Bluer than the Deep Blue Sea: Coming Home from Across the Pond

We spent the last days of summer in London and on the Sussex shore.  It was Mr. and Mrs. Magpie and Mrs. Magpie's Mum on a weeklong adventure that left us with our suitcases and brains stuffed to overflowing with treasures.  Sine we've been back, I've been a bit blue.  

I always love London, and I'll have photos and links to share, as always, but for today, just a few pared down shots of Brighton.  I'd never been to Brighton before, but I had heard so much about it that I felt I knew what to expect: tatty seaside town, pier, greasy fish and chips, tacky shops.  Brighton does have those things, of course, but it has so much more, and I developed a little crush on the place.

I have loads of Brighton photos to post, places to mention, and adventures to share.  They'll be coming soon.  Well, just as soon as I can pull myself up out of these blues.  

I slip into a sort of melancholy whenever I return from England.  To call it homesickness is too grand a word, since I have never stayed there for more than a stretch of a few weeks, but I do miss it terribly every single time I come back.  What's to miss?  Well, in the case of Brighton, there's this:  

"But, Gigi," you may say, "you live near the sea in the States!"  

Ah, yes, I do, and I love it.  I also love the seaside in Brighton.  It's quite different.  For one, the beach is made of large, knobbly pebbles, not sand, and the water there tends towards pale greeny blues that we don't often see in Maine.  And then there's the chalk cliffs.  Here we have granite ones.  Both are awe inspiring, but they make for completely different sorts of experiences.    

What I think impressed me most in Brighton was the architecture, from the Georgian and Victorian townhouses to the quirky shops of North Laine.

And then there is King George IV's Royal Pavilion.  I think that deserves a post all its own, don't you?   

We've been back since the beginning of the month, and life has been full and eventful and rich, but I can't shake these blues, so I think I shall wallow in their depth a bit longer and wade back to shore only when I'm good and ready.  

In the meantime, I promise that I really will have some wonderful links and photos to share.  Misery, after all, loves company, so you can long for some lazy days by the beautiful sea with me.   

February Crushes: Dreaming of Roses in the Dead of Winter

As I type, the snow is falling again.  No, not just snow, and not just falling.  It's sleet, and it's slicing the night air, encasing the trees, and leaving the snowbanks, roads, and sidewalks coated with a slick skim of ice.  We've had one record-breaking snowstorm (32") in Portland this winter, followed by several smaller ones.  Mr. Magpie and I have become intimately acquainted with the fancy ergonomically designed shovels we bought for the new house, which, for much of January and February, has looked like some version of these photos I shot earlier in the week:

Yes, it's sweet, and don't get me wrong, we love our Little House in the Snow.  I love pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder as I put another log on the fire or tunnel my way out the back door, and Mr. Magpie loves chopping wood and practicing new ways to tie his wool muffler, but I'm not kidding when I say we are ready for the Big Shift.  If you live in a place with real Winters with a capital W, you know the shift I mean: that palpable change, that first day when you walk outside and realize that the sun has risen just high enough in the sky and lingered just long enough at the end of day to begin to warm the ground.  There might still be snow, but beneath it is the soil, and you know this for one reason: suddenly, you can smell it.  

And there's the air, too.  Even though it's still cold as hell, there's a slight softening.  The wind doesn't whip at your cheeks, the cold doesn't sink into your bones.  Maybe you even leave your parka unzipped as you shovel the slushsnowice from the driveway.

Then early one morning, you spot a Goldfinch on the bird feeder, and he has shed his drab winter coat in favor of brilliant spring gold.  And a week or two later, you catch sight of that first scarlet flash of a redwing blackbird.  Snow or no snow, Spring has come.  The first flowers can't be far behind (let's hope a few of the crocus bulbs I planted in the grass escaped the greedy clutches of my friends the squirrels).

Two days ago, I was in the yard scolding chatting with the squirrels when I sensed the first wee hint that spring may be on its way.  As I watched the sun fall behind the white pines, I actually felt the warmth of its rays.  This was all I needed.  Back inside I went to pore over my garden catalogs.  I'm obsessed right now with roses, everything from my favorite rugosas, to classic climbers and David Austin English roses.  

David Austin Carding Mill

In my last garden I grew several kinds of roses, including a deep pink wild one that seemed to volunteer itself in gardens all over the neighborhood.  Here at the new house, I have certain roses in mind, like "Carding Mill," pictured above, but I'd love to hear from you about some of your favorites, too. 

And just because I need a little Summer beauty during Winter's home stretch,I thought I'd share a few photos of roses I've taken over the past three years.  Those of you in colder climes can think of them as armfuls of summer's beauty and scent from me to you.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gigi Thibodeau

Peaks Island Maine, Gigi Thibodeau

London, Gigi Thibodeau

At Borough Market, London, Gigi Thibodeau

St Paul's Cathedral, London, Gigi Thibodeau

Peaks Island, Maine, Gigi Thibodeau

Street Shots

What I take away from every journey, more than all the requisite tourist sights I visit, are unexpected moments, chance encounters, and second looks at things that could be easily missed--but shouldn't be.  So, along with shots of cathedrals (like the one above of Southwark Cathedral) and castles, my scrapbooks contain street art, alleyways, signs, and strangers I meet for a brief but memorable moment.    

On a wall near Columbia Road

In the window of one of the many bookshops on Cecil Court

Near Brick Lane Market--I loved her spirit!

An alley in the West End

Street art near Brick Lane

I've shared photos of this same building with you before.  I am just drawn to it!

There is so much interesting street art near Brick Lane!

Fab boots in a shop window on Columbia Road

Buddha in the window above Neal's Yard

Fox door knocker on Columbia Road

Mr. Magpie and graffiti

Gorgeously redone facades

Those blossoms were clinging to the trees outside the John Keats House in Hampstead.  I'll have more to say about Keats very soon.  In the meantime, I'm dreaming about doorways and alleyways and streets I've yet to wander.  London has me thinking about the next journey I'd like to take.  How about you?  Any plans for travel?  Where does your heart long to lead you?

Returning

Hello again, my friends!  We are back from London, and I am bursting with stories to tell and pictures to post in the coming days.  First, I need to unpack, do laundry, catch up on emails and phone calls, and do all the other nonsense one does after a week away.  In the meantime, I just had to share with you these spring flowers from a beautiful street stall in Greenwich.  One of the things I love most about traveling ever since I started The Magpie's Fancy is that I often take photos and collect memories with you in mind.  It sharpens my eye and broadens my perspective, which is, I do believe, a good thing.  

More specifically, one of the things I love most about traveling to London now is that since I have been there many times before, I feel less and less obliged to be a tourist, to skim the surface of the place.  These days I spend more time meeting and talking with people, eating at local haunts, and getting to know my favorite neighborhoods almost as well as the ones back home.  I do love the feeling of visiting a city for the first time, but there's something to be said for gradually getting to know a place well.  Like a good friend whom you see only every year or two, you rediscover that depth of connection every time you visit, yet the friend always holds surprises in store.  In this way, the best discoveries are made and the friendship grows stronger with the passing years.

More very soon.  Street art, food, flowers, markets, crumbling buildings . . . only the good stuff.  xo Gigi   

      

The Winner!

Hello, my friends!  I have used random number generator to select a winner of the "London Treasures" giveaway, and I'm excited to announce that the winner is the amazing prairiegirl!  I was stunned when her number came up on the generator.  It just seemed so perfect.  Pg was one of the people I met during my first year of blogging, and we have been friends ever since.  In addition to being one of the most gifted photographers I know, she is also one of the kindest, funniest, and most supportive people I have ever met.  I use the term "met" in a bloggy way, since we have yet to meet face-to-face, but I feel like I have always known her.  I know that any of you who blog understand just what I am talking about.  It will be a joy to think of Miss prairiegirl while I am making my rounds at the London markets (although I may have to let you down a wee bit, pg, since I'm going to have to eat all the fish and chips myself)!

And because I wish, wish, wish I could bring back gifties for everyone, here are five more folks to whom I'll be sending postcards upon my return from the UK: Jillayne, Marlowe, Oliag, Sunday, and Cathi.  If your name is on the list, please send me an email (see Contact and Links) with your mailing address.  I'll be pleased as punch to write you a pretty postcard.  

Here is a big thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway, as well as to all those who sent sweet notes via email and Facebook.  In most parts of life, three years isn't very long, but in the transitory world of blogging, three years seems almost a lifetime, and I feel a lucky magpie, indeed, to still be here, typing away.  

x Gigi

Three Years and a Leap and a Giveaway!

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"  ~Oscar Wilde

The Magpie's Fancy turned three years old on February 26th, but I decided to wait until today to mention it.  What better way to celebrate than with a leap?

While anniversaries usually make me pause and reflect, this year I simply want to move forward.  Blogging helped me muddle through one of the most painful periods of my life (there I go reflecting anyway), and now I feel it guiding me during a time of renewal.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the amazing friends I have made here in the blogging world, and to my dear friends from the face-to-face world who have long supported The Magpie's Fancy.  You inspire me every single day.  I have no idea what the future holds for this blog, but I'm so happy that you have shared the journey with me this far.

To celebrate, I am hosting a GIVEAWAY.  Those who have won my giveaways before know that they are very much in keeping with my magpie tendencies.  I select a winner at random, and then collect various magpie treasures especially for the individual who wins.  I gather them up in a unique package, and ship them off to her or him.  

This giveaway is an extra special one, because I will be gathering the giveaway treasures during my trip to London!  That's right.  All the goodies will come from my favorite markets in and around that glorious city.

If you would like to enter to win a parcel of magpie treasures from me, simply leave a comment on this post between now and March 6th, 2012.  I will draw a winner on March 7th.  

While only one person can win the big prize, I will also be drawing five more names to receive a postcard printed with one of my flower photographs.  

Thank you, dear ones, for giving me riches beyond compare.  x Gigi

Mr. and Mrs. Magpie Take a Trip

Portobello Road

I haven't told you the giddy news yet: Mr. Magpie and I are headed back to England for a week in March!  We are beside ourselves with delicious joy.

Crystal Globe Pendants at the V&A

Chihuly at the V&A

As some of you know, when Mr. Magpie is not busy fulfilling his duties as my better half on this blog, he is known as Dr. Todd Avery, Scholar of British Modernist Literature and Professor of English.  I need to finish sewing his superhero costume, which has a large, sparkly, Edwardian "B" on the front.  B for British and for Bloomsbury, as in the folks he writes about from the Bloomsbury Group. His brilliant books can be found here and here and here (pdf order form from Cecil Woolf Publishers) and here (beautiful exhibition catalog Todd wrote from a Bloomsbury Exhibition he curated at the Lilly Library in 1999 when he was still a graduate student.  The book is now a collectible and a must for Bloomsbury lovers.  Yes, I'm bragging.)  I don't use "brilliant" lightly.  My guy is a smarty pants, and because he is one, he spends a great deal of time doing the sorts of things that smarty pants do, like rummaging through archives and leafing through forgotten papers and books and recordings and even very old films.  Fortunately for me, this means he must travel as often as possible to libraries far and wide, which in turn means I often get to travel beside him.  Occasionally I even share in writing duties;  you can find an article Mr. Magpie and I co-wrote here.   He, being a singular bird, does not much like flying, so having a trusty traveling companion makes the whole business much less taxing.  Perhaps that sounds odd for a superhero, but not all superheroes love to fly.  Batman prefers his Batmobile.  Mr. Magpie prefers his desk chair and his mighty fountain pen.  They take him all the way around the world, thank you very much.

Needs no caption!  :)

Detail of horse from the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum--I visit them every trip!

On this trip, he must visit some film archives in London and a library or two in Cambridge.  Hooray for him!  Hooray for me!  London just happens to be my favorite city.  This time we will be staying outside of the city in Greenwich, one of the prettiest places I know, in a lovely B&B that I have heard is a gem.  We've stayed all over London, but we've never stayed overnight in Greenwich, and I LOVE the markets there, the museums and parks, and the food, so I will have much to report upon our return.

Arriving at Greenwich by riverboat on the Thames

After Greenwich, it will be off to Cambridge.  I've only ever spent a day and a night there, so I am thrilled!  We haven't found the perfect place to stay in Cambridge yet.  If any of you know a fabulous place that is not crazy expensive (we are traveling on an academic budget, which, despite what many conservative US politicians will tell you about lazy and greedy academics, is decidedly not a luxury budget!), please let me know.  We've asked around to some friends and colleagues, but have yet to hit upon the place that fits both our budget and our simple needs (clean, quiet, convenient for walking, ensuite bath, good breakfasts).  For me, when we're on this type of trip, a pretty room is a bonus.  Of course I'd like it, but, honestly, I'd rather spend the money on some good food and wonderful experiences than on a super luxury room.  Am I crazy?  I prefer to think I'm just a girl with a camera who sees her hotel room as a place to sleep between adventures like the one pictured below.

Portobello Road--delicious!

I know some of you live in or near London, so you know just why I am so excited to return.  For those of you who don't live there, I wish I could take you in my pocket, especially to my favorite markets, where we would have a ball together.  I promise to return with photos and new discoveries to share.

We won't be leaving for a few weeks yet, so if you see this any time before March and know of an inn/B&B in Cambridge, please feel free to drop me an email!

Roses at Saint Paul's Cathedral.  I've only climbed to the top once!  What a view!

Happy weekend, my friends, and welcome to new subscribers and followers!  I'm looking forward to making my blog rounds this weekend!  Can't wait to see what you're all up to.  x Gigi

P.S. All the photos above are from our last UK trip two years ago.  I've been missing it so!

London Memories: Pretty in Pink

At Broadwick Silks

Mr. Magpie is a British Literature scholar who focuses on the Modernist Period.  That means many things: he owns a lot of books, he writes a lot of books, he knows a thing or two about the Bloomsbury Group (especially Lytton Strachey), he racks up many hours in archives working on his library tan, and, of course, he's wicked smart.  

At St Luke's in Chelsea

Fortunately for me, it also means he has to travel to England every year or two for research, and I get to tag along.  While he's holed away in the British Library or the BBC archives, diligently transcribing manuscripts, I'm usually off gallivanting about London, soaking up every bit of the city I can, from Bloomsbury to Borough Market and beyond.

Looking up in the rose garden at St Paul's Cathedral

This year, though, we won't be making a trek to London.  We've got too much on our plates already, so the next trip will have to wait another year.  In the meantime I'm missing it something fierce.  

At Spitalfields Market

And so, this past weekend my longing led me to dig back through photos from our last stay.  As I dug, I discovered a plethora of pinks.  I'd never realized just how much pink I'd managed to capture on that trip.  There it was in everything from the pink-netted fabric at Broadwick Silks in Soho (see top photo) to the lush heirloom roses at St Luke's in Chelsea (second photo) and the stunning St Paul's Cathedral in the center of London.  And again I spotted it in the handmade shawls in the stalls at Spitalfields Market on a Sunday morning.

Snog Frozen Yogurt, Soho

Even at night, hot pink shimmered in shop windows on that trip, whether I fancied a Snog . . .  

or a velveteen-flocked chandelier.  Note: I said yes to the snog, but no to the light.  Can't quite picture it in my house!

Portobello Road

And then there's Notting Hill's Portobello Road on a Saturday morning in August.  Even though the shot above isn't entirely pink, something about all those girls shopping for vintage bling screams pink, pink, pinkity-pink to me.

Who can resist the pastel homes in Notting Hill?  My favorite facades are those painted unabashedly Neopolitan-pink.

But always, I come back to the roses.  London has heaps of them in gardens and shops and hidden spots.  Here are a few for sale at Borough Market.  If you've never been to this Market, you must go.  It truly is one of my favorite places on Earth.  Buy yourself some lunch late on a Saturday morning: a loaf of bread, some cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy, some gorgeous fruit, and a cup of incredible coffee from Monmouth Coffee Co.  And don't forget to buy yourself a rose.  Then sit by the Thames with your delicious treasures and your gorgeous pink bloom, watching the river flow.  

I think I'll do just this on my next London visit.  Maybe I'll even coax Mr. Magpie from his dusty archives long enough to join me.  If so, I'll give him a dark pink rose of his very own.