William, Edward, Nikki & Me - A Trip to Birmingham

After a couple of postponements, on Wednesday I finally met up with my friend Nikki in Birmingham. As usual, I caught the train over (a 22 minute ride from Walsall) and we met up at New Street Station giving Commonwealth mascot, Ozzy the Bull, a wave. He was moving when we arrived but, by the time I'd figured out the video function on my phone, he was stationery. I thought I'd managed to take a selfie of the two of us in front of him but when I checked back at home it hadn't worked. New tech and old people!

After a catch up over a pot of camomile tea in uber chic bakery, Medicine where - as usual - the hip waiting team were in raptures over our outfits, we headed up to Colmore Row doing our utmost to avoid the Frankfurt Xmas market. That's Antony Gormley's Iron Man, a 6 metre tall sculpture commemorating our region's industrial heritage.

Ho-ho-f*cking-NO!

Colmore Row is home to the city's cathedral, St Philip's. I've had to borrow this image as it's currently obscured with scaffolding. One of the oldest buildings in Birmingham city centre, it was consecrated in 1715. During WW2 it was bombed and gutted on the night of 7th November, 1940. 

SOURCE

St Philip's stained glass windows were designed by Birmingham-born Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Byrne-Jones & created by his friend William Morris in his workshop between 1885 and 1897. Fortunately, the Birmingham Civic Society had removed them when WW2 broke out and they weren't damaged by the bomb. They were reinstated in 1948 after the cathedral was rebuilt.

Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris C.1860 (SOURCE)

Following a £900,000 restoration project, the windows, which were starting to show their age, have recently been restored to their former glory. You may remember us visiting Divine Beauty, an incredible immersive sound and light show, back in January with friends, Lynn and Brendan (HERE) shortly before the work started. 

The Ascension window depicts Jesus parting with his followers and ascending into heaven forty days after Easter. It was installed in 1885 and was intended to be the only stained-glass window in the Cathedral. Inspired by its beauty, Burne-Jones subsequently decided to design two more shortly afterwards.

The Nativity window was installed in 1887. 

Both The Nativity & The Crucifixion (1887) were paid for by wealthy Birmingham resident and cathedral congregation member , Emma Chadwick Villers-Wilkes in memory of her late brother.She requested that there should be no blood in the scene of Christ’s death.

The Last Judgement (1897), is widely recognised to be the finest example of Burne-Jones’ work, depicting the return of Christ and his judgement on humanity. The window was a memorial to the Bishop Bowlby of Coventry who was Rector of St Philip’s from 1875 to 1894.

After all that divine beauty we had a wander around the shops (Lush, Monsoon & Flying Tiger) before heading to the Indian Brewery for our Chaart Attack and IPA fix. On the way a limo passed flanked by police outriders and I spotted Princess Anne in the back seat, I'm not sure what she was doing in Birmingham, maybe she'd popped over for Gluhwein and sausages at the market. 

Isn't Nikki's vintage wool dress fabulous? It's got a Harrods label, darlings! 

After perusing the rails in Urban Outfitters (we like to see what the cool kids will be wearing this season) we couldn't resist a mirror selfie before catching our respective trains home.

Thanks for a fab day, bab and lots of birthday love for Saturday, see you soon!

Wednesday's outfit was a last minute choice, I'd planned on wearing a velvet dress & my Afghan coat but it wasn't as cold as I'd expected it to be - the skirt is actually a dress, part of a embroidered cotton Hmong Thai hill tribe suit I'd scored the other day for £8, which I'd worn with an eBayed early '70s Anokhi blouse (Jane Seymour's wearing a virtually identical one in yellow in 1973 HERE), ancient leather cowboy boots and a vintage felted wool charity shop hat.

Afghan earrings from eBay, Ruskin Arts & Crafts brooch and an antique Hindu deity belt buckle (Xmas present from Liz & Al in 2017).

On the way down to the baths on Thursday morning we were treated to a glorious rainbow before the heavens opened and we were left looking like drowned rats. I wore one of my vintage Afghan dresses (bought from a fellow Judy's trader back in 2019), a Monsoon fedora (retail buy using a discount voucher the company sent for my birthday last year) and some elderly charity shopped Clarks boots.

A pendant I made by combining an old Banjara dowry necklace with a vintage Kuchi enameled charm (mixing my tribes). The .925 silver Rajasthani earrings were bought from Beautiful Days last year.

I paid for my charity stall when I was at Spoons before tucking into my new favourite breakfast of pico de gallo, avocado, poached eggs and rocket on a toasted muffin.

After chucking our swimming gear in the washer back at home, we popped over to our favourite Black Country town for a speed charity shop (the only window of shopping opportunity for us this week).

Here's this week's finds: 1980s velour & bejewelled batwing leisure top by Apollo Sports; James Lakeland - new with tags - reversible suede/leather jacket (originally retailed at £395); 1960s plush hat (I've since removed the felt flowers!); Japanese Haori jacket; a pair of 1950s framed hand-painted watercolour silhouettes signed by Christine Silver, an English artist who was a renowned expert in period costume (1883 - 1960); 1970s *Gigi, loomed in England* wool bomber jacket; 1980s St Michael Victorian-style pintuck blouse; Steve Madden *Bryana* leather pirate boots; 1980s Next shawl collar blouse; 1970s chiffon maxi dress with matching duster coat.

Most of today (Friday) has been spent tackling the vast amount of leaves both in the garden and along the avenue (I'd hate for an elderly neighbour to slip and fall). Jon managed to snap the yard brush so we battled on with a rake and a broom. We had a very welcome diversion in the form of a flying visit from Liz & Al and when Jon nipped out to get the works van MOT'd, William took over in a supervisory capacity. 

Apparently it was the coldest start to a day since the end of April but after a couple of hours of sweeping I was toasty warm.

Vintage Indian cotton dress & Urban Outfitters gilet (both eBay), Celtic & Co. boots, now in their third year and a cable knit hat (retail buy, 2021). I was wearing gardening gloves from the much missed Wilko but took them off prior to the photo. 

Last week Age UK had a basketful of these Dreamies (aka cat crack) penguin treat dispensers. Jon didn't think William would be interested but at 99p I was willing to take a punt and look, he loves it!

We've got no plans for the weekend other than homemade pizza, rum and watching the final instalment of Cambridge Spies which we started last night. I've no idea how we missed this the first time round (2003) as its right up our street. Look how young Tom Hollander, Sam West, Rupert Penry-Jones & Toby Stephens are!

Have a good one whatever you're up to and see you on the other side.