Spring Has Sprung!

Thanks for the anniversary wishes! After paying the invoices for two of our festivals, we spent Saturday in our grubbiest gear messing around in the garden and despite the cold starts, I think we can safely say that Spring has sprung (although it's set to drop to zero later so Jacob's still coming in at night!)

This boy has kept us company all weekend (and nearly eaten us out of house and home!)

The pathways will soon be fringed with bluebells,

And the magnolia's out.

I don't need to forage in the woods for wild garlic, it's growing in abundance in our garden beside the daffodils and around the pond, and I've been harvesting fistfuls to mix in with our salads. 

Hello to all the plants we purchased during lockdown, back like old friends (hopefully unlike Covid!)

The Rheum is back, along with its edible sister, Victoria, ready to be made into oaty crumbles.

Nursing a glass of Barefoot's White Zinfandel, I finished the book I'd started the previous weekend, Sarah Water's Affinity (what a twist!) before joining Jon at the kitchen table for our anniversary dinner of home cooked pizza and salad, followed by lashing of rum and the last four episodes of Daisy Jones and The Six. A most excellent watch (and very exciting to see Greece make an appearance).

Sunday morning started with tea and reading in bed (Jeanette Winterson's Weight, the reimagined story behind the Greek myth of Atlas and Heracles) and after breakfast, we drove into town calling in at Lidl, the clearance chazza and Wilko's from where we bought seeds  - Aphrodite parsley, Wild Rocket Apollo and Mustard Ruby Streaks - from their new range especially designed for small spaces and containers. After lunch we sewed them in pots before nipping round to Liz & Adrian's to drop off his birthday present (his birthday, like my other friend Liz, was also on Wednesday).

I wore my Levi's denim shirt with my vintage Anokhi maxi skirt along with a pair of Gucci sunglasses.

I haven't shared my Athens souvenir, have I? I spotted these hand made bronze and enamel "Evil Eye" earrings in a high end gift shop in the shadow of the Acropolis and had to make them mine. They're the most expensive earrings I've ever owned. By contrast, the horse brass pendant was something Jon found in a 20p basket in a charity shop.

We had a Greek-ish salad for tea.

Later we watched three episodes of excellent Belfast-based BBC cop series Blue Lights.

And, I cracked on with another crochet tank top using some wool scraps Liz had donated. I took A Good Man in Africa to bed, the only William Boyd book I haven't read.

Monday kicked off with a Wii Fit workout and, after breakfast and parcel wrapping, we drove over to our favourite Black Country town for some charity shopping via the post office.

This 1970s India Imports of Rhode Island maxi skirt wasn't in my capsule wardrobe but, with the weather finally feeling a little more Spring-like, I've swapped it with one of my suede mini skirts (which I've donated to the stockroom). 

My Monday Mo(u)rning outfit was accessorised with my 3 x great grandmother's mourning brooch.

That rather dashing Byronesque looking chap is my 3 x great grandfather, architect Robert Chapman (1808 - 1883) of Trentham, Staffordshire. 

Lord Jon bought this framed print of William Russell Flint's Zoronga (1936) from a charity shop last week but we were carrying so much stuff that we accidently left it behind. Luckily, they'd kept it for us. It was framed by the Horner Galleries in Sheffield in the late 1930s (after researching the label - hooray for the internet). 

We think £3 was a bargain!

Whilst queuing at the till, I started chatting to a gorgeous woman deliberating as to whether, at 55, she was too old to wear an electric blue midi skirt with a cutwork hem. I told her not to be so daft, I'm a year older than her and was about to hand over £3 for a slinky velvet backless dress with side splits up to my knickers. You'll be glad to know that she bought it and has promised faithfully to wear it.

Unless you're buying kids' garments, clothes don't come with an age printed on the label. If you like it, bloody wear it! I shall be prancing around a field in this dress come the summer, complete with ridiculous head dress, neon lippie and a can of gin and tonic.

I love what Lioness say about their brand:

Australian fashion house Lioness delivers sexy, luxury-inspired product designed for head-strong, fearless women who love to dress the way they feel.Never lacking in passion, the Lioness girl defies stereotypes, oozes confidence and refuses to be defined.

Amen to that!

 What else did we buy? A 1990s Adidas jacket; 1990s leather moto jacket; Moschino sweatshirt; Topshop milkmaid blouse (with store tags still attached); Johnny B (Boden) nautical top; 1980s organza cocktail jacket; Lioness maxi dress; Zara studded cotton gilet; 1970s Hawaiian shirt; 1980s Egyptian print rayon midi; Joe Browns x Coline zig-zag flares (mine!); 1990s leather jacket; Clarks leopard flatforms; 1990s leather coat; River Island fringed maxi skirt (store tags still attached); Red non-Verse; Cowboy hat; Vintage Wallis Shirtwaist dress.

I loved this Fashion Illustration book that I splashed out a whole £1 for. 

The Anna Sui midi dress in the above illustration needs to be in my wardrobe!

This afternoon has been glorious. I cast off my boots and did some gardening with bare legs - bliss!

Tea was a spicy stir-fry using a pack of veg reduced to 26p in Lidl yesterday.

Tonight we'll be watching the rest of Blue Lights - once I've caught up with Blogland.

See you soon!