Charmed Circle: Avebury and 'Children of The Stones'

Originally published 21 April, 2010


Hello, my little dumplings! Thought you might like to be let in on a secret village that I've fallen in love with. It's a perfect place to go when you've had enough of London and need a day of fresh air....and even better, there is a bit of pop culture thrown in! Even though the pop is the 70's, I think you'll agree that this is a piece of heaven any 60's flower child would adore!

After turning in my final toiles for my Collections outfits, I took a much needed trip to the countryside. Avebury in Wiltshire is the most gorgeous place I've ever seen--outside of Tennessee, of course!--and home to the largest stone circle in Europe. As a child, I used to watch reruns of 'Children of the Stones', which was not only a scrumptious piece of 1970's science fiction, but also a feast of polyester and sideburns! After getting past the 'Mom, what are they wearing?' stage, four year old me looked forward to watching crosslegged in front of the telly in the lobby of the dance studio while waiting for my class to begin.



Over the years, I searched for the programme and finally found it on Youtube. I knew I had to see the village for myself, just to see if it was actually as atmospheric and beautiful as I had always thought....Avebury didn't disappoint. Beautiful, remote, and peaceful. The bee's is the fact that you can actually walk in the fields where the stones are, even go up and touch them. Try doing that at Stonehenge!

The local antique shop is run by the self proclaimed 'Oldest Rocker Amongst the Oldest Rocks in England'. As my dear Granny would have said, 'He's a real corker!' I bought some gifties for my mum there and we had dinner and far too many pints at the Red Lion while waiting for our bus.



The village is easy to get to by train from London. We left out of Paddington to Swindon. In Swindon, we took a bus to Avebury. The bus drops off and picks up right outside of the Red Lion every hour or so.

Hope you get a chance to visit!

Here's a picnic perfect playlist to get you in the mood:



Lovesies....

DollyBird

This Bird Has Flown...

To begin this blog, my darlings, I've moved a couple of posts from 'Valley of The Dolls', my portfolio blog on Wordpress as I feel that they make more sense here....not to mention the format is ever so much nicer here for this sort of thing! I've also added a fab sound track to go along with:



Originally published 16 February, 2010

This Bird Has Flown...

...but if you were lucky, you didn't miss it! 'Miss What?', I hear all of you in the Peanut Gallery shouting! 'Why, the Beatles To Bowie exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery', says Dolly!



Though it regrettably ended the 24th of last month, I'm only now getting around to writing about the sugar-coated goodness experienced by all, including your beloved narrator.

As a self-proclaimed nut (macadamia, to be precise) about music of the 1960's, I couldn't wait to see what the NPG had in store! It turned out to be a treasure trove of portraits featuring all the pretty young things of the decade from bubblegum pop to glam rock, dedicated followers of fashion all.




All of my favourite bands were represented, of course. The Rolling Stones (goodness me, how I adore Mick Jagger!) had a very strong showing, and rightfully so. Such a fantastic looking band! Very photogenic those boys were and always well put together.



This brings me to my pet peeve #1 about bands today: Most of them don't look like bands. The portraits in this exhibition prove more than anything else, that it's just as important how you look as how you sound. A band's look should be cohesive. They should look as though they could go on stage at any minute of the day. If you're rehearsing in you mum's garage or playing the Royal Albert, you should look amazing!

Probably the most famous example of how an artist should live the part would be another of the loves of my life (sorry, Mick, you're not the one and only, I'm afraid) who had a very good showing in the exhibition...David Bowie.



The Ziggy Stardust character should be a model to any artist who is up and coming in the industry. We desperately want you to be amazing and eccentric, darlings! Give us a show!

Right, so that's the end of my music/fashion tangent for the day. ''Thank Julie Andrews for that!', I hear you all sigh to one another just loud enough that I may get the hint...

...and I have, my little bumblebees and shall now only speak of lovely, fluffy thoughts for the rest of the post!



Some of the other highlights were a terrific pic from '65 of Cilla Black posing in a window wearing an absolutely luscious purple and white frock with the most brill little grape mary janes! I want the outfit, but more than anything, I think I want that haircut! She looks amazingly mod and may have become my new aspirational dolly of the month!

I also fell in lovezies with Jimmy Page all over again in a Mankowitz photo from 1966. The jacket, the shoes, the hair...utter perfection.

As a private in the Carnabetian army, I of course went head over Cuban heels for the photo of that lovely of lovelies, David Jones Bowie in all his glory, Chelsea boots, slim fit striped trousers and all. Next to him is Jeanette, looking every bit the mod in an exquisite mini dress and boots...not so crazy about the boots personally, but WOW, what a frock!

This emersion in my favourite decade unfortunately came to an end and I was forced back into this century and into the dreary, drizzly Friday afternoon, but not before visiting the exhibition store and stocking up on goodies. I picked up some fab books that I will no doubt be reviewing at some point in our blindingly bright future together, along with some great mod jewelry and a cute little pocket mirror...none of which I needed, but sometimes we must surrender to 'want', mustn't we, poppits?



'Twas then off to have churros in Leicester Square and dream of boys with shaggy hair and Beatle boots and girls with back combed hair and scooter dresses...

DollyBird