The Eyes Have it

With festival season almost upon us we've been shopping like crazy to get the Kinky Melon pitch stocked up with cool gear. I've not shared our finds since the days BC (before Crete) so here goes.....

Two pairs of sequinned TopShop hot pants, 1980s midi skirt, 1980s deadstock printed cotton mini skirt, 1980s Hawaiian shirt, 1960s Wetherall of Bond Street wool pencil skirt, 1980s tweed jacket, 1980s midi dress, 1960s Lavinia of Worcester satin shift dress, Masai dress, 1980s Mothercare cotton dress, Mint Velvet wool dress.

Floral belt with horse buckle (made in France), 1970s Hawkins of Northampton, by Royal Appointment to HM the Queen, suede walking boots (later bought out by Doc Martens), 1970s green cord smock, 1960s gents mac, 1990s Phool sundress, Marvel mini dress, Indian block print kaftan, 1970s polyester midi dress.

1950s brocade cocktail set, 1980s leisure shirt, 1980s handmade batwing cardi, 1960s lace and chiffon cocktail dress, Spanish mantilla, 1970s Mr Harry cashmere & wool overcoat, lobster brooch, 1970s green velvet blazer, 1950s silk day dress, 1980s C&A zip jacket

Barbour gilet, 1970s leather shoulder bag, Nepali shirt, Patrons of Peace duster, 1960s Tricel top, Monsoon tunic, Harris Tweed jacket, 1970s satin bomber, Adidas sweat top, Velvet dance costume (made in Canada).

John Frieda Brunette travel pack & Puma leggings (both for me), 1980s Citylites brocade waistcoat, 1980s Levi 501s, Pringle waxed jacket, Topshop *Mom* shorts, 1980s blingy belt, Nike crop top & Topshop sequinned bralet (both mine!), Topshop overdyed shorts, Closet, London sequinned velvet evening dress, a strapless pure silk maxi dress (no maker but the tag in the side seam says it was made by Gibo' Co, S.p.a - the production company who manufacture for John Galliano, Hussein Chalayan, Victor & Rolf,  Michael Kors and Gaultier - so rather a posh frock for two quid!), 1980s velvet waistcoat and a so-bad-its-good 1980s sequinned cocktail dress by Pagan, New York.

Lord Jon's done well with two vintage denim shirts (Levis and Wrangler), a Casio G-Shock watch (which I found on the 50p table in the Air Ambulance), a huge tattoo sourcebook, two more vintage bud vases for our collection and the 1979 hit, The Adventures of the Lost Crusader by Sarah Brightman and the Starship Troopers on 12" red vinyl.

The weather's been properly up and down. We walked down to the swimming baths on Monday morning in glorious sunshine but by late afternoon the central heating had clicked on. I wore an old favourite, a 1970s printed cotton Dollyrockers maxi dress, swapped with a trading friend at vintage fair in 2011, along with my apple green Lottas.

Monday was the day of my hospital appointment with the ophthalmic consultant who, after numerous tests, suspects that I have Glaucoma - not a huge surprise as both my Mum & Grandma had it. I've got to go back for yet more tests and then it'll probably a lifetime of eye drops. I didn't bother Googling failing a field test when Specsavers referred me to the hospital but now I have a possible diagnosis I visited the charity, Glaucoma UK's, website, discovering alcohol is fine but coffee should be drunk in moderation (I rarely drink more than one cup a day), airline travel is okay and I can continue to exercise but to be cautious with any activity that involves the head being lower than the heart for prolonged periods of time so headstands and the Downward Facing Dog are to be avoided. They also recommend taking a Gingko Biloba supplement which is also said to be good for arthritis so might help Lord Jon's knackered knees, too. 

Tuesday brought torrential rain and unseasonably cool temperatures so I gave the Liebchen, Berlin boots bought last week their first outing, teamed with the embroidered cotton midi (Zara via eBay) which is rapidly becoming this summer's most-worn dress. The vintage hat was a charity shop purchase when we visited Tewskesbury a couple of months ago and, after spotting this supersized straw and leather basket in the Air Ambulance chazza, I stuffed the bag I was carrying inside it, and used it to carry my charity shop finds home.

You can tell that these boots originally retailed at £225 - they're absurdly comfy and a pleasure to wear.

After lunch Jon did a post office and supermarket run leaving me to mark sections of the lawn into quadrants and do the #Every Flower Counts 2022 count, which forms part of the No Mow May campaign. Our unmown lawn contains 30,500 native wildflowers from 7 different species with a diversity score of 32%.  Yay!

I spent an hour cutting down the spent bluebells and stuffing the garden waste bin to capacity ready for collection on Wednesday before rain and the mother of all hailstorms stopped play and continued for the rest of the afternoon. After tea we continued with Borgen and how excited am I? I've just discovered that series 4 starts on Netflix on Thursday 2nd June! 

Rain was threatened for Wednesday so rather than mow the lawn and erect the trade tent as planned we went charity shopping instead, popping into Lidl on the way to see if there were any of their * Waste Not* £1.50 veg boxes left. We were in luck and, even better, the assistant told us to take two!

Box 1: Mushrooms, British Pak choi, English asparagus, raspberries, wild rocket, broccoli and spinach.

Box 2: Vine tomatoes, Little Gem lettuce, British rainbow tomatoes, kiwi fruit, fresh basil, mango, banana, honeydew melon, British leeks, mango, aubergine, oranges and more broccoli.

Although the weather wasn't looking too promising, it was the 1st of June, the first day of meteorological summer, and therefore I had to wear one of my summer dresses. 

My friend Cheryl gave me this 1970s Sidgreene, London maxi dress last year. I wore it with my Diesel denim jacket, orange Lotta from Stockholm clogs and my ridiculous cheese plant and rhinestone earrings (originally Zara but bought from eBay)

I plaited my hair in readiness for our second swim of the week - the baths are closed on Thursday and Friday due to the long bank holiday weekend so we had to squeeze two sessions into three days.

 

Back at home I washed our swimming gear, along with the morning's finds, and risked pegging them out on the line. Although it was forecast to drop to 6°C there was no rain forecast.

For those of you asking about our cat visitors, here's Ollie. Mr Trousers still pops by to get off his tits on catmint.

Instagram w*nker time - a food photo! It's tonight's tea, a stir-fry using the mushrooms & pak choi from the Lidl box along with peppers and red onions, sweet chilli & garlic sauce and basmati rice. I shall endeavour to photograph all the dishes we create with our £3 stash of fresh fruit and veg - I demolished one of the kiwis when I got back from the baths.

It's Wednesday, so its rum and Great British Sewing Bee night. Apologies for being slow to reply to your comments, messages and visit your blogs - I'm trying to limit my online time and give my eyes a rest.

Cheers and see you soon!