Kitchen garden

A Bank Holiday drive out to West Sussex and a National Trust house and gardens. Couldn't take photos in the house unfortunately (lots of beautiful William Morris furnishings) but loved the kitchen garden.

Turquoise interiors

I went to visit my friend's new pad in Crouch End on Friday, she's only been in for a week but already the house is looking beautiful - I could tell which house was hers as soon as I looked through the window...lots of turquoise and red patterns, ceramics, candle holders and even the dinky shed out the back.

Playing the Building

I went along to the Roundhouse in Camden yesterday to see Playing the Building - an interactive installation by David Byrne where the building becomes a huge musical instrument. An old pump organ is rigged up to the pipes and beams using low-tech cables and wires that vibrate against the surfaces or blow air through the structures when the keys are pressed. 

A-maz-ing!!

Swedish treats

Gorgeous packaging and postcards picked up in Gothenburg.

Weekend sunshine

Lunch at Borough market - a rainbow of organic salad, the Tate Modern to see the Futurism and Per Kirkeby exhibitions, back to Borough market to indulge in something a bit sweeter (fresh fruit cheesecake and chocolate fudge cake) and then on to the Serpentine to see Jeff Koons (still not convinced that his aluminium cast sculptures aren't really inflatable plastic toys!!) and the beautiful new reflective pavillion described as a "floating aluminium cloud".

Car boot finds\2

Multiples\1

I loved this collection of orange juicers at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, an endless table of colour, pattern and shapes from the simple traditional wooden handles to the mass-produced moulded coloured glass and the more elaborate ceramic animals and characters.

Göteborg: day 3

Woke up to sunshine on our final day, spent the morning on a boat trip - its amazing how different the city looks and feels when the rain stops. Loved the layers of paint and masked letters on the side of ships, and interesting sculptures with prism heads or a stylish green scarf!

Spent a few hours in the park visiting the Palm House - designed as a copy of Crystal Palace - a tropical hothouse full of beautiful patterns and colours and textures. Found a lovely shop in Victoria Passage selling teacups, vintage fabric and handmade soaps, with branches floating from the ceiling (can't remember the name). Some sushi, salty liquorice, slush puppy and sun cream and then time to go home.

Göteborg: day 2

Walked along the canal to the Feskekorka, or 'Fish Church', Gothenburg's oldest food market full of freshly caught seafood - much more sophisticated than you'd expect but I guess the chaos happens around 5am!

Spent the rest of the morning in Haga, the city's oldest working-class suburb with lots of cafes, antique shops, galleries and clothes (fell in love with Twist&Tango). The constant drizzly rain was a bit depressing and the prices were too high - I could only bring back a photograph of my favourite ceramic bowl with hand-painted stylised vegetables.

Quirky shop signs, mini greenhouses, handmade leather clogs, sun-bleached linen curtains, cobbled streets ending in lush tree-lined hills, fruit in rubber baskets, peering into the window of an amazing jumble of bric-a-brac that is only open when the shopkeeper can be bothered (so said the guy next door!).

Hiding from the rain in museums all afternoon - the Röhsska Museum with its beautiful hand-painted ceiling of swirly textile patterns, and the Stadsmuseum, housed in the old offices and auction house of the Swedish East India Company.