balls

Love this:

via serious eats from box vox.

Ambler

I'd buy these just for the covers, but the books are also involved and well-written late-1930s' espionage stories. It's sort of weird to see them as "Modern Classics" though. 

 

Eric Ambler's Epitaph for a Spy; Uncommon Danger; Cause for Alarm;  

Journey into Fear; and The Mask of Dimitrios.

Pillycater

Next birthday is a big one.

Seriously considering this cake.

Source (apart from The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle):

coco cupcakes (via wolf eyebrows).

Squirrels

Squirrels for sale in Australia! It's the Northern Palm Squirrel. Runs 15kph and needs a harness and desexing. Only in N.S.W. though, so none for me. From $1200...

Image: SMH.

Links: 

• Sydney Morning Herald (where the breeder says he can't see much potential for them becoming a pest!!).
• I first read about it at Made By White.

Tiny Things

Dalton Ghetti's alphabet pencils,
found via paper tastebuds
(with many more images here).

If you like little things, check out little people.

Now Lies the Earth...

I was reminded of this gorgeous, sexy poem while reading (the excellent) The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark:

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;

Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font;

The firefly wakens, waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,

And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,

And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves

A shining furrow, as thy thoughts, in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,

And slips into the bosom of the lake.

So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

Into my bosom and be lost in me.

Titian's Danaë (1553: Prado, Madrid)

Chicken of the Sea

"Chicken of the Sea" - now why hasn't that brand survived?

From found in mom's basement, source of many wonderful things.

Kitchens

Could I live without over-counter cupboard space? 

It's unnerving.

Mostly I dream about a new bathroom.

Top: from the kitchn.

Bottom: from canadian house & home via the sadly defunct decorno.

No Squirrel Love

I recently spent a few days in Perth (Western Australia) which has Australia's only squirrel colony. Sadly I saw neither hide nor hair of the Northern Palm Squirrel (Funambulus pennantii). It has a mean look...

Image: Wikipedia

Link Love

Some food bits and pieces:

• ezra pound cake's Mama's Trash-Good Orange Crush Sherbet. Containing the goodness of condensed milk and orange soft drink.

• the art of manliness' campfire cooking: 9 easy and delicious foil packet recipes

• beverly hsu's helvetica cookie cutters

• results of the annual jell-o mold competition

• what can i substitute for chicken condensed soup? - from the kitchn (the answer is quite terrifying)

• gherkins & tomatoes on the history of eating cats

• not quite nigella's 5 minute chocolate mug cake