The year's last, loveliest smile

“Days decrease,
And autumn grows, autumn in everything.” - Robert Browning

“Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile.” - William Cullen Bryant

The equinox is today.

The Autumn/Winter Season has begun in earnest.

Classical Greek

RIP, Irene Papas (3rd September 1929 – 14th September 2022)

I need to be seen to be believed

From Elle magazine:

The Queen’s most well-known quote about her image is her assertion that she “needed to be seen to be believed.” They say your brand is defined by what a person sees if they close their eyes and hear your name, and the image that comes to mind of the Queen – cheerful in bright colours, her regal diamonds and pearls counterbalanced by the eminently practical handbag and shoes – sums up what she stood for.

Rather than take traditional deference to monarchy for granted, she won the respect of the public through hard work. Long before resilience became a buzzword during the pandemic, she was modelling what resilience looked like with her dependably rainbow-hued wardrobe. She showed up, as the young people say. Her clothes were never the main event, but they were a steadying mood music which set a certain tone.

A "Rainbow Queen", indeed:

..in red.


...in orange.


...in yellow.


...in green.


...in blue.


...in indigo.


...in violet...


...and in pink!

Nobody did it better.

RIP, Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, Queen of Scots, Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Normandy, Lord of Mann, Royal Lady and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Sovereign of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, Dame Grand Cross and Sovereign Head of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, Lady of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Sovereign of the Royal Victorian Order, Sovereign of the Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Sovereign of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order, Colonel-in-Chief of the UK's armed forces.

Weekend Reading - epicurean edition

[click any pic to enlarge]

A perfect pearl

On this day one hundred years ago, the magnificent Yvonne De Carlo was born.

All hail!

[Read more about Miss De Carlo in my tribute to the lady on the 90th anniversary of her birth.]

Lovely in a fluffy moist kind of way

“I think it was Donald Mainstock, the great amateur squash player who pointed out how lovely I was. Until that time I think it was safe to say that I had never really been aware of my own timeless brand of loveliness. But his words smote me, because of course you see, I am lovely in a fluffy moist kind of way and who would have it otherwise? I walk, and let’s be splendid about this, in a highly accented cloud of gorgeousness that isn't far short of being, quite simply terrific. 

 The secret of smooth almost shiny loveliness, of the order of which we are discussing, in this simple, frank, creamy sort of way, doesn't reside in oils, unguents, balms, ointments, creams, astringents, milks, moisturizers, liniments, lubricants,embrocations or balsams, to be rather divine for just one noble moment, it resides, and I mean this in a pink slightly special way, in ones attitude of mind.

To be gorgeous, and high and true and fine and fluffy and moist and sticky and lovely, all you have to do is believe that one is gorgeous and high and true and fine and fluffy and moist and sticky and lovely.

And I believe it of myself, tremulously at first and then with rousing heat and passion, because, stopping off for a second to be super again, I’m so often told it.

That’s the secret really.”

- Stephen Fry, A Bit of Fry & Laurie

The godlike genius and "national treasure" that is Stephen Fry is 65 years old today!

All hail.

Hitch yer skirts up, ladies!

Wheeeee!

I'm on holiday for the next seventeen days!

Picture: Vicar's Tea Party by Beryl Cook. [click to enlarge]