Orpington finds

'The Sound of Music' soundtrack on vinyl. Haven't played it yet, but it doesn't look scratched...not that I'll mind too much if it is, it was worth the purchase for the cheerful cover alone, complete with buttercup scattered meadow and gambolling Von Trapps.

A Persephone Classic that I don't think has even been read, 'Someone at a Distance' by Dorothy Whipple. Not sure whether it will be any good, but I have read many wonderful things about all the carefully chosen Persephone books so will give it a try. I am also, much as I try to resist, a sucker for packaging, and I love both the elegant grey and the individually selected endpapers that all the Persephone books feature.

Potatoes!

All summer long I have been growing potatoes on my teeny-tiny balcony in a sturdy plastic supermarket shopper bag. Yesterday evening I finally harvested the first of my crop (by rooting around in the soil with my bare hands no less, because I have no tools, not even a trowel, but that seemed to work well enough!). I used them to make my supper, a rather rustic leek and potato soup. I say rustic because I don't blend it, but simply use the following method which I learnt from my mother:

Slice the leeks (I used three for the above amount of potatoes) finely and cook in a lidded pan with a generous amount of butter until silky soft. Meanwhile, chop the potatoes into small pieces and boil for about 5min, in the microwave is fine. Drain, then roughly break up with a fork, before adding to the softened leeks. Add half a litre of stock and simmer for a few minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a swirl of cream and perhaps some grated Parmesan if you want to remove the peasant feel. The above measurements are rough I know, but I got two big bowlfuls from it. You could easily increase the quantities and freeze leftovers for a later date.

Very easy, very tasty, possibly a bit unseasonal, but the sky was grey and there was a light spattering of rain in my part of London.

Geraniums and Sunflowers

How the sun shone this weekend. I threw open the windows and marvelled in the blue sky after Thursday's rain, and how pretty my window-box geraniums looked in the sunshine. We took a walk in Regent's Park, and were very happy to see plenty of honey bees as I know they are in decline at the moment. Then to Orpington for some charity shop browsing and a cookery lesson in South Indian cuisine from V's mother. So delicious, and we all ate far too much. V tells me she may be starting a cookery blog soon (with the help of his technological expertise!) so will keep you posted as she really is a fantastic cook. On Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed and made it to Columbia Road flower market before it got too busy. I bought a big bunch of sunflowers to help me get in the mood for our September holiday to Nice - they certainly remind me of childhood trips to the South of France, I remember loving the fields and fields of these bright yellow flowers, all standing to attention facing the sun. Glorious.

Past Finds - Part II

Some more old charity shop finds - although I did raid the charity shops of Orpington when visiting a friend on Saturday, so have some new finds to post about soon. Above is a favourite item of mine, a little glass oval box with a rabbit on the lid. It was 20p from the Salvation Army, quite a bargain I think. It is probably meant for trinkets or rings, to sit on a dressing table, but after giving it a thorough wash out I use it as a tiny butter pot for the breakfast table - it will be even better when Easter comes round.

Below are my vintage champagne and Babycham glasses, which buy whenever I can as I lose them at a rate of about two breakages per cocktail party! 'Buy whenever I can' is actually a bit of an exaggeration - as with most things, I will only buy them if the price is right. There were six Babycham glasses (with the deer on) in Cancer Research in Orpington on Saturday, but £3 each was far more than I was willing to pay.

Black and White, with Orange

(image from The Guardian)

I went to see Coco avant Chanel last night (gotta love Orange Wednesdays). I thought it was beautiful. It is quite a slow moving film, wonderfully subtle, with the scenery, the interiors, and of course the clothes playing as much a part as the actors themselves, though Audrey Tautou was amazing as ever. I think I will wander around in monochrome for the next few days in honour of Chanel.

Four days in

If the first four days are anything to go by, it looks like the August weather is going to be as unpredictable as July's was. On Saturday, it was overcast, with a slight chill in the air, which made me feel far less guilty about the very lazy day we had than I would have done if the sun had been shining. Following a very late night the night before for a friend's birthday, we got back into bed after breakfast and lay, and read, and dozed. Lunch was an indoor picnic of sorts, which we ate whilst leafing through my cookery books to decide what to make for supper for some friends who were coming over. The rain began just as we arrived back from a quick ingredients shop, and we turned the radio on and started chopping and peeling and crushing and squeezing as it got heavier and heavier, falling in sheets over the London rooftops. I was in charge of the evening's main course, and made a Nigel Slater Thai Green vegetable curry, whilst M was in charge of desert, a deconstructed cheesecake (gingernut base, mascarpone and lime cream, mango and passion fruit topping - his own adaptation). It all felt very autumnal with the dark heavy sky and the steamed up windows. I don't want to wish summer away by any means (I still have a summer holiday to come in September, and various summer dresses still to be worn), but some days you just have to go with it.

Sunday of course was a complete contrast, we went to a barbecue in a friend's garden, sat outdoors and drank Pimms and afterwards walked home across Regent's Park, all beneath a clear blue sky.

Yesterday we had more sun, today it was grey and muggy and threatening rain.

Ah, the British summer.

(Oh and I am finally tagging Anna from Book Early with the questions I answered awhile back. I know I am supposed to tag more people, and I really did try, but all my 'newly discovered' blogs seem to have already been tagged by someone else, and I wouldn't want people to have to answer the same questions twice in quick succession!)

A Monday morning shout out

...to a good friend of mine, who isn't a follower of this blog but who subscribes to my posts via RSS feed (not even sure what this is - sounds very technical?!), and who, having read my VV Brown post, promtly downloaded her album for me so he could bring it over when he came for dinner on Saturday night. I listened to it on my walk to work this morning and it was as good as I thought it would be. This friend is always lending me music and recommending some very cool stuff, not to mention frequently creating some awesome playlists for my cocktail parties.

Thanks V (aka thesixfootasian), for providing the soundtrack to my life!