Mille-Feuille

The sun came out yesterday in southern England and to celebrate its appearance a few of us had cream tea in the garden of a traditional English tea room at Clare in Suffolk. There was a good selection of cakes and scones, but I was seduced by the look of this cake, a strawberry mille-feuille. Unlike its common cousin the custard slice, the mille-feuille has more layers of puff pastry, the translation of mille-feuille is thousand sheets.

This is one of several cakes that are impossible to eat with any dignity. The moment I bite down on the pastry, the cream is squeezed sideways, smearing my face, hands and shirt and giving me the expression of a circus clown. This would be an excellent cake to serve should you ever want to humiliate a someone or to gain a psychological advantage.

You can use a fork to cut it up, but the pastry doesn't break up easily and you end up with an ugly mess. The best  way to enjoy this cake is in the privacy of your own home, wearing your oldest clothes, but if you are eating in a public place at least choose a table with some privacy.

Red For London Bus

Do you know the saying about London buses? You wait for hours without seeing one, then eight turn up at once!

I'm organising my photos of cities into colour themes, it's a big job that could take years, I don't know how many photos I have on file. I'm going to start offering collections by colour in my Etsy shop. I'm wondering if sets of colour themed cards for framing and correspondence would be popular.

I'm reading: The Flaneur by Edmund White

I've just finished a wonderful Sue Grafton novel, H Is for Homicide. This is my second reading of this mystery novel. First published in 1993, I found it as fresh and funny as when I first read it.

Today I start reading The Flaneur by Edmund White. A Flaneur is someone who strolls without purpose. Edmund White is an American who lived in Paris for sixteen years. This is a book about wandering the avenues and back streets of Paris, unknown to visitors.

Do you read books? I'd be interested to hear what's on your reading list.

What went wrong with socks?

This is such a trivial topic, but I wont let that stop me getting it off my chest. What has gone wrong with socks?

Last year I noticed that several pairs of new socks didn't feel as comfortable as I would have liked. There are a few things that are wrong, there's no stretch, they seem bigger and they fall down. The problems are small but irritating, and uncomfortable for someone like me who walks four or five miles a day. Last year I put the issues down to a bad batch, so I bought three pairs of new socks from Marks and Spencer, an old company who used to have a reputation for good quality socks.

A short  walk in my new Marks and Spencer socks proved disappointing, they felt as uncomfortable as the others, which led me to spend one Saturday morning shopping exclusively for socks, an exercise I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. The several pairs I purchased included the ones above, lambs wool, knitted in England with the toes and heels finished by hand. The sales person described them as "The Rolls Royce of socks". But after walking the dog they also proved disapointing, more a like Morris Minor when I needed a Audi.

One obvious problem with all new socks is the sizing. My size used to be within a range of 7-9 (UK size), but socks are now sized 5-10, which seems awfully wide to me. So after searching for a year, I still haven't found a pair of socks that I'm 100% happy with. I shall continue the search and I'll buy a few pairs in France next month, maybe the French know a thing or two about socks.

Lomography and the London Underground

I spent Wednesday and Thursday last week working in London, although the rain made it difficult to be productive I did get the job done. After work on Wednesday I stayed the night at my brother in law's flat in Kilburn. I slept well but woke up early at 5.30 am on Thursday. My working day wasn't due to start until 10.30, so I had time to kill. I had breakfast, showered and watched the TV but by 6.30 I was getting stir crazy, so I got a train back into central London and looked for photographs.

At 9.30 am I was in Liverpool Street station when I remembered that I'd read that the Lomography Gallery were once again selling 110 film, this is a significant event. The film has been not been available for many years and although I have a dozen cassettes in the freezer, I decided to do the 20 minute journey and head west and buy a roll of film.

Every visit to London is inspirational, whether it's something I see or hear, the place always leaves its mark. So I share with you a short journey from Liverpool Street to Soho.

Paris

The Seine - A View of Paris from the West Bank

After putting it off for weeks, I finally arranged transport and accommodation for a week in Paris. Booking flights and hotels over the internet makes me anxious, I long for the days of a travel agent. Dates, times, booking numbers, invoice numbers and worst of all, credit card numbers. Anyway it's all done, and I'll be travelling with my assistant at the end of August. The mornings and evenings will be spent taking photographs, the rest of the time sightseeing.

Bespoke Black strap in Poland

Bespoke Black strap on Fuji X100 - Thanks to Steven for the Photo