While I am sorting...

Just returned from water-logged Brimfield and New York, and need a few hours to mobilize my senses and get my pictures in a reasonable semblance of order. Tomorrow, I promise...

Image via Tumblr

Brimfield, MA II

So... my co-conspirator and encourager of all-things-shopping is Mia Widlake of No.19 fame. She and I are re-creating our Brimfield experience of last year and leave at sparrows tomorrow morning (in the torrential torrent that is Tropical Nuisance Lee). Trenchcoats, gum boots, bargaining prowess and cash in hand...

Images courtesy of the Brooklyn Circus

Through the Looking Glass (Number XIV)

The fourteenth in the Through the Looking Glass series of photographs...

(One can almost smell the freshly made bread! The bakery on 259 Bleecker Street (New York City) was photographed in the mid 1930's by Berenice Abbott. The bread was obviously piping hot as one can see from the condensation on the window. Certainly worth laying your hands on the amazing book Changing New York. See more here. Via A Continuous Lean).

Château de Vauvenargues

Picasso's studio in the Château de Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence. Note the ornamental plaster work...

Image via The New York Times

High Society - Grace Kelly

Apparently, Alfred Hitchcock (upon hearing about Grace's imminent wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco) said: "I'm very happy that Grace has found herself such a good part..." 

Grace Kelly was nothing short of the epitome of perfection. These rare unpublished photos of a princess-to-be (courtesy of LIFE), depict some wonderfully candid moments. From an assistant keeping her petticoats from getting muddied as she was leaving the Hollywood studio lot for the last time, to photos of Grace carefully selecting and packing her extensive trousseau before moving to Europe, with her poodle Oliver looking on in bemusement...

The newly-engaged Grace Kelly

The couple, 1956

The studio gave Grace the twelve costumes she wore in the film High Society... to keep! From tapered trousers to beautiful evening gowns.

Leaving the Hollywood lot for the last time (before marriage)

Packing with Oliver

Unidentified seamstress with the veil

Finishing touches on the lace and pearl-studded prayer book

Goodbye Tinseltown

Gift shopping inside Cartier, New York

Bidding farewell to her fans in NYC

Grace Kelly stands with her mother, Margaret Majer Kelly

Bound for Monaco aboard the S.S. Constitution

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier the day before the wedding

Greeting guests

At the alter

Just married

All images from LIFE

Equestrian Quarters

I could easily trade with that horse...

Image via Shorpy

Reclamation

By the end of 1914, a whopping five million carats worth of diamonds had been extracted from Kolmanskop just outside Lüderitz in Namibia. After World War I, when the diamond fields were all but depleted, the town began to dwindle and was finally abandoned in 1954...

I came across these amazing shots by Spanish photographer, Alvaro Sanchez-Montañes, depicting the half-buried ghost town that appears to be drifting slowly into the Namib dunes. Nature, once again laying claim and being the ultimate victor...

All photos by Alvaro Sanchez-Montañes

Brothers of Industry

They refer to one another as 'Brother Antiquarians'. Their store can be found in Carpinteria, California. When not into reclaiming, repurposing and sustainability, they sign off their letters endearingly, with 'Industrially Yours". Initially involved in assisting their mum, the brothers developed a penchant for the trade and today are fully-fledged restorers, hunters and gatherers. Being rather fond of this sort of aesthetic, I could easily help a brother out...

More here

Through the Looking Glass (Number XIII)

The thirteenth in the Through the Looking Glass series of photographs...

Gigi Cifali / Absence of water (via Pinterest)

Brighton Beach Memoirs

Flew back into Baltimore late Friday night -  just by the skin of my chinny-chin-chin. As I type (before the power goes on the fritz), so Hurricane Irene is beating down against the windows and the trees outside are practically bent over double... 

With a 9 hour stop-over at Heathrow, I caught up on a variety of magazines courtesy of WH Smith, and one particular photo shoot in Vogue left a lasting impression. With a bent toward mod and starring Brighton, Dover, actor Sam Riley and that heavenly creature, Natalia Vodianova... I found myself desperately coveting the Prada dress and green python coat. Exquisitely photographed by Marcus Piggott and Mert Alas.

All from Vogue

Off with his Head

The extraordinary bronze head from the Somnium Series by Andries Botha. Currently at CIRCA on Jellicoe in Johannesburg...

Photographs by Craig Strydom

Travels Through the Karoo (Graaff Reinet)

"Surrounded by the Camdeboo National Park, Graaff-Reinet, the heart of the 'Great Karoo' – Place of Thirst – is a boundless and mysterious area covered by vast sheep and game farms, where broad plains roll away to distant koppies and multilayered mountains that seem to touch the indigo sky. Listen to the silence, breathe in the aged earth and the Karoo bossies (which conjure up the taste of Karoo lamb!), and gaze at a startlingly clear horizon that seems drawn at the other end of the earth. Our clear night skies are studded with countless stars; even other galaxies are visible with the naked eye, offering some of the best star gazing in the world. Fossils of some of the earliest forms of one-celled life have been discovered here, indicating that life has existed in this region for three billion years. The richness of pre-dinosaur fossils in this region is world-renowned."

We stopped in for tea and some Springbok biltong...

Coat-of-Arms

From the dining-room

Rather extraordinary find - an old pharmacy window (NFS)

A ceiling... yes ceiling made from dorings (thorns)

our parking place at Kuilfontein

Words from here