October started with...

...me discovering a new dessert for the first time and other visual delights while battling an irritatingly nagging allergic cough. And what else of October? Summer still reigns supreme over here; days are sauna-warm, nights grudgingly acceding to the notion of imminent winter. Our mogra bush has shut up shop for the year yet the bougainvilleas still burn bright, incandescently: fuschia, vermillion, ivory. Sea-gulls and other sea-cousins mass along the beach shore, as if in strict regiment...and when I approach closer to them, they cluster in unspoken unison, gracefully ascend into the air, and survey the quivering lawn of the sea before settling upon a spot...and proceeding to placidly bob along its surface. 

Here are my October vignettes:

I ate...

Macaroons at the famous Parisian pastry shop, La Duree

Macaroons! As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am not as much a foodie as a dessert fan and in the last few months, I continually encountered references to macaroons, having clearly acquired the status as the new cupcakes. Actually, the very first time I chanced upon 'macaroons' was in a novel I read when I was in  elementary school; little else remains with me about the novel but I do recall the main characters sitting on the sidewalk in Brooklyn and eating macaroons out of a cardboard box. It's interesting how words lodge in your memory and till date, I associate macaroons with that childhood encounter. Well, work this week gave me a chance to actually taste macaroons after all these years and interview a macaroon chef. I had a chocolate ganache one and enjoyed it thoroughly...

I saw....

Sun Medallion, Eric Warner

....this image and the first association that leaped to my mind upon espying the fuschia palm-trees were: bougainvilleas. And nothing beyond that. There are certain images which strike you at a visceral level - and that's that. If hard-pressed, I can usually deconstruct and unjumble an image rather nicely; here, though, all that occurs to me to say is that it constitutes my three favorite colors: cerulean blue, white, and fuschia. And if given a choice, I would hang it upon a wall of blazing white and leave it there to...bake. Bake, you ask? Bake, as in flavors and qualities of the image rise and transform in conjunction with other images and objects in the room, making the picture an entirely different entity altogether from the one that first entered the room. Those are the kind of objects that I like when putting together a space, ones that gradually become a family without losing their individual entity. 

I discovered...

Hazel Cox

...jewelry by Hazel Cox - which this charming blog interview with the Portland, United States based designer describes as 'math in a hot dress.' Of late, the marriage between metal and fabric has been a constant source of intrigue for me and these earrings are no exception! They will instantly add statement to minimalist solid color-block outfits or add to the party of colors, patterns, and embellishments. In this particular case, I simply adored the minty fabric tassels along with dull metal - in one word: *want*!

How did you greet October?:)