Liberty London Girl

Kate Moss by Corinne Day in The Face 1990

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:21:00 +0000

I found this iconic issue of The Face from July 1990 in the attic. The cover and topless image are reproduced constantly, but I don't recall seeing the others recently, so thought I'd scan them for your edification.

Kate Moss was fifteen when she shot the story, styled by Melanie Ward, which launched her career. The photographs were taken on Camber Sands in England, a traditional seaside resort, and were astonishing for their raw, verité feel; an antidote to the glossy Vogue supermodels. The images were seen by Fabien Baron, and Moss's relationship with Calvin Klein began. It's difficult to over emphasise how influential this story was at the time.

New Year, new organised me

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:55:00 +0000

I have a list as long as my bloody arm of things I need to get done by yesterday. I've already been in England for a month and it seems as though all I have done is Tweet away, cook & eat delicious English food, and walk the dogs.

Most pressing: my New Year's flyer and mail out need to be finished, along with a large chunk of my book, three features need polishing before being filed asap, and I need to sort out all the crates of my things that currently fill the attics of the family home.

Of course the latter is the least urgent, so guess which of the above I've been obsessed with all week? My excuse is that I'm hoping I will be in a position to ship a container out to America at the end of January. After three years in New York, I still haven't sent out my major possessions from England and am starting to get twitchy about not being properly settled out there.

Sure, I have most of my clothes, & vital things like shoes, copies of Vogue, kitchen knives and portfolio in Manhattan, but my thousands of books, art deco cocktail cabinet, good linen, my entire batterie de cuisine and collected bits & pieces still languish in many random containers and a vast assortment of those odd Indian plastic check laundry bags.

Of course, having absolutely no concept of the passage of time, I ran out of time packing up my London flat & had to finish in a hurry. I know I threw all manner of junk in those bags which is now stashed away in the attics for the mice to eat and the pigeons to crap on. After three years with just the basics, I'm loathe to cart a whole load of random stuff over the Atlantic, and so am gleefully chucking things out & donating to the local hospice shop.

Take the contents of my once proudly stocked & housewifely linen cupboard: I do not want all those sheets & towels that I kept for 'just in case' any more; I know that the homeless hostel in Kentish Town always needs them, so off they all go on Monday.

In my organising frame of mind, I decided to finish emptying out the big attic above my old bedroom. After a mug of my mother's rocket fuel coffee this morning, I spent four very unheated hours unwrapping newspaper bundles of childhood junk, and scampering like a bloody monkey up & down the wobbly folding ladder from the attic.

I managed to clear out so many cardboard boxes full of broken toys, pulp novels & stray bits of jigsaw last looked at in 1985 when we moved here, that I ended up waiting 'till my mother went grocery shopping to throw the boxes out the window in my bedroom into the flowerbeds below. I just cldn't face lugging everything along the landings, down stairs and through the house to the skip which arrived yesterday. God I love skips.

A look back at LLG's life in Manhattan in 2007...

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:41:00 +0000

Rummaging in my archives for a re-post isn't my thing, but as I started to put together a blog highlights of 2009 post for my own edification, I came across this linked post summing up 2007, and thought I'd run it again for the wonderful new readers who have stumbled upon LLG this year. Whilst 2009 has been all about travelling around America and elsewhere, in 2007 I was firmly in Manhattan, drinking cocktails, dating and eating a lot of wonderful meals.
________________________

2007 was an extraordinary year. I rounded up my quintessential Manhattan (hanging in hotel rooms with pop stars to eating hotdogs on my East Village stoop) in one prose poem.

And here are some other New York stories:
I started blogging from Manhattan in March 2007. London. New York... Plus ca change...But some things are different
It wasn't all fashion parties. There were book launches too. And supper at Elaine's. And gigs
I bought my first NY bike. And promptly fell off it. Ouch.
I flew home for a wedding.
As it got hotter, working from home turned into sunbathing here, & I changed my wardrobe. And goodness, I seemed to have done a lot of partying.
I discovered blogging memes
Had my first date with a New Yorker, and discovered that what I wear passes many people by.
Fed my inner geek, and realised that I was staying in Manhattan permanently.
Started to discover that some people do think differently over here, and began to work out this dating thing
Played Sartorialist at Lollapalooza in Chicago with lovely L, & experienced my first gifting suite
Learned to wear wellies in Manhattan, & flashed my knickers in a BBCTV studio.
Spent September attempting to dispel a few myths about fashion people, went on location here, and played non-bridesmaid for Miss P.
Dating went from bad to worse & I discovered that going out here is not like Sex & the City.
Kissed a boy. Turned into a stalker, and gave up on dating.
My birthday party was utterly bloody brilliant and I ate my weight the next week before celebrating Christmas early by painting Manhattan red .
I returned to London for an operation, and completed my guide to Manhattan restaurants.

And finished the year, conveniently, by writing what would be my favourite blog post so far, reminiscing about my eccentric grandmother.

LLG in 1989

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:48:00 +0000

Drawn in 1989 by my best friend at boarding school, Nicole. I'm not sure many of my characteristics have changed much. Short skirt? Check. Head permanently in a book? Check. Long hair? Check. Specs? Check. Gormless expression? Check.

The Face 1991 - a snapshot of pop culture

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:46:00 +0000

I've been deep in attic clearing over the past few days. There's a ludicrous amount of rubbish up there, and I've managed to get rid of boxes of paperbacks & filled several binbags with broken toys. Muv tells me that the skip arrived yesterday and I am twitching to get back and start filling that puppy.

Fortunately for my sanity, there is some treasure amongst all the dross: there's an as yet uninvestigated box of the NME, dating from the mid-late eighties, and I unearthed a pile of The Face from 1991. The magazine ran from 1980-2004, operating on the cutting edge of fashion & music, and I read it as a very young teenager in the 80s, even when I was too young to really understand what it was talking about.

Whilst some of the cover stars (The Farm & Dee-Lite) on the issues I unearthed have been superceded today, Johnny Depp and Kylie still reign supreme, although they were in quite different places back then. Kylie was a bit of a tongue in cheek joke, flailing around at the tail end of the Stock Aitken Waterman years, before she got hip, and became a national treasure.

And Johnny was still a nascent indie movie star, fresh off his hit TV show 21 Jump Street, with just five films under his belt. He was more famous for dating Winona Ryder. Although Edward Scissorhands would change all that.

Sherilyn Fenn - in the days when everyone was utterly obsessed with David Lynch and Twin Peaks.

When rap was something quite, quite different:

Wishing you all a very happy 2010

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:44:00 +0000

Fireworks off Long Branch Beach, New Jersey. Independence Day, 2009

Last lunch of 2009

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:56:00 +0000

There is something so peculiarly English about walking into the chippie, and asking for 'a portion of chips, open'. Yum.

Washing muddy dogs: the glamour of my life

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Poor Posetta. Having such a low undercarriage means a dunk in the Bristol sink after every walk. That low slung tum picks up mud, twigs, and all manner of grime which I then get to wash off.

Emily & I had a wonderful walk on the 27th. The light mid-afternoon was extraordinary. We headed off with all three dogs up the cart track to the pines by the disused railway bridge:

And then down past the frozen fishing lakes:

The dogs started to concentrate on the business of getting as muddy as possible:

There are still sloes on the blackthorns:

As we crossed the disused railway line, the sun came out over the hill towards Canons Ashby House and Priory in one direction,

Amd towards Eydon in the other.

I am going to miss this countryside. We've lived here for nearly twenty-five years, but I think the house will be sold in 2010, and so we will move away, probably never to return. It's been a very bittersweet Christmas for that reason.

My father & aunt

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:20:00 +0000

I found this print, dating from the mid-1960s, in a box of my papers up in the attic yesterday. I guess it's no surprise I ended up working in fashion. More about my shoe designer aunt here.

Headmasters: glamorous (& inexpensive) UK blowdrys

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:44:00 +0000

I adore having my hair 'done'. It's not that I have an aversion to doing it myself but long hair takes time to style, and at the moment it's inadvertently grown so long that it's a right pain having to blow-dry it myself, let alone having to wield the curling tongs of death. So when I got an email about UK salon chain Headmasters' special festive blow dry collection, I tapped out a yes, please reply to their publicist quicker than Posetta Baddog can steal a sausage.

It just so happens that I'm a big fan of the Headmasters approach: every year they launch a new Blow Dry Collection, consisting of various looks for a customer to point at in the hope of exiting the salon looking just like the model.

Where Headmasters differs from most hairdressers is that the looks in their collections aren't those tortured, completely unachievable & directional styles, best left to Hairdressers Journal & The British Hairdressers Awards, but fantastic going out dos that won't leave you looking like you stuck your fingers in a socket.

Booked in for The Social Butterfly, as illustrated above, I was promised, "half up / half down hair...running in two textures - the undone tousled look and the blown-out soft wave - enabling you to choose the finish to match the occasion. The fringe is left out, a little height is created at the top and the hair is pinned at the sides. It's sexy, gorgeous, Bardot-esque hair that looks like you haven't tried too hard."

Creative director Jonathan (who I love for not picking up a strand of my fried split ends and blanching in horror), went for undone tousled (not that he had much choice given the condition of my hair) and created this silk purse out of my poker straight hair, backcombing the crown which I adore - so flattering, & inducing my hair into Mills & Boon-esque tumbling waves:

I was thrilled. Not least because I was tottering off afterwards for a rip-roaringly festive meal with choice members of the internets at blissful Scotts, and it's always nice for a girl not to look like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards whilst getting tipsy on vintage Champagne at lunchtime.

Truly, he is a miracle worker. And the shocker? The Social Butterfly blow dry is available at Headmasters salons nationwide from just £22. You don't get bargains like that in New York, I can tell you.

All I can add is: take an umbrella. I shrieked extremely unlady-like swear words that were decidedly not in keeping with my glamorous new hairstyle as I exited into the pouring rain.

www.hmhair.co.uk Call 08700 841 400 for your nearest salon

Decorating the village church for Christmas

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Each year my mother helps to decorate the village church for the Christmas services. St.Mary the Virgin in the village of Moreton Pinkney dates from the late 12th century and, in the winter late afternoon light, the country churchyard transports one to a different, earlier world in a flash.

Even after a degree in theology, I remain firmly in the no-idea-what-I-believe category, but I do think that community, village tradition & remembrance is important, and the thought of Christmas without carols & church is anathema to me.

The village war memorial (with whippet footprints)

Of course, we couldn't decorate without the dogs, who adore exploring the churchyard, with its flock of attendant Jacob's sheep.

Inside the church, which dates in most part from the late 12th Century, the re-built Victorian chancel is particularly beautiful, and unusual for its simplicity in an era known for its stained glass.

My mother likes her flowers in this church to reflect both its simplicity and the rural location, so no hothouse flowers, spiky gladioli and droopy carnations here, but leaves and berries collected from the lanes around the village:

And then home, skating across the thickly iced paths, for tea & buttery toasted crumpets.

A rather belated Happy Christmas to you all from myself & PB:

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:17:00 +0000

Firstly: a very big thank you to all the LLG readers who have emailed or Tweeted me to check that I hadn't fallen down a rabbit hole. These six days have been the longest break that I have had from blogging since I started this blog back in 2006 - bar the year I took off when my magazine world job meant blogging conflicted with an in-house ethics policy.

I've been enjoying a family Christmas - unexpected, but mandated by the weather and lovely for its spontaneity, where even Posetta Baddog got caught up in the spirit of the season.

If one counts stealing & refusing to drop Santa's hat, before chewing it up, as festive spirit?

Not quite up to speed

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:48:00 +0000

I do apologise for the slight hiatus in blogging anything of interest. I finally arrived in London a full 36hrs after my intended departure from home, (curse you Clerk of the Weather), and spent yesterday evening slumped on the sofa at Tara's, blissfully full of delicious homemade Thai curry, and watching my beloved David Tennant kick Martian alien ass in Doctor Who, before skidding back to lil'sis' on snow and black ice at 15mph (I sense a theme developing here) through an eerily deserted Highgate village. I then stayed up till 4am writing a report.

After a blow dry at Headmasters (more of this later), & a long, ahem, festive lunch at Scott's in Mayfair today, I crawled to Queen's Crescent, planning on an evening spent in the company of Gossip Girl, Posetta Baddog and my sister.

Unfortunately, we then worked out that if we spent the evening pootling we would have to get up at 5am in order to leave for the country by 9am, So, galvanised, we have been scooting around the house sorting it all. It is now nearly 1am and I have:

Scrabbled around on stepladders and under beds hauling out stashed gifts, suitcases and holiday stuff
Gone through my sister's numerous closets to put together her holiday wardrobe for Florida next week
Packed all our stuff for our various Christmas experiences, & assembled a leaning tower of stuff in the hallway
Pulled together a festive wardrobe for Posetta Baddog (muzzle, leash, Bad to the Bone sweater)
Wrapped a mountain of presents & developed Sellotape thumb

This has taken a staggeringly inefficient six hours. It is now 1am & I am going to sleep the sleep of the just.

Snow Day

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:14:00 +0000

I am becoming progressively less enchanted with the snow. Yesterday I had to cancel a day at the Coco Shambhala spa at The Met in London, when my little two seater was defeated by the snow & ice covered steep hill from our house to civilisation. (The other way out is over a frozen ford and a cart track. Not especially feasible unless one has a 4WD or a handy Tardis.)

So, instead of luxuriating in lovely spa treatments, I wrapped godchild presents to catch the last guaranteed First Class post before Christmas as there was no way I was going to be able to deliver them in person, as planned.

Late afternoon, I managed to get up the hill, and onto the main road. Unfortunately, the side turning to Woodford Halse and its tiny post office is not much frequented. So, no lovely council gritting lorry had made its way down those lanes.

The entire journey crawled by at a steady 20mph, hands clamped on the wheel, soothing Radio Four in the background, as my wheels slipped across the ice. At eighteen and a few months after passing my driving test, I wrote off my first car on the way back from a funeral by braking on black ice on the long, curving bend around Rockingham Castle. (In my defence, no-one had ever taught me to look for black ice or what to do with it). Ever since I have been like a cat on hot bricks in icy conditions.

I made it there & back in one piece, but was seriously shaken & in need of restorative Earl Grey. Bloody well hope those infants appreciate their presents!

Abahna Giveaway RESULTS (better late than never)

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Time has rather run away with me, but I finally had time to pick three winners from the giveaway on this post earlier this month, (using numbers generated by random.org) for the lovely Abahna Foam blending sets which retail for £40.00 each. Please can you all contact me at libertylondongirl@gmail.com for details on how to claim yr presents!

Passementerie said...
Oh... what do I need to take a bath? Well, there are two sorts of bath. There is bath-with-baby and bath-with-nobody. Fun as the former is, I think I prefer the latter (if that isn't too disloyal to said baby!). And my needs are simple - peace and quiet. Maybe a book (but not a magazine - too heavy to hold out of the water). Maybe a box of Charbonnel et Walker pink champagne truffles. Maybe even a glass of... but no. All I really *need* is the luxury of some peace.

Natty said... All I need for my perfect bath is my thoughts and my Fortnum and Mason Rose bath oil. Wonderful!

Brit in Bosnia / Fraught Mummy said...

Enter me please! I'd be very overexcited, not so much in the luxurious bath ranges to be found over here.As for bath necesseties? Well with 2 small boys on the go all the time, I really need to be on my own. For the entire duration of the bath. Now that would be bliss indeed.

Vintage Christmas tree baubles from Shikasuki

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:56:00 +0000

Christmas trees and decorations do not go up in many European countries until Christmas Eve. If you are one of those families who have yet to deck their halls, then you may be interested in these fab vintage Christmas tree baubles from Shikasuki in Primrose Hill, London.

They have sourced their baubles from all over the world, from Moscow to the USA. Most of them date from the 1940s to the 1960s. The pine cones above came from Ukraine, and they also have 1940s feather angels with porcelain heads.

Shikasuk, 67 Gloucester Avenue, Primrose Hill, London, NW1 8LD

Dr Organic - Manuka Honey Rescue Cream

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:00:00 +0000

The prospect of snow is one thing. Dealing with it upon arrival is quite another. I took one step outdoors on Friday and my skin dried up like a raisin. It isn’t the snow so much as the wind that whips across it, turning my Clarins plumped cheeks into dehydrated pouches.

With the joyful synchronicity that often happens in my job, a parcel arrived containing Dr Organic Manuka Honey Rescue Cream.

I slathered it on, & ventured outdoors. An hour later, after dog walking, sheep feeding and general pratting about in the show I came indoors, defrosted and prodded my face. Still moisturised, still plump, no flakiness or wind burn. Impressive. I was glowing too, but I'll put that down the effect of unaccustomed exercise.

I usually test a product for a good few weeks before writing it up but, given that this is not an daily face cream, that I have used it for three days in below freezing conditions, and that my extremely sensitive skin hasn't broken out, (which happens almost instantaneously with the wrong product), I'd say this was a winner.

Unlike many heavy creams, which are dependent on mineral oil & petroleum (Creme de la Mer springs to mind), this relies on organic Manuka honey, known for its restorative & healing properties, hyaluronic acid which aids skin water retention, giving a plumped up look, soothing aloe vera, mosqueta rose oil also known for reducing scarring, sweet almond oil which is a lubricant, borage oils which restore moisture and reduce flakiness, and shea butter & cocoa butter instead of mineral oil.

Best news of all? It's just £7.99, and the range is produced by British health food store Holland & Barrett. It's hypo-allergenic, free from parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), perfumes or artificial fragrances, GM ingredients or mineral oil.

Now I just need to find something similar for my wind ravaged hair. I suspect the hairdresser's scissors may be the best answer, as no product on earth can glue my split ends together.

Organic Manuka Honey Rescue Cream 50ml

Elizabeth David & Jane Grigson's Mushroom soup a la Bresse

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Potage aux champignons a la bressane

If asked to come up with the menu for my final meal, this soup would be a strong contender for the first course. It’s intensely mushroomy, and is a pleasing proper mushroom grey colour, flecked with black mushroom gills. When left overnight it thickens considerably and makes a rather good sauce for chicken.

What separates it from other mushroom soups is its secret ingredient: a thick slice of bread. Jane Grigson tells us that sauces in the Middle Ages used breadcrumbs for thickening (as opposed to flour or a final enriching addition of egg yolks & cream).

Apparently this culinary habit persisted into Tudor times, and has a final echo today in the Christmas bread sauce. The most extraordinary thing is that there is no trace whatsoever of the taste or texture of the bread upon eating.

I’ve had great success in cooking this soup for avowed mushroom avoiders. And so I’d like to dedicate this post to the memory of our friend Sean Donovan, who was killed in the summer of our second year at university, who hated mushrooms and loved this soup.

The recipe below comes from Jane Grigson’s seminal 1975 cookbook The Mushroom Feast, which I naughtily bought on the book bursary I was awarded for my theology degree. Grigson found it first in Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking, but I’ve chosen Grigson’s version to run here as it is slightly clearer.

I make this from memory, by sight now, but I did actually cook it according to the exact recipe for these photographs.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Mmm butter.

Chop mushrooms roughly

Cast mushrooms into saucepan to cook gently in the butter. As the juices run, add half the parsley, garlic, salt & nutmeg to taste.

Realise you have forgotten to pick the parsley, put on unspeakable gardening clogs and venture out into the night to forage for parsley.

Add the chopped parsley to saucepan

Take heel of stale bread from bread bin. Remove crusts

Tear the slice of bread into pieces and soak in a cup of the stock.

Transfer everything into the saucepan and add the remaining stock. Cook for fifteen minutes

and then blend in the pan with a stick blender (or use a liquidizer)

Heat the cream to a boil, add to soup with the rest of the parsley. Adjust seasoning

Ingredients
The soup is named from Bresse, an area of France famous for its food, and for being the home country of Brillat-Savarin. Grigson tells us that recipes from the area have ‘a fine simplicity of flavour which can only be created by using ingredients of the finest quality, without skimping’.

Well, that’s us told.

¾ lb mushrooms chopped (I like to use a mixture of large flat, white, and brown/chestnut to get the best flavour)
2 ozs butter (Do not use margarine EVER)
2 tbsps chopped parsley
small piece of garlic, chopped
salt, freshly ground black pepper
nutmeg or mace
a thick slice of bread
1 ¾ pints good stock (I’m afraid poor Jane wld roll in her grave as I use Marigold bouillon)
3-4 ozs cream

Headmistress Hair Accessories

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:30:00 +0000

Having had long hair for allof my adult life (apart from the two years at university where I inadvisedly cropped it), I'm always drawn in the manner of a greedy magpie to shiny, pretty things to wear on my head. At the moment I am rather fond of the be-feathered, be-netted and be-buttoned creations from Headmistress, a tiny independent label, set up by Jillian Wood, a Canadian in London, who has since returned to Toronto.

She uses all manner of feathers, vintage bits & pieces, lovely fabrics, including Liberty prints, and netting to create fascinators, hair bands & clips and teeny tiny cocktail hats to perch on the side of your head in the manner of a 1950s filmstar.

Chloe
Cream band, brown veiling, natural french partridge feathers, ringneck pheasant almond feathers, chocolate brown satin picot bow, gold & black vintage glass button. $45.00

Barrie
Black band, yellow french partridge feathers, burgundy-orange pheasant hair feathers, wine satin picot bow, gold & black vintage glass button. $45.00

Leslie
Silver woven base, black veiling, netting, rooster feathers and satin bow, black & silver vintage glass button. $65.00

Giz
Wild turkey feather, natural french partridge feathers, ringneck pheasant almond feathers, taupe satin picot bow, gold button. $18.00

In England you can buy at Sunday Upmarket at 91 Brick Lane every Sunday. For Canadians, last orders for Christmas are tomorrow (Monday). She has lots of stockists in Candada,and some in Italy & in Australia too. Check out more at the Headmistress site.

Columbia Road Sunday Flower Market & Independent shops

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:10:00 +0000

When I first moved to London, I lived around the corner from Columbia Road in the East End, and I've been going to the Sunday flower market there ever since with my best friends and with my family.

Last Sunday I extracted Meriel from the grip of her adorable baby Lily. We braved the hectic centre aisle of flower stalls, contemplated the miseltoe & holly,

and then spent our afternoon browsing through the wonderful independent stores, restaurants & other businesses along both sides of Columbia Road & along Ezra Sreet, which normally only open on Sundays to coincide with the market.

I like Bahasa at number 114 for chic imported homewares & properly kitsch tree decorations:

All trips to Columbia Road require pit stops for nourishment. Fairy cakes from traditional English cake shop Treacle at number 112 are my choice:

Present shopping is simple, no matter for whom you are buying. Pantone mugs for creative types from amongst the design stuff at Supernice at number 106:

Beautiful tiles from brilliant illustrator Rob Ryan's shop Ryantown at number 126:

I am rather longing for a leather briefcase from Wawa (who also sell elegant chaise longues & sofas) around the corner at 3 Ezra Street.

Established in 1979, Idonia Van der Bijl was one of the first shops on Columbia Road, and is my absolute favourite place for interesting, not expensive presents. Meriel bought glass votive night lights for £1.50 here last weekend, and last year I bought lil'sis the dachsie mug and Muv the Jack Russell one as part of their Christmas presents:

There are actually shops that sell gardening supplies, it being a flower market an'all. I like Open House at 152, who sell vintage style hanging baskets, & The Garden Shop at number 120:

Where you can also buy jute bags to carry your shopping:

And don't forget some sweeties from Suck & Chew at number 130 for the way home:

I cannot describe the nostalgic bliss of being able to ask for 'a quarter of pear drops, please' instead of 100gms...

(Columbia Road flower market and shops are open on Sundays from 8am ’til 3'ish. Columbia Road is in the East End sitting on the edge of the City of London, with Shoreditch to the west and Brick Lane & Spitalfields nearby.)
Nearest tube:
Old Street, Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green Road.
www.columbiaroad.info

Images above by LLG. More at Flickr here

Moroccan Root Vegetable Stew sort of Tagine

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:06:00 +0000

Muv tried to get some fresh groceries on Thursday night but the apocalypse locusts had descended upon the local Co-op and there wasn’t a fresh vegetable or pint of milk to be had in advance of the forecast snow storm.

When we woke up on Friday morning everything around was blanketed in virginal white. The thick snow kept coming down, and the gritters hadn’t been to our tiny Northamptonshire village, so lunch was whatever I could come up with from the larder.

In weather like this, all I want to do is eat delicious spicy food, central heating for my soul. I found some sweet potatoes, a butternut squash & a sprouting baking potato. No other vegetables. There was a tub of Dean & Deluca Moroccan spice rub on a shelf, and a tub of marinated olives lurking at the back of the fridge. So a sort of tagine seemed indicated.

I was HUNGRY after sheep feeding and in no mood for hours of gentle simmering while vegetables cooked. So: a bastardised, completely cheating, LLG version of a sort of tagine…

I peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes & baking potato. The squash I chopped up, leaving the peel on. I steamed everything together until not quite cooked (because they wld finish cooking later) and reserved the steaming water.

Meanwhile, I chopped the onion and sweated it gently in olive oil, adding an extremely generous tablespoon of the Moroccan spices. When the squash was cooled, I peeled it – much easier than trying when it’s raw.

I then added all the chopped vegetables to the spiced onion, and poured in the reserved hot steaming water until it covered the vegetables, & looked like the picture below. I didn’t have any of the traditional chick peas, so added a can of drained, rinsed cannellini beans, followed by a small packet of blanched whole almonds and a large cup of olives. (Even if the almonds are a bit soft, mine were out of date stamp - considerably - they absorb all the lovely cooking juices and become plumped and crispy again, adding a great textural contrast to the meltingly soft vegetables.)

I then simmered it for about thirty minutes until it was thickened and rich. Some of the potato chunks broke down, which helped to thicken the sauce.

Served over some quick couscous mixed with the seeds of a pomegranate that was lurking in the crisper drawer, it was the perfect winter lunch. Ten minutes prep. Thirty minutes bubbling with the occasional stir.

Ingredients:
olive oil
2 x sweet potato
I x baking potato
half a small butternut squash
Moroccan seasoning
one medium white onion
can of drained, rinsed chick peas or cannellini beans or whatever beans you have to hand
one packet blanched almonds
a large cup of olives (mine were in oil, so I rinsed them briefly)
(In my view there can be no such thing as too many almonds or olives in a tagine, so add as much as you like)
2 c tbsps finely xhopped preserved lemon would be great if you have it kicking around, added with the olives.

Family photographs: My beautiful, eccentric grandmother

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:04:00 +0000

We aren't having a family Christmas this year, about which I am sad but, given the twin horrors of parental divorce (still very much ongoing) and recession finances, my mother could hardly be expected to host this year without losing her marbles.

One factor in having a small celebration is that our grandparents are all dead. Only their photographs remain on the walls, and I've been feeling all nostalgic this December, making sure my mother tells me all the stories behind the images. These two glorious photographs are of my maternal grandmother. She was eccentric to say the least. (I wrote about her here). But goodness she was a beauty in her day. It's fair to say that I haven't inherited her Helen of Troy appeal, (three husbands), but I do have her legs & well turned ankles, for which I am thankful every time I stand on the scales & wince.

I'm afraid the sepia tones didn't scan very well...

Edwyn UK dog inspired home accessories

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:30:00 +0000

If you are looking for Christmas presents for your four-legged friend - or for your four-legged friend loving friend, then I suggest taking a look at Edwyn UK, whose handmade doggy inspired home accessories make the most perfect gifts.

Inspired by their glorious Welsh Terrier, Edwyn, (in his own Edwyn Uk neckerchief),

his clever owners developed a range of products to suit hound and home, that reflected both their heritage and the things that they love.

Dachshund doorstop

Hand embroidered Sealyham Terrier cushion.

Edwyn UK do take commissions too, so your favourite breed of hound can be immortalised. (Although probably not in time for Christmas!)

Usually Edwyn UK sell at Spitalfields Traders Market, near Liverpool Street Station on Thursdays and Fridays 10am to 4pm. www.spitalfields.co.uk/traders.php

BUT today they are at the Christmas Fair at Abney Hall, 73a Stoke Newington Church Street and are at Spitalfields next week on Wednesday 23rd & on Thursday 24th for those last minute but completely essential Christmas presents.

Pug cushion

In the New Year, Edwyn UK's Etsy shop will be back up & running. Due to Christmas, all Etsy pieces are on sale elsewhere. Meanwhile you can email Edwyn UK through their Etsy site.

Cactus fashion boutique in Banbury

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:22:00 +0000

Cactus in Banbury, Oxfordshire is a womenswear boutique that fills a vast yawning fashion gap in a beautiful medieval market town that has fallen victim, in equal part, to town planners and big box retail.

My parents have lived in the area for twenty five years and I spent my teenage years wishing for a shop that sold clothes I wanted to buy. I usually ended up in Oxfam or in the army surplus store. More recently the chain stores have arrived, but the branches are small, and the buy generic.

And that's exactly why I am now a huge fan of Cactus. When I'm at my parents I don't want to have to drive 40 minutes to Oxford to buy clothes or presents. Its owners George Wisner, an ex BBC set designer, and his daughter Shelley have editorialised the boutique, with complete looks, combined from different labels, hanging from the walls, and lots of visual suggestions for how to put outfits together.

I always gravitate towards interesting costume jewellery, and Cactus' buy is particularly strong, and perfect for Christmas presents. Prices are in the £10-25 range, and there are great vintage pieces too. It's probably one of the best interesting & affordable jewellery edits I've seen in an independent store anywhere.

This is the perfect time of year to visit: when I looked around, there were silk chiffon party dresses, brocade jackets & lace guipure boleros from Darling from an astonishingly good value £65.

(Darling is one of my favourite pretty dress brands: the fabrics & styling would be at home at a price point two or even three time higher).

Ted Baker

There are plenty of inexpensive accessories too:

They don't just stock party clothes: there's plenty of daywear from Ted Baker, Paige Jeans, Fenn Wright & Manson, White Stuff and Nougat amongst others.

Fenn, Wright & Manson coat

Nougat cardigan

Cactus, 20 Parson's Street Banbury, OX16 5LY - 01295 262 805
Open Mon-Sat 9:30am-5:30pm
More Cactus photos here

Paige Denim

Snow & whippets in Northamptonshire

libertylondongirl@gmail.com (Liberty London Girl) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:21:00 +0000

This is what I saw outside this morning:

Those are not smears on my lens. Those are snowflakes.

I took the hounds out for a trot. Billy, although I am assured he has seen snow before, went a little bonkers:

That dog could unearth a tennis ball at the North Pole.

This post is for Miss Whistle, who is currently languishing in 80F in Los Angeles, but who misses the English winter.
Maudie remained singularly unimpressed: