all quiet on the home front while we work out our plot our course on the latitudes. but there’s nothing like a bit of celebrity endorsement to draw me out of the wordwork.

yesterday, one kanye west called in at the hl’s favourite clothing shore and bought two pairs boots designed by my best friend. (they’re beautiful and comfortable and called andre btw and can be yours too if you click here.)

the hl and folk have been lovingly entwined for much of ‘07 -not least because we’d have been naked and barefoot for most of this year without them, but we’ve been known supply the workers with music from time to time and even made an appearance in next season’s lookbook on a rainy day in oxfordshire photoshoot which left me ravaged by briars, covered in several different types of mud as i rambled in wedge heels by christmas common.

but you know how we do.

so when that christmas cheque from your nan comes in you too can buy folk at the folk shop on lamb’s conduit street, or online here, or at liberty and other chi-chi retailers in your city.

In yonder valley there grows sweet union
let us arise and drink our fill.
The winter pass and the spring appeareth
The turtle dove is in our lap.
In yonder valley there grows sweet union
let us arise and drink our fill.

its the end of an era and the dawn of a whole new one. sure, my ipod finally died but i’m changing my name, moving house, starting a whole new life. with my husband.

it’s pretty momentous.

since hl has always been a bit of an indulgence of our blossoming relationship i’m only hesitating momentarily before indulging myself one more time.

this blog has been an incredible journey, thanks for reading and listening.

we’ll be back, but for a few weeks at least… this one’s for my new family.

beach boys - forever

Sorry for the slackness in posting.

Amid deliveries of furniture, sourcing polaroid film and hunting for bunting, hl has become as intermittent as a flickering bulb.

The weather is turning in the balmy latitudes which have sheltered us so well for nearly 18 months.
A week tomorrow we will be making our vows and starting some wonderful new adventure.
Till then the white noise of a million tiny details to make right.

And the wind blows where it pleases.

David Axelrod-Cast Your Fate to the Wind

By the time we made it to Bar Kick-the result was beyond doubt.

The heady cocktail of wine, fine food and stories of unbelievable good fortune had brought us to that rarefied place-freshly minted camaraderie.

With worries about group dynamics behind us, we could begin to focus on the task at hand:

Fussball.

Fussball is modern man’s most noble pursuit-skill/luck/glory/overhead kicks-the human condition condensed into 22 tiny men and four metres of plastic and/or wood.

After a brief tussle with adverse weather conditions/misplaced mojitos-teams were formed, battles joined-reputations lost and won.

The flick of a wrist and the wicked bounce of a deflection separating the valiant from the vanquished, the superb from the superfluous.

As for me…small victories/giant inflatible bottom.

I choose the way of the S.U.M.O.

(big love to team stag-we’ll be back!!)

D’Angelo-One Mo’ Gin

pic by elliott landy
i heard arcadia boss, philip green on the radio yesterday saying that despite the fact that his disposable heroes of topshophrecy had continued to return record profits over a poor summer on the high street, that he felt the british public would start to realise that money was getting expensive.

which might seem like a glib comment but is a pretty succinct way of summing up the throw-away world of consolidation loans and mortgage/remortgage adverts which proliferate cable tv commercial breaks and tumble out of weekend colour supplements. money’s been terrifically cheap, and getting cheaper.

more bang for your buck and more bucks to the pound.

so while the latest supermodel-endorsed, designer-diffusion range might be a great bargain, the money we’re being encouraged to spend on it is starting to cost us more. and while ultimately that’s a good thing, it is bound to leave plenty of people in the doldrums; locked into a horrid situation of surface affluence, used to constantly refreshed wardrobes, new cars, latest ipods and flatscreen tvs but with a complete lack of foundation. all dressed up with nowhere to go.

perhaps if we have to think about what we’re spending we’ll start to think about what we’re buying too. and things will change. and this monologue is as much for me as ‘those people’.

still, i’ve been looking for a reason to post this track for the past year or so.

here it is, a song i find infinitely captivating. musically it’s catchy as hell; shuffling maracas, plodding kickdrum, bar-room piano, easy bassline. unsurprisingly the lyrics are stone cold genius and the laconic post-desire dylan drawl which sometimes grates belies a resigned, befuddled old man; mildly amused, slightly defiant and a little wiser.

bob dylan - things have changed

photo via
yep, we’re packing up and moving forward.
further up the river.
but not too far, to where the skies are like this.

so digging the (packing) crates throws up curve yesterday and today; mazzy star.

it’s my fourth move in two years. with any luck this’ll be it for a little while. and next time, well next time the dust’ll be all ours.

here’s something which comes into earshot every so often, i can’t describe what this song sounds like, it’s not new or unusual - its one of those things its nice to feel every so often; to take out and examine, i probably packed this record into a box in 1995. it’s distant but familiar. free of hard edges. slyphlike, untouchable and warm.

like light on your face each morning to wake you.

mazzy star - fade into you

This weekend’s the big move, and as the image above (via) so aptly illustrates, it’s a bit of a pain in the ass.

It’s also one of those events that provide us with the opportunity to close and open chapters in our lives.

The physical act of boxing up and rearranging collected objects is all the metaphor I need to help me see the broad vista of newness that I’m on the verge of stepping into.

It’s a chance to build in some good habits and leave some bad ones behind. (before I get into myself stuck a new routine). It’s amazing (and scary) the power ‘place’ has over you. The routes you travel on your way to work, the familiarity of the noises outside your window each night, the way your furniture is placed can all be symptomatic of the mental patterns we can get locked into.

Not that this is always a negative.

In this case though…

It’s good to leave some of the dust behind and have new light dancing on my face each morning to wake me.

Curve-Fait Accompli

c’est le weekend mes enfants.

time’s a-ticking, it’s nearly christmas, nearly next year. heck, it’s nearly the rest of your life.

it’s also time to slow down a little, even if only for six minutes and forty two seconds and make the most of a day off (though not two; both me & jak are working come saturday night).

i’m always in awe of the new york jazz scene of the fifties and sixties. having only ever crudely managed to get tunes out of pianos, saxophones and trumpets in a hamfisted teenaged way and never having the talent or drive to take it any further than school recitals and local jazz competitions i feel this mild tension hearing the very pinacle of a genre i gummed at the edges of and disgarded in favour of the lure of boys with long hair and guitars.

the very best jazz recordings played back through a crackley stylus into my living room or headphones carries me away on a whistful cloud of admiration and jealousy at the fluidity of sound, the effortlessness of movement and the sheer emotive power of the music.

peace piece is one of those ‘in-tune-with-your-soul’ type joints. it sounds like breathing and takes you away with it on waves of lilting melody, measured harmony and pensive rhythm.

bill evans - peace piece

photo from (via)

So we got the redesign done (almost) in time. I had a post with a link to some amazing versions of september song all planned in honour of our birthday month, but was still changing things on monday-maybe next year.

Most of the nut and bolts for the new look come from the wonderfully talented Robert Ellis and his great wordpress theme. We spent a bit of extra love and attention trying to make it homely and think it is a better representation of who we are.

Expect a few tweaks and refinements over coming days and weeks-(probably weeks actually I don’t think I can face any more sausage fingered tinkering with stuff I barely understand). But this is us for a while.

It’s been a great year, finding out what horse latitudes is all about and seeing it develop into something we love and cherish. We’ve made some great friends along the way and discovered some amazing music, and next september, who knows where we might be.

Here’s to the changing of the tides.

Charles Sullivan-Now I’ll Sleep