Pastries, Halloween and autumn things

October's been a lean month on this blog, it seems! A case of pas grand-chose à dire combined with trop de choses à faire  :)

To make amends before the month slips away altogether in a few hours, I have cake and autumnal London scenes to offer ...

I met up with Carol, talented artist and witty blogger from Paris Breakfasts, when she breezed into London from New York via Paris this month. Carol does the art work for patisserie Maison Blanc (founded by chef Raymond Blanc), and I went along with her to their gorgeous, chandelier-ed Fulham Road café where she needed to shoot a few of their latest pastry concoctions in order to render them as exquisite watercolours. ('Erm, so we have to scoff a lot of French pastries for the sake of art?' A sacrifice well worth making, I thought).

If you peer hard enough you can just see Carol and I reflected in Maison Blanc's window (pre-pastry-fest), which features her work on the poster ...

Thanks to her, I also got to see the inside of the Chelsea Arts Club, an artists' members-only club. I dearly wish I had some photos to show of the inside of this lovely old house, all genteel faded grandeur with every inch of wall-space covered with work by virtually every well-known English artist since Whistler and his chums, who founded it in 1891 ... sadly, photos were strictly verboten. I can only offer this furtive, slightly grainy snap of its back facade and pretty garden in the heart of Chelsea ...

It's been one of the mildest Octobers in recorded history here in southern England, so we haven't yet felt the chill snap of proper autumn, and the trees seem to have only just realised belatedly that it's time to change colour.


These were scenes in Richmond, south-west London, last week ...

Royal Star and Garter Home, with cows grazing on Richmond Hill in the foreground

Riverside scenes ...

Autumn colours reflected in the river - the planes overhead a reminder of possibly the only downside of living in Richmond - it's directly under the flight path for Heathrow!

The Thames had gently flooded its banks here - lovely for ducks and children.

Winter berries and ... on safari in Richmond Park! ...

What was I doing here? Visiting one of my favourite places in this area - Petersham Nurseries ...

... in a perfect setting below Richmond Hill and on the site of Petersham House, where you can wander around the garden shop in a greenhouse ...

... and either have tea and home-made cakes in the casual café in a shed, or a pricier but very special lunch in the greenhouse restaurant, below, where the wonderfully-named Skye Gyngell whips up seasonal produce. (The floors may be bare earth and the food deceptively simple looking, but it has a Michelin star).

And finally, there's just time to say, from my seasonal table this weekend ...

What (who) I'm reading now

Esther Freud is probably best known as a novelist for her autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (1992), based on her childhood experiences of travelling in Morocco with her sister and hippy mother, because of the film that was made of it, starring Kate Winslet. 

More recently, two of her books that have stood out for me as wonderful reads were Gaglow (1997), set in a fictional country estate in East Germany of 1914 and spanning several generations of a German Jewish family, and The Sea House (2003) a love story and much more, set in a seaside village in Suffolk, where Freud herself has a home. 

Clearly, Esther Freud mines her own history in her writing, drawing on her extraordinary family – she is the great-grand-daughter of Sigmund Freud and the daughter of artist Lucian Freud who died a few months ago; her sister is fashion designer Bella Freud, responsible for the revival of Biba; her uncle Clement Freud the politician and broadcaster (Just A Minute); her first cousin Mathew Freud the PR mogul connected, unfortunately of late, to Rupert Murdoch. 

Her stories seem to draw one in gently - not page-turners that hook you right in from the beginning, but gradually working their way right into your affections. Lucky Break, published this year, which I read recently, is just like this. 

It recounts the diverging paths and fortunes of a group of actors who first meet as students at a drama college in London. From nervous, hopeful young first years being inducted into Stanislavsky, method acting, and a brutal, often arbitrary weeding out of talent, we follow the unpredictable course of their careers over a decade and a half. The highs and lows ... first night elation, disastrous castings, unscrupulous agents, the mechanics of sex scenes, demoralising periods of waitressing in Pizza Express or playing a penguin for four-year-olds, and the rare lucky breaks that lead to A-list success ... are all narrated with an authentic, unsentimental touch and often pitch-perfect observation. In one of my favourite quotes, "There had been blood, foundation and some hysteria."

Again, perhaps, this is because she draws on personal experience: Freud herself attended drama school in London and acted early on in life before turning to writing, and she is married to actor David Morrissey (State of Play, The Deal, Sense and Sensibility).

The photo above shows her writer's room, from the old Guardian series. I must say I do love it ... for the natural light, the view to the garden, and of course the Lucian Freud portrait next to the bookshelf.

Le bon dieu est dans le détail ...

... is the theme I've been invited to post on today, joining a group of bloggers in different parts of the world. And since I'm late to the party, and intimidated by my illustrious fellow-posters (see here and here for links), mon dieu, followed by merde! was my initial response. 

But it's an irresistible quote for a detail-lover like me, and after a day at work spent fretting over words for a tedious report, a quick trawl through my photos for visual images that resonated has been a perfectly pleasant antidote. 

This is where the quote took me, without much thought ...

a quiet alcove in the Alcazar, Seville

an arch detail, Seville cathedral

detail of a mural, St George Basilica, Prague

stone carving details on windows at the Alhambra, Granada

ceiling details in the Forbidden City, Beijing

doorway detail of the Sé (cathedral), Lisbon

balcony door, Alfama, Lisbon

door in Beijing

pond reflection and ...

detail of water-courses in the minutely planned gardens of the Generalife, Alhambra, Granada

dancer's feet at an open air concert, Lisbon

espresso in a Lisbon café

child's face in Imizamo Yethu, Cape Town ...

... and in a market-place in Shanghai

a minimalist table set for one in Lourmarin, Provence

detail of my sleeping cat

These were all taken in the course of travelling to favourite places, and this has been fun - thanks for the invitation!

Battersea Antique Fair

Just when I'd finally packed away my summer clothes until next year, hauled out the winter coats and boots ... London is basking in an untimely heatwave this week (see here if you don't believe me)! A mini-Indian-summer in the autumn, in lieu of the actual-summer-that-never-was ...

... (though can it be called an Indian summer? Apparently there are technicalities involved here - who'd have thought? but see here) ... Whatever, nobody's complaining, as bare legs and flip-flops rule the day, however briefly, and these were the scenes in and around Sloane Square yesterday, where even the foliage seemed confused ...

Patisserie Valerie, Duke of York Square - the view from either side of the window.

This was my pit-stop before heading to the Chelsea Embankment, to cross the river to Battersea Park, for the autumn Decorative Antiques Fair ... 

Iron beds and oil painting at D J Green Antiques


And here's one of the fun things about blogging ...

... early this year I posted here about the winter fair, which caught the eye of a former, long-time exhibitor at the Battersea fair, antique dealer Karin Jansky, who now lives in a gorgeous house in the Dordogne ... 

silver-plated hotel champagne buckets at Victoria Harvey @ Deuxieme

... La Pouyette, from where she blogs, always interestingly and entertainingly ... 

Nostalgic at seeing friends and fellow dealers' exhibits, she commented on the post and we've been in contact in various ways ever since. Karin was kind enough to send me an invitation to this autumn fair, via her friend James Jackson.

Katharine Pole's antique textiles

The Battersea fair, as I've said before, is about liveable, relatively more affordable antiques and decorative objects, especially French and Swedish, two styles I love.

close-up of glass ware at Geoffrey Stead Antiques


I noticed that recycled, re-purposed glass was everywhere, from old confiture jars to pharmacy bottles ...

French pharmacy bottles at Patricia Harvey antiques

Russian chemist bottles at A&L Antiques

This is the place to buy chairs of all kinds - I wish I could justify this at the moment!

Chairs from Antiquités de France SARL (left), The Antique French Chair and Sofa Company (right)


A stand I always like to visit is Josephine Ryan ...

Josephine Ryan

... and Lorfords of Tetbury - see here for more ...

I thought this pair of urns was absolutely stunning ...

Lorfords Antiques are based in the Cotswolds village of Tetbury, Gloucestershire

James Jackson's stand was all perfect elegance and style ... James, whose shop is in Fulham's antique area of London, is also a neighbour of Karin's in France, and her post about him here is well worth seeing ...

James Jackson is in Lillie Road, London SW6

One of the nicest things about this fair is the relaxed, laid-back, friendly atmosphere between dealers and visitors. And if you're peckish or just needing a break there's a cosy and stylish café in the foyer ...

... while your dog is sure to be well catered for. Is there a correlation between antique lovers and dog lovers? The number of pampered pooches in and around the fair had the driver of the shuttle-bus from Sloane Square grumbling "it's more like a bleeding dog show than an antique show if you ask me"

English Mastiff and Staffordshire terrier circa early 21st century, with antique chairs and child's ironing board

Vielen dank, Karin, and I hope these pics gave you some pleasure!