I'm starting with the dog in the mirror

Another Ebay classic picture. Cute face not for sale.

Say cheese

One of my favourite things is coming across people in Ebay photos. It's good when it's accidental but it's even better when they give us a smile, like this man...

Lovely Lisbon

He won the staring contest

This building makes me feel a bit seasick

Gormenghast!

Freezing mist

Not even I have this much tat

Way back in February I had a lovely weekend in Lisbon. The best bits were the incredible Palace of Pena, which seemed to be built on a load of impossible angles, and a weird bric-a-brac style bar.

I'm back

Oh dear, I've neglected this blog. I keep forgetting to take pictures of things. Silly really. Here's something from the internet. It's funny.

The Hitler house

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.