Random Glamour

Indeed it is time to at least imagine how life should be...

and no, dears, that's not me but rather - Carol Burnett

Alice and Ellen Kessler knew how to put on the style.

Robert James Collier, very Upstairs Downton.

Hedy Lamarr, whose real name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler.

Adolphe Greenberg, aka Adrian.

The Maharaja of Indore 1929.

My new heartthrob from the TV series 'Indian Summers' Henry Lloyd-Hughes.

What's the point of glamour without a spot of decadence?

...and romanticism -  the new Poldark, Aidan Turner:

Glamour, romance and pure decadence personified - Marlene!

Vivien Leigh placing  the Oscar for her role as Scarlett on her mantelpiece:

Salvador:

Diva of divas with her claws out methinks - Callas:

The lovely Jean Simmons...

Followed by my fave photo of the one and only - there will never Bea another Beatrice Lillie (photograph by Norman Parkinson in London 1951). It looks like to me to be in the Café de Paris:

Dovima could even make Ketchup glamorous:

Why do I never meet boys like this ? Leonardo di Caprio, Gatsby...

To finish we have my own moment of glamour, with a visit to the wonderful Cabaret room Crazy Coqs. Always a treat; this time the artists were Claire Martin and Joe Stilgoe who were Ab. Fab. The venue inside Brasserie Zédel in Soho is a true delight.

As was the discovery of a cocktail I actually really liked.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

    A few drops of absinthe

    1 ½ oz. dry gin

    1 oz. dry vermouth

    ½ oz. Benedictine

    1 dash Angostura bitters

    1 brandy-cured cherry

Preparation

    Swirl a few drops of absinthe in a chilled coupe.

    Shake the other ingredients with ice in a mixing glass,

    then strain into absinthe-coated coupe.

    Garnish with cherry.

     Bitter and sweet and evocative of a Kurt Weill song

and the Weimar —

 I could imagine Sally Bowles knocking back this one.

it's called, fittingly, the Cabaret Cocktail.

Cheers!

ttfn

The 'Delargo Towers' Garden - Febuary

Hello me dears. Here we are again and again with a rather late posting.

A cold and wet month, so we start indoors with the Hippeastrum and its second year flowers.

Outside everything is hanging on, and the window boxes are still giving us colour.

The roses have been pruned.

While out the back we have seen the very first of the Spring colour.

and we are looking forward to see a lot more in the months to come.

In the greenhouse.

Roll on March.

ttfn

The 'Delargo Towers' Garden - January

Hello my darlings I am rather late with this one so "Happy New Year", and it's just a quick run through of the state of play in our garden as it was in mid January.

Indoors the hyacinth was a real joy.

As was the Peace Lily with its yearly single flower

The window boxes gave us some colour through a very drab month.

Daffs are up, wallflowers are filling-out and the Nicotiana are holding on in the front border.

While, out the back -

The three apple trees that once were an espalier are due for a second pruning in February.

The greenhouse is fab though it is is difficult to ventilate and is causing issues with damp.

With seed sowing starting in earnest, it's back to the kitchen table.

Outside the plants in containers are, so far, surviving the frosts.

Back inside, we are over the moon that last year's Hippeastrum has a new flower forming!

All in all, Doncaster Donny seems rather pleased.

ttfn

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Poster Art on the Tube

Hello me dears.

A Londoner cant but help but to have a love hate relationship with the Tube. One of the things I have always loved is its use of artist in the creation of its posters. There are of course many fab Art Deco examples. 

last year I was very pleased to be faced with T.F.L.'s offering, celebrating 150 years of tube travel.

Hear are a few for your perusal.

Mind The Gap !

ttfn