On a hot afternoon last week (can you believe it?), I took a quick tour around the 2013 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. Lots of fun. It's definitely worth checking out - there are good things there to suit all tastes. Also: isn't that just the best shade of yellow paint you've seen in a long time?
HAERTS is a band from New York hailing from Germany, England and the United States. Their sound is pretty much the sound I've been waiting for so far this year. All The Days, their new single, is a powerful piece of shimmering pop music and I've had it playing on repeat all day...
Antinous was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the ill-fated lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who drowned in the Nile in October 130. The death was presented as an accident, but it was believed at the time that Antinous had been sacrificed or had sacrificed himself. Hadrian went through the process of deifying him soon afterwards (the glorification of a subject to divine level), a process previously exclusively reserved for imperial family members rather than friends or lovers of non-Roman origin. The grief of the emperor knew no bounds, causing the most extravagant veneration to be paid to Antinous' memory. A cult arose, encouraged by the emperor, to worshop Antinous, that extended throughout the Greco-Roman world. Cities were founded in his name, medals struck with his likeness, and cities throughout the east commissioned godlike images of the dead youth for their shrines and sanctuaries.
I wore my new seersucker blazer and pale orange shirt from Uniqlo to a wedding in Highgate on Friday, along with a pair of mint chinos from the now defunct Aubin & Wills. Shades of gelato all round. It was a glorious day.
Fruit, vegetables and flowers grown and picked by Fern Verrow for sale at Spa Terminus last Saturday morning. Are they not just the most beautiful things you've ever seen? I really cannot recommend a trip to the railway arches of Spa Terminus (a small, unassuming industrial estate in Bermondsey where food producers make and distribute their produce) on a Saturday morning enough - this is when the producers open up their sites to retail customers. Expect to leave laden with everything from ham and cheese to local London honey, bread, coffee and ice cream.
Fending off the gloom and rain.
I'd never been to Sir John Soane's Museum before, much to my own surprise. What an absolute treasure trove. I loved it.
A quick stop by Ben's.
To the British Museum. Cupid!
Ganymede!
My friend Rowena, truly engrossed.
The beautiful Stourhead estate in Wiltshire, a wondrous place that I discovered last weekend. So much to see - woodland, lakes, grottoes, follies, obelisks, statues, as well as Stourhead House itself. (Although really it's all about the gardens...)
Our first lot of vegetables for the month of May. Baby onions, radishes, flat beans, beetroot and, oh, a kohl rabi. (The eternal question: what to do with a kohl rabi?)
