21st May 2022 A few weeks ago I received this invitation to attend a book launch and exhibition of ceramics, both by the artist Elizabeth Stanhope, as she is known in English speaking circles. I have written about her before, when I was writing a profile of her for the Polish Ball, to which she […]Read Post ›
When I was eighteen I went to Poland for six weeks. It was a great turning point in my life, as up till then I had been very shy, very nervous, lacking in confidence and with very few independent skills. I was clever and well read, but that was about it. I left school after […]Read Post ›
I have a lot of antique jewellery left over from when my mother tried her hand at being an antique dealer, and ran a little stall in the vintage market Antiquarius in the Kings Road in Chelsea. That was a very exciting and beautiful place and I loved going there to help. There was also […]Read Post ›
I have had this scarf for sixty years. It is one of my oldest and most treasured possessions. But it was not until today that I thought to investigate the writing on it. Thank goodness for the Internet. I discovered that in 1962 there were international skiing championships in Poland. This is what Wikipedia has […]Read Post ›
Packing away my grandmother’s spectacles I came across this piece of embroidery. My father had obviously packed away her things when she died and gave them to me many years later. But I never really looked closely until now. I remember this cushion and I always knew she had embroidered it. There were some others […]Read Post ›
Today is the first day I came out of my almost voluntary six week incarceration. Apart from three days over Christmas itself I have spent the last few weeks writing a souvenir ptogramme for the upcoming Golden Jubilee Polish ball. A big event to be held at the London Guildhall so worthy of a nice […]Read Post ›
for AAK I love the labyrinths designed by Mark Wallinger on the Tube. There is one for every station and this one is from South Kensington, the centre of my universe for many years. Many people search them out specially; I am just happy to see them when I come across them. Very occasionally I […]Read Post ›
Little blue car 6 years ago I was working in a school on a Saturday – which reminds me – they never paid me for that day.- Ah well, never mind. My phone was lighting up and I noticed it, unusually for me, and answered it and somewhat regretted it, straightaway. It was my husband, […]Read Post ›
London that is. Yesterday I had to go to Kentish Town to interview a ceramic artist who has very kindly donated some of her works for the 50th Polish Ball which is taking place next February. I have the privilege of putting together the souvenir programme, and so I thought I would make the little […]Read Post ›
For the Mhinisteir’s wife Today is the sixth of December. For me the real beginning of the Christmas season. This was the day when good children were given a little present and naughty children a birch rod. One year my mother gave me a rod. It was very small and gilded. Very pretty. But a […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 