The Distancing Diaries - 25th, 26th & 27th June, 2021

It had rained heavily throughout the night and Friday morning was soggy and grey with a distinct nip in the air. I booked next weeks' National Trust trip, did my Wii Fit workout and wrapped my eBay sales ready for Jon to drop off at the Post Office. But that could wait, after breakfast, we drove over to another of our favourite Black Country charity shopping spots for a bit of a rummage.

 

Another day for sleeves! I wore a vintage Indian cotton midi dress from trading pals, Olds Cool Traders with the brown wool fedora I'd bought on eBay from a Shropshire-based milliner having a clearout. I've wanted a decent pair of brown leather western boots forever and found these Italian-made beauties from the high-end label, Toast on eBay a couple of months ago. They are absurdly comfy and I love them to death (the marks are from the rain, they're perfect).

One of our finds was this Indian-made block printed cotton cross-body bag for £1.95 which went with what I was wearing perfectly. Luckily the obnoxious leather label was easy to unpick and didn't leave a mark.

Much better!

These gorgeous Kurt Geiger 1980s shoe boots came in their original box along with the dust bags. The glass oil and vinegar bottles are stamped Mod. Dep, the Italian registered trademark, and something Jon's been after for ages. The 1970s poison green leather clutch bag is made in Britain by Yolanta.

 I adore the colours of this set of mid-century owl mugs by SECLA, established in Caldas da Rainha, the Portuguese town famed for its ceramics, back in 1947. SECLA stands for "Sociedade de Exportação e Cerâmica, Lda" meaning their creations were destined for the foreign market, namely the UK and USA. At the beginning of the 1950s, SECLA opened a pottery studio where artists could experiment with new shapes and techniques, including Ferreira da Silva, who went on to be one of the most important Portuguese ceramists of the 20th century.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I'm obsessed with tiles - I even spent my birthday at Jackfield tile museum a couple of years ago (HERE). I'd sell my soul to get my hands on some of these wonderful SECLA azulejos but in the meantime, I'm happy with our set of mugs and even more so at the price - £5 for the lot! 

These tiled stairs in Fontainhas, the Portuguese quarter of Goa's state capital, Panjim, always make my heart beat faster no matter how many times I've seen them.

 

This pewter silk maxi dress by Agnes B has a train and a boned collar and is really quite incredible on, the 1970s Sammy gents silk pyjamas feel amazing and the 1970s Dupois for Jack Bryan black chiffon cocktail dress is rather glam.

We'd had a delivery whilst we were out. In the postbox was a book on loan from Lynn, I love Grayson so this should be a good read.

And a postcard not posted from Glastonbury from a member of our festival family, Lily. Of course, if we were living in normal times we'd have been at Glastonbury this week and we miss our friends and our festival life desperately.

Sir William Fitzwilliam (1460 - 1534)

After our noodles, I washed our finds and hung them to dry in the utility room as, once again, it was peeing down. When I'd booked next week's National Trust trip the location rang a bell, it was a village where a branch of Jon's family had lived for over ten generations so I had a trawl through Ancestry.com and made a note of the names thinking we could search the local graveyards for their headstones. 

Needless to say, it didn't take me long to find another noble ancestor in Lord Jon's family tree, his 15x great grandfather, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sheriff of London (1526 - 1599). Sir William was treasurer and chamberlain to Cardinal Wolsey and purchased the family seat, Milton Hall in 1506. The impressive house that stands today (above) was built by William's grandson, also William, in 1594. William the sheriff's son, Sir William Fitzwilliam II (1505 - 1576), was Jon's 14x Great-grandfather. His daughter, Agneta married into a prominent Shropshire family and the family remained in the same area until the late 19th century. 

When I went for a shower on Thursday evening I realised that my right boob was totally exposed (I'm not a bra wearer!) I've mentioned before that the recycled sari top is held together with more patches than fabric, hence the reason it's been relegated to gardening attire. Using the sleeve from the Anokhi for East top Helena had kindly sent me, I did a bit of visible mending. 

I used the remainder of the sleeve to make a mask.

After half a pizza and some salad, we cracked open the rum and spent the evening watching Gardeners' World (sorry Monty but I love it when Adam presents) and some of the Beeb's Glastonbury special (trying not to cry into my beer).

On Saturday Jon got up, made tea and we lay and read in bed till just gone 9am. When Jon went downstairs to make a start on breakfast I stripped and changed the bed, chucked the bedding in the washing machine and pegged it out to dry before joining Jon for sausage sandwiches and coffee. Although overcast and dull it was mercifully dry so we got stuck into our respective tasks in the garden. I pruned the buddleia, replanted a loganberry bush, re-sited the bags of potatoes and dug up another patch of bastard bamboo.

Don't the potatoes look pretty growing in these bags? 

Jon cut down some of the railway sleepers we'd had delivered last week and bolted them into place ready to accommodate the mother of all sheds he's hoping to get built before the Autumn, thus eliminating the need for the other three (never fear, the Kinky Shed remains!)

Cheryl popped round bearing Jaffa Cakes and we sat in the afternoon sunshine chatting and drinking tea. After she left we quickly cleared up, cracked open a beer and watched Wales vs Denmark before tucking into skin-on oven chips, mushy peas and a three-cheese melt (for me) and battered haddock (Jon). The rest of the evening was spent drinking rum and watching the thrilling Italy vs Austria.

 I'm not sure if it was the previous day's physical activity or the rum but we didn't wake up until gone 8am! I made tea and brought it back to bed where we read for half an hour. We watched Andy Marr, ate toast and I painted my nails in Barry M's Blueberry, my go-to festival colour.

Gathering our donation bag (two vintage melamine cruet sets, 6 x 1970s glass coffee beakers, a set of shot glasses and a couple of paperbacks) we drove down to the clearance charity shop and had a rummage then walked down to Wilko to stock up on some essentials.

What did we find? A 3-Suisses Madras check jacket, a 1990s western shirt; a Carhartt jacket, a whopping great pile of books and this fantastic Hovis industrial loaf tin, which I reckon came from the Harvestime bakery that closed in the noughties and was once one of Walsall's biggest employers. 

After a bowl of noodles, I washed the latest finds and hung them on the line. Anxious to fill the bamboo cleared border before the weeds took root, I planted an Azalea from elsewhere in the garden and a Tanacetum that had caught my eye in Wilko earlier. I then reorganised my pots and gave the new additions a good watering.

I don't care if they're old fashioned, I'm madly in love with my Alpines!

Meanwhile, Jon replaced the knackered bathroom taps, any swearing drowned out by a Dutch punk radio station he was listening to at full-blast.

Sunday's outfit was another of my buys from Olds Cool Traders, a vintage block-print Pakistani kaftan worn with my recent chazza shop finds, an Art Nouveau buckle belt (£1) and Pierre Cardin snake sandals (£1.95) 

 The Czech Republic vs The Netherlands match kicks off at 5pm, Jon's making a curry for tea (and there may be a cheeky glass of vino to accompany it) and then it's Belgium vs Portugal at 8pm. It ain't Glastonbury but we're still having fun.

See you soon!