My Sunday moment

This is my favourite Christmas present this year: a handmade notebook by my younger daughter; 20 squared pages, the size of my thumb. Kaffi is the Icelandic word for coffee.

Happy Holidays

As I write this, I'm finishing my cup of coffee and about to start preparing the rice and almond pudding, a Danish dessert that has become a tradition in our household on Christmas Eve (we open the presents after dinner tonight). The turkey is in the fridge, waiting to be prepared as well. I'm ready for a delicious feast.

I visited my new friend John Lewis and bought a white tablecloth and white napkins for our Christmas table (I love their Christmas ad this year, about the animal that had never seen Christmas). I snapped a few photos yesterday when I was getting everything ready. The berry branches are old, I bought them in Iceland many years ago and they are one of the few things I kept when we moved abroad.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without my Amazon book package. This year I got a few books from my wish list: two for the coffee table, Ralph Lauren (it's huge, filled with images) and The Natural Home by stylist Hans Blomquist. As I couldn't imagine Christmas without literature, I got a beautiful Penguin Clothbound Classics edition of Jane Austen's Persuasion. And yes, I got some Downton Abbey too. Yesterday three books from friends arrived via mail so there will be no shortage of reading material in this house over the holidays.

*Looking for inspiration for the holidays? Check out my Christmas board on Pinterest

I wish you all happy and peaceful holidays with loved ones! Or as we say in Icelandic: Gleðileg jól!

Paris: one year ago at the Palais Royal

I woke up this morning with Paris on my mind and when I looked at the date I remembered with a smile that I had arrived in Paris on this day, exactly one year ago. It so happened that I had some photos in my files from that trip that I hadn't posted on the blog. The one above shows the mood at Le Nemours café, which is right by the Palais Royal in the 1st district. We didn't sit down to have coffee, as we had just enjoyed a lovely lunch and dessert at a restaurant on the Left Bank. But it was pouring down rain and the Palais Royal passages surrounding the gardens provided shelter.

My Sunday moment

This is more like my weekend moment. I'm devouring the pages of this Elle Decoration issue, there is so much inspiration and wonderful to see familiar faces from the blogosphere in short interviews, such as Kara Rosenlund and Paul Lowe of Sweet Paul Magazine (his blog was the first I started following long before I began blogging myself). The kids are going back to school tomorrow and buying school and art supplies left me inspired. By the way, that chinoiserie style painting on the card is by artist Kathe Fraga.

The White Cliffs of Dover

I am dealing with slight post-travel blues. I miss the sea and I miss being at sea. We took a ferry from Dunkirk to Dover in beautiful weather; I drank latte on the deck and ate home-made biscotti - bliss. It's only a two-hour ferry ride and when the White Cliffs of Dover start rising out of the sea it gives me a big thrill. Such a beautiful landscape.

Bon week-end!

My Greek Island Home by Claire Lloyd

On my birthday I got a copy of My Greek Island Home by Claire Lloyd. A thoughtful friend knew how much I wanted it. It's a beautiful book and once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. Claire lured me into her peaceful world on the Greek island Lesvos, where she bought a house with her partner Matthew Usmar Lauder. Hers is a personal account that goes straight to the heart: Not only a glimpse into life on the island, more like the touching of its core. The inhabitants of the island, the individuals she describes, stay with you after the reading.

I first learned about the book through an inspiring interview with Claire Lloyd on the blog of Carla Coulson (they are fellow Australians, both expats living in Europe). To make a long story short, Claire is an artist, designer and photographer who was feeling exhausted by her hectic life in London and after a conversation with a friend found herself on the Greek island of Lesvos where she bought a house.

After reading the book I knew I wanted to feature it on the blog and I contacted Claire who was so generous to provide photographs and answer a few questions, which you will find below.

What struck me during the reading was the respect Claire and Matthew have for the island and its inhabitants. They didn't show up on the island, waving money and bringing in a container with materials for renovation. They did nothing of the sort. Well, the funny thing is that Claire had to bring 'a bag of cash' to the island to pay for the house and after that Matthew and his friend 'worked obsessively, to the point of exhaustion, over many, many weeks to create something quirky but beautiful.' They cleared the house, painted it and reused the material already there to make what was needed.

We pared back the house, painting everything white with occasional touches of the
original turquoise colour, to bring out the simple beauty of each detail. Even the most
ordinary objects - a stone, a shell, a pair of sandals - are worthy of attention (p. 41)

The sense of peace and calm pulls you in; it's profoundly restful to sit at the water's
edge and gaze into the vivid, intense blue (p. 20)

Claire and her partner don't live on the island as outsiders; they are members of the society. Claire is even learning Greek, which she admits struggling with.

Claire, are you planning to grow old on the island?

I am not planning on getting old and I am not planning my future. I am living a life that I love. I have always lived a life I love and will continue to live a life I love in Greece or wherever I am.

Because of the news about the Greek economy, how are the inhabitants of the island experiencing the recession? In your book it appears that the island is very sustainable so it made me wonder that maybe life on the island is in a way much simpler than on the mainland; maybe the recession hasn't hit the people as hard.

The Greek people are resilient and they are tenacious, they are also very generous people. There is no denying the current crisis and the infrastructure is suffering. However, people in the villages live simply, they look out for each other. They also grow their own produce, work hard and are pretty self-sufficient. Our Greek village friends make the most of what they have and share it. They know how to enjoy themselves and don’t take life to seriously.

This island is large, in fact it’s the third largest and there are around 14 million olive trees. A lot of the land is farmed. There are goats, sheep and wonderful seasonal fruit and vegetables. The locals use the land around them to sustain themselves. I am really interested in this way of living as I feel living in big cities has disconnected us with nature, our neighbors and animals. We have lost respect for the simple things in life. There is a lot to be learned here, just being aware of the seasons and eating the food available seasonally is fantastic. When I walk the dogs down the track in early spring I find young wild asparagus growing. I can just pick it there and then and eat it raw, delicious. People as I say are generous we often find fresh vegetables on our door step and we don’t know who to thank for them. This morning one of our neighbors left 10 litres of wine she had made. She had trodden the grapes herself. I feel very privileged to be accepted in this village and to live here in Greece.

Creativity suffuses everyday life in the village - people are constantly making
lace, painting flowerpots, baking and drying herbs. It's a very self-sufficient
society - a way of life that has worked for thousands of years. I often think
we could learn a lot from them (p. 19)

See this man above? His name is Pandelis and he runs a store on the island. If you ever find yourself in his store without having had any breakfast or lunch then all I can say is: run! You will have to read the book to understand why I'm warning you. Just remember that I did warn you!

It wasn't just the photos of Claire's tranquil house on the island and life on the island that fascinated me. The design of the book itself deserves praise and I had to ask Claire about it (I'm not the only one! Everyone who has seen the book on my coffee table mentions how beautiful it is). Her answers are repeated below.

The book's endpapers are a painting of the sea in Lesvos by her partner Matthew. On the other side is a flower-butterflies print that I was very curious about. It's the same print as the cushion fabric behind the cat. Claire told me that it is a paper lining from the inside of an old suitcase that Matthew found. She loves the print so much that she wanted it to be in the book. It was Matthew who did a repeat of it so it could be printed onto fabric.

The design of the book was a close collaboration between Claire and Evi Oetomo from Penguin Lantern. Evi produced the design for the cover. Claire didn't want a photograph on the cover, as she felt strongly that there was not one photographic image that represented the book. She wanted the book to feel personal hence her handwriting and the pink tape ribbon. The cover is embossed - it was important for her to have the book tactile. She wanted the readers to have every sense touched when they held the book. She wanted the readers to be transported to a beautiful place when they turned the pages.

Trust me, it worked.

I cannot finish this post without mentioning the animal rescue on the island. Claire talks about it in her book and says that her 'love affair with four-legged creatures' started when she moved there. She and Matthew have taken on two dogs - one is the beautiful Nellie in the photo above - and a few cats. She mentions a non-profit organisation called EreSOS for Animals that is always in need of donation and volunteers.

The gentleman in the photo above passed away after the publication of the book

Thank you, Claire, for this beautiful journey that your book is. Thank you for providing images for this blog post and for taking time to answer my questions.


My Greek Island Home
By Claire Lloyd
Penguin Books Australia/Lantern
Hardback: 224 pages, illustrated
Buy here

top image mine | 2-14: Claire Lloyd - all her images appear in the book My Greek Island Home, except for No. 11 (cat + cushion). Images of Lloyd are from a private collection. Claire Lloyd: website and blog

Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

I woke up this morning to thunders and lightning and the rain has been pouring down. It feels refreshing; I like the darkness accompanying it. Well, the sky is slowly brightening up so maybe today will be yet another sunny day.

Yesterday we celebrated our boy's birthday (the living room floor is a Playmo Knights battlefield) and I also went into the city to go to the library. I so enjoyed revisiting Karen Blixen's book Out of Africa earlier this month and I wanted to read more by Blixen and about her life. I was telling my parents on the phone the other day that I don't know why Blixen fascinated me from a young age. Maybe it was the Danish vibe that I felt in the home of my paternal grandparents, who were both part Danish.

I wanted to borrow - and did - Seven Gothic Tales, which Blixen wrote in English under the nom de plume Isak Dinesen after returning to Denmark from Kenya (Out of Africa came later). Then I got a few books that Sidney Pollack's film Out of Africa (1985) was based on: Shadows on the Grass, where Blixen continues with stories about her life in Kenya, Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen by Judith Thurman, and Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski. The last one is about the life of Denys Finch Hatton and his relationship with Blixen (played by Robert Redford in the film).

Maybe I should have warned you that this post was about books, but I guess the photo gave it away. Have a wonderful weekend!

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

I was sitting here with my coffee thinking that it cannot be Friday already, or pizza-day as we refer to them in this house. What happened to this week? It has flown by but it has been a good one. I spent yesterday morning in the city. I went to the library and brought home a stack of books and pink peonies. I know, I thought I wasn't feeling them this season but then I saw a bouquet and before I knew it I had purchased it. I had a cup of latte at one of my favourite cafés, where I also ran into an old school friend of mine from Iceland, whom I haven't seen for probably 11 years. This world is simply too small sometimes. One of the books I borrowed yesterday is Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I'm now reading for the first time and thoroughly enjoying.

Speaking of books, this morning my Amazon birthday package arrived. As my birthday isn't until July, I'm not going to share its entire content with you yet, but believe me, it's a good one. Well, you already knew that I was expecting Blixen's Out of Africa, but I have to finish Hemingway before I go on a journey in Kenya with Blixen.

For the very curious cats reading this blog I will share one of my new coffee table books, because I have already talked about it: Bringing Nature Home by Ngoc Minh Ngo (the book I meant to give to myself on the Icelandic First Day of Summer, see this blog post). It is even more beautiful than I had imagined - the photographs and the floral arrangements simply take my breath away.

Enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Espresso macchiato & lunch at Konrad

On Saturday I spent a lovely day in the city with a friend of mine. On the agenda was to try the coffee and have lunch at Konrad in Rue du Nord (follow the link to see the photos I took a few weeks back). We got a table outside where we sat in the shadow and started with the coffee. I know that I'm a self-proclaimed latte person but lately I have been stepping out of my latte comfort zone; ordering espresso macchiato when I sit down at cafés and grabbing a latte if I'm on the run. Brave steps.

I am no coffee expert and have no idea how to explain the perfect coffee cup but all I know is that my espresso on Saturday was perfect. (In case you are interested, a friend of mine who happens to be a coffee and an IT geek/expert has created this awesome app called Barista's Log. Makes me wish I knew more about coffee tasting.)

After the coffee we went inside to enjoy lunch. Konrad is well known for its curry dishes but on Saturdays things are kept simpler in the kitchen so I ordered a quiche (vegetarian) with salad on the side. The food was delicious. Seriously, I'm still thinking about it and just waiting to go back to have some more. With my meal I enjoyed a glass of organic rosé, which added to the perfection.

As you can see in the photos, this place is one of those unpretentious ones that I happen to like very much. Konrad is a non-smoking place in an old building in the heart of the city with a mix of industrial, wooden and leather chairs. There are exposed beams in the ceiling, the walls are white and one wall is covered with flowery wallpaper. There are no menus, everything is written on blackboards. It's also a bar and a comedy club.

I don't do uptight places. I like it when café/restaurant owners put more effort into creating a relaxing atmosphere than spending money on fancy decor. Konrad is exactly that kind of place, unpretentious and relaxing with a friendly staff.

Konrad, Café & Bar
7 rue du Nord
Luxembourg

My Sunday moment

Enjoying home-made pizza with pimentos, olives, red onion and organic salami, and a glass of cold beer, while reading old food magazines.

My Sunday moment

Coffee, biscotti, and my new book, The Shape of Love, the second autobiography of ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, which arrived in the mail yesterday.