for you for coming to my party and to say thank you for sharing this year with me.

gift

Blogging Holiday

Whoop Whoop hurrah we've moved home. I'm taking August off posting, but still hope to read your blogs, for starting the journey of making our house our home.
@

Verity and Ken

Dear Verity and Ken,
On this your wedding day,

A poem,

Hinterhof by James Fenton

Stay near to me and I'll stay near to you -
As near as you are dear to me will do,
Near as the rainbow to the rain,
The west wind to the window pane,
As fire to the hearth, as dawn to dew.

Stay true to me and I'll stay true to you -
As true as you are new to me will do,
New as the rainbow in the spray,
Utterly new in everyway,
New in the way that you say is true.

Stay near to me, stay true to me. I'll stay
As near, as true to you as heart could pray.
Heart never hoped that one might be
Half of the things you are to me -
The dawn, the fire, the rainbow and the day.

James Fenton

Flowers and books.


A gluten free pink wedding cake for you.


Just Married bicycles for you and Ken, knowing that Ken likes cycling.

And balloons - well what's a virtual celebration without virtual balloons?

Wishing you both a wonderful day, honeymoon, celebration lunch and marriage.

xrachel

The Counting of Years

One of the fun things about blogging is, like The Queen, one can celebrate two birthdays a year. Blog Birthday and Real Rirthday.
Today is Real Birthday.

'But what did the counting of years mean if he felt himself young in his soul, as he had been twenty years ago? Was it not youth, the feeling he experienced now, when, coming out to the edge of the wood again from the other side, he saw in the bright light of the sun's slanting rays Varenka's graceful figure, in a yellow dress and with her basket , walking with a light step past the trunk of an old birch...' Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina
birthdayballoons

First Signs of Spring

It's coming... We can feel it in our bones...

'First signs of spring. Thaw. The sleepy air smells of buttered pancakes and vodka as at shrovetide. A sleepy, oily sun blinking in the forest, sleepy pines blinking their needles like eyelashes, oily puddles shining at noon. The countryside yawns, stretches turns over and goes back to sleep.' Boris Pasternak Dr. Zhivago

springtime

Hope you enjoy the first signs of spring this weekend.

Phenomenal Woman

So here was the poem that they posted, more for my archives than anything else.

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms,
the span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally,
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
....
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally woman,
That's me.

....

I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun in my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me

.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou
jump balloons, wind

Wishing you a phenomenal day x

Great Uncle Henry

So today we're off to celebrate Great Uncle Henry's 100th birthday. He still lives by himself in the home he and his wife bought over fifty years ago in Bow, East London.

A quotation about how we change through life seems appropriate today.

..."there is no such thing as a coherent human personality. When you are forty you have no cell in your body that you had at eighteen. It was the same, he said, with your character. Memory is the only thing that binds you to earlier selves; for the rest, you become an entirely different being every decade or so, sloughing off the old persona, renewing and moving on. You are not who you were, he told her, nor who you will be." Sebastian Faulks Charlotte Gray

we heart it

Happy Birthday Henry x

Books, Birthdays and Balloons

I was undecided upon whether to mention my first blogging birthday and then when Hannah celebrated hers by giving a gift I had the way, and the gift, to celebrate.

So, if you fancy a read of Nancy Mitford's Wigs on the Green then....

Please leave a message below and I'll pull the name out of a 'saucer tilted with flowers' type hat. Open worldwide.

x

Thank you so much for travelling with me on this journey x

I do not love you...

I do not love you...

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

that this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda

Oh to have had balloons... Hanging from the trees outside The Barn.

balloons
romantic balloons

balloons

mailto:b@lloons

Favourite words.

I'd been mulling a post about favourite word. You've probably noticed from my comments that I use the words

'ooooh'

ooh

and 'lovely' an awful lot.

lovely

I'd thought that perhaps I should add another favourite word and had thought it would be

'delicious'

delicious

Then I read this post and my ideas seemed especially tame... So I visited Save the Words to see what they suggested.

snollygoster

Would this be a good word to use with our current coalition government?

Please imagine

here

who to you embodies a snollygoster.

Forming People

So, the start of a new academic year. I've always liked this passage and today as we look ahead to our hopes and dreams for the next year it seemed appropriate. Who knows where this year will take us, what changes will happen. (I feel those who are making those decisions should read this passage.) This is what education means to me and why I'm looking forward to the year ahead.

'Education is about forming people who have the moral strength and spiritual depth to hold a course and weather its ups and downs.

It is about forming people who know that economic competition is not more important than family life and love of neighbour, and that technical innovation is not more important that reverence for beauty of creation. It is about forming people who. however academically and technically skillful, are not reduced to inarticualte embarrassment by the great questions of life and death, meaning and truth.'

Archbishop of Canterbury quoted in Lord Dearing's Report 'The Way ahead' quoted in The Daily Telegraph 31st July 2002

.'

@

Tomorrow

I leave my job. I leave the best team I've ever worked in. I leave this small area of London that I've taught, learnt and shopped in for the last nine years. It's so so right to move now, personally and professionally.

But yet....

Come to the edge
We might fall
Come to the edge
It's too high!
Come to the edge
And they came
And we pushed
And they flew

Apollonaire

fly
May we all fly x

Love, Respect and Fancy

We went to Worthing Pier and played on the 2p slot machines.

Warmth had a turn on the fruit machines I thought of this quote.

'What did we want from a man, what were we looking for? What I wanted was someone I could love, respect and fancy. I thought that was what one should be aiming for,...And when I started with men it always seemed as difficult as getting three strawberries in a row on a fruit machine.' Julian Barnes Talking it Over

Intelligent Personable Men

"Do you think there are three intelligent personable men sitting around a table wondering where we are?'...
"Not likely" says Nikki, "they'll be talking about football." Tibor Fischer The Collector Collector

I read this book years ago. I can't remember much about it. I liked it. It's a bit weird. It's about a pot that's lived through history. It's a good read. It spoke to me at the time - about life, friendships and hoping for love.

I saved this quote never imagining that I'd fall in love and marry a man who'll be watching The World Cup. But yet. I remember our first date. Warmth walking me back to the tube station. We started talking about books. He was reading Orhan Pahmuk. I remember thinking I'd like to go on a second date with this man to talk books and reading. We started our second date talking about books and we continue talking about books.

@

This is my idea of playing with a round shaped object.....