Devil Woman

Halloween is almost upon us and Beatnik is fast becoming the place to buy masks of horror, powder of white, and lots of blood.  It's great that we can sell or hire original clothes for dressing up.  Even though our model had quite a sore arm she thankfully managed to avoid getting any blood on this pretty cream forties dress.




While having a bit of a gaze out of the shop window moment today,  it dawned on me that we have the most amazing view.  Well it didn't exactly dawn on me, I knew it anyway, but  just for a few minutes I soaked it all in and looked on with relish at the autumn chestnut trees doing their autumn chestnutty tree thing,  and what with Bobbie Gentry playing in the background it was all a bit perfect really. 

I will hopefully be far too busy selling all things gruesome to sit and stare at autumn leaves, but I will if I get the chance, I mean who could resist?

Life Is A Pigsty

It is busy busy busy at the shop, so much so that we have started to open on a Sunday, yikes.


 Before going to the shop for the afternoon stint I went for a  sunny walk in the forest.  I then had a top autumn moment.  I spied a puddle of pigs sunbathing amongst the fallen leaves and acorns.

one two three aahhh

You can't get much more of a cute moment than that.  I would liked to have got closer but I had mad dog Katy on the lead and thankfully she hadn't twigged that there was a load of PIGS right in front of her. 

I walked by the river and enjoyed some sunny reflective moments

The sun hung around for the rest of the day.  The shop was quiet but a few customers called in to make it worth opening.  I love  this album  and played it quite a bit.

After closing I walked through the park and it looked a bit like this.......

I have no idea what I'm doing with my camera,  I seem to be taking the accidental approach.

You can look at some other accidents over here, if you fancy.

Venus In Furs

I don't know if you've ever tried dressing a model in a fur coat, well I'll just cut to the chase and tell you that it isn't a pretty sight.  Our models can be quite temperamental at the best of times and they don't like to move their arms about very much.  They're annoying if you ask me.  I mannaged to coax them into wearing a couple of our fabulous faux fur coats before the fun really started.....

The shop is quiet when I decide to take some photos of the fur coats.  Then I realise that it's tricky to get awkward arms into thick coats.

The shop is still quiet, outside the street is deserted.  So I try a different plan and move the models outside.  I then start the whole struggle of limbs, coats, joints, jumpers, wigs and torsos.  It isn't a pretty sight, I'm getting sweaty and a teensy bit irritated.

Then as if someone somewhere has blown an imaginary whistle, all the students of Southampton, or so it seems, pour out of all the nearby lecture halls and within a nano second the street is full of people, heading towards me, model balanced in a precarious fashion with an arm here, a leg there.  It has to be said I am flustered.

Needless to say I give up the whole arms in the armholes (sounds rude it isn't) idea and just fling the coats over their shoulders in a well that will have to do stylee.

Above Bar Street quiet

Above Bar Street busy

In between coats I played some of this of course

Enjoy and wrap up warm

twilight mushrooms

I'm in the forest with my eldest son Louie and our getting on a bit but still completely mad and out of control dog Katy. We are on a mushroom foraging mission.  Armed with our trusty guide book of edible mushrooms my son informs me that we are on the look out for chanterelles. They're easy to spot, he says, thumbing to the poisonous section of the guide book, but they're very similar to the false chanterelle which can make you really sick.


I look at the picture of the false chanterelle and then at the picture of the edible chanterelle, I can barely see any difference.  We scour the leafy forest floor and I spot some yellow mushrooms.  We look at the book.  My son says he is almost practically one hundred percent certain that they are chanterelles.  I look at the photo of the false chanterelles and cannot tell. I give a little facial grimace and Louie fixes me with a dont you trust your own son look.  We bag them.


I have my camera with me in the hope of spotting some deer.  I realise there is fat chance of that happening with me and Louie yelling at each other to look at our mushroom finds. I do however manage to take some photos of brown stuff to join in the end of Poppytalks Autumn Colour Week.

See it here

Some colour Brown

and some more brown nature stuff over at my flickr

We arrive home with a very tired dog that still manages to run off as soon as I let her out of the car and a bag full of mushrooms.  This includes a whole bunch of bright purple mushrooms that are called Amythyst Deceivers.

I cannot work out whether it's the fact that that they are purple that makes me feel uneasy or that their name includes the word deceiver.  Louie assures me that they are fine and and are absolutely not some other kind of poisonous funghi that are the same shape, grow in the same place at the same time but are pinkish lilac rather than purple.

Phew, that's okay then I think as I fry them up with some garlic for brunch.

Yum

Dizzy

I've mentioned before that our shop sits opposite a park.  It's looking particularly lovely at the moment, what with the chestnut trees doing their autumn bit of showing off and the general air of hustle and bustle as the students make their way to and from lectures.


Opposite the park is The Southampton City Art Gallery.  Currently showing  a Bridget Riley exhibition.  Fantastic.

You really can't look at that last one too long

The art gallery asked the shop if they could borrow some clothes to show alongside an upcoming Andy Warhol retrospective.  I feel quite chuffed.

Album of the week  High Society by The Silver Seas.    

In keeping with the whole Warhol/ Riley sixties vibe I've also been listening to a bit of Dusty.

Groovy baby