In England, if you ask for a rubber, you’re borrowing stationery. In America, you’re apparently preparing for a very different sort of evening. And don’t even start on the word fanny…
IH x @theloomandco
It is Mother’s Day in America, and in many other parts of the world too. I woke early and sat thinking not only about motherhood, but about godmotherhood, because today is also my youngest godchild’s birthday. He turned two years old in Ukraine.
I cannot begin to imagine what it must feel like to raise a child in a country at war. To wake each morning calculating safety, warmth, food, hope. To try and keep a small person reassured while the larger world behaves incomprehensibly. And in all of this was I being enough of a godparent?
And then I found myself wondering: what exactly is a good godparent? And wrote about my worries on Substack -free for a read - link in bio
Summer or winter, this is always where we stop to put on our bulletproof gear before heading closer to the front line. To see what the Russians did to it this week is sickening and fills me with RAGE— another deliberate act of useless destruction against a country already carrying so much loss.
But as Vitaly says, this will not break the Ukrainian spirit. If anything, it hardens it.
Thinking of all our @globalempowermentmission teams in Ukraine who continue, day after day, to ride aid into unimaginable conditions with extraordinary courage.
@vitserkub@globalempowermentmissionua
What truly won me over working with @theloomandco was not just the idea of rugs, handmade in India by third-generation weavers, woven to last a lifetime; it was the delight of doing it with bananas. BANANAS! 🍌
Of course, while bananas may grow quickly, any decent design process does not. Months of meetings, concepts, sampling, decision-making, and commercial considerations, with a great deal of standing about, head tilted, saying, “Yes… no… almost…”
As we developed the collection, it became clear, that the patterns had a life of their own, translating just as naturally onto wool as they did on Abaca.
So here we are, with a much bigger assortment that we first thought….join me on Tuesday 1pm EST- LIVE- as I show you around the collection not just in my bedroom but my whole home Hibiscus Hill.
This collaboration began with Abaca — the fibre of a banana plant, sitting somewhere between jute and sisal, but with rather more personality, and naturally sustainable. Who wouldn’t want a rug made from bananas?🍌
The designs are all deeply personal, even borrowing the markings from the back of Vincent, our tortoise.
I’ve always believed interiors should feel inviting and lived-in, and these rugs are designed to make anywhere feel a little more like home.
🎥 @amoryflintwood
I have been asked what my mother’s secret is to now being 97. It seems to involve chocolate biscuits at elevenses, the occasional day in bed with a hot dog, endless Charbonnel et Walker chocolates, making sure there is always Toblerone in the house, and being properly dressed — even for the pub.
Of course, it is quite a challenge finding a birthday present for someone turning ninety-seven. By that point, one has not only received everything one might want, but has also very likely improved upon it, edited it, or sent it back.
In my mother’s case, she has tasted almost everything, seen almost everything, met almost everyone worth meeting, and travelled just about everywhere worth going. There is very little left to wrap.
Read about what we gave her for this birthday on Substack… link in bio.
A bank holiday weekend stitched together with garden doors, hungry lambs, bluebell woods, and the perfect alignment of three generations side by side. (and a quite nice cousin or two)
Over the years I’ve gathered people together, for breakfasts, lunches, teas and dinners. Tables for two or a hundred and two.
This book is a celebration of that theatre, a patchwork of moments, some candlelit and
choreographed, some held together with napkin rings and hope. Some grand, some simple. Place
cards written in a hurry, cutlery laid with care, tablescapes inspired by coconuts and coral, roses
and rope….all served with a side of chaos!
Extremely exciting ‘ENTERTAINING, WITH A SIDE OF CHAOS’ will be published in September. And is available for preorder now ⚡️The link is in my bio.
Back home with my mum, telling her about the amazing school lunch project with @chefsinschools_uk .
This prompted her to remember at the beginning of World War II, children being evacuated from London to her parents’ home in the countryside (Broadlands- in the mural behind her) and how they were appalled by something being squeezed from a cow…!
LUNCH:
Yesterday I spoke at the Women of Distinction lunch for Jewish Care about Lady Pamela’s life lessons. The formidable Baroness Hilary Cass followed me at the podium and immediately raised the bar:
“I grew up working class, a bit different to India’s mum. I remember the bailiffs coming to take our furniture away. My mum, from a working-class background, ended up a Thatcher-voting Tory — working-class made good. My father was Welsh and a leftie voter, so they decided not to vote at all, as they cancelled each other out.”
Dr Hilary Cass is a remarkable woman, appointed by NHS England to chair the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children — no easy task — and a deserving Distinction Award Winner.
DINNER:
In the evening I joined friends in a gigantic school dining hall, sitting on tiny school stools at tiny school tables. We ate dinner cooked by a team of celebrity chefs. The dinner was to raise funds and awareness for the 2.2 million schoolchildren in the UK for whom school lunch might be the only meal they get, with over 50% of those calories coming from ultra-processed foods. @chefsinschools_uk is on a mission to change that, bringing real chefs into school kitchens to educate, elevate, and — one hopes — rescue the nation from a lifetime of beige food.
Thank you, @melindalp - a rare creature who makes perpetual motion look like leisure.
BREAKFAST:
This morning, with Amory and my niece, we had breakfast at my friend’s new restaurant, where there is not an ultra-processed food in sight. @barfinch@charlespfinch
