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

Where It's At

I want to say in the style of a certain musical starring Julie Andrews.......


"The shop is alive with the sound of students!"


Beatnik feels so busy and buzzy.  The freshers are here as well as our regulars and it makes such a difference to the feel (and sales) of the shop.  


Those crazy students, always horsing around.......

I've been playing Ed Harcourt's new album and it gave me inspiration for some jewellery photos.

Beatnik.  The place to shop.  (and put on strange horse masks).  Thanks for stopping by, please come again.

Ps.  If you pop over to Le Petit Oiseau you can enter a great giveaway to win a wonderful art work by Nath. You can also take a look at her lovely photos while your at it.

Tired Of Waiting For You

Julie was fed up with waiting for Pete.  They had arranged to meet by the park next to their favourite shop.  He had sent her a romantic note and told her he was taking her to London for the day.  They would go to an art exhibition,    do a spot of sight seeing,     and go for a chinese meal or something.   She was dressed in her pretty blue satin fifties dress which now felt like a complete waste of time. 

She wasn't about to wait any longer and if Pete couldn't be bothered to get in touch to let her know what was going on, well he wasn't worth waiting for.

Pete knew he had blown it.  He was meant to have met Julie over an hour ago.  His phone was on the blink which meant that he hadn't been able to let her know that he was going to be late.  It was such a shame, Julie was lovely and he didn't want to ruin his chances.  He had been looking forward to taking her for a romantic day out to London and had even dressed up especially for the occasion.

Pete decided to call into Beatnik and buy something to cheer himself up.  Besides which he was starting to feel like people were staring at him, most likely because he was looking very dapper in his blue check suit and his sixties green frill shirt. Perhaps if he hung around in Beatnik for a bit Julie might even turn up.  It seemed like a good plan.  The people that worked in the shop were so lovely and friendly and there was always cool music playing. Oh and also a great atmosphere. Oh yes and also amazing clothes, jewellery, bags and  accessories to buy.  (enough).

Well anyway he went into the shop and ended up sitting around staring gloomily out of the window for the rest of the day.

The End

Purple Haze

The colour Purple. It's all things. It's groovy, it's psychedelic, it's a great book, it can be magical and mysterious,  and it can suit you if you're blonde, red or brunette.  As colours go it covers most bases.

This purple cape/coat/thingymebob came out of our winter stockpile and I just cannot believe that Beatnik could not sell it last year. It is sooo flattering.  This photo does not do it justice, but I must admit that Penelope, the model, wasn't really feeling it. She got a bit sulky and I couldn't get her to strike any different poses to show the coat off to it's full stylish potential. 

A purple wool shawl cape throw around thing (not the technical term)

Slinky sexy eighties dress

Full length seventies fitted tweed coat

Bowie peeking out of a tracky top

Oh my deer that t shirt looks divine

I love this purple jumper, and I love the man's purple turban who just happened to be walking by

A bit of sixties jewellery

Lovely woolen sixties dress

Oh and here's some nature stuff, in purple obviously

If that's got you in a purple kind of mood then sit back for a few minutes and listen to the purple man himself. Enjoy!

Me and My Shadow

Last week it was sunny and my bedroom was filled with warm sunny light and shadows.

I felt inspired to do some shadow play after looking at photos by silverpebble.

I  was also inspired by Katy's shadow stickers, and so

I found some dolls, I could only lay my hands on zombie characters.  I then had me a little shadow play

I found an elephant, I think the zombies are making a bee line for it. Run elephant run! I would like to show you what happened next, but it got cloudy.

To be continued at the next golden opportunity.

"Heroes"

This weekend I went to The Moseley Folk Festival.  It isn't just folk music, there's a bit of everything with a handful of folk artists sprinkled on the top. The festival is very small and this adds to its charm. There are two stages, a handful of stalls, a beer tent, a cocktail bar, one of these,       a small lake, and luckily the sun was shining.


And gasp, swoon, I even saw Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy. He was stood not far from me and I got stupidly star struck. I really wanted to stare but I forced myself to look casually in the opposite direction. I really wanted to have my photo taken with him but I stopped myself from asking. I really wanted to shake his hand and tell him that his songs have made me laugh and cry but i decided against it. I wanted to tell him that I saw him perform in Belgium with an orchestra and it's one of my top musical moments but I felt a bit silly and well, like I said, star struck.

The Divine Comedy headlined Friday evening. It was brilliant.

Take it away Neil......