Luminary Spy - Guess Whose Coming to Dinner, Food As Medicine Olive Oil,Slow Travel Odyssey to Sicily and the Joy of Scaravalli Yoga
This month's slow, luminary, happy ideas to delight you - from this month's best classic, golden age Hollywood film to watch, which has to be Guess Whose Coming to Dinner - starring Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hougton in her debut role. This was the last film Hepburn and Tracy made together, before Tracy's death just seventeen days after the film wrapped.
Slow Culture, Travel and Twinkling Jewels from An Age of Elegance
Then on to a look at happy, colour pop slow fashion in plastic-free, natural fibres to flaunt, along with food as medicine polyphenol organic olive oil to slow Scaravalli yoga, culture trips to look at art, archaeology, music and all the beauty and ingenuity of the ancients and more unearthed treasures such as fine antique, one of a kind jewellery from an age of refinement and elegance to enhance your life. I hope you love all the new slow discoveries as much as I have in the doing, exploring, tasting and then writing about them - Alison Jane, Editor-in-Chief
Brora's Happy Slow Fashion in Pops of Green and Hot Pink
Reader, can getting dressed in happy colours such as hot pink and jade green uplift us and make us feel happier and confident? Well it certainly can't hurt. I defy anyone to feel blue or get the mean reds in a hot pink sweater or jewel green dress. Brora, the artisan, slow British fashion and knitwear house is fabled for its expert use of colour in the construction of glorious, forever Scottish cashmere and gorgeous, quintessentially English day dresses in natural fibres. This season the green cotton needlecord dresses hits the spot along with an array of hot, candy pink sweaters, cardigans and practical t-shirts. Brora is available in the UK and the US.
Scaravalli Yoga - How did I live before I discovered the sweet, profound whole mind and body metamorphosis that comes with regularly practising Scaravalli Yoga? - a deeply holistic and encouraging system of yoga perfected by the concert pianist Vanda Scaravalli. This is yoga to nurture every bit of you, from your toes to your face and especially the spine and our interconnected systems like a beautiful tree so that we can attain balance and joy in our lives.
Awakening the Spine
Vanda Scaravalli developed this gentle form of 'awakening the spine' after spending time with some of the great yogi teachers in Gstaad Switzerland. Vanda was a modest lady and she didn't want this form of yoga to be named after. However, it is so good that her disciples just can't help themselves.
Slow Yoga for Gentle Restoration
Do you yearn for a form of yoga that is nurturing, kind, encouraging and fun and all about community, then this is for you? It's also suitable for anyone looking to restore health, confidence and flexibility following injury or illness with compassion, understanding and patience. It's definitely slow yoga. Look for a local teacher or you can find classes online. I recommend yoga teacher Louisa Burtwell from Orenda Wellbeing. Louisa offers a weekly yoga class at the Ventnor Botanic Garden on the island. She also does longer workshops on the island and in Sussex and she formulates her own, exquisite, energetic aromatherapy oils. For more information visit her website Orenda Yoga
Zingy Nobliza Del Sur Olive Oil from Spain - For a Verdant, Food as Medicine Spoonful of Polyphenols
Reader, who wants a bright green spoonful of polyphenol rich organic olive oil as food as medicine? The best organic olive oils rich in polyphenols don't just hail from Italy and Greece. Nobliza del Sur is a spectacular early harvest single variety olive oil produced in Andalucia, Spain. It has a remarkably high polyphenol content of over 800mg/ and a zingy, green, fruity taste on the palate.
Longevity Benefits of High Polyphenol, Small Batch Olive Oil
I like to have a spoonful in the morning, as my emerald, organic rocket fuel. There's a real scientific buzz about the health and longevity benefits of high polyphenol olive oil. It is good for joints, skin, energy and lowering inflammation.
I also confess that the bottle is just gorgeous. Just looking at that magnificent bee illustration makes me think of mother nature, the soil and how lucky we are that regenerative agriculture provides us with the delicious bounty of the earth.
Of course, not all organic olive oil is equal. I'm talking about wonderful slow and organic olive oil. Really good organic, small batch olive oil is a very good example of a food of life, rich in polyphenols as a potent anti-inflammatory. Forget the mass produced olive oil you will find in a supermarket. I can remember the first time I experienced a sensational bright, green, peppery olive oil on a trip to Italy in my twenties. Compared to the anaemic oil I was used to in England, it opened my eyes to the slow, artisanal food rooted in terroir and produced with extraordinary passion, integrity husbandry and love for the soil.
Nobleza del Sur is such an organic, artisan olive oil. It's an early harvest picual variety organic olive oil, cold extracted within hours of the harvest.
Nobleza del Sur Organic Olive Oil is available from The Artisan Olive Oil Company in the UK.
Slow Travel - Martin Randall's Slow Culture Tours from Pompeii to the Danube
The next best thing to the Grand Tour, is to take a small, expert guided culture tour with Martin Randall, the discerning, slow travel company that offers curated, art and archaeology tours and foodie holidays to awe inspiring cultural hotspots from Sicily to Versailles - fine Scottish ancestral gardens to Handel in Malta and modern art on the Cote d'Azur. I love receiving their small, evocative brochures through the post, and daydreaming about taking a trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum inspired by the film Journey to Italy, starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. Ingrid gets to play the amateur archaeologist whilst wearing ladylike Italian couture fashion. I like the this hidden jewel of a classic film as much as Casablanca and the scenes in Pompeii are atmospheric and extraordinary.
The Art of Slow Travel and Fellow Companions
What makes these trips so special is the opportunity to travel with the convivial expertise and company of an academic as your cultural host. There are never more than 22 people on each tour and the focus is on travel with curious, like-minded souls, to explore art, architecture, music and history and to do so in comfort, with carefully chosen authentic slow food and wine and marvellous places to lay you head after another day of admiring frescoes or Byzantine art.
A Trip Back in Time to Sicily
I have always wanted to visit Sicily, and there are three dates in March, April and October 2025, to go on the slow tour to explore 3,000 years of Sicilian culture, creativity and Sicilian slow food and wine.
To find out more and look at the array of tours and online talks from the UK to South America, visit Martin Randall online. The company also produces very good newsletters to inspire you next slow holiday odyssey.
Antique Jewellery and a Focus on the Aquamarine, the birth stone for March and a time of Rebirth
Aquamarine is the birth stone of March and jewellery made with this precious stone was very popular in the Victorian age. What could be a more exhilarating way to usher in Spring and luxuriate in the season of rebirth and renewal? Fine antique jewellery company Parkin and Gerrish have discovered some handsome, preloved Aquamarine antique jewellery treasures, including this delicate, dreamy ice blue aquamarine and gold brooch, embellished with delicate little pearls and rubies. Or a spectacular 1940s platinum aquamarine and pearl drop pendant to catch the light and bathe the luxury wearer in an aura of joyful blue light.
Aquamarine stones come in a plethora of shades from the palest sea blue to a more intense sky blue to green. The stone is associated with youth, happiness confidence and the sea.
Guess Whose Coming to Dinner - Luminary Classic Film of the Month
Guess Whose Coming to Dinner - Director Stanley Kramer's 1967 film about race, the upper classes and inter-racial marriage starring Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy and Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton in a memorable debut. Tracy was in failing health and this was his last film role before he died seventeen days after the film wrapped. His speech at the end is one of his finest performances, and along with Poitier, he has this indelible screen presence that makes it hard to take that he was so unhappy and tortured in real life.
A Poke at Liberal Values
Watch the film for Sidney Poitier's charisma, gravitas and confidence and for the last marvellous double act between Hepburn and Tracy. The acting is first class. Soak up the film for the groovy sixties vibe, the humanity, witty poke at liberal values and hypocrisy and a sense of hope in a bigoted, dirty world. The film was a big hit, but some people criticised the idealised portrait of Poitier as the perfect man. Maybe, the question is why shouldn't he be perfect?
Guess Whose Coming to Dinner - It's currently free to watch as part of an Amazon Prime Subscription. Buy a DVD copy and watch it for the marvellous performances, a trip back to the sixties and intelligent discussion around race and double standards.
Copyright The Luminaries Magazine/Alison Jane Reid March 2025. All Rights Reserved. No copying or reuse, including Ai without written permission.
Disclosure - There is one affiliate link to Amazon for Amazon Prime Film Screening. If you click on the link and pay to watch the film, we may earn a small commission. All other product reviews and mentions in this article were paid for by the editor. We don't accept gifts in order to remain unbiased. We do accept small press samples for review. We reserve the right to write honest independent reviews because we are journalists with a code of conduct, not influencers.
Support Independent Slow Magazine Journalism
I hope you enjoyed reading this handcrafted Spy review. If you are paying subscriber, thank you. We appreciate your support. If you are not paying to read independent journalism, please consider doing so now or you can make a donation here -
Donate to The Luminaries Magazine.
Independent Journalism and Storytelling Needs You. Become a supporter and patron today - Join Our Community and Pay for Quality Magazine Journalism.
Support The Luminaries Magazine