Inner Stregth is Quiet

It’s funny isn’t it, how the person you feel you are can change in a moment. In the time it look for a doctor to utter a single sentence, I went from someone who was trying for a baby to someone who is facing a very different journey to becoming a parent than I ever imagined. From the day we heard the words ‘so IVF treatment will be your only option’ we’ve become part of a whole different community of people, thrust out of the ‘normal’ circle into a place that we didn’t even really realise existed - and it’s lonely out here. 

Nobody really knows how it feels, and sometimes we don’t really know how we feel either. A single word suddenly has the power to have me holding back tears, and sometime I feel like if I hear ‘you’ll get there, it’ll happen’ one more time I might give up altogether. Because it might, but it also might not, and being out of control is something I don’t deal well with. I stumbled across this 'Notes To Strangers' note in London, Inner Strength is Quiet, and it really spoke to me. On the outside, I’m dealing with this whole journey. I’ve been promoted at work, I’ve been optimistic and glad that we’re moving forwards. I’ve not cried in public or cancelled plans. Some days though, on the inside, it feels like I’m using every bit of energy I have not to literally crack into two. 

People ask if I’m ok, and the reply is always ‘yeah I’m good thanks.’ If I tell people that I almost cried on the train because a grown man pulled a carton of Ribena out of his pocket and every missing thing about having a child came crashing down around me then they might start thinking I’ve gone round the twist! 

Some days it’s the truth and I really am fine. This time last week, after a day at the beach, some laughter and sunshine and a pie for dinner, I felt like this was just the way things are meant to be for us. Optimistic. Hopeful. Today, after hearing that there’s likely to be travel chaos because of the snow and we have to go to Cambridge and there seems to be nothing but bad news everywhere, I feel like at any moment pieces of me might start floating away, like Voldemort crumbling at the end of The Deathly Hallows and all I want to do is wrap myself in a duvet to hold all the bits of me together. 

Of course, does any of this really make up who I am, or is it just the stuff the ‘who I am’ is dwelling on and being consumed by at the moment. The latter, mostly, but being a Mum one day has been so deeply engrained in me for so long that it feels hard to detach the fear, and the sadness of the situation from my everyday life, and remember that there are things that still bring joy and happiness. I am a wife, and a sister, and a daughter and a friend. I love food and art and sewing and decorating our house, going out for breakfast, growing house plants, writing. I am chronically late, excellent at procrastinating and terrible at saying no. The the list of things that make up who I am, underneath the thing at the forefront of my mind, goes on. 

Yesterday we popped into the Tate modern and, although brief, it was enough to top up the feeling that there is more to me than this. 

It’s important, I think, to try to remember that we have so much to be grateful for, and still so much to look forward to. To try and fill our days, where we can, with dreams and plans that are separate from being parents.

But right now, we're off to Cambridge in the snow, in search of the last of the answers, a therapeutic hot chocolate, and mostly, in search of a plan. 

Introducing 'Food Moments' - A Beid Bil Tamriya Recipe from Ellie Ward

I recently got an interesting message from an online friend I met through instagram. She is a fellow Eleanor, although she prefers Ellie, and I believe we 'met' (albeit virtually) after discussing natural dye techniques. We've stayed in touch, and a few weeks ago she suggested a recipe I might like to feature on The Salted Tail and it got me thinking. 

Reading the post submission Ellie sent made me realise how instrumental food can be in shaping our lives. I certainly have several memories that have food at their centre, and it is one of the most important factors in my life, from deciding where we go on holiday to the time spent perusing recipe books before I go to bed. 

I have also had some issues with food in the last few years, and it's only recently that I've let myself re-discover my love for it. I've been reading my books like they're novels, perusing the market stalls for local ingredients, devouring food based podcasts and binge-watching baking videos. 

It's like a really big bit of me has woken up (and gone in search of breakfast!)

So, to celebrate my reawakening, I've decided to start a new series I'm calling Food Moments. These will be guest posts, (plus a few moments of my own) sharing life's important memories and moments where food has been at the heart. Prepare for lots of reminiscing and recipes! 

For now, it's over to Ellie for the first in the series. She shares why a favourite cafe in Peckham became an important part of her family life, and a brunch recipe she devised after tasting a particular dish and needing to re-create it at home.

Enjoy! 

"I lived in Peckham for a decade before making the predictable move to outside the M25 when our son was born. We saw the area of London we lived in change over time. From a place with low rents that encouraged many to start innovative restaurants, artisan delicatessens, gallery spaces and yoga studios to a place known for exactly that. In poured money and gentrification took a firm grasp. Rents crept up and many of the original businesses were forced to re-locate. We decided at this point it was time to cash in and sell. 

Despite it’s relatively rapid ascent (or descent as some may argue) I miss that beautiful part of London everyday. I miss it’s vibrancy, its inclusion and its warm openness to all. One place sums up Peckham for me better than anywhere - Persepolis. Persepolis is a corner shop and cafe that has been in the same spot for 16 years. It’s run by an incredible lady called Sally Butcher and her Iranian husband Jamshid. It houses an amazing array of exotic goods: herbs, spices, oils and teas as well as other impossible-to-find-elsewhere ingredients.  

Pre-child, we would often go on a weekend morning for a slow brunch, tasting several unusual yet totally delicious dishes.  Once our son Ludo was born, we would call in after swimming for a refreshing pomegranate juice and a takeways box of Turkish delight from the counter. In fact, our son had his first taste of solid food Persepolis - flat bread and hummus - true story! 

The first plate I ever tried was an Iraqi breakfast dish called beid bil tamriya which is basically eggs, dates and cardamom. It’s so ridiculously simple yet so delicious. I ordered it because it sounded so odd I just had to try it! In the UK we tend to consider eggs outside of baking as a savoury ingredient - quiche, omelette, or hard boiled with a pinch of salt and soldiers. This dish however is a sweet sensation! 

For two people you’ll need:

- Butter or coconut oil for frying (I personally prefer coconut oil for it’s plant based fats and creamy taste) 

- 2 medjool dates (or three regular ones)

- 4-5 eggs (depending on your hunger level!)

- A teaspoon of cardamon powder (you can buy this pre-ground or break open some pods and grind the seeds - you'll need about 10 pods)
- Some great sourdough bread

First, de-stone and roughly chop the dates. Heat the butter or coconut oil over a medium heat and add the chopped dates. Fry them until they’re softened, mashing a bit with a wooden spoon as you go. Take care not to let them burn. 

Beat your chosen number of eggs and add to the pan with the dates. Stir constantly to scramble your eggs to your preferred consistency then remove from the heat and stir in the cardamom powder. 

Serve with sourdough, black coffee and a Sunday supplement." 

***

Ellie is a 36 year old ex-fashion buyer, now a mother and a maker. She lives in the modernist village of New Ash Green, Kent with her husband and son. She has a jewellery brand called Unknown Legend. You can find Ellie and her beautiful jewellery on Instagram or have a look at her etsy shop here.

This beid bil tamriya recipe is wonderfully delicious! I've made it several times already and I've also found that combination of dates and cardamom makes an amazing addition to porridge! I will definitely be visiting Persepolis next time we're in London. Ellie also recommended their recipe books which do look wonderful! Persia in Peckham for example is describes as 'A slightly daft English woman guide to Persian cuisine"

Hopefully you enjoyed the first Food Moment. I can't wait to share more stories with you, and if you have a favourite food moment you'd like to share please to get in touch - everything you need is under 'Contact' above! 

My Biggest Blogtacular Takeaways

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my goals for this years Blogtacular, the biggest and best blogging conference in the country (and quite possibly the world.) This was going to be my second time at the conference, and I was really excited to be able to go to the pre-conference party at West Elm this year too.

As expected, Blogtacular was exactly the creative confidence boost I needed, and as well as catching up with some friends from last year and meeting some people I've got to know online in real life, I also met so many new people which is one of the best things about the event as a whole. I think working from home in any sense can be really lonely, so meeting people and having real life conversations is a huge thing, especially when everyone just gets it when you explain what you do!

For me, the weekend began on Friday evening at West Elm on Tottenham Court Road. I'm not always the most confident when it comes to introducing myself and talking about what I do in person, I could definitely be described as a webtrovert (reserved in real life and much more confident online!) Given that I've been feeling much more at ease with what it is I do and had my introduction nailed I found it so much easier this year to throw myself into talking to people (the wine may have helped a just a little.) The party was a great opportunity to catch up with people and also become familiar with new faces so that by Saturday morning when the main even kicked off I didn't feel like I'd arrived at school on the second day of term when everyone had already made friends the day before!

As well as the wine, window shopping and casual conversation, we also sat down for some round table discussions about various topics. I joined the instragram chat which was chaired by Katy English. It was so refreshing to sit amongst a group of people, some with 300 followers, some with over 15,000 and realise that everyone has the same issues - the algorithm, the lack of community, being followed fake accounts and online legging shops and above all, absolutely loving what we're all sharing but feeling a bit disillusioned with it all. The over riding feeling - and one that I totally agree with, was that all we can do is keep doing what we really love, only posting what is a true reflection of us and not what we think we get us more likes and followers because thats just not sustainable - or much fun! 

At eight o' clock the following morning, I set off for the main event. Over an amazing breakfast, I began to make final decisions about which workshops to attend. The day opened and closed with a keynote, with three workshop slots in between. I found it even tougher to decide this year, but in the end settled for Kayte Ferris of Simple and Seasons' Marketing Session, followed by a session on Finding Your Niche led my Mollie Makes editor Cath Dean, and finishing with a session on Self Doubt led by Sas Petherick.

You may remember that a few weeks ago I posted my entry for the competition Blogtacular and West Elm were running for conference attendees. Before the opening keynote, the winner of the most coveted £2000 prize was announced and I was beyond excited and grateful, and a little emotional to find I had won a runner up prize of £250 to spend in West Elm! The overall, and very deserving winner was Hester of Hester's Handmade Home who's miniature room entry was just inspired, and Shahira from Afro Glory also won a £250 runner up prize to make over her home studio space. This in itself totally squashed any feelings of self doubt that were still milling about in my head - to get a bit of recognition for something I love doing was the best feeling. Plus - £250!! I'm so excited to decide what to buy and to get going with our living room makeover!

I found both Kayte and Cath's workshops incredibly useful from a blogging and business perspective.
Lots of the topics that Kayte covered I had come across, and maybe even attempted to implement in the past but nobody had ever explained specific aspects of marketing so clearly before. Since the conference I've been able to really define my audience and have a much clearer idea of where I'm heading! Maybe it was all the sea related references but since thinking about the content I'm creating in terms of 'ports' and 'anchors' I'm finding it all so much more exciting. I've even started putting together an email newsletter as an extension to what I'm doing on the blog - so stay tuned for that in the next few weeks - there will be a sign-up form popping up soon.

The insights gleaned from Sas' self doubt session have stayed with me in other areas of my life too. We talked a lot about why we procrastinate, why we're not as productive as we'd like to be and why we waste time scrolling and channel hopping and making endless cups of tea. It turns out that the reason was the same for pretty much everyone in the room - we revert to these behaviours because they're safe. Nobody can judge us based on what we look at on instagram, or if we choose to spend the afternoon watching The Pioneer Woman instead of putting ourselves out there online. As soon as we feel like there might be a risk, like we might be seen or judged - it's so much safer to run back to the 'island of self doubt' which is equipped with Netflix, blankets, comfy slippers, tea and chocolates. Sounds lovely doesn't it, but spending time here doesn't actually help us progress in the direction we want to be heading. Of course, sometimes tea and rubbish TV is exactly what we need - but a lot of the time we use these things to hide from putting ourselves out there. For me, I realised that I specifically avoid doing things because I don't feel they match up to other peoples expectations of what it means to be successful - so I'm likely to place more importance on mowing the lawn, hoovering, or some other household thing because from that looks productive from the outside; keeping up with those things is what I think means I'm doing ok! There will be more to come about Sas' session in the next few days - she set us all some homework and I'm going to be writing about how that went for me.

So, what were my biggest takeaways at the end of this beautiful day?

First - I like my coffee hot!

There was a lot of talk over the two days about capturing our lives on Instagram. One conversation in particular was about how often people drink cold coffee because it often comes before the food they've ordered and they can't drink it until they've taken the perfect cafe-table-flatly. Not me! Yes, I often have a quick rearrange of plates and glasses and take a couple of photos (my most recent post on Instagram is the perfect example) and as one of my husband's main hobbies is coffee (both making it at home and hunting out the best places) it features in my feed a lot because it features in my life a lot! However, it's not so important to me to get the perfect photo that I'm willing to drink it cold - my Instagram feed is dictated by my life, not the other way around!

Secondly - I need to write for my readers!

Both Kayte and Cath's sessions were heavily focused on finding your audience and both talked about coming up with 'reader personas.' This is something I've sort of done before but I've never actually been specific enough to give my 'readers' names and properly flesh out their personalities. I spent some time working on this the week after the conference and it's helped so much, not only in deciding what posts will work but how much detail to go into within each. So, when writing I can think - do all three of my readers know what 'reduce by a third' means? Have they all mastered backstitch already or do I need to go into more specific detail? Of course, the answers to the questions are all inside my head, but it's really helpful to have three different people of varying abilities in mind when writing rather than just thinking that I know what I mean so surely everyone else must do to?

Thirdly - Glasses are deceptive!

Apparently I look very different with my glasses on! In my profile picture across all the platforms I use, I'm wearing my glasses, but at the conference I didn't have them on and so many people commented on how they didn't recognise me. In fact, Jenny and Lucy from Two Crafty Brownies and I spent most of the day looking out for one another after never meeting in real life and it wasn't until Kat managed to round us all up that we managed it - and again the culprit was my lack of eyewear!  So, I either need a new headshot, or to actually wear my glasses at these events!

Lastly - I love doing this!

I had been feeling a bit weird and deflated about the whole online-life-thing in the weeks leading up to the conference. I had been wondering if it was the right place for me to be - when I read that unicorn smoothies were on the menu for the pre-party I must admit I had a bit of a cringe. I'm really not into the unicorn thing, my aesthetic isn't super colourful, and I wondered if that's what people want to see. But you know what - I don't think that's the case at all and even if it is (to borrow a quote from the awesome Allison who I met last year) I love 'doing me' - knowing what I'm not just reinforces what I am, what I'm aiming for and what I want to share. Sometimes that might be the insta-cliche, but if it is - it's because that's whats happening in my life at the moment and I'll continue to be unapologetic about it!

To use another cliche, if people don't like what you do, they're not your people - and I can safely say that in the Blogtacular community, I've definitely found my people!!

(Thank you so much to Amber-Rose Photography for the beautiful photos in this post)

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My Blogtacular 2017 Goals

I'm finding two things hard to believe right now. Firstly, that Blogtacular 2016 was almost a year ago, and secondly that in just two days time the 2017 conference will be in full swing!

It's totally crept up on me. I felt like I had ages to get myself ready, but it suddenly occurred to me on Tuesday morning that I hadn't even ordered new business cards yet. Some super fast photoshop wrangling and £10 of express P+P later and they should be with me today...phew!

I thought it would be a good idea to have a look back over the post I wrote after last years conference,  see how I've grown and progressed since then and set myself some goals for this years conference (and beyond!)

Last year, I well remember standing on the escalator at 8.30 in the morning, heading up to the entrance and feeling an overwhelming desire to run away! I had only just decided to take blogging seriously and was convinced that everyone was going to realise that I wasn't a 'real blogger' the minute I walked in.

Of course, this wasn't the case at all and I had the most inspirational day surrounded by people who totally 'got it'. I hadn't felt this level of belonging since I was at uni and it was refreshing, not to mention surprising to see that I actually had more of a plan formulated then I realised and that the introduction that came out of my mouth when people asked what I did actually sounded quite considered!

I left so enthused and ready to throw myself into this new way of life. I'd handed my notice in already and had grand plans to work full time on The Salted Tail. I booked a mentoring session with Allison Sadler which really helped me to hone these plans and set up a fast amount of questions for me to work through to really define what I was hoping to achieve. My ultimate goal was to launch a magazine, and that's still the plan eventually, but due to various life changes (redundancy, new jobs, family drama!) the focusing and honing has taken a long time - much longer than I anticipated.

It's only in the last month or so that I've felt really confident in the type of content I want to share, and I think I've finally got that introduction nailed. I've moved on from the wobbly 'uhm...I sort of write a creative lifestyle blog' which was always a bit apologetic, too nondescript and wishy-washy. I now describe The Salted Tail as a blog about crafting a delicious life. It's the online version of my perfect magazine, with a strong focus on craft and food, some culture and lifestyle finds (things like wish lists, places to visit and book reviews for instance) and some of my life thrown in there too as I love reading blogs where I feel like I really know the author and that they really believe in what they're writing about!

So, with just two days to go, what am I hoping to get from this years conference?

Firstly I'd like to find out more about working with brands in a way that works for me. Obviously I would love for my blog to start earning some money, especially as my plans to launch a magazine are going to need financing somehow. However, I feel really strongly that I won't write about a big high-street brand I don't want to support. I've seen a few bloggers who I thought I knew quite well and who have been quite open about their values suddenly working with brands who I don't feel match those ideals.  I'm all about supporting ethical, local or independent businesses but of course they don't necessarily have the marketing budget of the larger companies...so I'd love to learn more about how this could work for me!

Secondly - I still have massive waves of imposter syndrome every so often where I end up wallowing in thoughts of 'argh nobody is reading, my content is boring, why do I think I'm qualified to do this again, why am I exposing myself on the internet so much?!' So, I'm hoping for bit of a reboot in that department - last year it was very quickly squashed by the general amount of positivity in the room so I'm hoping that now I feel more clear about what it is I'm doing I'll feel more able to introduce myself and get more involved socially as well as just absorbing all the information! One workshop that I'm keen to get to is Sas Petherick's session on self doubt. While I was reading her speaker bio about how self doubt manifests itself I, like a lot of people I'm sure, felt like she was talking about me! I'm excellent at procrastinating, obsessive scrolling and feeling overwhelmed so I'm pretty excited about this one!

Thirdly - to vlog or not to vlog!? I've been filming my day to day life for the last couple of weeks, but I don't feel ready to post yet. I'm still not sure if it's right for me; I'm comfortable enough talking to a lens and feel like I'd have enough time to publish one vlog per week, weekly-vlog style, but something is holding me back and I'm not sure what that is. The answer to this isn't something I'm hoping to find in a workshop (although you never know of course!) but more from talking to other conference goers and seeing what their experiences of vlogging are and if it would bring something to my little corner of the internet.

Above all, I'm hoping to have a few more moments like I had last year, the overwhelming moments of inspiration and excitement, when I know for sure I'm on the right path, that I took a huge risk for the right reason and feel surrounded again by creativity and passion and love for the internet which, let be honest, isn't always a super fun place to be! Also - the food looks bloody incredible and I haven't even mentioned the goody bags yet! I'll be on instagram during the conference and there will be a couple of posts in the coming weeks about my experience too! If you want to know more about the conference, pop over the Blogtacular website for all the details!

Homeslice Pizza {Pizza and Wine of Epic Proportions}

While we were in London last weekend, we decided to go for pizza before heading home. A quick google search for 'Best Pizza in London' led us to Homeslice. They have two restaurants, one on Wells Street, and one in Neal's Yard. We know where we are with the Covent Garden area, so headed to Neal's Yard. They were pretty busy, and had no indoor tables, but said if we were prepared to risk the rain (my first though was 'my new hat!!') we were welcome to sit outside. We risked the inclemency, and sat at one of the tiny outdoor tables. 

Homeslice don't serve anything else, just pizza! I'm a huge fan of places that do one thing really really well, and would actually be put off a place if their menu was too big - you know the old saying 'The jack of all trades is a master of none'. 

Homeslice are certainly masters of pizza. You can either buy a slice from a selection for £4, or a 20" pizza for £20. Their dough is made with high protein German flour, aged for 24 hours and hand rolled to order. Their tomato sauce is made with Italian tomatoes, and other lovely things like olive oil, garlic and chilli. They also do some non-tomato based sauces...cauliflower cheese pizza anyone? As for cheese, their mozzarella comes from Naples and everything else comes from the Neal's Yard Dairy which is about 20 seconds away. Brilliant or what? 

Most of all their toppings are really exciting - no stuffed crusts here! We went for a 20" pizza, and split the toppings. There were 10 or so options, and we really struggled to choose. D's half had pulled barbecue brisket and pickles, and I went for caramelised onions, olives and anchovies. Incidentally caramelised onions should ALWAYS be on a pizza! You can see their menu here. Each pizza is cooked at 500 degrees in their wood fired oven for less than two minutes, and brought out on a wooden board with a pizza wheel and paper plates.

Remember I said we sat at a tiny outdoor table? Well, we sort of underestimated what 20" of pizza looks like...

It was honestly the best (any biggest) pizza I've ever had! Seriously beautiful, and we felt like we were in Friends eating the giant slices! 

The other thing Homeslice seem to be good at is wine! After a little research I found they source organic, biodynamic wines, and by using bag in box packaging can deliver really good wine affordably. It really does tick both boxes too, great wine, £4 a glass! Read more about it here. Also, rather than buying it by the bottle or ordering one glass at a time, you get a GIANT bottle and some glasses, pour it yourself, and when you've finished they use a ruler to measure how much you've drunk and charge you accordingly! So much fun, although also slightly nerve wracking if you have small hands and are known for being a bit clumsy...we decided to leave the bottle on the floor behind the table to avoid knocking it over...£4 a glass may be cheap, but not if you end up paying for the entire thing! 

We almost managed to finish all of the giant pizza (and somehow I managed to keep it out of my hair!)

They're also opening a new restaurant in Shoreditch soon according to their website. If you're ever anywhere near a branch I would wholeheartedly recommend it! We will definitely be going back. 

Weekend in the Capital {Barbara Hepworth and a New Hat}

For my birthday a few weeks ago my mother-in-law (still feels a bit odd calling her that) paid for a hotel for the night so we could finally go and see the Barbara Hepworth:Sculpture for a Modern World exhibition at the Tate Britain that I've been desperate to get to since well before the wedding. We were beginning to run out of time, and realised there were only two weeks of the show left, so last weekend D and I trundled off to London for a couple of days. 

We decided to play at being tourists, and rather than catching the tube all the way, we came up for air at Oxford Circus then walked the rest of the way...conveniently right past Anthropologie...

I do love it, it's like the inside of my brain has gone bang (after previously winning the lottery) and beautifully spewed its contents all over a three story shop. I didn't buy anything, but I took a picture of this pretty little ring dish so I'd remember to go back and get it later, and promptly forgot all about it...maybe Father Christmas will bring me one?

We carried on, stopping for a while in St James' Park. I ran off like a true tourist to take a picture of this rather dapper looking heron, and got a bit over excited about the squash growing outside the gardeners cottage (and a second heron on the roof...look closely!) I'm always amazed to see actual wildlife in the middle of the city, and being less than a couple of hours away means I've definitely taken for granted how amazing London really is.

I was again reminded of this once we reached the gallery. I think the last time I went I was at college, and I really didn't pay much attention to the gallery itself...it's a really beautiful building (crappy iPhone photos aside), I particularly love the leaded windows.

I have loved Barbara Hepworth since I discovered her work at school, and in terms of the variety of works, this show didn't disappoint. It moved chronologically through the various phases of her work, starting with small carvings displayed alongside works of other artists doing similar things, Henry More, Jacon Epstein, and various others. Then a room dedicated to Hepworth's artistic relationship with Ben Nichlolson. There were also several drawings which have rarely been seen before, and the show ended with a semi-reconstruction of the Dutch Pavilion at the 1950 Venice Biennale. 

The show hasn't been review well at all, many reflecting that the placing of glass boxes around the work strips them of their tactile quality, and that boxing these works that are so inherently attached to the natural world is making them feel suffocated, lifeless and even suggesting that they are in effect being boxed aways as part of history, no longer connected with us in the present.

Its true, I didn't get the same feeling here as I have had around Hepworth's work in the past. I felt a little stifled, and I really wasn't happy with some of the display methods, I find visible fixings abhorrent and some of the exhibition rooms had coloured walls and no natural light which isn't the ideal way to view any sculpture as far as I'm concerned. One of the pieces was trapped within a case alongside what appeared to be a thermometer, necessary I'm sure, but completely distracting. It wasn't until the last couple of rooms, where there was natural light, white walls, and large scale pieces that I got that 'I love this so much I could cry' (and I did) feeling that I'm used to. There was a Dad talking animately to his son about the work, and the boy was excitedly looking through the holes and coming up with suggestions as to what he thought it looked like. The pieces had space around them, and you could get close enough to really feel them.  

However, I'm still thoroughly glad we went, and I really enjoyed the show. It has concreted what I love about Hepworth's work; it's unquestionable relationship to the sea, the air, the clifftops and the rugged landscape of our coast. There was an 1953 BFI film playing, 'Figures in a Landscape - Cornwall and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth' and it was this that got me, these words that pulled at that part of my stomach that makes me want to scream and run about and make sure everyone near me 'gets it' and feels it like I do (which of course they don't...each to their own and all that) I watched it with tears in my eyes because I just love it, the perfect description of Cornwall's coast, the calm optimism, yet incredible power of the sea, and the way the elements continue to the change the landscape. Hepworth's works convey exactly what I feel about the coast better than words every could. My favourite quote, is again about the power of nature. Even after the Pagans, the Christian's and the Miner's came and made their marks on the landscape, in time these stones, buildings and monuments became ruins...

"The seasons and the centuries claimed them for the landscape"

No pictures unfortunately, but you can watch the full film here if you'd like to (please please do!)

After I'd calmed down a little, we went for a little stroll round Angel. I found a beautiful old oil painting of the sea but we left it behind and I think I may regret it for a long while. We also saw a girl getting very told off by a stall holder for trying on a hideous beaded headdress - 'Dahhhling please would you remove that from your head, it's four thousand pounds.' We highly doubted it was really worth that much money as it was being sold on an antique stall outside, but she took it off pretty sharpish! 

We went to Wahaca for dinner, and apart from the waiter crossing out most of the menu after I asked him to show me the things that had coriander in them (ick), it was amazing! I see a lot more Mexican in our future!  

We also had our first experience of proper tequila! So good, though I did have to google how to drink it! I was a bit confused when I got two glasses...do I mix them, drink one then the other, down one and sip the other? It turns out the red one on the left is 'sangrita' or 'little blood', and is a mixture of fruit juice and spices. You're supposed to sip it after each sip of tequila to compliment it! It was lovely, and I love the little hand blown glasses! 

On Sunday we started off in Spitalfields for breakfast (at Leon, obviously!) 

Maybe even better than crying at Barbara Hepworth, is the fact that I finally found a hat that fits on my head!! I've been looking for a winter version of my favourite summer fedora (which incidentally is from the mens section) but my head is unusually big and they all just perch on top, until now! I love it and will be wearing it at every opportunity! Only £25 too...love love love Spitalfields! 

We hadn't really decided what to do for the rest of the day, and neither of us were in the mood for shopping (controversially!) so we headed to the Natural History Museum. Why have I never been here before!? It's actually like walking into Hogwarts...if Hogwarts was real and full of dinosaurs! 

Seriously amazing building! My favourite things were not the dinosaurs, or this giant escalator that takes you up through a planet. I was fascinated by these diamonds. The Aurora Collection Pyramid of Hope features 296 rare naturally coloured diamonds, the most comprehensive range of colours anywhere! It totals nearly 300 carats, and is obviously worth millions! 

What fascinated me most was the way the change under ultraviolet light...so pretty! 

We're actually off to London again this evening, to see Dynamo at the Hammersmith Apollo which is rather exciting! Going out on a Sunday...who'd have thought it!