illustration: boy in shirt with yellow collar

sam lee

I was excited to come across the very talented Sam Lee recently. Referred to by The Telegraph as 'the rising star of traditional English folksong', Sam's debut album Ground Of its Own was nominated for the 2012 Mercury Music Prize. The record is an interpretation of eight traditional folk songs - songs sourced directly by Sam from oral tradition rather than via book research, many of which he learned from gypsy and traveller communities. It's a beautiful piece of work.

Sam (along with his friends) will be performing at Wilderness Festival in August, and luckily for me, I've got tickets. Sam himself described Wilderness as 'the quintessential festival experience full of adventure, great music, wild swimming and spontaneous fun – like a dreamy cocktail of country summer holidays with friends amongst a soft paved city full of parties all canopied beneath the most giant ancient oak trees'. Roll on August - I can't wait...

new work

I'm making new things. Coming soon.

a cashmere soldier

Naturally very keen on this one. A waving soldier? Camel cashmere? A no-brainer. Burberry Prorsum Soldier-Intarsia Cashmere Sweater from MR PORTER.

biscuits

I made biscuits at the weekend. Chocolate and pistachio, since you asked. I adapted an old Nigel Slater recipe for soft chocolate cookies - find the original version here. Alas, no hazelnuts were to be found in my local supermarket, so I had to improvise. (I do love a pistachio and I rather like the flash of green you end up with too - like little broken jewels in the mud.) Absolute bliss with a glass of cold milk on a Sunday afternoon. The recipe makes 12 'large cookies', but by (happy) accident, I made 6 enormous ones instead. Suffice it to say, they'd all disappeared by lunchtime on Monday.

prada autumn/winter 2013

Oh, Prada. You can barely put a foot wrong. (Remember the recent Wes Anderson-directed Candy short films?) Ben Whishaw, Ezra Miller and Christoph Waltz model the autumn/winter 2013 collection. Such excellent styling and colours.

lorde

Lorde is a 16-year-old (!) singer-songwriter and aspiring pop star from New Zealand. I think she's pretty great. Really great, in fact. Her new single Tennis Court is equal parts smart, snappy and sweet. Have a listen below. (Although, in all honesty, the illustration above was enough to win me over. A rat! A snake! A rat and a snake!)

just married

Beautiful flowers (by the Flower Appreciation Society) created for my friend Paula's wedding, which took place a few Fridays ago at the Highgate Society in north London.

The bride's transportation... Brilliant, no?

summer exhibition

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?

wish list: maps

Band of Outsiders Map-Print Cotton Shirt from MR PORTER.

haerts

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...

illustration: cult of antinous

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.

a wedding outfit

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.

fern verrow

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.

i am listening to...