There Goes The Weekend!

 Friday was eBay day so, after my Wii Fit workout, breakfast and some parcel wrapping, I ironed some stock and wrote descriptions. When Jon got back from the Post Office run, he took the photos and, after lunch, I uploaded everything to eBay.

It was another cold day, with temperatures hovering at around 4°C. I wore the Hush merino wool jumper with a metallic trim I'd scored for £2 from the clearance charity shop a few weeks ago with a vintage Ayesha Davar block printed midi skirt I'd had for around four years, a charity shopped Missoni scarf and a me-made hat. My Mascob for Liberty jacket made its second appearance of the week.

I got my ophthalmologist's appointment at the hospital through the post and was surprised to discover that it was just twelve weeks away, far sooner than I expected considering how much the NHS is stretched at the moment.

Also in the post was this dress which I'd found on eBay earlier in the week. 

After trying it on and twirling around the kitchen, I tipped out the contents of my Summer suitcase and donated ten vintage skirts and dresses to the Kinky Shed, all garments I liked but didn't love as much as my new dress. Tea was grilled halloumi with roasted vegetables followed by rum, cola and more of series 4 of The Sinner.

Like most Saturday mornings, Jon got up first and brought mugs of tea back to bed where we lay and read for an hour or so. Breakfast was veggie sausage sandwiches and, continuing with our tradition of exploring our town on foot, we headed to the outskirts of Walsall, ascending the steep slope to the designated area of parkland known as Barr Beacon.

The area dates back to ancient times with both Neolithic mace heads and Bronze Age hammers being found here by archaeologists. Roman coins have also been unearthed, as well as evidence of 12th-century furrow and ridge farming.

 It is one of just six sites in the country to be awarded Dark Sky Discovery Status, an innovative network of national and local astronomy and open space organisations that helps people to enjoy the night sky.

One of the highest points in the West Midlands, on a clear day you can see as far as Wales. Historically Barr Beacon was the site where fires were lit in times of impending attack or invasion and for community celebration. During Elizabeth I's reign, beacons warned of the attack of the Spanish Armada and, four hundred years later in 1988, fires were again lit to commemorate the event. Fires also burned to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. 

Barr Beacon was formerly owned by the Scott family of Great Barr Hall, nearby. Following the death of Lady Mildred Scott in 1909, the estate was auctioned off. Birmingham's Lord Mayor made a plea for the site to be secured as a public park. Colonel J. H. Wilkinson of the Staffordshire Volunteer Infantry Brigade responded by purchasing it, then transferring it to a trust. It opened to the public on Easter Monday, 21 April 1919. In 1972, the trusteeship of Barr Beacon passed to Walsall Council. The site occupies 60 acres of greenbelt land.

There are two summits, with one occupying a reservoir and the other this elegant war memorial, built in 1933 and consisting of a raised dais, covered by a copper-clad wooden^[dome supported by eight columns. On the night of 5 March 2010, thieves stole some of the copper roofing, damaging much more in the process; this happened again twice in 2011. In early 2013, the copper sheeting was replaced using green zinc-coated panels, and CCTV was installed.

On a Winter's day, Barr Beacon is a desolate place and the blustery wind, grey skies and icy temperatures proved rather a challenge with one hand clamped to our hats and the other wiping the tears from our streaming eyes. Even the horses in the adjacent field looked at us questioningly as if to say, What on earth are you doing out on a day like this?

I bet you're surprised that there are sheep and farmland in Walsall! Between the high-rises, you can see the spire of St Matthews Parish Church, a five-minute walk from our house. When I lived at home I could see Barr Beacon from my bedroom window.

As children, Dad would take my brother and me up here to fly kites he'd made from draughtsman's paper and during snowy winters we'd slide down the hill on tin trays. Over the years Barr Beacon's gained a dubious reputation for sex, drugs and suicide and it is no longer open twenty-four hours a day like it used to be.

Yay! Signs of Spring. A sight for sore eyes on a bleak February morning.

Back at home, we defrosted with a mug of coffee and we spent the afternoon watching reruns of A Place In The Sun with me crocheting at the same time. The BBC had forecast torrential rain by 2pm and they weren't wrong, it lashed it down for the rest of the day. Fed up with the incessant gloom, Jon booked flights for our September escape. 

Our pretty feral friend paid us a visit - as he does most days.

We spent the evening with rum, cola, the final two episodes of The Sinner and also started watching the documentary series, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.

It was still windy and wet when I woke on Sunday morning and Stephen wasn't at all keen on staying outside so came back to bed with me and the mugs of tea. We were up at 8am and watched some of the Winter Olympics before turning into the Sophie Raworth Show with tea and toast.

I found the Norlender Norwegian wool hat in the 50p bin in one of the charity shops we visited on Wednesday, Jon's become very attached to it ever since, wearing it once again for our weekly trip to the charity clearance shop.

The town was practically deserted, no doubt due to the miserable weather, and we had the clearance charity shop to ourselves coming back with a 1980s Antartex alpaca wool jumper, a Marks & Spencer hat with the tags still attached, some brothel creepers, a pair of Clarks' nubuck ankle boots, a 1970s tooled leather Corfu souvenir purse, an Alan Titchmarsh heated propagator, a pair of suede mocassin boots, an Autograph jumper in *Winter Lime* with the £59.50 price tag still attached, a 5L Kilner dispenser and a handmade sparkly wool scarf with a pom pom trim.

This vintage Alpnani Indian block printed blouse leapt out at me when I pulled my Dilli Grey maxi skirt out of the wardrobe, the colours were perfect together.

With no signs of the rain letting up, I entertained myself by sweeping the downstairs rugs & the stairs before settling down to some blog reading. 

Later, it's the TV highlight of the week, The Great Pottery Throwdown. Fellow Brymer-Jones fans, did you know Keith was once the lead singer of punk band, The Wigs? This track was number 1 in Northern France in 1986.

See you soon!