Titas Groan

Mervyn Peake

I'm absolutely loving the first of the Gormenghast Trilogy. Gruesomely wild and vivid, totally creepy and unsettling but poetic and somehow beautifully serene. It's an odd mix.
The Queen and her birds are just amazing.

Toady

If I had £763 I would buy this stuffed toad.

Willow House, 2 Willow Road

The study

The living room
The clock and light switch (Erno designed all the fittings himself)

The master bedroom

As seen at night, from Hampstead Park

This weekend we went to visit Willow House in Hampstead. The house designed, built and lived in by architect Erno Goldfinger in the late 1930's. He was said to be quite an unpleasant man, but he did have an amazingly nice house!
Willow House has lots of smooth surfaces, warm woods, interesting pieces of furniture, cleverly hidden cupboards and a collection of artworks by Henry Moore, Max Ernst and Man Ray. Most of the rooms had partitions that could be pulled aside to make one big open plan living space - so Erno could hold great big parties for his artist friends.

Erno Goldfinger. (He was known to have mad rages!)

Here's what else I learnt about Erno Goldfinger:
*He fired assistants if he thought they were inappropriately jocular. He was said to be humourless.
*Ian Fleming named the Bond villain Goldfinger after him. Erno threatened to sue. Fleming said he'd change the name to Goldenprick. They eventually settled out of court.
*Many of his buildings were controversial - he was a great fan of concrete tower blocks.
*He married the heiress to the Crosse and Blackwell fortune. Hmm pickles.
*Goldfinger fitted his wardrobe with wooden trays, each carefully dimensioned to particular items of clothing.

Guide dog for the blind (dog)

I'm well aware that this blog is becoming a bit animal story heavy. But I can't help that animals just always do impressive things. For instance this ex guide dog, Edward, lost his eyesight and was given his own guide dog to help. It's a good story. What I particularly like is that in the news video he is caught having a shit at around the two-minute mark. Someone should have told him people were watching!

I still don't believe she's louder than Missy

Smokey has got a purr as loud as a lawnmower. "Owners Ruth and Mark Adams from Pitsford, Northants, cannot hear the TV or radio when she’s in the room."

A true star

Heidi

She's a cross-eyed, overweight opossum but I think I love her. She's become a celebrity in Germany. No wonder.