Elevenses

When I lived in the UK, at 11:00 every day, the whole place would take a break for tea, which was called “elevenses”. As an American who was used to working through lunch most days, this was a novelty! We also took an office-wide break at 3:00-ish for coffee.

This blog is your elevenses – a short break for light refreshment. Shockingly, this is my 11th year of blogging. I am as curious about things as I was 11 years ago when I sat down to write my first blog post.  In the early days, I wrote about John Derian, Scalamandre fabrics, tea, copper pots and pans and one of my favourite shops:V.V. Rouleaux, the amazing ribbon shop near Sloane Square in London.

So, you can see that the things I do and I write about are still as eclectic as ever! After spending several days down with a stomach bug, I did some exploring this weekend and discovered this gorgeous old pumping station in Baltimore. I should do a series of pictures about the pumping stations in Baltimore, as some are quite lovely!

January is already shaping up to be a busy month, with lots going on at work, including a quick refreshment of our largest room. We added trim and re-hung the painting collection, including a few gathered from other parts of the building. We still have a few things to do, but the improvement in this room is 100%!

While we were working on that, one of the workmen opened a display cabinet for me. I pondered how to open it for three years, and discovered that the panel of glass in front slides up and down, just like a guillotine! The cabinet holds what we call our “Napoleon Chest” and I will write about it later. But here’s just a sneak peek of what is inside!

Stay tuned!