BEFORE P’S brother came to visit last July, he asked for London tips, and one of the places we recommended was Gordon’s Wine Bar on Villiers Street. We hadn’t even been yet, but we heard good things.
THE LAST TIME I did a Life Lately was way back in February, and a lot has happened since then. Here is the latest photo diary⏤a few snippets from the past days and weeks, from the pink peonies and tulips in Fulham (just before we stopped in at the charming Fox & Pheasant pub) to sailboats on the Thames, the Tate, chestnut trees in Bushy Park, and more...
WHILE we often discuss the downside of social media, it can sometimes still be a great place to find inspiration. For instance, we recently came across this calm and sophisticated London home belonging to a wellness entrepreneur and writer.
One of the stultifying but ultimately true maxims of the analytics movement in sports says that most narratives around player performance are lies. Each player has a “true talent level” based on their abilities, but the actual results are mostly up to variance and luck.
LAST WEEK I spoke about a need for change, to declutter and move away from maximalist tendencies and bright colours to a more subdued, neutral palette. Well, I may be changing my mind again, after seeing this bedside table (above) with its pile of books, bright pink table lamp and goldenrod-hued headboard in English Interior Designer Luke Edward Hall's Gloucestshire country home.
A FEW WEEKS ago, a past contributor at TIG asked for restuarant recommendations in London for her upcoming trip, and I had forgortten to mention Luca in Clerkenwell. Its tagline is "British seasonal ingredients through an Italian lens" and it is known for using high-quality ingredients from around the British Isles and Italy, including seasonal produce such as shrimps from Morecambe Bay, grouse from Yorkshire, langoustines from Scotland and cheeses from across the country ...
On March 9, 1945, an armada of more than three hundred B-29s flew fifteen hundred miles across the Pacific to attack Tokyo from the air. The planes carried incendiary bombs to be dropped at low altitudes. Beginning shortly after midnight, sixteen hundred and sixty-five tons of bombs fell on the city.
BEFORE Kerri Lipsitz began decorating homes, she worked in fasion PR. Her current flat in Primrose Hill, bought in 2017 and spread over two floors of a Victorian terrace, is an example of her transition from fashion into interior design.
IN AUGUST OF 2020, we featured the bohemian eclectic Notting Hill home of Matilda Goad and just discovered that her and her husband have sold the place. The new home, a Victorian terrace also in London, is equally bohemian eclectic, or perhaps even more so ...
THIS PAST WEEK, we were back in London, thinking it might be the last time in a long time again that we would be able to be out and about before another national lockdown. We were also there to celebrate the holidays and two anniversaries. When we were last here, it was May, and things were only tentatively opening up again. All the pubs and restaurants were outdoor seating only, which mean it was difficult to find a table without booking the good places in advance through an app. The weather was unseasonably rainy and cold and we wondered if it had been a good decision to come ...
YOU MAY HAVE noticed that aside from last week's Links and one set of articles on Monday, there were no new posts this past week. We spent the entire week in London, taking time off from everything and it was wonderful. We ate Italian food in Marylebone and discovered a wine club housed in bare-brick vaults and lit by candlelight ...
SUNDAY MORNING was spent on the sofa with a 15-minute sheet mask on, poring over the FT Weekend. There was an interesting article about the concept of time, and how not to waste it by using the time you have now to do at least a little of what you care about, instead of banking on finding time for it in the future. That novel that you always wanted to write? Now is the time.
IN THE SECOND week of May, just after the Bank Holiday, we decided to spend some time back in London. We normally visit several times a year, but since 2020 was the year of the Great Lockdown, the last time we had been was the May previously to meet up with a friend from Spain—it was hot then and perfect for traipsing about. P had heard that there would be a heat wave this time around
YESTERDAY WE went on a long bicycle ride in the countryside, up and down hilly roads past wild roses and babbling brooks all the way to the castle ruins. It's only our third or so time out on our new folding bikes, and I've discovered that I have an unrealistic, romanticised version of what it might be like to go riding in the countryside: I would wear pretty things and not get hot or tired and arrive at our destination looking perfect.
Early in 2004, a buoy was released into the waters off Argentina. Half of the buoy was dark and the other light, like a planet in relief. The buoy sailed east, accompanied by the vastness of the ocean and all the life it contains, the long-lived great humpback whales with their complex songs that carry for kilometers, and the short-lived Argentine shortfin squid. Along the way, many thousands of minuscule creatures were colonizing this new surface, which had appeared like a life raft in the open waters of the South Atlantic.
