London prepares

for the Jubilee

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Aesthetiknomad

Boats preparing

for the River Pageant tomorrow

Aesthetik Nomad

It was a nice atmosphere this afternoon. Whilst walking along the river we and a few hundred other Londoners admired the first boats getting ready for tomorrow.

Lucinda Rogers

London Bridge and Saint Magnus the Martyr

View over Spitalsfields looking West

Love Lucinda's take on London. She also contributed to Spitalsfield Life. You can find out more about her and her work here.

Thames River Pageant

More than a 1000 boats will sail down the Thames this Sunday in honour of the Queen's Jubilee

more info here

polisse

This film about a Paris child protection unit won the jury price at Cannes in 2011. What I can gather it has beautiful and haunting acting. It will be screened at Cine lumiere from 1. June - 12. July. I would really love to see films from Europe more widely available here in London!

Pentecost Sunday

We had our 'first street party' this Sunday down the road. Well, it was meant to be a friendly demonstration outside a politicians home against all the cuts the government is pushing through. Whilst the atmosphere was friendly and it was interesting for our children to experience a bit of grass root politics (if you can call it that) I am in two minds however about involving the families of politicians in any way. But on the other hand, our families are directly affected, too .....

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Aesthetic Nomad

It's a sunny Friday

We just ordered new gas for the BBQ, are planning a picnic in Richmond Park this evening with the kids (the park is open till 21.00) and might even venture into Soho on Sunday to visit the new Flea Market (if it is not too hot) on Dean Street. 

And for our well deserved drink, we will use these ice cube strawberries to keep cool.

Have a lovely Weekend!

Chelsea Flower Show

Here are two of the gardens that impressed me most:

Quiet Time

Korean DMZ Forbidden Garden

by Jihae Hwang

DMZ stand for Korean Demilitarised Zone - the garden wants to show how nature manages to thrive in an area once fought over and destroyed. It symbolises the history, suffering and hope and ongoing conflict with  plants in abundance, a memorial bench made out of dog tags, bottles with messages to family and friends on the other side, hanging from the fence, a rose next to a bullet and the omni-present watch tower, protecting or threatening? I could not make up my mind about that.

Satoyama Life

by Kazuyuki Ishihara

The designer was inspired by the simple life of people in the Satoyama, living in harmony with nature. I just loved the soft feel of the little garden. Very inviting, but honouring nature with restraining her ever so lightly and with the utmost respect.

Chelsea Flower Show - first Impressions

London Art Fairs and more ...

Found this Guide about the London Art Fair - helps to keep on top of things.

And here you can figure out what to wear in a few years time: The Graduate Fashion Show of the Royal College of Art,  30th Mai

And if the Sofa (among a million other things) can be re-invented, you can explore  here: London Design Week starts tomorrow.

Sosia Bed by Campeggi

via

Sun and Flowers

The sun is supposed to come back later today and I am looking forward to going to the Chelsea Flower Show - never been and looking very much forward to it. Tickets have long gone but there is for the first time the Chelsea Fringe to discover which covers the whole of London (more or less).

How to pimp your pavement

or how to transform the Canal into a Floating Forest are only two projects of an amazing program you can find here. It's on till the 10th of June.

Festival of Baroque Music

The Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, which starts this coming Friday, will open with Le Concert des Nations under Jordi Savall at St. John's, Smith Square. Among other they will play Franz Biber's Batalia - descriptive, sometimes wild, dissonant, contemporary.

what we love

What we love

determines what we seek

what we seek determines

what we think and do

what we think and do

determines who we are

and who we will become

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Re-Opening

The Photographers' Gallery will re-open next Saturday, 19. May 2012

found here

Look at the space they gained! It's two minutes from Oxford Circus, so no excuse. Entry is free, but they are always looking for support

Books, Books, Books

Free books at the Carneby Book Exchange - a great idea! You can sit and enjoy a find , take a book with you and leave one for other people to enjoy. A book club with a difference. You will find it at Kingly Court, just off Carneby Street.

And whilst searching for an appropriate picture I stumbled over this very bookish blog with some lovely book related art etc. like 

by Susana Parada

via

Travelling in Style

St Pancras

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This is the entrance to St Pancras International Station and its Hotel. Recently renovated it does remind you of the glorious days of travelling.

These days, one needs huge signs to even find the entrance ...

King's Cross

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For the Diary

London can be overwhelming - the amount of amazing art, culture and sport events is huge on a normal day, but with the Olympics looming: who can keep up (in a good way) ?

I thought I start collecting some dates for my diary, hugely personal but hopefully you find something of interest for you, too. Might be worth browsing a bit over the coming long weekend since the forecast is miserable ...

Should the sun come out - The Walled Garden at Fulham Palace has reopened - it used to be quite an overgrown but lovely former kitchen garden at the end of the Park - I am looking forward to see it in its former glory. And the Cafe is definitely worth a visit!

Till 23. May The Flying Duchman at the ENO - because I love the theme

25. May The Caught by the River Variety Show is a spin off by the nature and culture website Caught by the River, an intriguing combination of fishing, music, bird watching, poetry, writing and gardening .... 

Check out Rivertones 1, a mix of words by Dylan Thomas, spoken by Richard Burton and studio sounds of King Tubby, I found on their website!

5. July 2012 A story to tell : Past and future dreams for East London by artists, architects, residents and of course politicians

found here

Have a lovely weekend!

Delft Tiles in East London

Discovered these 'Delft Tiles' (painted on panel) by Paul Brommer via the Gentle Author. Lovely! Such a shame I missed the exhibition!! Read more about them here.

Could not resist

Venus of Cupertino

found here

A Piano for the Hallway

A superb piece of furniture for all the family. I really love the simplicity and accessibility (for big and small) . You will find more about the Piano at Feld.

found here

London Calling

found here

Maps

I love maps - We have a huge world map in our kitchen and travel around the globe nearly every dinner!

found here

I therefor very much like this travel concept, where you can scratch off all the places you have visited to reveal your very personalised world.

Flat or House?

Recently I find myself thinking that flat living might be the thing for us. At the moment we live in a rented house with a bit of a garden (a luxury in London - I know). Apart from the house prices which will obviously affect any kind of decision should we ever want to buy and having looked around I do think a big flat would be rather nice. However, and as I have mentioned before, family friendly most of them are not. I am hankering after a Parisian or Berlin style flat, maybe a bit like these here:

Paris

found here 

Berlin

found here

London flats have charm of course, but I discovered that square living is so much nicer than rectangular flats, which you can find a lot of in London - long and narrow hallways are just not my thing, but I am sure the perfect space is somewhere out there !!

London flat

found here

P.S. If you are like me and like to look around other peoples houses, check out freundevonfreunden.com which interviews interesting people in their apartments in more and more major cities around the globe.

It's Friday

What shall we do this weekend? Endless possibilities!

See Picasso at the Tate Britain (till 15. July),

or stock up on your Monster Supplies (at the Ministry of Stories Store),

or walk London with Bowl of Chalk 'pay what you want' tour to find out new and old things about the city

or just find yourself a nice swing and enjoy the moment

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Whatever you do, have a lovely weekend!

Betty Blythe

I am always on the lookout for independent coffeshops and recently came across Betty Blythe in Shepherd's Bush / Brook Green. Quite close to the total opposite which is the enormous Westfield Shopping Centre. A whole world apart,  this vintage shop does very nice coffee (and tea, naturally) in a very cosy atmosphere and is a nice find in an otherwise quite unassuming area.

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World Shakespeare Festival 2012

Part of the 2012 Cultural Olympics and led by the Royal Shakespeare Company, companies from around the world will bring their take on Shakespear to the UK, starting 23. April on London at the Globe Theatre with Troilus and Cressida. Find out more here.

Very small Houses

According to a report by the Royal Institute of British Architects new-build British Houses  are the smallest in Western Europe and I like to add that looking around affordable houses or flats in London (old or new) you certainly get a claustrophobic feeling.

Flats very often are aimed at young couples with no kids, they will offers 'entertainment' space but tiny bedrooms, and most of them have only two - which really does not encourage you to even start a family. Houses are mostly on the small side, so people have started converting the attic and digging deep.

Here is an impressive (and yes, expensive) example of how one can achieve more space in London

found here

Summer Term

Summer Term has started today for the kids (and us) with rain (which we need) and very cold temperature (which we don't need), inspiring me to work on my sketching skills with this quite addictive new app called Paper. It's fun and maybe I will have to share more in the future ....

On the Tube

hans chu

found here

Happy Easter

wishing you some nice and relaxing Easter holidays! See you soon X

Michael Graydon 

found here