Love London

Today is Saturday and I am doing loads of washing and ironing so I can pack my bag for our family trip to Devon tomorrow. The only good thing about today is that it's raining outside so I'm not really missing out on anything. While I undertake these domestic tasks I have been reminiscing about my previous weekend which was spent with Maddy in London and culminated in a delightful Valentines picnic on the Monday back in Kent. So instead of giving a long chronology of what happened in the past I decided to give love a list of my loves from the weekend.

1) Vintage Laura Ashley Dresses
Our Saturday morning was spent wandering down Portobello Road. We had a delightful time perusing antique stalls, then food stalls and finally clothes stalls. At one of the later stalls we managed to find a collection of Laura Ashley dresses that had been handily hemmed to more modern and practical lengths. I bought a long sleeved dress in Autumnal plum and green while Maddy bought a bright short sleeved summer dress that is sure to be worn at an Italian Villa in a few months.



2) Lulu Capes
At another stall in Portobello I spied the most magnificent cape. It was a blue check fabric 100% wool, handmade and lined. The lady behind these wonderful creations gave me her card and I still really want that check cape but I must be practical and 2 capes would really be too much for one backpacker. If you are not as concerned about excess luggage as I am you can order a cape online from
www.lululondon.com (I couldn't access the site from my computer but I put it anyway in hope that your computer will)

3) Red Velvet Cake
To finish off an exhilarating yet energy depleting shopping session we stopped at the Humming Bird Bakery. We shared a piece of the famous Red Velvet Cake and managed to demolish it on the side walk while watching the crowd of late comers (tourists) stream down the road. We vowed then and there to recreate the cup cake version of the cake for Valentines and the result is depicted below. They tasted as good as they look!





4) Picnics in Parks
On Valentines Day we sat down on a huge tree stump in Knole Park and filled grainy rolls with butter lettuce, goats cheese, beetroot and walnuts. We didn't share any of our lunch with the herds of deer because the signs told us not too and if truth be told I didn't even think of leaving a crumb for them. However we did manage to admire the deer from a respectable distance as we walked through the woodlands and reluctantly said goodbye to such noble animals. What we got in exchange 30 minutes later was a feral pack of school children who invaded the car, damn Mondays.