Decadent Daisy

Everywhere you look these days, people are starting 365-day projects such as photographing the same location, making a robot or drawing of your cat every single day for an entire year. I was naturally intrigued to start my own little project but I'm still undecided about what I'd like to do for 365 consecutive days. Maybe read all 1001 Books you must read before you die? Or something like that only less intimidating.

The past few months I've also noticed that I don't use as many photographs as other blogs do. Ok, I illustrate the City with covers from books and movies but I rarely use actual"homemade" photographs, although I am working on this (check out recent posts). I often feel the need to share images with you guys but then I think, Jeeez now I have to write something as well and that occasionally puts me off. Call me conventional, but the City was created for literary musings and not snapshots but it's time to get with the program, so I've decided to start a new blog: Decadent Daisy

Decdent Daisy isn't a 365-day project but a photo diary where I'll share some random day to day photographs for your viewing pleasure. Call it Ginny Jones: A life in pictures. It's my goal to make a personal collection of ordinary yet memorable events that sadly hardly ever get immortalised and are otherwise quickly forgotten seeing as I have a tendency to only capture our holidays on film. The Sumptuous City will still continue as she always has, filled with reviews and ramblings but if you're in the mood for less talk and more action check out Decadent Daisy, where words come to life ;-)

Sunday silliness

Thursday's trailer

Wishlist

Autumn is upon us which means loads of new book releases and stationary. It's probably me but the sight of notebooks, folders and perfectly sharpened pencils has made me giddy ever since I was a young and hopeful English lit student and it still does. Besides lusting after a new fountain pen, there are also a few titles I'm particularly excited about this season:

The third Leon cookbook for example: Baking and Pudding. If the previous two are anything to go by, this book will be scrumptious. The cover already looks stunning and seeing as the topic is puddings, the interior will be just as delectable. A genuine feast for the eyes and tastebuds!

8 years after Craig Thompson wrote his monumental masterpiece Blankets, he finally returns with and the 672-page hardback graphic novel Habibi which is based on a Middle Eastern fable and tells the story of Dodola, a woman who escapes being sold into slavery.

The Night Circus, the debut novel by Erin Morgenstern is taking the blogosphere by storm. I’ve read nothing but exceptional things about this magical tale set in 1886 about a mysterious travelling circus. Not only the story, but the book as well is supposed to be a thing of beauty.

Jeffrey Eugenides has also made us wait 8 years for his next novel, The Marriage Plot. Seeing as Middlesex is one of my all time favorite books, my expectations are pretty high for this meditation on the contemporary value of the great 19th century love stories.

When she woke by Hilary Jordan is another of this season’s hyped books. I’ve never read any of her books before but this “enthralling and chilling novel” is supposed to be a mix between The Handmaid’s Tale and The Scarlet Letter, satisfaction guaranteed.

Last but not least, the 1Q84 trilogy by Haruki Murakami finally...

Momiji Book Club collection

It's no secret that I love little Japanese dolls, whether they're Kokeshi, Kimmi or Momiji, they're simply too cute and too pretty to resist. I have however, been a very good girl and have been able to restrain myself whenever I encounter a new range of those delectable dolls but when I saw the Momiji Book Club collection in an interior design store in Kendal, all bets were off.

The Momiji Book Club collection was designed by the Argentinian Luli Bunny. These six little nerdy girls all like different genres of books and come with a cool "I Heart Books" button. Like the classic handpainted resin Momiji message dolls, they also have a tiny card in the bottom for a secret note. My girl's called Alex and likes books about magic and the supernatural. Ok, she's nothing like me but she has red hair and two funky knots.

The Group

During our trip to the Lake District, I didn’t get as much reading done as I had planned. Sure, I read Unruly Times by A.S. Byatt to brush up on my Wordsworth an Coleridge knowledge, which is highly recommended if you are looking for not a biography per sé, but a look at the time they lived in and what was like to be a writer then.

I also started in The Group by Mary McCarthy and finally finished it last week and it was great! Originally published in 1963, it is set in 1933 and follows the lives of 8 Vassar graduates beginning with the wedding of Kay Strong and ending with her death in 1940. During these seven years we see these women grow up and sadly also grow apart.

Each leading very different lives, we get a sense of what it was like to be a woman during that particular period in the US. McCarthy incorporates themes such as contraception, love, sex, socialism, and even psychoanalysis in her dazzling and strangely identifiable portrait of womanhood.

The plot is mainly influenced by the political and economic atmosphere of the time and offers the reader some sharp social criticism as well the inner workings of the female psyche. Dealing with topics such as child-raising, sexism in the work place, exploring your own sexuality, financial troubles and unrealistic expectations, these women ultimately strive for autonomy and independence in a time when a woman’s role is still largely restricted to marriage and childbirth. The Group finally, gives us a wonderful look at a time when Feminism was just slowly seeping through.

I personally loved the characters who are dealing with many issues that are still relevant today. When I graduated university, I also belonged to a group (The 8 Bachelorettes), and we were all full of hope and promise. Although most of us still keep touch, our lives have also gone in entirely opposite directions: some climb the corporate ladder, while others love to stay at home with their children making me realizes that women in essence haven’t changed that much, just society’s expectations. To me, Feminism isn’t about equality but more about choice and more specifically having the choice to be a stay-at-home mom or the head of a major corporation, the women in The Group didn’t have the option (yet).

The period in which this novel is set, 1930s New York, also speaks to the imagination with it’s glamour, hardships and progress and overwhelmed me with an intoxicating sense of nostalgia. In the end, I savoured every minute of this stunning novel which has whet my appetite for more period fiction.

Herdy

Besides some lushious Lakeland food, I also wanted to get some souvenirs that would last longer than a week in our cupboard, something to remember our kick-ass trip by and what better than a mug? Despite the Pumpkin’s initial reservations (we already have more mugs than we know what to do with), he had to admit that a his and hers Herdy was kinda cute.


Herdy is a local Lakeland brand featuring the cute and lovable Herdwick sheep, a breed that thrives against all odds on the high fells of England’s Lake District and helps sculpt a stunning landscape appreciated the world over. They produce a contemporary range of products that help support, through their sale, brilliant environmental and sustainability causes in this wonderful region such as campaigning for wool, maintaining farmland and aiding farmers.

They also use skilled potters in heart of Staffordshire’s struggling fine bone china industry to make these gorgeous woolly mugs. Everything is made locally to limit their carbon footprint to a minimum and to support the rural economy. Herdy is also committed to giving back a percentage of profits to look after the Lakeland landscape so I couldn’t leave without bringing these nature preserving treasures with me.

Lakeland Book Binge

No trip to the UK is complete without some books, am I right people? I could spend hours browsing the bookstores there with their designer coffee, eclectic range, abundance of English literature, cookbooks and ever so seductive offers. For less than 25£, these babies made the trip back to Belgium:


The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht, simply because she won the Orange Prize this year and I’m always curious the find out why.

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman, who didn’t win the Orange Prize but definitely is the public’s favorite if sales and reviews are anything to go by.

At Home by Bill Bryson, because no matter what the man writes, you just know it’s going to be good. Plus I’ll have officially read some non-fiction this year.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, which is supposed to be phenomenal or so people tell me. I still have to read The Snowman first seeing as this is a follow up but I’m pretty psyched to get my teeth into these bad boys.

The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson, also recommended by a friend but I never wanted to buy it because I suspect it will be sentimental drivel but at 1,95£ I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol Oates, who is one of my favorite authors and I couldn’t leave without taking a beautiful hardback version of latest memoir with me.

Money well spent if you ask me, especially seeing as the difference between the pound and the euro is marginal right now. But don’t fear, I didn’t spend all my time in chain stores. Seeing as there aren’t any real cities in the Lake District, only small villages, we only encountered two Waterstones on the periphery. And like any self respecting English village, the Lake lovelies all came equipped with their very own independent bookstore. There were teeny tiny ones, cute ones, some that never closed and all of them had an intriguing selection of new and secondhand books, but what impressed me the most was that each owner knew absolutely everything about the books in his / her shop. Granted their average age was 75, but it was still quite impressive, especially if you have a shop like Michael Moon in Whitehaven:


That's the pumpkin by the way.


No less than 13 narrow rooms filled from top to bottom with books, creating a lushious literary death trap.

Best movie poster of 2011

Written and directed by one of the most gorgeous men alive who naturally also plays a key role (is there no end to Clooney's talent?) and starring the always phenomenal Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, we've got great actors, politics, intrigue and probably a cinematic masterpiece on our hands here. Can't wait to see it, oh and did I mention the movie poster? How cool is that?

The Lake District

I have (sadly) returned from the glorious Lake District where the weather was as fickle as the landscape. We encountered high mountains, lush valleys, big lakes, little lakes, adorable villages, fairytale settings, gorgeous cottages, some utterly divine food, loads of literary references and ate a vegetarian English breakfast every morning. In short, we were dead tired, had a blast and probably both have high cholestrol now. The Lake District is highly recommended! Here’s why:

On our way back to Dover, we spent some time in the Cotswolds area aka the most enchanting place on earth, as well as in Stratford-upon-Avon to visit my main man, William Shakespeare. The result of this mesmerizing trip, besides the Pumpkin's growing interest in the Lake Poets and Beatrix potter (be still my beating heart), were 800 photographs, lots of relishes and chutneys, tea, several DVD's (HMV how I love thee) and tons of books due to offers I simply could not refuse but more on those later. For now, I'm energized, inspired and ready to cause some havoc. Balance has been restored in the Force.