Animal Crackers in my Tea!

My long-suffering husband, GJ, has been in London this week. And this time I didn't manage to whinge myself into accompanying him...

It's been a golden autumn so far here in the Queen's England. Darkening trees are still hanging on to their lime, bronze and gold-bedazzled leaves as if they are treasured offspring. The usual November rain has yet to arrive to drench leaves from branches, casting them carelessly onto slippery black roads. Gales have been forecast by troubled-looking TV weather presenters, but the trees have yet to fling off their foliage like menopausal mothers shrugging off their too-warm woollens.

So, it's been pretty out. The arrival of autumn has shaken me out of some of my misery. Sorry that you have had to share it with me...

My blog is sometimes sanctuary to me, listening and sympathetic ear, confessor, teacher, mentor.

I've been chuckling, courtesy of Statcounter, at the reasons some of you have visited my blog. I haven't looked at it for a while.

Here you go - The latest search words and my random thoughts on them:

purple wedding suit Maybe I should go into business, selling wedding frippery?

Vivienne Westwood bridal Ditto!

bed rooms Have I my own personal stalker? How very celebtastic!

a woman of no importance Ditto!

romantic love god Who? Me?!

lazylazy Ta-da! That's me in a nutshell...

yacht troika Stalker, again.

Angels Very me... Also very Robbie Williams!

"Shake some trees" This very autumn in fact.

importance of girls weekend Very true, do I need to take the hint and book something?

Widows of Culloden kate moss Fashion again; Where I used to stay... and a Skanky Girl. What more could you want?

talk less What are you implying - That I talk too much? How very dare you!

small moon gazing hare Very pagan, very moi.

behead woman What have I done to offend you?

Vivienne Westwood and the bustle Fashion. Muse. Legend. Edwardians...

celebrity males with ear piercing My Grizz, and the Amsterdam Incident?

girl wrist tattoos Have you been stalking my thoughts again?

photography black and white music Arty-Farty. C'est moi!

twiggy collage Wha'? I know Twiggy is advertising Sparks and Marks, but a collage, eh?!

alexander mcqueen Muse, legend. Much missed.

philip treacy pictures Ditto, two of the above... I love his hats.

A WOMAN WITH NO clothes If you've been looking through my bathroom window again, watch out! I'm having that blind fitted this weekend.

eccentric women Me, again! Are you having a go?

liver birds pics hat ?

Rosemary's Baby t shirts Again, what about whether I should open a shop? Should I do it, and take the financial risk?

Vivienne Westwood bankrupt Oh, right. Probably not then!

four weddings But I still need to mull on the bridal hire business, right!

Animal Crackers, or what?

A Series of English Eccentrics. A Blow for Isabella...

"England does "eccentric" better than any other country. From the upper class eccentrics like Edith Sitwell and the Marquis of Bath, through the middle classes by way of Vivian Stanshall and Jarvis Cocker, to the working class eccentricities of Billy Childish or Wilf Lunn, the one thing that they all have in common is their "Englishness".

They could have come from nowhere else. English Eccentrics have contributed hugely to global culture..." ...Dauvit Alexander

I've started something now, mes bloggy lovelies... Don't ask me how I got to this point, maybe it was Sandy Denny, and my sort of reclusive neighbour, John, but I am set on a course to tell you about some English Eccentrics who I find particularly interesting or intriguing.

I hope that is all right with you, mes bloggiest lovehearts, but as I seem to be a bit of a troubled eccentric meself, I just can't stop myself...

Stuff is going on outside in my life just now that no doubt I shall blog about later when I have it resolved, (if ever...), so being here is like a little hide-away for me, until I can see my way clear to stepping out into the light again - Chill-axe, it's nothing deadly, but relates to family fortunes, and so your very lovely wishes and awards and Memes are sitting in the wings, waiting for me to pick them up, answer them and dish them out once again...

For Wiki's sake, I feel like Norma Desmond! But here's A Blow for Isabella, instead... It's a trifle bizarre morceau de vie, and tres, tres triste, very sad, so do beware mes dahlinks!

Isabella Blow (19 November 1958 – 7 May 2007) was an English magazine editor and international style icon.

The muse of hat designer Philip Treacy, she is credited with discovering the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl, as well as the fashion designer Alexander McQueen.



Blow often said her fondest memory was trying on her mother's pink hat, which led to her career in fashion.

In 1989, Blow married her second husband, art dealer Detmar Blow, in Gloucester Cathedral; he is a grandson (and namesake) of the early 20th-century society architect Detmar Blow.

Philip Treacy designed the bride's wedding headdress and a now-famous fashion relationship was forged. Realizing Treacy's talent, Blow established Treacy in her London flat, to work on his collections. She soon began wearing Treacy's hats, making them her signature. In a 2002 interview, Blow declared that she wore extravagant hats for a practical reason:

"...to keep everyone away from me. They say, Oh, can I kiss you? I say, No, thank you very much. That's why I've worn the hat. Goodbye. I don't want to be kissed by all and sundry. I want to be kissed by the people I love."

Blow had a natural sense of style and a feeling for future fashion directions. She discovered Alexander McQueen and purchased his entire graduate collection for ₤5,000, paying it off in weekly ₤100 instalments. Spotting Sophie Dahl, Blow described Dahl as "a blow up doll with brains", and launched the model's career.

Blow was the fashion director of Tatler and consulted for DuPont, Lycra, Lacoste and Swarovski.

In 2002, she became the subject of an exhibition entitled When Philip met Isabella, featuring sketches and photographs of her wearing Treacy's hat designs.

Part Deux follows demain, je vous embrasse, mes dahlinks! Mwah! Fhina doesn't wear hats that often, although she once had a bizarre dream about ladies who lunch who were all wearing shoes as bizarre headgear - So this means she can get 'up close and very personal' with her amours, so here goes, Mwah! my pretties, Mwah!