Breakfast.

The first time I really realised the wonder of breakfast was during study leave for my GCSEs, aged 15.

Denbies II

I originally wanted to call this “Denbies through the Seasons” but I’m not entirely sure my real life cynicism, sarcasm and constant irony really come through on this blog and was worried people might think I was being serious. Anyway, these photos are from Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking. I first visited back on one of the first sunny days of the year, and it was lovely to visit again and see the changing colours of the leaves against the perennially golden fields.

If things look a little different, I’m trying out my new camera lens! This lens will take some getting used to as it has an incredibly shallow depth of field which is great for portraits as it focuses on one subject (i.e. notice how blurry and undefined the backgrounds are in the photos of me), but I do like taking shots that show detailed tableaus and this lens is not great for that (i.e. the banana sign is way clearer than the others, where as in previous posts those kind of flat detailed shots are very clear as I’m using my other lens – like this one).

I’m wearing my newish Orla Kiely coat (!!!) which was 65% off in their sample sale and then a further 35% off the marked sample sale price when I got to the till (isn’t that the best feeling ever?) and my new shoes which were £6 from New Look in the sale. One of the many perks of having massive feet is your size is always left over in the sales. I love mustard (both as a colour and a condiment) and have wanted a coat in mustard and gold for such a long time, so it was like a dream present to myself. Does anybody else have dream items in their mind which rarely seem to actually exist?
P.S. I’m going to be shutting down my Raccoon Circus Facebook page soon so please follow me here or here instead and I recently signed up to both LookBook and Pinterest, so you use those sites do let me know! 

Coat – Orla Kiely (sample sale), shoes – New Look (sale), dress – Miss Patina (sale), bag – ModCloth (gift), leggings – Tesco, socks – Monki

Leaves

So if these photos seem familiar I’m basically following the same formula from a couple of weeks ago; take one coloured coat (this time my favourite maroon number, a fiver from Deptford Market 3 years ago), head into the garden… the leaves are so lovely this time of year, what can I say! It seems every time I’m home the trees have changed colour again and I want to document it on my camera! I love this time of year when nature is in technicolour and the changing colour of the leaves are such a powerful and perennial metaphor for the passing of time.

As I was editing this post I was reminded of this set of photos featuring the same shirt and trainers. That post was from when I was last on tour in the South West with Rhum & Clay, and coincidentally I’m on tour again with them at the moment. It’s so brilliant to be able to see different parts of the country whilst in such good company! I wrote the score for the show we are performing and it is so stimulating to revisit a project I care about so much, as so often in art that’s not the case. Completing a painting, finishing a novel or recording an album all have a moment of finality where the product is finished and the time for alterations is over. Theatre is the opposite: constantly evolving and adapting to new stages and audiences, nuances and cadences never quite the same from night to night.

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