Viewing, Reading, Wearing, Doing...

 

Despite a cold start to the day, on Tuesday I walked down to the baths with bare legs and my Morris & Co trainers. 

I'd not worn this Dilli Grey dress since Athens - which feels like a long time ago now.

After breakfast in 'Spoons we walked home via Lidl and picked up a £1.50 Waste Not Box. New potatoes, bananas, strawberries, vine tomatoes, chillies, two Little Gem lettuce, apples, a carrot and a couple of avocados - excellent!

After pegging the washing out on the line, I listed some stock on eBay, turned over another raised bed and spent the rest of the afternoon in a bikini reading William Boyd's A Good Man in Africa in the glorious sunshine. After his annual trip to the council tip, Lord Jon worked on Gilbert.

We had a Greek-style salad for tea using some of the vine tomatoes, new potatoes & Little Gem lettuce from the box along with the rest of the green beans & red onion from last week's. I applied a liberal sprinkling of mint from the garden to my potato and green bean salad. 

We watched Interior Design Masters and Home Greek Home. I started reading Sebastian Faulks' Where My Heart Used To Beat which, in parts seems familiar so I'm not sure if I've read it before but his writing is so brilliant I've continued regardless. I didn't start recording the books I read until three years ago, so I'm amazed I don't accidentally start books I've already read more often, there must be hundreds of them!

Wednesday's weather had reverted back to miserably cold and wet and, after a whole day's absence, Mr William Woolberforce was waiting on the step when I got up. After a cuddle, he polished off three breakfasts before scampering back up the garden and over the wall towards the windmill.

After a workout breakfast was strawberries, banana and apple with full fat Greek yoghurt sprinkled with seeds, dried fruit and nuts.

My vintage Ritu Kumar for Monsoon dress was layered with a brand new Morris & Co quilted cotton gilet (I've been stalking the clearance rails, it's been reduced from £65 to £16!)

The weather was dismal but, with festival season looming on the horizon, we went out in search of stock.

Clockwise from top left: YESNO cotton maxi dress with tags attached; 1980s Hawaiian shirt; Silk screen printed leopard scarf; Indian crinkle cotton midi skirt; Y2K French Connection silk and sequin bustier - tags still attached; Contemporary corset; Topshop acid wash denim jacket; West African waxed cotton tunic; sequin wash bag with tags attached; 1980s C&A envelope clutch bag

Clockwise from top left: 1970s hand knit cardi; 1980s West German military shirt; River Island statement sleeve top with tags still attached; two vintage Crombie overcoats; Rêveuse (Los Angeles label) gingham maxi with tags still attached; 1990s Aries II American-made maxi dress; Indian kurta; 1960s fake fur lined hooded jacket; Zara embroidered blouse - with tags still attached; Miss Selfridge 1990s shirred cotton sun top.

Instead of our usual noodles, I had an avocado, spinach and rocket sandwich for lunch - Lidl's sourdough bread is so big I only needed one slice. It was too wet to contemplate taking eBay photos so I wrote descriptions and saved them to draft then submitted our paperwork to Glastonbury (it suddenly feels real, two months and counting!) before cracking on with another crochet tank top.

After half a pizza and sweet potato wedges we watched back to back episodes of the BBC's new black comedy Rain Dogs ( love love love Daisy May Jones!) before tuning into this week's episode of Race Across The World. It was Wednesday so rum was involved.

It was still raining on Thursday morning when we walked to the baths for our second swim of the week. After a 'Spoons breakfast (my usual, Mushrooms Benedict) the rain had finally stopped and, after a wander around the town centre chazzas we walked home. 

I managed to photograph everything (and pose for a picture) between showers. I wore a vintage Anokhi blouse with some chazza shop skinnies and my Urban Outfitters' snakeskin boots.

This little man turned up for food and cuddles....

Awwwww!

After conquering the mending pile I reorganised my craft corner, decanted the contents of two sewing boxes into one and dusted my craft/fashion resource bookshelf and the poodle parlour.

I bought these 1930s penguin bookends from a jumble sale when I was 21.

In the mood for cleaning I swept the rug and mopped the floorboards in our bedroom before a reshuffle of the pictures on the chimney breast.

Tea was salad with sour dough bread and the remaining avocado from the veg box. 

We watched the rest of Rain Dogs followed by the excellent Get on Up fronted by brilliant Brummie actor, David Harewood. We'd missed the first episode so we'll have a catch-up over the weekend.

After my workout and fruit & yoghurt breakfast Jon moved the furniture out of the lounge so I could sweep the rugs (we don't possess a vacuum cleaner) and give everything a good dusting.

We don't do minimalism....

After pegging the laundry on the line I raked over the wild flower meadow outside the gates whilst Jon planted rocket, carrots, beetroot and potatoes.

Especially for Annie! 

Lunch was hot cross buns (two each,  manual work requires calories!) with lashings of best butter. Waiting for the tea to brew I emptied the fridge and gave it a wash down (must be Spring fever!)

On our south facing terrace the thermometer hit the heady heights of 24°C and, with a pot of mint tea and the parakeets squawking in the London Plane trees, it felt much more exotic than an April afternoon in Walsall!

The shorts made their first appearance of the year.

And I cracked open the Summer suitcase for a skirt to wear with the shirred cotton top I'd bought from a charity shop on Wednesday morning.

I'm off to catch up with Blogland before the bar opens. Have a fabulous long weekend!