I Want, I Want, I Want.

Ungrateful wretch, I know. But I enjoy this gallery's choice of online art, and I really, really, really want someone to buy me these pictures. They are probably sold already, so lucky fellow whomsoever bought them. Oh Abbott & Holder, I surfed into your website a few years ago chasing a link to Edward Ardizzone (now there's an illustrator way out of my reach). I have day dreamed over your lists ever since.

But this trio by Anthony Baynes caught my heart completely.

http://www.abbottandholder.co.uk/exhibitions.php?action=view_ex&id=35

These pictures remind me of John Minton's illustrations in Elizabeth David's French Country Cooking. I received a beautiful, brand spanking new edition of Elizabeth David Classics a couple of Christmases ago, and decided that I was now old enough to colour in the illustrations if I wanted. So one dreary January afternoon I nipped up to the west-facing study and found my drawing pens. A cup of tea within reach, I sat at my desk and coloured in Minton's line drawings of platters introducing "Substantial Dishes", from A Book of Mediterranean Food. Then the tent; then the camels. After that I lost track of time until the skies had darkened and my tea was long cold, and my brand spanking new cookbook shone with colour.

But oh, how I want, want, want these three pictures...

Oh Me Wantee

http://uk.tiffany.com/Default.aspx?overlay=linkSimply&omcid=SS11#p+1-n+6-cg+-c+-s+-r+-t+-ri+-ni+1-x+-pu+linkSimply-

On Starting Back To Garden

I start back to horticultural work this morning, a site visit for my first commission of 2008. I'd much rather stay in bed until dawn, but my boots are calling, my new fleecy lined leather gloves already tucked into my waterproof, and the porridge cooked and ready to eat. So off I go.

Happy Birthday, London Underground

"Many Happy Returns to the Tube. On the 10th January 1863 the world's first ever public underground line opened. The Metropolitan Line had trains running every 10 minutes and carried 40,000 passengers between Paddington and Farringdon that day."

And many thanks to the wonderful Annie Mole and her blog, a great part of my week.

The Epiphany

When the song of the angels is stilled

When the star in the sky is gone

When the kings and princes are home

When the shepherds are back with their flocks

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost

To heal the broken

To feed the hungry

To release the prisoner

To rebuild the nations

To bring peace among the people

To make music in the heart.

With thanks to Jan, on whose blog I read this Howard Thurman poem in the early hours of Saturday morning. Then off to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for the closing days of the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition, the largest and most ambitious project ever curated at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.