La Vie Du Grand Nord

I finally found the coveted colorway #10 of La Vie Du Grand Nord in Berlin on my recent trip.  Thank goodness!  Here are some pics of the new scarf.


The  full picture!




A little more detail.




Worn in a large "Cowboy" knot style.



Here worn wrapped around once and tied with a Half Ascot knot.




Folded on the square rather than bias and draped around the neck
(oops I left the label in my hurry to try it out!!!)

 


Here I folded on the bias and tied in a single knot leaving one end longer than the other.



With a winter white fur collar.

The Friendship Knot!

Here is a link to my Friendship Knot Video and other instructions which may help you master this super knot!

Rainbow Tree

I saw a beautiful tree yesterday so I took my camera with me to work today and managed to get a photo - luckily the sun was shining again and the sky was blue. It was one of those "isn't Mother Nature wonderful?" moments and I thought I would share this lovely tree with you.

It is amazing how the colours go from green at the bottom through yellow and orange to red at the top.

It was just a perfect
autumn
scene IMHO.

Pointu Week

Over on TPF the theme for the last week was "Point Me to Your Pointu" giving us the excuse to wear our pointu scarves.  

Les Cles



I have 4 pointus and had some fun wearing my Les Cles this week and taking some photos of my others for the thread.

Carre en Carre
















The pointu is simply a triangle shaped scarf but recently Hermès seem to have stopped making them except for one per season made from unusal fabrics :-( The Pointus are particularly easy to wear being so much smaller and less voluminous.


I secured the scarves using my new horn scarf ring from the MaiTai Collection which saves making a bulky knot - much more comfy to wear!  These rings open up a lot more possibilities for wearing your scarves - I just fed each scarf end through the ring and pulled to the length I required.

Les Cles with medium size scarf ring

Brides de Gala





The last pointu that I bought was this lovely pale blue pointu version of the Hermès classic design Couvertures et Tenues - I pulled the tied ends to the side which adds interest to the scarf.

Couverture et Tenues

Always one to experiement with my scarves I decided to put 2 pointus together (wrong side to wrong side)with the following results - I have done this in the past as well.  They are so light it is not a problem wearing 2 together in this way.

Carre en Carre with Couvertures et Tenues.

Couvertures et Tenues with Carre en Carre



Highgrove Gardens

In August I was able to fulfill an ambition to visit the Prince of Wales' gardens at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire.  It was a rather wet and windy day, but that did not spoil the visit. 

Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com

Photography of any kind was strictly forbidden in the gardens, so the pictures here are from the Highgrove Gardens website unless otherwise noted.

 Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com

I really liked the Sundial Garden - you can just make out the sundial at the bottom of the photo - this sundial has suffered badly in the winter just gone as the foot of it has broken up on one side. The garden is now more colourful than in the photo - it had a black and white theme for a long time but this year the Prince introduced some colour so there are now pinks and purples in the garden as well.

The late Princess Diana sat on the sundial base for a portrait by Tim Graham in 1985/6.
Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Near the house is the Thyme Walk although we did not get to walk along it - the topiary bushes are fabulous!  Each of the Prince's 12 gardeners was given a bush to sculpt into whatever shape they liked and there are some very clever designs - here a topiary crown!

Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com

In the Arboretum and Sanctuary Garden is Prince Charles' sanctuary.

Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com

In this area is a fabulous sculpture by Frederick Hart called "Daughters of Odessa" - and I think this was my most favourite sculpture in the whole garden - it is said to be inspired by the children of the last Tsar of Russia who were all murdered during the Russian Revolution.  The Tsar's 4 daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, comprise the statue and in the pouring rain I loved how the rain drops dripped from the ends of their fingers, it was utterly charming.  I found a picture of a replica.
Picture http://www.jeanstephengalleries.com/daughtersofodessa.jpg

The tour took us to the Walled Kitchen Gardens which are laid out in 4 quadrants - 2 are after the Scottish Saltire Flag in an X design and 2 after the English Cross of St George Flag in a + design.  The paths are covered in archways of apples and fruits and sweet pea flowers.
Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com

 The Mediterranean Garden was very nice and had a fountain and pond with carp fish and you can just make out some of the large sherry urns that adorn the gardens.
Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com

The best was saved until last as the last garden to see was the Carpet Garden which was a recreation of the Prince's entry at The Chelsea Flower Show in 2001.  This was truly spectacular!  

Photo: www.highgrovegardens.com



Next year I hope to return to Highrove earlier in the gardening year so as to be able to see the famous flower meadows in bloom.  Prince Charles is quoted as saying that Highgrove "...has gradually become a garden which delights the eye, warms the heart and feeds the soul" - I think he has certainly achieved this.



Catherine Walker

I was very sad today to learn of the passing of French born dress designer Catherine Walker.  Best known for her designs for the late Diana, Princess of Wales, Catherine Walker's designs were always the epitome of style and elegance.  I think the fashion world has lost a wonderful designer.  You may see some of Catherine Walker's fabulous designs on her website: http://www.catherinewalker.com/
(Picture www.catherinewalker.com)

A little piece of Hermès History

Up until about 2000 Hermès produced some scarves on a jacquard silk fabric.  Most famous perhaps is the Napoleon scarf with it's bees woven into the weave of the silk.  Bees because that was Napoleon's emblem and I wonder if also because traditionally bees are said to achieve the impossible?
Napoleon 1995

I have been lucky enough to acquire 7 scarves featuring a jacquard silk - lucky because you can no longer buy them from Hermès themselves as the silk is too expensive to produce these days. 

I have 4 Carnevale de Venise/Fetes Venitiennes and these feature a lute and mandolin in the jacquard - Hermès usually reflect a feature of the scarf design in the jacquard.

Fetes Venitiennes

Carnevale de Venise

Carnevale de Venise x 2

L'Instruction du Roi features little horsemen again reflecting the design and I really like this one!

My final scarf is a Christmas scarf called Joies d'Hiver and this shows Victorian skaters and, no surprises, the jacquard is skating couples which you can see in the photo below:

 and here a close up of the jacquard

It would be wonderful if Hermès would reintroduce the jacquard silk as they sell lots of other scarves in what are (IMHO) equally expensive fabrics!

If you would like to find out more about these lovely scarves I found a great web page HERE which gives a background to the jacquard weave and a list of the designs issued by Hermès.

Stockholm Trip

I went to Stockholm the weekend before last to see the exhibition of royal wedding dresses at The Royal Armouries.  I have never been to Scandinavia before and I really liked Stockholm!  Here is a first view of the city.

The Old town - or Gamla Stan - was really pretty with lots of medieval cobbled streets to wander along and lots of lovely little shops.

The main square in Gamla Stan, Stortorget, was the scene of a bloody massacre in 1520 hence why the house you see on the left below is painted red - for the blood that was spilled!!

When we came out of the T-Bana metro station into Gamla Stan there was a nice flower seller and a fruit and vegetable stall - you may just be able to see the red lingonberries, top left in this picture, which are a native berry found in Sweden and which is used to make jams with.

The shops were selling lots of nice things, but it was very expensive!!  Here are some cute trolls and the traditional Dala Horse which I think is like a national emblem in Sweden.

More trolls and Dala horses.

Hand painted Dala Horses

Walking along the road in front of the Royal Palace were some lovely petunias in boxes hanging along the railings - they looked really pretty in the sunlight.

No trip to Stockholm would be complete for me without a visit to the small but very interesting Dance Museum - photos were not allowed but I did manage one of the bronze statue of the Russian ballerina Galina Ulánova (1910-1998) housed in the foyer of the building.  It was lovely.

The royal wedding dress exhibition was housed in The Royal Armouries - there were just 6 sets of royal wedding dress on display but they were beautiful - and wonderfully displayed - you went into the exhibition room in darkness and then sound and light came on and was used to tell you about the dresses - although we went to a swedish display, rather than wait an hour for an english one, so I could not understand much, but really I was just pleased to see these magnificent bridal gowns. 

The Royal Armouries houses a fabulous collection of clothing all beautifully preserved.  Here are a couple of photos I managed to take without flash so they do look more yellow than in reality - you can see more pictures on the Armouries website here (if you cannot read Swedish just let google translate it for you it is quite good!)

Front - Dress of Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte - she married King Charles XIII 7 July 1774.

Back - current Queen Sylvia's wedding dress from 1976.

Far left - Louisa of the Netherlands' dress - she married Charles XV 19 June 1850.

Centre back - Sofia Magdalena and Gustav III  married 4 November 1766.

In front of this you can see Oscar I's outfit from 19 June 1823 (the dress of his wife Josefina is hidden in this picture).

Front right - Fredrik Dorothea Wihlemina's dress she married King Gustav IV.

On the Sunday we went out to one of the futher parts of Stockholm to Djurgarden and there we happened upon the boat museum and we were able to see the Royal Barge, recently used at the royal wedding of Crown Princess Victoria in June 2010 - the boat had been restored for the royal wedding and it looked really lovely!

Here is a close up of the "cabin" where the royal couple would be able to sit - it was very basic inside unlike the ornate exterior!

I hope you enjoyed my little trip around Stockhom!

Horses for Courses

The things I bought in Paris all happen to be horse themed!  So here goes with what I found:-

I really like "Ex Libris en Camouflage" but I did not want another 90cm scarf so the gavroche version was the perfect alternative.  I was torn between the monotone black/white/grey version or the lovely pink/red/coral needlesss to say I went for the latter, although I do think I may still end up with a monotone one at some point!  I like red and pink together so this scarf was perfect for me.

Here worn cowboy style and below I folded it in the basic bias and just tied it around the neck at the back.

My next find at FSH was "Pour Sortir" a lovely design of horses in blankets.

 

This is a 70cm vintage style scarf - I tried two colourways but went for cw01 as the stronger colours suit my colouring better than the muted tones of the dusty purple one I also tried.  However this scarf is great when you fold it on the diagonal and tie it cowboy style - one way you get the black, orange and green and folded the other way you get the pinks and purples so it is almost like having 2 colourways in one!

I tied the scarf like a collar here which shows off all the colours well.

I must just tell you that when I checked my bill at Hermès FSH they had overcharged me quite considerably - I think they charged the gavroche as a 90cm as the design exists in both sizes this season!!!  I had to argue with the check out lady but it was a good job I know my prices - so please, please, always check your bill before entering your PIN number!!!

My final find was at the airport as I had been unable to get this particular colourway of Quand Soudain at FSH so I felt lucky to find this one!  This is another 70cm vintage style scarf.

I really like this design and it is very popular amongst scarf collectors - it is a cartoon strip by Dimitri Rybaltchenko and I love the orange awnings on the shops and FSH!  It is a little difficult to tie this scarf to show the horse so I just wore it cowboy (again)!

Hope you like my finds - I am now just looking for a purple La Vie du Grand Nord and that should be IT for AW10!!