Nunhead Cemetery

There are a few 'listed' cemetery's around London, the most well known is probably Highgate Cemetery where many historically famous people are buried and which you have to pay to get into. Nunhead Cemetery is free to get into and much nearer my end of town. Although there maybe aren't as many famous people buried there (none that I spotted anyway) it is more overgrown and left-to-nature allowing encouraging more wildlife, which is something I think I would really like, if I were to be buried (rather than cremated or whatever) I would love to be somewhere that nature is allowed to take over, (it is something everyone will have to consider at one time or another, afterall).



Part of the cemetery is new and being used and maintained as you would expect from a modern cemetery, but about half or more is overgrown and woody, you can ramble of the track into the ivy and find old gravestones and small monuments. I recommend wearing jeans if you're going to do this as there are a lot of brambles and I was a bit limited to where I could go because I stupidly wore leggings-ouch.



Luckily it was a good weather and it was really nice to walk around the place spotting wildlife and the occasional goth (we heard a woodpecker and saw a gothic gentleman) very nice. 

A visit to the Zoo

This weekend me and my friends went on a small tour of museums (all of which were free!). By far, our favourite was the Grant Museum of Zoology. I saw this recommendation on London for Free's Facebook page, I love museums of natural history and anthropology, museums of weird things and things that make you feel a bit sick when you look at them. One of my favourite museums is the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, I remember being afraid of the shrunken heads and seeing the shrivelled toes of the mummy sticking out of the coffin...memories. The Grant Museum of Zoology entertains one of my other joys, which is animals. It is like a zoo, however, all the animals in this zoo are expired, they are no more, they are ex-animals. They are displayed in jars, cross sectioned or stuffed in old wood and glass cabinets, the building itself is also very beautiful. I will warn those who do not like seeing dead animals in jars, to look away now.



I don't really know why there needed to be a whole jar of moles or how they acquired so many. The museum is part of UCL, the specimens have been used for research in the university. I can only assume that a jar of moles was required for scientific research. It was one of the highlights of the museum (for us at least, that's not a bad thing by the way).







An inquisitive Blackbird, a proud Magpie and a shocked Owl. 
After the Grants museum we went to the Hunterian museum of surgical research, there were yet more specimens in jars but you weren't allowed to take pictures. You could tell this museum is used a lot more for study and less for the general public but it was still pretty interesting. All that formaldehyde made us hungry so we went to eat our lunch in a nice little park outside the museum, lovely. It was great to get out and about and explore some of the many free and fascinating things to do in London. 

A leap into pattern

Ho ho! It's a leap year today---this year? 29th of Feb! Woo!
I decided I'd try to experiment a bit with pattern today. As part of a constantly renewing resolution, I'd like to make more of a general effort to wear more colour, pattern and layers. I have a problem with falling into a boring routine, but I figure that as long as I keep renewing these resolutions, that's all that matters.



Fun patterns, patterns that are fun. I've blogged about this shirt before and how the pictures on it look like they depict a dog in a graveyard - great, the skirt is a pattern of leaping tigers on a zig zag background, how do they think of these things? I don't know eh?!



Here's a bit of jumping for you, I thought I'd take the opportunity to do it because I was outside. We went on a little explore to a nearby woodland park, only about 2 miles down the road can you believe! A nice little retreat, the place was rampant with squirrels. If there was a break down of society and you had to live in the city and hunt for your own food, this would be a good place to go, (there's also plenty of nuts and things too, if you did not wish to eat squirrels). These are things I think about.

Outfit:

Skirt: 2nd hand and modified

Shirt: COW vintage

Shoes: Bass from Etsy

Dough!

This is a bit of a random post, I mean that it's a bit late and not really relevant to anything going on in my life right now, but anyway...I recently went to New York (October) and having seemingly forgotten to take many photo's the usual things good bloggers would take photo's of, I wasn't left with much content form my trip to blog about. It was an art related trip anyway, so I was busy with that. I was lucky enough to visit some of my relatives there and have some delicious food and do some exploring too, it was a good trip and I can't wait to go back again soon! I have visited New York once before and managed in that time to visit most of the main touristy places, this time around was spent mostly in the outer boroughs, Queens, Brooklyn, Coney Island and on one day we visited the Bronx.

We were shown around a Brooklyn a bit by a local Brooklyn-er/ite, he showed us the areas where different immigrants had settled and made their distinctive marks on their areas. It was really interesting to see how the neighbourhoods changed as we drove through, this was mostly evident through the restaurants. We dropped in on this small Mexican grocery store that doubled as a bar at the back, where he said many of the hard working Mexican immigrants would come after work to get drunk. Anyway, this is leading to the fact that I love food and I am interested in the way cultures are represented by food and New York is like a massive melting pot of cultures and probably one of the best places to go if you want to try great food.

Mexican Sushi

A Bar in China town

While we were there we ate great Thai food, Vietnamese food, Mexican Sushi, big sandwiches, giant pizza, delicious fresh bagels and the best doughnuts ever! (We also went to a couple of interesting traditional style diners, which I wouldn't recommend, they were ok, but nothing special, the setting was more interesting than the food).

Court Square Diner, Queens

So anyway, the doughnuts! They came from this small place in Brooklyn called Dough, which we would walk past late every night on our way home (the place we were staying) and even at 1 or 2 am we would see people in this small shop preparing and cooking the doughnuts! You could tell the doughnuts would be good if they made them all fresh on site the night before. It was only on the last day that we actually bought and ate some - probably good really, or I would have wanted one every day form then on. They had awesome flavours from lemon meringue to hibiscus! There is actually a good more detailed post on this blog here, if you have a passion for or wish to read more about amazing doughnuts.

hazelnut chocolate (Nutella), lemon meringue, Cappuccino, and Hibiscus.

So..well, this post isn't just about doughnuts, it's kind of my brief coverage of my trip to New York, hopefully if I go again soon I will have a bit more to say.

Free food part 1

After the Elderberry excursion, I decided to take a small trip around our local park to see what other fruits I could find. I remember form precious walks in this park that there are a few other fruit trees and while it's still autumn I wanted to make the most of the free loot.

First I came across some more elderberries, they looked pretty good so I picked a few bunches. Then I got distracted by all the squirrels around, there were loads! Doing the same as me I suppose, except I wasn't going to bury all the things I picked. I looked around in some places I thought I remembered seeing plum trees, but found nothing, I think it might be a bit late for plums. Then I found a huge apple tree with an abundance of apples. I had to clamber through some brambles and grass but luckily I was wearing jeans so it wasn't too bad. Make sure if you go foraging to wear sturdy clothes, leggings or tights wouldn't have cut it, or rather I would have got cut if I were wearing them...get it? Good. So I picked a few apples, not loads, I didn't have a massive bag to carry them in, plus I can always go back if I want more.

After wandering around a bit more looking for plums I found another fruit tree that looked like it was in the apple family, the fruits were small and pear shaped, I picked one to take home and find out what it was.

Then I finally actually found some plums! But they were way too high to pick. I thought about shaking the tree, but by this time there were a few dog walkers around and I didn't feel like drawing that much attention to myself.

A little further down the path I found some Sloe berries, these are related to the plum but they're much smaller, they're used to make Sloe gin! I picked a few, but again there weren't many.

After this, I called it a day. I ended up with a few good things, apples are obviously a good and substantial fruit to make pies with so I was pleased with those.

If you feel like going foraging, make sure you know what you're looking for, don't eat anything you're not sure about. It seems from my experience that most black or dark berries are edible to humans, but red berries are not. Don't swear by this rule as I'm no expert but I would say, when you're out for a walk somewhere, no matter what time of year, look out for trees you recognise and maybe get to know what fruit trees look like, so maybe you can go back int he autumn and get some free fruit!

"Your Mother was a Hamster and your Father smelled of Elderberries"

I hope no one is insulted, if you don't already know, the title is a quotation from Monty Python's Holy Grail film. It's also linked to the subject of this post...elderberries! This is the season of many berries and fruits here and the elderberry is probably one of the more underrated berry.

Apparently elderberries contain high amounts of vitamins and anti-oxydants. If you can find yourself a good area where elderberry bushes grow, they are really easy to pick. Elderberry bushes usually grow in overgrow areas, parks, country roads etc...it's best to find some where off the road as pollution can find its way into the plant or onto the berries, which I've heard isn't very good (surely the plant filters the pollution out through photosynthesis?? Sorry I'm not a biologist, I don't really know) either way, it's nicer to have a walk off the road to pick them.

The berries are dark almost black, like the colour of blackberries and come in clusters of tiny berries. Make sure you know what you're picking before you pick anything and eat it!

You can easily pick them by cutting the whole cluster off, then when you bring them home you can pick the berries off the clusters.

Some people like to use a fork to 'comb' them off, I found it good to gently tease the berries of the stalks. Then I washed them carefully, trying not to squish them all and put them in the freezer for a later date.

I love these tiny berries, they are like a tastier less seedy version of blackberries, a nice addition to an apple pie!

Brighton Fleas

I was thinking about the the phrase Flea Market, I tried looking up on wikipedia to find out where it originated from, it implied that one of the reasons for the name was because markets were places where one picked up fleas, presumably from all the dodgy second hand/used wares. Luckily today (or maybe always) it is quite difficult to pick up fleas from a flea market, mostly because they prefer animal hosts and don't generally hang about on clothing or old records or mismatched crockery...so yea. A nice lead into the what I did this weekend. I'm lucky, because my sister lives in Brighton and me and my partner get to regularly visit and one of the best things about wandering around Brighton is all the flea markets/thrift shops. If you're a local or have even just visited Brighton before, you'll probably have heard of Snoopers Paradise, which is a large space filled with loads of different vendors' stalls filled with treasures. There's also a vintage clothes shop above now, which has very beautiful things, but don't expect to find a bargain there. I more recently have decided that one of the bestest places to shop is probably the Brighton Sunday morning market at the mariner (used to be right by the train station).

Most things here are still well priced (by that I mean, they know their worth) but you can still pick up a bargain and obviously having the vendor right there, you are able to barter prices down-which I enjoy.

I managed to pick up a couple of good things, it was bad really, as I should have been restraining myself, but the problem with second hand shopping, as many people will know, is that if you see a bargain you know you won't find again, you have to buy it then and there!!! (p.s these pictures don't really do it justice, I was in a bit of a hurry taking pictures).

The next great place to go, if you're staying in Brighton, is Lewes. It's a short train ride (or car journey) from Brighton. A very lovely picturesque town with lots of civilised cake shops and nice places to have lunch. There are loads of antique shops here, the main high street has at least 5, with one massive one on several floors. Again, things are well priced, but if you're savvy you can find a bar-gain.

and what were the treasures that we picked up during our journeys around the markets you ask...I shall save that for another post, I've already gone on far too long.

Holy day finale

A few pics accumulated from various stages of the holiday, one of which is a picture of me riding a motorbike for the first time evar!!! I didn't go beyond 1st gear, but still, I now feel like if I ever needed to jump on a motorbike during some sort of zombie attack/Apocalypse/something...I would be able to drive it.

View over Looe from a nearby hill top.

While we were in Looe we went to visit the boys' Uncle and Aunt who have a really nice farm house in Liskeard, they both used to be really into bikes and still had a small one they use now and then, they let us have a ride around their garden, good fun!

A sand fox.

View of the coastline from when we walked to Polperro.

This is the sort of outfit I'd likely wear to work, with the exception of the shoes, I'd wear more shoe-like shoes, or slightly smarter shoes. The skirt is my contribution to the tribal trend going on at the moment, I bought it as a long skirt from Oxfam and cut it short- it were a bargain!

Outfit:

Skirt: Oxfam

Top: 2nd hand shop

Shoes: converse

Bag: Dooney & Bourke

I'm liking that all these recent outfit photo's I've been standing in amongst hedge or rocks, makes a change from the city.

I land on the Island

A short boat ride away from Looe is Looe Island. Even though it was a short (15 minute) ride away I was worried about feeling sick, the last time I was on a small boat, it was for about 4 hours and rocky and horrible. Luckily it wasn't too bad, I think I'm ok as long as the boat keeps moving, it's the stopping in one place and rocking from side to side...blurgh!

Looe Island (AKA St Georges Island) used to be owned by two ladies who then left it to The National Wildlife Trust, so it's now a nature reserve. There are only a couple of the wildlife trust wardens and a few other residents living on the island. It was pretty cool getting to walk around an island that's so small you can understand it's mass, it's just like any other section of land, except it's cut off from anywhere else.

So this was one of the houses on the island, all the houses looked really nice. Part way round the island we were told there was a good place for spotting seals. We managed to see 3 all together, unfortunately they were quite far away, but we could make out there big grins and when one yawned you could see how big it's mouth was. Apparently they sleep with their head poked out of the water and occasionally sink but when they run out of air, instead of waking up to go up for air, they have an instinctual reaction to rise to flip their flippers rising to the surface without waking up.

Can you make out the seal!?

Outfit:

Playsuit: 2nd hand

Shirt: H&M

Shoes: converse

I found this playsuit/romper whatever you want to call it, at a charity shop, at first I was unsure about it, it's a lot brighter than what I normally wear, but I thought, 'what the hell!'. Wearing this grey shirt over the top definitely tones it down and makes it more casual and a bit easier for me to get used to wearing such bright and mixed colours. P.s as my first time wearing a romper, I'm not sure how I feel about the inconvenience it presents when going to the toilet, is it really worth it...? Start the debate now!!!

Beach Glass

I don't often wear this dress, although I'd like to more often. I made an interesting observation when I got back home from holiday...when I'm staying on holiday or staying in another city I don't seem to feel the cold as much as when I'm at home, I don't think it has anything to do with tempurature, it's weird, I always wear more layers when I go out at home...anyway, yes interesting observation. Soooo basically that's why it seemed less of an issue to wear this dress, although I did notice that it is quite warm on my legs, the fabric is quite thick.



This was taken on a lovery evening walk to a nearby beach where I found some tiny pieces of green beach glass, once I found one piece I kept seeing it everywhere.


Outfit:

Dress: Vintage

Shoes: Hushpuppies

Owl Cuff-Brighton Market

I noticed after these pictures in particular, how much I need a haircut, my hair gets out of control and I can't really wear it out unless it is 'maintained' on a regular basis, unfortunately there was no room in my bags to pack a hairdryer or staighteners either.
One of the things I was interested in when I started this blog was seeing pictures of outfits I put together, from a different view, it's stangely different form just looking in the mirror. It's good, I think when I see photos of my outfits it's like looking at any regular person, so I feel a little less self conscious of what I'm wearing, it's like I think, if I saw someone in the street wearing that outfit, I would think, that's a cool outfit!

Great Lantic Bay

Our second day of holiday brought beautiful sunshine and clear skies, lucky us! I had to make sure we went to the best beach ever while it was a nice day. When I was a kiddo me and my family stayed in a cottage near this beach a few times and a few years ago I rediscovered it, it's gorgeous. You have to take a rather treacherous steep walk down to the beach, but it's worth it, it doesn't get too busy either because of the walk.

From holiday

I love all the craggy rocks along the coast of Cornwall, but this beach has some particularly great specimens to climb over and explore. Also the water is so clear and blue, it almost looks like a tropical beach somewhere in another country. However I went swimming and it was FREEZING I'm not sure if I've swam in water that cold before, the lower half of my body went numb (and I'm usually pretty good at swimming in colder waters). I went back in later in the afternoon and it seemed to have warmed up a bit, there were also lots of tiny fish fry swimming about too!






Outfit
Dress: diy
Shoes: Converse
Sunglasses: TKmaxx

For the beach I threw on this light dress that I made from some cheap stretchy cotton fabric that I bought from the market and bleached into this slightly wonky chevron pattern. I was attempting to make a dress I saw on an episode of SATC, I might give it another go some time (fabric only cost £1.50 a metre). The dress was ideal for negotiating the rocks and walking about, also easy to throw over a bathing suit.

In case I go near a cliff edge

As this is a new blog, I thought a good way to get it going and to get used to taking outfit photos of myself would be to start while I'm on my holiday! Seeing as when I go on holiday I tend to plan what I'll be wearing anyway for packing purposes and because I like to be a bit more experimental with what I wear. I'm not sure why exactly, I think it might have something to do with knowing that I won't see anyone I know on holiday, which is a bit silly, there's no reason why I should worry about what people think of what I wear or what they think about me at all. I think it's just a slight feeling of self consciousness if someone you know notices that you look a bit different to usual or something, that sounds so backward, I sure a lot of people would like the idea of people noticing that you looked nice or different, I'm not saying I don't like it, but I think I need to put less emphasis on thinking about what people are thinking of me. That just sounds weird, but anyway, holidays are a good opportunity to come out of your shell a bit, however that might be.

From holiday

The holiday was a lovely week long trip to Looe in Cornwall with my partner, his brother and cousin and their partners. I love Cornwall, I used to go on holiday there a lot with my family when I was kid. I know it's an increasingly popular holiday destination and is maybe getting over touristy in places, but I still love walking around the coastal paths and exploring the countryside and beaches.

From holiday

So here I am on the beach! This is what I wore on the first day, exploring and walking. We started the holiday with the longest walk, we walked over to the next town, Polperro, via the coastal path, it's about 4.5 miles on the main roads, we were thinking it would be a fairly long walk, but it might only take us a couple of hours. We forgot about the wiggly pathways and the ascents, descents etc... I'm glad I wore my converse trainers, probably the most sensible walking shoes I own. Even though it was tiring I really enjoyed being outside and challenging myself more physically as a lot of my time at home is spent on a computer, sat down (something I need to change).

This dress is a 2nd hand find which I altered, I trimmed and scalloped the hem and altered the neck line with a bit of bond-a -web to create some small lapels. I'm also wearing my diy-ed leather harness, made from a few skinny leather belts, I think it gives the rather girly dress a bit of an edge (or it makes me look like I'm wearing those sets of child reigns that stop children from running away-ha!).

From holiday

Outfit:

Dress: Charity Shop

Harness: diy

Shoes: converse

Bag: Dooney & Bourke