Weekend Links

 It's late, I know, but here's some fun reading for your weekend!    (what have YOU been doing with your summer days so far??)

The Mad Beach Party of 1923 (I wish I had put this in my "Manhattan Heiress..." book!)

Thomas Cromwell's Book of Hours Discovered

A manuscript of a medieval comedy show

96 year overdue library book returned

Munstead Wood saved!

Pearls are making a comeback

2000 year old Roman perfume

Portrait of Marie Antoinette's dog sells at auction

And we saw the "Mrs. Maisel" finale

Things I Love Thursday

I love perfumes, but it's been a while since I've found a new one to love! (So many of the new ones I try smell too much like a fruit salad, so I just go back to my old stand-bys, like Coco Mademoiselle! Though I'm looking forward to warmer weather when I can go back to using my bottle of DSH's Eau de Trianon every day). I was so happy to see this review of Balenciaga Paris at the Now Smell This blog.







I've been looking forward to this one because: 1) The name, of course! I'm a sucker for anything with "Paris" in the title (though I couldn't bring myself to try YSL Parisienne because Kate Moss is the spokesmodel...) 2) It's a violet chypre. I love violets (one of my favorite perfumes is Guerlain's Apres L'Ondee) 3) And because Charlotte Gainsbourg is the spokesmodel! I have such a girl-crush on her (shallow, I know). I finally got to do a sniff last weekend, and it smells wonderful. Not too heavy, not too fruity-sweet, modern but classic. As the review says, it's "quietly elegant," "modern and grown-up." And it smells "French" to me, perfect for a bike ride along the boulevards and dinner at a little neighborhood bistro. I will definitely be buying a bottle. Yay for new finds!


What are your favorite perfumes??

Things I Love Thursday

What I love today--summertime tomatoes from the garden! (Or the farmers' market, which is another thing I love). I have a small back yard, and in the summer I keep a corner of it for some vegetables. This year I put in 4 tomato plants, more than last year, but it's been so rainy and wet this season that they haven't done very well. (Plus there is a squirrel or possum that eats them at night! Abigail, the Scourge of Squirrels, can't patrol all the time).

But I've managed to get a few of the lovely, red, juicy tomatoes and used them in pasta and green salads (greens from that farmers' market!), and with mozzarella in a salad caprese. I love the earthy smell of them, the summer-y taste that is so unlike anemic winter supermarket tomatoes. These, along with fresh raspberries and peaches, are one of the best things of the season. When I was a kid, my grandmother (who had the greenest of green thumbs) kept an enormous garden and a small orchard, and I loved to go out there with her and pick veggies for dinner and fruit for pies. I've always lived in a city, except for visiting the grandparents, and the fact that you could pick something and eat it hours later was amazing to me! :) I don't have a gift for growing things, but I think about them when I pick my few tomatoes.

(CB I Hate Perfume has a scent called Memory of Kindness. The website says it's "The shinging green scent of tomato vines growing in the fresh earth of a country garden." I haven't tried it, but it sounds wonderful)