I knew the new cycling scheme would come in useful!

Highland Fling

Arriving early for my Saturday bridesmaiding duties, I took the opportunity of a free afternoon on Friday to explore Edinburgh for the first time. As a thorough-bred Londoner, I am usually of the opinion that other cities may have unique characters, unusual quirks and points of interest, but London is always the Daddy. But, I am forced to admit, that Edinburgh took me utterly by surprise on all fronts. From the dark and towering Victorian architecture, to the views of distant snow-capped peaks, to the perfect hot chocolate in one of the city's many little cafes, I absolutely fell in love.



With only a few hours at our disposal, my companion and I took a whistle-stop tour of the place, fitting in what seemed to be the most important destinations - namely, the Christmas market, a few boutique shops and, naturally, Harvey Nichols. Castle? Shmastle! We both fell upon The Red Door Gallery, which prides itself on showcasing the work of upcoming artists and seemed, to me, to be the retail equivalent of this very blog - so brimful was it with fun design ideas.



Secondly, my companion went absolutely jingle bells to find his Xmas jumper in Oddities - a venerable co-operative of creativity, fusing clothes, art and music all under one super-cool roof. I however, felt rather partial towards a massive bright purple bag that could have fitted in at least two small children.



Finally, buoyed by several jugs of mulled wine from the Christmas market, we wound our merry way to Harvey Nichols, where I was fascinated to find it packed not with the usual wealthy urban professionals found in the London branch, but hoards of well-dressed students seeking inspiration and sartorial guidance. I even overheard one young man rebuff his friend with a terse 'I told you, they don't do sushi, you idiot'. Ah, the modern young!

A Sunday jaunt down to Belgravia to visit my Pater allowed time for a little bit of window shopping at Harvey Nichols. Loving their latest window display and reminded me that I have a ticket to the Feelgood Fashion Conference at the British Library on Wedneday, where they will be discussing sustainable fashion. Tickets can be bought if you click HERE.



Photograph by www.blazingcameras.com

As we're all in sheltering from the August rain and cold, how better to do it than with a lovely cup of tea?

Living in Austin Texas, I got really into the fantastic selection from the Republic of Tea and a pot of Spring Cherry green tea sits, adored, on the kitchen counter. They give quite good packaging too.



Speaking of packaging, our Native Ringtons apparently based their packaging design on old ration books from the war.



Harvey Nichols own brand teas are weirdly well-priced at something like £4.99 a tin and their peppermint is the best I've yet tried.




So, on this wet evening, brew up and snuggle down.

In striking comparison to Slough (see yesterday's post), photographer in the field and founder of the London Street Photography blog kindly stormed the Liberty Own Label store on Sloane Street on our behalf.



Given that - in my opinion - one of Liberty's weakest points is their own label, I'm not quite sure about this new venture. I do, however, 'get' that they evidently had the opportunity to have a presence on one of London's most des-res streets for luxury retailers, right next to one of their main competitors, Harvey Nichols, and they jumped at it. Makes excellent business sense.





It IS gorgeous and they've managed to maintain that art deco/ arts and crafts style of the flagship. Beautiful.