The Falling Leaves Drift by my Window

Sunday started, as it usually does, with the first of our twice-weekly lateral flow tests (to non-Brits, Covid self-test kits available for free from pharmacies and via the NHS website). The results were negative - Wednesday's train home from Birmingham wasn't the Covid Express after all! 

Dear anonymous, I deleted your comment. The NHS advise everyone to take two lateral flow tests a week (every 3 - 4 days). To familiarise yourself with the guidelines I suggest you refer to the information provided HERE rather than take issue with me. 

After tea, toast and the Andrew Marr Show, we headed off to the clearance charity shop with a sack of donations and a bag of batteries to deposit in their recycling bank. It was Remembrance Sunday and the town was busy with people attending the memorial at the cenotaph. I wore a vintage blue suede jacket, a 1970s India Imports of Rhode Island block printed maxi dress and plaited my hair 'cos it was filthy! 

Until I started investigating our family trees earlier this year neither of us knew we had relatives that perished in WWI. My great uncle, Josiah "Ernie" Dawkins who died on the first day of the Battle of Loos on 25/09/1915 at the age of 22, my fourth cousin, Ralph Twist Snape, who died from his injuries at the Battle of the Somme on 17/10/1915 aged 25 and Jon's great uncle, Richard Hartshorne (photo below), who was killed by an enemy sniper at Mazingabe on 21/10/1917 when he was 34.

We bought an Aran jumper, a reworked 1980s Italian polo shirt, some handmade denim dungarees and Jon snaffled an All Saints flannel shirt.

After driving over to the pet hospital to collect Frank's ashes, we spent the afternoon photographing stock, listing on eBay and wrapping sales. Later we started watching Temple, a remake of the Norwegian thriller series, Valkyrien, starring one of my favourite British actors, Mark Strong (who, like Lord Jon, celebrates his birthday on 5th August). By strange coincidence, the series also stars Elizabeth McCormack who was in Spy Game the other night.

On Monday we saw The French Dispatch (again). I can't tell you how good it is to have a cinema twenty minutes walk away from our front door. I love living so close to town!

We went to the matinee performance and shared the auditorium with just four other people, two of whom we'd known since childhood. Despite Walsall being the 10th largest town in the UK (with a population of just under 290,000), rarely, we go anywhere without bumping into someone we know.

After popping into Superdrug for an elbow support - this dreary, damp weather is murder on my joints - we walked back up the Hill of Doom, posing for a photo in front of this wonderfully Autumnal beech hedge.

JON: Cord worker's jacket, canvas tote bag & Clarks' boots (all charity shopped) Levi 501s (eBay), antique leather flat cap, crossbody bag & hoodie (purchased from proper shops)

It goes without saying that almost everything we're wearing is vintage and/or secondhand. 

Me: 1960s Dagina Indian block printed maxi dress, Frye Campus boots, Proper Topper of Shropshire felted wool fedora (all eBay), 1970s suede coat and vintage Penny Lane leather bag (both charity shopped)

After our lunchtime noodles, Jon did the post office and supermarket run whilst I spent two hours in the garden raking up leaves, managing to fill four wheelbarrow loads for our leaf mould store and, as Wednesday is the last collection of the year, stuffed the garden waste bin to full capacity.

'scuse the slippers! The postwoman handed me a parcel - a book from Vronni which sounds absolutely fascinating. Rummage - a history of the things we have reused, recycled and refused to let go. Thanks, Vronni, I can't wait to get stuck into it! By weird coincidence - the author shares her surname with the couple we bumped into at the cinema earlier! 

After chilli-infused halloumi with roasted veg (and half a bottle of beer), we watched more of the delectable Mark Strong in Temple. I finished my Icelandic thriller and started on CJ Samson's Revelation - another fine writer of gripping historical novels.

I'd got another sack of parcels to post so, on Tuesday morning, we popped into town and dropped them off at the delivery office before heading off for a rummage around the charity shops of a neighbouring Black Country town. Unlike Walsall, the town we visited is on the West Midlands Metro route which, having discovered cracks on several of the trams last week, is suspended until further notice. Bad news for commuters, not so for us, as we had the chazzas virtually to ourselves. 

I was delighted to find a fine knit black merino wool jumper with a metallic trim by Hush, an upmarket British-based brand that should keep me toasty warm over the winter (and originally retailed at over £100!) There's also a block printed cotton Pakistani angrakha, a 1960s mohair and wool car coat by John Collier, a black velvet top by & Other Stories with the tags still attached, a Missoni dress (like the Hush jumper, also an XS so possibly donated by the same person), a vintage chenille cardi, a 1960s sheepskin hat, a ski jumper and a 1970s Italian-made wool boucle trilby. Jon found himself a nice English-made John Lewis jumper, drying on a rack over the bath.

Despite spending two hours raking up leaves yesterday I'm still ankle-deep in the blasted things! The joys of having twenty-seven trees in the back garden.....

I'm wearing a 1970s green embroidered velvet maxi dress, handmade in India by Simran and my Doc Marten Diva Darcie boots (both bought secondhand three years ago). I wore my brown velvet jacket with the huge sleeves over the top so I was double velvet, just like the loo roll! 

We're off for our Covid Boosters first thing in the morning. Where did the last six months go?

See you soon!