Everybody Loves The Sunshine

 On Thursday morning I did a load of washing and pegged it out on the line before doing my Wii Fit workout. By the time I'd tended to the houseplants in the lounge, Jon was up so we had breakfast and sat outside in the sunshine with our mugs of coffee joined by the lads. 

We've had a lovely week here in the West Midlands (aka the centre of the universe). It's been warm and sunny with just a couple of cheeky showers on Monday. Apparently, it had chucked it down overnight but I never heard a thing, thanks to Wednesday night's rum. Dressed in an Anokhi maxi dress (bought in Mumbai in February 2020) and my vintage Dior sunglasses, we drove to one of our favourite Black Country towns for a spot of charity shopping. My hair was in dire need of a wash hence the bun.

What did we find? A rather beautifully cut, 1970s pure new wool blazer, made in Belgium by Mayerline of Brussels (I wonder if Ann is familiar with the label?); a mod button-down shirt by alternative clothing label, Merc of London; two Scandi Noir novels; a cotton shirt for Jon; a Del Monte red leather rucksack (nothing to do with tinned fruit), handcrafted in Italy and a 1980s C&A shirt

A Liberty oilcloth shopper; a 1960s Neatawear shirred cotton blouse; a vintage bud vase and a pair of Kilim cushions.

I'd never heard of Neatawear before I found that blouse but after a bit of internet research, I discovered that it was a British fashion chain that, at its peak in the mid-1960s, had 35 branches throughout the UK, including one in Corporation Street in Birmingham which is where I imagine the blouse was originally purchased. Neatawear went bust in 1966 and the couple behind it, Mr & Mrs Bernstein, lost everything. A few years later they started again, founding the upmarket boutique Brown's in London's posh St Moulton Street and introduced such legendary designers as Comme des Garcons, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein to the UK.

After our noodles, we spent the afternoon in the garden. I fed and watered the crops, removed some of the spent nasturtiums from the windowboxes and pots and did a bit of dead-heading whilst Jon changed the wheels on Gilbert. Doesn't he look smart?

Tea was a vegan sausage roll with salad (including our home-grown lettuce) and the evening was spent in front of the TV watching another episode of The Man in the High Castle followed by the first in the new series of BBC1's Ambulance.

On Friday, I wrapped my eBay sales, did the week's final Wii Fit workout, and washed my hair before joining Jon for breakfast. We'd had a problem with accessing our online banking and spent a tedious 55 minutes on the phone sorting it out. 

With nerves well and truly frazzled, the post arrived just in time. A parcel of joy! I'd spotted this 1960s Ayesha Davar embroidered cheesecloth maxi dress for sale by one of the UK charity shops that sell on eBay. I sent them an offer and was delighted when it was accepted. 

Although tempted to change into my new maxi, I decided to stick with the tomato dress I was already wearing, teamed with my £1 Art Nouveau belt, some ridiculous sunglasses and eBayed Lotta silver clogs along with a shedload of tribal jewellery.

We drove over to Liz and Al's and took Liz to Piper's, a fabulous family-run garden centre over the border in Staffordshire and discovered a gorgeous chunk of a cat snuggled amongst the pots. He loved being fussed and I wish we could have smuggled him out with the plants.

Back at Al & Liz's, we sat outside in the sunshine drinking coffee and chatting. Jon filled the van with rubble from Al's rubbish pile before we drove back home for lunch. Afterwards, he offloaded the rubble and set off on the post office and supermarket run leaving me to plant the morning's purchases before I spent the rest of the day in my bikini, reading on the lawn. 

My Piper's purchases - Heucherella "Sweet Tea", Tradescantia "Blue 'n' Gold", Persecaria "Red Dragon", Salvia "Deep Purple" and Juncus "Spiralis".

After watering my freshly planted stuff I harvested some crops for tea (patty pan, courgettes, onions and rosemary) which Jon transformed into roasted vegetables with halloumi.

Later, accompanied by some rum and cola, we watched Gardeners' World and the new history series, The Boleyns, A Scandalous Family on BBC2 featuring Lord Jon's outrageously behaved ancestors!

On Saturday Jon was forced to get up early up and see to the lads who were staring at him so intently he couldn't stand it any longer. He brought mugs of tea back to bed and we lay and read for half an hour. After he went downstairs to start the breakfast, I stripped and changed the bed, loaded the washing machine and pegged the laundry out on the line. Then I grabbed the secateurs and did some radical pruning as our poor dahlias were being swamped.

The MyHermes driver arrived with another parcel. I know, after weeks of nothing taking my fancy, I've found three things in a week! The seller bought this incredible Anokhi two-piece back in 1975 and told me that although it hadn't fit her in years her husband still talks about how fabulous she looked in it. It's decorated with Bandhani, a method of tie-dye used in the Kutch region of Gujarat (we visited a workshop HERE)

To further add to my excitement, my lovely friend Tricia sent a parcel of goodies my way. A silk maxi skirt, an Indian cotton tunic embellished with sequins, a Laura Ashley belt and - what are the chances? - a Indian bandhani scarf with a bell trim!

Lord Jon's birthday celebrations continued. Adrian and Liz had invited the gang over for an Indian feast in their garden. Typically, despite it being dry all week, the heavens decided to open as soon as we left the house to walk round to theirs but after a couple of drinks indoors the rain stopped and we were able to spend the rest of the afternoon outside, drinking and dining on Adrian's delicious food.

Paneer and mushroom for me, chicken for the rest of the gang, served with nan bread and masala chips...yum!

Back at home, I posed for a quick photo before the light vanished altogether. I'm wearing my vintage Indian silk kaftan with a Rabari Kediya my friend Betty alerted me to on eBay. We cracked open the rum and spent the rest of the evening watching more of The Man in the High Castle.

I can't believe Sunday has rolled around so quickly. See you soon!