HelenSparta
@helensparta
Art, nature, hiking, “soft science” I can understand, the planet and green stuff - trying to be a gardener but failing!
Just finished The Go-Between. I’ve seen the film, but reading this made it feel all new - the emotions & weather building to the epilogue. A perfect summer read during the recent heatwave. #summerreading #modernclassics
Thankfully it’s 22 degrees and it feels blissful. A cool breeze. But I still need a summer whinge as my hayfever’s full on today 🤧. Can hayfever give you a headache? #summer2026
#HappySolstice. The Time & Date website shows the year's sunrises & sunsets, with the lunar cycle too. June's is #geeky, with the sun rising slightly later each day & setting at 21:21 in London until 1 July. Enjoy the #solstice wherever it's happening for you. #sunshine #longestday #summer #London
Stained glass projects dreamy coloured light onto the floor of Chichester Cathedral. #stainedglass #light #colour #photography
Dried peach & nectarine halves from @Marks&Spencer. The packet’s advice of there being a “slight aroma on opening” is wrong. It should read “there will be a distinct nasty whiff of vom on opening.” I know I’m hyper sensitive to smells, but this is 🤢
Saw the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery this morning. Great to see school kids there, but I wonder what they make of her and the times in which she lived. www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhi... #photography #marilynmonroe #moviestar #portraits
Rooting around in our very hot loft and found an old childhood book, Flower Fairies of the Trees. #planetrees #trees
Well, this is very sad news. I loved him in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy and Ted Lasso star Anthony Head dies at 72 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Read this today. And so I am now bravely preparing a balti that will probably be a catastrophe & a crime against such a treasured dish. I apologise in advance. www.theguardian.com/food/2026/ju...
An epic read. I tore through this, couldn’t put it down. It’s truly helped me understand a huge part of history that I’ve never really grasped (shockingly!). The epilogue’s final two paras about the dangers of corporate power are incredibly relevant. #corporatepower #india #history
Always worries me when 86-year old Dad decides to have a tidy up “to get rid of stuff.” He gave me 6 little coffee cups with saucers, sugar bowl and milk jug yesterday - they’re just perfect. Must be from the 70s??
Just watched Kate Bush’s 1993 The Red Shoes film with Miranda Richardson. Amazing, esoteric, magical, witchy. Listened to the album so much when I first bought it, & I remember some of the individual videos. But I don’t recall this film & how it ties it all together. #theredshoes #katebush #magic
The @hornimanmuseum.bsky.social gardens looking splendid today. Just so beautiful and fragrant.
A friend loaned me these at the weekend. I let another friend know on whatsapp what I was on my reading list and she said “ooh look, old bird books!” Is there such a category? Maybe there should be. #reading #biographies #nobadbooks
Another foray into #watercolour with a thank you card for a friend. Used paper from @choosingkeeping which has been in a drawer for a year or so. #art #colour #artfear
The #watercolours are back out after god knows how many years. All I wanted to be was an artist. I buried my creativity. I’m striving to find it again.
An urban Orion - faint on this iPhone camera, but SO bright in real life! Beautiful. #Orion #constellation #twilight-ish
Unprimed art boards and a small blank canvas = art fear #nervous #art #outofpractice
Fascinating morning @londonmuseum.bsky.social The history is gobsmacking. The brutality of the human trade for sugar, tea, coffee, chocolate, spices etc etc etc…
#DIYDISASTERS Why did I start decorating the bedroom? Because there was a bit of flaking paint & I couldn’t resist picking it, resulting in 2 whole walls being stripped. Tedious prep, expensive white paint dries patchily, & the plaster I sanded for hours still shows as an ugly blob.