Of Night and Light and the Half Light

The natural well at Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams; 

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

(W.B. Yeats)

Tying a votive to the tree at the well

My family is from Ireland a few generations back on my father's side and I carry an Irish surname. I love it when a couple of my friends call me Mac (it's fun to be one of the boys sometimes) but I never felt too much affinity with my Irish roots, even after a visit to Dublin many years ago. However, my trip to my actual ancestral home of County Donegal last year brought me more in tune with that heritage and the romance of the Irish countryside...

And then there's Yeats. I've always struggled with poetry, I must confess, but Yeats was one of the few poets that I actually got, that actually grabbed me, even back in high school English classes. 

So, with a far greater sense of connection and with far less cynicism about it just being an excuse for a piss up, this year I wholeheartedly wish you a happy St Patrick's Day. And I'll leave you with a traditional Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

And rains fall soft upon your fields. 

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

The Forgotten Saint's Day

People tend to start thinking about St Patrick's Day around this time of year and planning their emerald green outfits, but what about the patron saint's day that comes today, two weeks before St Patrick's Day? Yes, happy St David's Day everyone! Or more rightly, in Welsh, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant hapus!

In the valleys

I've had a soft spot for the Welsh and Wales for some time, all beginning with getting into some Welsh bands when I was a teenager. And what a better avenue in to exploring the Welsh culture than music, as the Welsh are famously known for being a musical people - with 'music in their blood and poetry in their souls'.

On the south coast

And what a beautiful country it is, to inspire that music and poetry. I remember the first time I ever went to Wales, travelling from the south, up out to Aberystwyth on the coast and then ultimately up to the north. When I got to Conwy, I remember standing on the castle walls that surround the town and looking out into the surrounding mountains and truly believing there were dragons out there in the wild.

Near Llangollen

So I thought I should mark the day of the Welsh patron saint with a wee post, sharing some pictures of that mountainous, beautiful land from a winter-time family trip there a few years ago. So, go ahead, drink Guinness and enjoy the craic in a couple of weeks' time but do spare a thought for the Welsh and their saint today. I give you my blessing to go out and pick a wild daffodil and wear it in your hair as a mark of solidarity with the Welsh... Or how about cooking up some Welsh cakes? Mmmm... So tasty.

Llangollen train station

Gyda chariad (with love), 

Miss Marie

x

In Between Days

I love the relaxed days in-between Christmas and New Year's Eve, when the world is in slow-motion, particularly in London, where the contrast between this time and everyday life is so marked. 

And so I share with you some glimpses of these past few days.

Dulwich and Forest Hill on the twenty-seventh:

Somerset House terrace on the twenty-eighth:

Perambulations around Clerkenwell on the twenty-ninth: 

And now the build-up to the end of 2013/beginning of 2014 begins...

Wishing you all a very happy New Year.

Hallowmas... What's That?

Arthur Rickman (Image source)

Did you know that the festival of Hallowe'en forms part of a series of three days in the Christian calendar, dedicated to remembering the dead? Anyone who knows that Hallowe'en is an abbreviation of All Hallows Eve would have guessed something was up, that it must be the day before something... And most people would know of the Day of the Dead, made most famous by the Mexican festival. Personally, I knew of All Souls' (or All Hallows') Day and All Saints' Day, but had assumed they were the same thing, and hadn't much thought any much further about it to be honest. But I've opted for a quiet night in tonight, instead of going out for Hallowe'en high jinx, and I decided to sit down and do some reading.

Arthur Rickman (Image source)

All Hallows' Eve comes first in the series of days, and is the time when it is believed that the veil between this world and the next becomes thin, allowing departed souls to pass back into our world. The tradition of wearing masks, which has lead to the costumes of today, is derived from the belief that disguising your face would prevent you from being recognised by any malicious spirit that might be out to do you, personally, harm.

All Saints (Image source)

All Saints' Day, beginning as the new day dawns after the potentially perilous night of Hallowe'en, is (as the name implies) the celebration of all the saints, 'both known and unknown', with a particular focus on those without their own dedicated days (such as St George, St Patrick, etc). The traditional colour of this day is white, and all who attend a church service (as everyone would have once upon a time in medieval England) will still see the altar table and clergy dressed in said colour.

All Souls' Day by Jakub Schikaneder, reflects the respectful, quiet nature of the day (Image source)

All Souls' Day is the final day in the series, and expands the act of remembrance to not just the saints, but to all 'faithful departed'. The particular focus of this day is family and friends who have passed away, rather than the famous, somewhat distant saints. In addition to attending church, people traditionally visit the graves of people they have known, to lay flowers, light candles, and offer prayers. On this day, churches are traditionally festooned in the richer colour of purple. In England, centuries ago, the poor would go 'souling', walking from door to door to collect food, money and 'soul cakes' from the well-to-do...

So that's where all this modern malarky of costumes and trick-or-treating comes from, then. Not that I have anything against all this modern malarky - au contraire! But it's interesting to find out more about the sober, spiritual and rather quite beautiful origins.

I hope everyone's has a great Hallowe'en, however you spend it. May you pass the night without harm from any wayward spirits, ghouls... or earthly beings!

Happy Labor Day from Chicago!

Yes, I can legitimately wish you all a happy Labor Day (with no 'u' and all) because I am actually in Chicago right now! Yes, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America!

Image source

I'm sure you're dying to hear more but this will be my last post until I get back to London in a week's time. Until then, I'll just say that it's my kind of town, Chicago is!

Summer Hols

Summer hols, Famous Five style

I'm on holidays! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to have started my first proper, week-(plus-)long break from work in 10 whole months! And it's jam-packed full of fun and variety too.

I'm off to west-coast Ireland tomorrow for three nights...

Image source

Then to London overnight before heading on to Berlin for three nights...

Image source

Then back home in time for the weekend and a friend's birthday. Phew! Should be good! See you on the other side...

Love Letter Redirected (and a Trip to Sussex)

As everyone surely knows by now, Google Reader is closing down. If you want to keep receiving love letters, you can follow me through Bloglovin. Just click this link or the badge down in the right-hand side bar.

And I'm sorry there haven't been so many love letters of late. I have tonnes to post about but haven't had the time to do it lately. But I am hoping to get back into more regular posting as I'm missing it awfully.

In the meantime, I will share just a few pictures from beautiful Sussex with you, where I was but a few days ago for a perfect, but too short, country break...

A walk through the South Downs

A picnic lunch with friendly cows

A coastal sunset

May Day and May Day

Maypoles and flowers?

Or workers' power?

What does May Day mean to you?

I wore bright yellow flowers in my hair but my boss told me I should have been wearing red instead...

Do the (Easter) Twist

I've been baking again! These little treats are called koulourakia.

This recipe comes a little bit late because they are actually Easter biscuits. Although, if you wanted to be pedantic, they are a Greek recipe and Greek Orthodox Easter isn't until the beginning of May, so they could be made then. Or you could just make them any old time because they're delicious (though I personally like saving special occasion foods for the right special occasion - it keeps them, well, special).

But less talky, more bakey.

You will need:

• 190g butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/8 cup cream 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups plain flour
• white of 1 egg
• sesame seeds
• your most colourful, spring-time-appropriate apron

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat eggs, add to mixture. Beat in cream.

Add baking powder and vanilla essence. Colour co-ordinate your nails with package, if possible. Gradually stir in flour, one cup at a time, until soft.

Knead for 10 minutes on lightly floured surface. Roll into strips 1.5cm x 20cm, then shape and twist.

Place on a greased baking tray.

Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Before doing so, check the already opened sesame seed packet you photographed in the ingredients pile, realise they're a year out of date, substitute with a fresh pack.

Bake in moderate oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Realise that you should brush the egg white more generously on the next batch so that the nice glossy browned finish comes up more evenly.

Recipe makes about 25-30 biscuits.

Finally, lick the bowl. Share the biscuits with your friends and loved ones.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, dear readers!

It's Easter today, and the clocks have sprung forward too... And yet, sadly, it still doesn't feel quite like spring is here. I woke up to some glorious sun but unfortunately the clouds came in and covered him up. At least there hasn't been any random snowfalls, like there was yesterday! And The Cat and I did manage to hunt down a patch of daffodils and signs of life to serve as a backdrop to my Easter outfit post.

It's that cold here that at first I was hesitant to remove my coat...

But then I realised that, really, I had to take my coat off to show off my new Easter frock... As you may remember from my Easter post last year, I've been embracing the old tradition of having something new to wear for Easter Sunday for the past few years. As before, I've not bought any clothes in a while, so it was special to wear not only my new dress, but my new jacket too! The dress was from the old reliable Beyond Retro (the Cheshire Street branch on this occasion) while the jacket was purchased from Cow in Sheffield on my recent visit up there, where I had more luck than I did at the Nottingham branch back in summer 2011.

The shade of colours in the dress inspired me to partner them with this wonderful 1950s cocktail hat which I bought last year. I'd wanted a hat with a veil for a while and then a friend was DJ-ing at a night where hats were demanded, so I had the perfect reason to go out hunting for one. I struck gold at Cloud Cuckoo Land, a wee vintage shop just off Camden Passage, near Angel. It's a really wonderful shop, which I was pleased to discover. I told the lady this, to which she responded, 'Thank you - that's just what I needed to hear today'. It felt like a happy exchange to have brightened her day with a few nice words after she had brightened my day when I found the hat, after having almost given up after a long search through many shops. And it was nice to be able to wear it again today because, to be honest, it's not really an 'everyday wear' kind of item. Of course, I got some funny looks when I was out and about but they're like water off a duck's back. More important is the fact that I got some nice smiles as people admired my Easter bonnet. 

And I saw this little chap bouncing around the local park when we were taking outfit shots. I wonder if he's a friend of the guy I snapped last year at Easter?

Hope you've all had a beautiful and joyous Easter. Alleluia, Christ is risen! 

Musical Resolution

Happy New Year, dear readers! Hope you all had a fabulous time seeing out 2012 and seeing in 2013.

I've actually found myself with a New Year's resolution this year. I haven't bothered with one for years and years. But, this New Year's Eve, an incident occurred to inspire me to make a pledge...

1983: Love Cats, The Cure (Image source)

So, I ended up opting for a pretty quiet New Year's Eve. To help with the countdown, however, I decided to compose a party soundtrack, counting down (or up) from the beginning of the 1980s, when I was born.

1984: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper (Image source)

It was compiled in a quite quick and dirty fashion. I just opened up Wikipedia and looked up the singles that made the charts each year, picking out one that was suitably upbeat and had played some part in my life.

1987: Sweet Child o' Mine, Guns 'n' Roses (Image source)

I wasn't being a perfectionist about the actual release date or anything like that. So long as a song was in the charts in the year it represented, that was fine by me...

1992: Motocycle Emptiness, Manic Street Preachers (Image source)

I wasn't agonising over making sure all my favourite bands found a place in there. I wasn't bothering to think beyond the charts or pull out obscure releases.  It was just a party soundtrack, after all.

1994: Girls and Boys, Blur (Image source)

It was actually quite a fascinating exercise, to see what led on from what, where there was a sudden shake-up and contrast...

1997: Breathe, The Prodigy (Image source)

But as I progressed further on, coming into the noughties, I began to get a little bit anxious...

2001: Last Nite, The Strokes (Image source) 

'Hang on a second', I thought to myself. 'These chart lists are becoming less and less saturated with songs I love... or even know...' There was a sense of relief every time I spotted something with which I genuinely had any affinity...

2007: Rehab, Amy Winehouse (Image source)

I managed to squeeze something out of 2010 but then it dried up. The problem is, I've been spending the last few years discovering new music, but new music to me, not genuinely new...

2012: Ummmm...
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, The Andrews Sisters??? (Image source)

So, feeling incredibly humbled and out of the loop, I swore to myself that I would pay more attention to new music this year. Even if I write most of it off, I want to at least know what's going on out there. Even if I end up just going for things with a retro twist, like electro swing and modern close harmony groups such as the Puppini Sisters (hey, maybe I do know something!), at least I'll be informed.

After all, I always say that, even though I love all my classic music, vintage clothes and historic architecture, I love living now, in the twenty-first century. We have such rich pickings to choose from as we root around in the past, finding and keeping our favourite aspects from each decade. So, true to my seeking out the best of every time and era, I should weave more modern music into my listening, interspersed with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra...

Does anyone else have any New Year's resolutions? Or does anyone else feel they should make a pledge to become a little more au fait with the modern world...?