World Cup fever hits home

OK an "England" gazebo is not an object I ever imagined existed. But Thomas has one, on his "patio" -- great for shade in the hot weather --

... or a way to keep dry in a thundershower? They went out to get an umbrella and found this...Tonight Brazil played Croatia (1-0 Brazil) - here they are, about to start. What a lot of fans.

Hali textile and tribal art fair

Gorgeous textiles ...
... and colourful people

Bark cloth

Made by the Mbuti pygmies of the Congo -- The piece shown in my April 28th post is based on the bark cloth at upper right in the background of the Gordon Reese Gallery booth --
They also had a yummy showcase of jewelry of exotic origin.

Here there be dragons

On pottery--
On armour --
And hinted at by gold thread on garments --

Ethnic clothing

From one of China's minority peoples (price tag: £1,080) 8 layers of indigo --
More indigo, overdyed till it shines --

More from Hali

Meanwhile in the Summer Antiques Fair

Meissen, with flowers and insects -- Lots of insects among the flowers --
And a strange spatchcocked flamingo --

The human presence

Turkish restaurant

Miriam suggested we go to Petek, a new(ish) restaurant near me (Stroud Green Road has a wonderful variety of restaurants, Indian, Italian, Caribbean, Colombian, Moroccan -- fish'n'chips are on a side street) -- she described Petek as "one of those Turkish restaurants with lamps on the ceiling" and it certainly is!
It was a hot day so we had lots of Turkish beer along with the Vegetarian Fiesta -- a huge plateful that's impossible to finish. The rice is particularly yummy.We headed home, into the sunset --

Doorstep delight

I planted the seeds about 10 years ago and they've been self-seeding ever since. This year the barrel beside Tony's door is overflowing with them, and they've spread to the cracks in the paving stones. The name is ery-something?

Roses, roses, roses

June is the month for roses and Hyde Park rose garden is bursting at the seams with them. The "tunnel" is delightful on a hot day -- and elsewhere they're best in closeup --


or even from the back --

Abstractions

On the way to the park

At 8am on a bright, warm, good-to-be-alive Saturday. Climbing hydrangea does well on a north wall, but seems to flower better when it actually gets sun.
Escapee from a 1950s ice cream parlour?
And just before the park -- encounter with The Guardian of the Oxford Road Gate. Fortunately the owner was nearby. Dogs walked in the park all seem to be large-sized.

Word into Art

80 Arabic artists using calligraphy, an exhibition at the British Museum. Here are a few details.

This large, sumptuously cracked piece is based on the calligraphy practice sheets that get crowded and black with repeated letters --

The artist has turned the word Allah into geometric shapes. The two sides of the rectangle represent the letter alef (a), and below are the two lams (l) and ha (h) that make up the rest of the word. The lams and ha form the top and bottom borders --These ceramic cones have Sufi sayings and reference the pointed hats of the Dervishes --
And this piece uses stencil letter shapes (in English), which are sewn using a sewing machine onto canvas, and the ends of the threads are left as little bumps -- and the canvas is stretched and it's painted --Its companion piece has the ends of the thread hanging down and looks even more like its been dipped in tar. (Maybe it has?)