Or possibly Oh Bloggery. Because there is a whole world out there where blogs reference other blogs and link up to other posts and then blog about blogging, all of which ends up being so self-referential and post-modern that it makes my head spin. So Quad Royal tends to just plough its specialised little furrow, minding its own business and talking about posters.
This post (the hundredth, incidentally), is a rare exception, mainly because I want to say thank you. QR has been going for less than five months, and yet there are now a proper amount of people subscribing (138 at the last count). Which I never really expected for a blog which is, in the end, just someone wittering on about what they do and don’t like. With some pretty pictures. So you are all too kind.
While we are doing self-referential and bloggery will eat itself and so on, I can also point at Shelf Appeal‘s lovely banner.
It’s by Emily Sutton (who comes via the very delightful St Jude’s) and, although it’s new, it’s just what I would choose where I not so overwhelmed with old things that new graphics are too much to even think about. Should you want new stuff to go with your old things, St Jude’s is a very fine place to try. I am currently coveting this cushion (and will probably buy it in due course when we haven’t just had to repair the car and buy a new dishwasher…)
The third and final blog-related item is even more of a digression, although it is at least about old things. But The Country Seat is such an absorbing read that I really needed to point it out. Now I have an odd fascination with this, but whether you think that stately homes are a) the greatest work of art created in British culture or b) the gilded icing on a decadent lifestyle created by the exploitation of others is actually a bit irrelevant. Because what is so good about this blog is that it is excellent, well-researched journalism written by someone who really knows what they are on about. Every post is not only readable but a proper story, to the extent that it’s better than a good half of what appears in the papers (particularly true should you have the misfortune to read the Observer). It’s the spare time creation of an enthusiast, but why he’s not getting paid to do this when he does it so well, I do not know.
Right, that’s over now. As you were. Tomorrow will be business as usual, with old things. Posters even.