WE HAVE AN unexpected bank holiday today due to the queen's funeral, which marks the end of what has been a whirlwind of non-stop activities leading up to this point, all exhaustively covered by the media. Things reached peak Britishness on Wednesday of last week when Sky News set up a live cam so that we could watch people queue in real time ...
AS FAR AS TRENDS go, double denim is definitely one of our favourites⏤it's casual and comfortable and yet also très chic. Also referred to as denim-on-denim or a Canadian Tuxedo (which we previously thought referred to Canadians' love of the fabric, but actually has something to do with Bing Crosby and a hotel in Vancouver in 1951) ...
IT WAS ONE OF THOSE sipping cava in the sun kind of weekends, hazy and warm and filled with the quiet languidness and melancholy that comes with the knowledge that these days must be savoured before they fade away. I love summertime so much that I am already sad about the thought of it ending before it even begins.
WAS SPEAKING to P today about how these little musings are becoming more and more difficult with everything that has been going on in the world over the past while. After seeing all the horrific images that come out of Ukraine this weekend, feel like I've finally seen too much. That I know too much to still be optimistic. And yet, can't help but still believe in the beauty of this world, of this life⏤even if we have to look extra hard these days to find it ...
WHETHER IT WAS due to the arrival of athleisure about six years ago or the arrival of the pandemic three years ago, we've been dressing up less for a long time now. And even as lockdown restrictions have been lifted and we're hoping to make our way out of this chapter in our lives, some of the habits we've developed over this time have remained, such as the casual way we've been dressing during this time ...
THE BEAUTIFUL sunshine streaming through the windows is at odds with this morning's news of more shelling in Ukraine and a plane crash in China. Every night for the past week, I have been falling asleep to dreams of war. The nights are frenetic and uneasy, the mornings much more calm with lucid thoughts over coffee, at least until the news cycle begins again ...
IF FEBRUARY IS a transitional month to spring, then March is its realisation: the daffodils and warm breezes, cherry blossoms and forsythia let us know for certain that springtime is on its way. And while it may still be a little bit too cool to wear a trench coat just yet, we know that trench season is also on its way and we couldn't be happier to leave our giant puffy coats behind ...
CAME ACROSS this quote by Dr. Seuss yesterday morning: “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.” And it struck a chord because it feels like lately, that we're always waiting/hoping to move past current situations and times and on to better ones ...
P HAS BEEN teasing me about writing my New Year’s Resolutions in mid-February, but that was before I’d told him about all the messages I’d received from you asking after them. It’s so nice how much you love these yearly lists, and to be honest, wasn’t sure I was even going to do it this year, as so far, this new year has been particularly difficult to define...
RATHER THAN sit around watching the terrible progression of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and waiting for the awful news that seems all but inevitable, we're keeping ourselves busy with work as the distraction of choice. It's also made us realise that we've haven't had a chance to visit any places in Eastern Europe yet, despite the fact one of our writers was from Ukraine...
FRIDAY WE WERE glued to the coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I saw women saying tearful good-byes to their soldier husbands and boyfriends, and Ukrainians forming long queues to donate blood and do their bit for their country. I saw a man at a train station saying good-bye to his wife and children, and when he got to his youngest (who couldn't be more than two years old) break down with heavy wracking sobs, hugging her for what he feared might be his very last time ...
JANUARY LASTED a million days but February seems to be flying by. There is sunshine and birdsong, snowdrops, and today we saw a tree blooming with delicate white blossoms. It just as quickly clouded over and there were rainy spells here and there (it is England, after all), but overall, it's been feeling rather springlike. Of course, there are terrible floods again in the south, but hopefully all these weekend storms will pass by soon and we can look forward to warmer days ...
HAPPY VALENTINE'S Day! Do you have anything special planned? This weekend we finally had a chance to watch Nomadland the 2020 film written, produced, edited and directed by Chloé Zhao. It was, in a word, depressing. Poignant, perhaps to the point of heartbreak. In way though, it also made me thankful for my life and the things I have and reminded me to not take them for granted (ever), just as it made me really think about the future in a way I never had before, being someone who spends life between living in the moment and dwelling on the past ...
ARE YOU CLEANING and sorting and organising? We are. In fact, it's all we've been doing for the past month and a week. This year, more than other new years, seems to bring out that desire to clear out and begin again. There are too many dongles for the too many tablets and phones and desktop screens, and books and magazines and old newspapers threaten to overtake wicker baskets and racks while framed artwork and photos lean against walls and remain unhung.