✨JOY PARADE No. 50!✨
LUDWIK The Glamorous Guinea pig! Notecards For Grateful Sheep! The Perfect Outfit To Take You From Courtroom to Reptile House!
Pssst! If you are reading this via an email, the JOY PARADE might be a smidge too long for you to see all of it. If so, just click the title and it’ll take you to where you can read the whole thing with your eyeballs online!
OH HELLO!
Well, well, well! Here we are at JOY PARADE No.50!
Can you believe it? I can’t! Well, I can because I’ve written them, but who knew just over a year ago when I started this as a lark that we’d be here now having such lovely times together each Sunday morning? I think it’s terrific and I’m so VERY glad you’re all here.
Now, we’ve got a packed edition today. We’ll be:
Contemplating couture!
Viewing art in bowls!
Promenading down the lane at sunset!
Meeting a glamorous guinea pig!
AND MUCH MORE!
So we’d better start! But before we do we MUST find out what’s been going on this week…
Do sheep get laryngitis? I was on a walk down the lane the other evening, listening to the bucolic sounds of birdsong, bleating and cattle gently lowing when suddenly there came a “BAAAAAA” that sounded like it had been fed through a shredder.
I might take a Hot Toddy and a packet of Werther’s Originals up to the sheep field tomorrow.
In other sheep news: one afternoon I was driving home and I went over an old stone bridge. It was a very quiet, rural road so I stopped for a moment to take in the view. Golden, late afternoon sunshine was slanting across the fields and through the trees making long, purple shadows.
Beneath the bridge, the river was drifting lazily by- crystal clear and with ribbons of green, seaweedy weeds dancing in the current just under the surface like they were being worked by invisible rhythmic gymnasts. Through the ferns and nettles and reeds on the gently sloping banks, the foliage suddenly shifted and out came quite a stout sort of a sheep with fleece that looked like it had been tightly permed. She was the type of sheep you could imagine running a very well organised jumble sale.
I watched as she tip-tapped on her little hooves across the wide, glossy stones and took a deep drink of the cold water then she looked around herself, contentedly.
My heart soared at the sight and I sighed deeply as I thought “There is someone who has never had to jump on a Zoom call…”
I popped into a shop the other day to buy a bottle of water and it was beautifully, crisply air conditioned to the point where I saw a penguin slipping into a cardigan by the shelf of pot noodles.
At the till I said to the cashier, “Gosh, it’s lovely in cool here!”
She nodded. “I know….”
Then her eyes slid towards the glass doors and at the sun beating down on the tarmac outside and the heat haze rippling like at the beginning of The Lion King.
I saw a fast cut montage flicker across her mind - mannequins melting in department store window, eggs frying on car bonnets, boiling gas erupting on the surface of the Sun, a Nobbly Bobbly melting in an ice cream seller’s sunburnt hand as he presents it to a customer…
She leant closer to me and her voice dropped to a terrified whisper.
“I’m actually scared to go outside…” she said, and I had to wrestle my ice cold bottle of water from her grip.
I drove past a field of horses wearing protectors over their ears and had to remind myself that that is what they are and that the horses were not actually just cosplaying medieval court maidens…
Dashing through the park the other sizzling lunchtime I was horrified to find some sort of endurance Park Run going on.
My favourite competitor was a woman who had given up and was lying in the shade of a tree beside her dog’s pushchair in which a very cool looking hound was yawning sleepily.
What made me love this woman more was that she was doing this about 20ft from the start line. I could see that she’d started, instantly thought “Bugger this” and thrown herself down with her pup and a bottle of Lucozade.
Is anyone else having trouble hydrating their chickens? With this heat, I’m keen to ensure that my girls are adequately watered, but I’ll be honest with you - it’s tough going. Every day I trip eagerly down to the coop with a bucket full of enticing iceberg lettuce, celery, courgette and fridge-cold melon and present it to them.
They look at it.
Then they look at me.
Then very slowly, and without breaking eye contact, they start barbecuing the saltiest halloumi you can imagine whilst licking the seasoning off a boxful of Ritz crackers.
I DESPAIR.
I want to know who decided to put this footpath sign here because on the other side of the fence is an almost vertical drop to the valley below, so my guess is that it was probably Wyle E. Coyote.
RIGHT, now we really should start this week’s JOY PARADE! I’ve got troops of dancers here ready and I’m not sure their leotards will hold up much longer in this heat…
SO LET’S BEGIN!
1. We start, as always, with some BEHOLDING! and EXCLAIMING! And it’s a good one this week.
With the return of the UNBEARABLE HEAT, I’ve been taking myself out for a sunset stroll when the temperature has dropped to the point where it doesn’t feel like you are breathing in great lungfuls of boiled custard, and it’s been glorious!
The lane is looking so lush and beautiful and verdant and prehistoric with gigantic, tumbling ferns and the parched skeletons of cow parsley (which I’ll cut soon and store ready to make shimmering Christmas garlands), jutting out here and there.
Not all the cow parsley has dried out. Some sprigs are still white and zingy. I love them. They look like candelabras or perhaps chandeliers turned up the wrong way.
As I walked down the lane, clouds of butterflies swept up from the hedgerows and fluttered about. Flashes of white and red and orange like living confetti.
I was particularly taken with these pink flowers poking out all over the place.
I don’t know what they are but they made me think of those shots you get of Glastonbury Festival and all the flags waving above the crowds.
On one of the hills, cows were slowly starting to meander home for the evening…
And then of course I got to my favourite spot in the entire world. This gate looks out over the most magnificent view…
BEHOLD AND EXCLAIM AT IT!
So lovely to stand here for ages just GAZING. Everything was golden and sleepy. The hills in the distance were fading to smoke blue and ripping off into the horizon, and the sheep were eating and quietly thinking end-of-the-day sheep thoughts…
HEAVEN!
(On my way back home I was so busy watching a Red Kite fly over that I nearly stacked it into a deep pothole. How David Attenborough has lived to be 100 when the natural world is so full of dangers, I do not know…)
2. I’m enchanted by these “mini worlds” ceramics by Kiln Solo!
Beautifully handmade bowls and mugs featuring tiny people contemplating art. SO beautiful and clever!
Available to buy here!
3. We haven’t featured our beloved Lunatic Queen for a while, so here she is. The wonderful Carol Channing (and her eighteen sets of false eyelashes) in the role of Cecilia Sisson…
As always - total perfection!
4. Every season I love watching (sadly only online) the Schiaparelli shows. This week, designer Daniel Roseberry presented the latest couture collection, ‘THE ABYSS’, and it’s totally magical.
Here’s just a few snippets:
And here it is in motion…
The sea urchin-y shoes!
Also, here is Daniel R explaining the work and letting us have a sneak peek into the process of both designing the collection and making it - SUCH a treat!
(Am absolutely despo for a coffee table book of his fashion illustrations. They are just so fantastic!)
5. Talking of Schiaparelli - these perfume ads from 1940 are TERRIFICALLY lovely!
6. I’ve been absolutely floored by this scorpion outfit from the fever dream that is Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress Book.
What I love most is the styling of the scorpion outfit with a pair of very sensible semi opaque tights and court shoes.
7. This gelato shop - PRONTO - has just opened in Ludlow and LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS!
It’s the brainchild of Harp Lane Deli owner, Ed Sinclair and his partner, Libby Lord.
Libby is, I think, one of the most exciting interior designers working at the moment. Every project- be it a centuries old hotel, her own home or this new ice cream parlour- is so fabulously well considered and wonderfully eccentric and magical. I’m a BIG fan!
8. I am HUGELY enamoured with this painting, Titbits (1929) by Harold Harvey.
SO much to enjoy - the butter-coloured walls! The raspberry sorbet frock! The blackcurrant and olive checked skirt! The striped curtain! And that sweet little Jack Russell behaving so neatly and politely that it puts my feral dogs to shame. Really marvellous stuff!
(Found via the BRILLIANT Beyond Bloomsbury!)
9. I think this is a nice bag for strolling around a summer market with. Lots of colours avail. but my eyes are love heart shaped over this one…
That fruity orange against the tropical ocean blue and the navy - YES PLEASE!
You can get your own one here
10. This Instagram account only shares pictures of illustrated Italian ceilings peekabooing through windows and it’s GLORIOUS. I think it might be my favourite thing I’ve discovered this week.
Something so dreamy about the patina of those old paintings glowing through darkened, ornate window frames!
11. These note cards are LOVELY!
Just the sort of thing you could buy if, for example, you were a sheep with laryngitis and wanted to send a thank you note to a man in his forties his late early mid twenties who brought you a Hot Toddy and some boiled sweets.
Available here
12. La Vie En Rose is one of my forever favourite songs and there are so many beautiful versions of it - including this one, where a room of strangers breakout in one voice. Fabulous and also v. moving.
Oof! It really got me!
13. I really like this bedspread, but I think I’d be tempted to take it to the middle of a meadow to lie down on either to watch the sunset or to have a little pre-dinner, alfresco nap.
Avail. here!
14. I don’t know why but the other morning I found myself suddenly thinking about those hairless guinea pigs, aka NUDE Guinea pigs. Then I had to double check that they really exist.
Well, they do and here is one (called LUDWIK!) doing some glamour shots with all his favourite foods.
More here!
FINALLY…
To celebrate our 50th Sunday morning together it could only be this - annoyingly in two parts.
We are travelling to Yonkers (such a good word) for Barbra Streisand, Michael Frank OOH BETTY Spencer Crawford and the cast of Hello Dolly! as they perform… PUT ON YOUR SUNDAY CLOTHES!
Be sure to look out for lots of insanely long legs!
And all the extras doing a lot of Business with their parasols!
And most importantly, the phrase “GET OUT YOUR FLANNEL KNICKERS!” which can surely be the only example of those words combined in a song ever?
PURE JOY!
Thank you for reading this week’s JOY PARADE.
I absolutely love writing these newsletters and more than that, I love getting to know so many of you through your lovely, funny and very kind comments and restacks. You are all SUCH Good Sorts and I’m thrilled by you all! Finding you on here is worthy of its own place in the JOY PARADE and it fills me with so much happiness imagining everyone reading my letters each Sunday. I picture each of you comfortable in Soft Fabrics lounging in a favourite chair with a hot tea and a croissant the size of a dachshund on a tray beside you. Nothing rounds my weekends off more nicely than that image.
I hope you have a lovely Sunday. What are you all up to? I’m going to be making a cake to take to a BBQ which is thankfully being held in the shade of some tall, cooling trees. I’m also going to be getting myself organised because I start writing a new book on Monday so there’s a bit of Back-to-School/ needing a new pencil case energy going on here - even though it’ll be written on my laptop.
I’ll be back next Sunday with JOY PARADE No.51! In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed this JOY PARADE I would simply adore it if you were to prod the heart button ❤️ below and do please follow me on Instagram (I’m mralextsmith over there) and also subscribe to and share this newsletter to all your chums.
Here’s to more JOY PARADES! And more JOY in general!
See you next week!
In Tearing Haste,
HEAD PIGEON.
If only we could quadruple like this or have an "adore" button! I am sending 'la vie en rose' to people I love to wish them a rose-tinged day filled with the joy of singing together and finding treasure amidst your emails on a Sunday morning.
We need a j’adore button. Sunday Gloriousness. I may have missed this in a previous edition but have you watched The Sheep Detectives? Utter sheepy, and general, madness in the best way.