Halloween

Halloween is one of my favourite celebrations. I see it as a last burst of fun before the winter closes in. (Alistair says I like it because it is anarchic...) I like dressing up, I like watching Hammer horror movies, and, this time, I liked making Halloween themed cupcakes. Cupcakes are really easy to make too, bar an impressive icing sugar explosion. The colour theme is supposed to be Frankensteinian with a rotting flesh green and silver metallic balls. The flavour was vanilla.

Window Candy

One of the things I like most about Paris is the window shopping, especially in old, quircky shops. This time, we explored the old shopping arcades around Palais Royal. I had avoided them before, thinking they would be touristy or glitzy, but they were beautiful and chicly shabby. Palais Royal is an arcaded square around a lovely garden, it abounds with unusual designer shops, vintage designer and things like pipe shops, glove shops and antiques places. Galerie Vivienne and Galerie Vero Dodat were both built in the 1820s and house more posh yet elegant shops. The pleasingly taxidermy like 'Puck Boot' was in Christian Louboutin in Galerie Vero Dodat. The shoes were works of art (and priced accordingly) and displayed accordingly too, under a Victorian glass dome.

Arrrrrrrrrrrr!

A slight cheat here, as this is an old pic I found the other day. It's a pirate from the 7th Sea roleplaying game of many years ago. I love all things piratical from films (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Crimson Pirate, The Pirate (a musical, bizzarely)) to pirate style New Romantic fashion. I've also just finished re-reading Treasure Island, which to my surprise was still really exciting. I'd love any more recommendations of books or films of a swashbuckling nature....

Secret Salad

I wandered the gardens of Leith Hall the other day (do visit, they are gorgeous) looking for gardeners. I found them in the walled veg garden where they offered me Green Windsor broad beans (wonderfully Edwardian name) and lettuces straight from the ground. One was Lollo Rosso, which you often see in supermarkets, but I don't know what this tasty one was. It's about a foot long with crunchy stems. Today an appeal to lettuce experts....