From Braintree to Benalmadena, and every disco I get in

Blossoms at RHS Hyde Hall

Whew! What a scorcher!

It has been (officially) the hottest May Day Bank Holiday in recorded history - the thermometers reached 28C (82F) today - and (as you, dear reader, may have noticed) I have been away. When people ask in the office tomorrow why I have such a tan; have I been on holiday? I shall answer yes! To Braintree...

The boys - Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex - were very good hosts; driving me across the highways and byways of Essex, to plant nurseries, antiques centres and to the Royal Horticultural Society's excellent gardens at Hyde Hall near Chelmsford.



Needless to say, I left (on the bus from nearby Stansted Airport) today weighed down with plants to fill our new garden - including sixteen new fuchsias from our fave specialist grower B & HM Baker, to add to the four we recently purchased from The Gardening Club. We're on our way to recreating our collection, peeps - fingers crossed the bloody gall mite doesn't get to this new locale...

I have not, of course, forgotten that it is (regardless of bank holidays) still a Tacky Music Monday! The boys and I (obviously) also spent a lot of time sat in their large and rambling garden, enjoying the sunshine - and playing loads of camp music. Like this one...

A block-buster of a collaboration, it not only features the divine Alaska of house favourites Fangoria, but also Baccara(!!), La Prohibida, La Terremoto de Alcorcón, and myriad other Spanish popstrels such as Marta Sánchez, Chenoa, Ruth Lorenzo, Nancys Rubias, Soraya Arnelas, Rosa López, Vicky Larraz, Boris Izaguirre, Javiera Mena, Innocence, and Alberto Jiménez (Miss Cafeína). ¡Muy bien!

Various Artists - World Pride 2017 Madrid anthem - A quien le importa

That's just the thing to not only round off a lovely long weekend, but also to remind us that is is less than two weeks before we will be back in Spain... for our twentieth anniversary!

Have a good week, one and all...

Till you feel like bursting

Madame Arcati, our chums Al and Mark and I went to our first RHS Flower Show of the season yesterday - the Orchid and Spring Plant Fair. It was stunning, over-the-top and a feast for the eyes, so we all felt well at home... [I went on for one or two drinkies at Halfway II Heaven afterwards, met up with a cohort of chums, and ended up getting to bed at gone 2am; quite a Friday, indeed - I didn't arise today till 2pm, which has meant the day has been somewhat curtailed; although I did manage to get out, do shopping, and lop some very tall branches off one of the weed trees with our new extendable pruner, so not entirely lost.]

Speaking of floral beauties, today would have been Miss Billie Holiday's birthday, so let us wallow in some classy music (for a change). Take it away, Lady Day (and Satchmo)!

Billie Holiday with Louis Armstrong - The Blues Are Brewin'

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan, 7th April 1915 – 17th July 1959)

Ooh, ooh!

The weekend looms (although I am actually on leave today). We're off to the Nathan Lane adaptation of Sondheim's The Frogs tonight (its UK première), and tomorrow it's a trip to the wilds of Essex to visit Baby Steve and his houseboy Alex..

Although we are not expecting to see any displays quite as exotic as those at the RHS Orchid Show [above] that we went to on Tuesday evening, we still hope to come back with another load of fuchsias from one of the many nurseries in the vicinity of the boys to add to our burgeoning collection here at Dolores Delargo Towers!

Before any of that, of course, it's time to get the party started in our traditionally glittering manner - and what better than this club classic (newly arrived in our charts this week in - gulp - 1978)? With some of the cheesiest dancers this side of Legs & Co, it's the Michael Zager Band and Let's All Chant...

Michael Zager Band - Let's All Chant

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Rude flowers and a Dali muse

We are making the most of our week off in London - today, it was the turn of the Royal Horticultural Society Early Spring Show. A glorious array of snowdrops, irises, winter-flowering shrubs, hippeastrums and tulips, it also hosted an amusing little collection of botanical artworks that were considered in their day "unsuitable for viewing by women". Looking at the one pictured above, one can hazard a guess at the Victorian moral outrage that led to such a decision.

It was a lovely afternoon.

Speaking of loveliness, Miss Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson celebrates her 70th birthday today...





Seventies supermodel, actress, socialite, friend of Salvador Dali - and singer? Who knew?

Here, by way of a celebration, is the lady herself with the incomparable Tom Jones! She's So Shy. Apparently.

Tom Jones & Marisa Berenson - You're So Shy

Faboo.

Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow

Floral display at the RHS Lindley Hall


Me among the Nerines

It is officially over. British Summer Time has ended. However, Autumn's not always doom'n'gloom - the RHS "Shades of Autumn" flower show was spectacular, and despite the yellowing foliage, there is still much to enjoy in the garden...

Let's mark the auspicious start of Autumn/Winter with an upbeat number, courtesy of The Kinks - Autumn Almanac!

Kinks - Autumn Almanac

From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar,
When the dawn begins to crack.
It's all part of my autumn almanac.
Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow,
So I sweep them in my sack.
Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.

Friday evenings, people get together,
Hiding from the weather.
Tea and toasted, buttered currant buns
Can't compensate for lack of sun,
Because the summer's all gone.

La-la-la-la...
Oh, my poor rheumatic back
Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.
La-la-la-la...
Oh, my autumn almanac
Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.

25 things that happen every time the clocks go back