There I was thinking that the last year of my 50s would be fabulous but not only I have I lost the ability to walk but we woke up on Saturday morning to discover that Walsall had binned our Tory-led council (hooray!) only to replace it with something infinitely worse, Reform. God help us.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. On a more positive note, on Saturday I learnt that our ward was one of the few in the borough who didn't vote Reform (I knew we had the best neighbours). After a lie-in and a late breakfast, I donned the vintage wraparound skirt I'd altered the previous day and walked down to the Relay shop to pick up a Vinted parcel. The remainder of the day was spent gardening.
Browsing the latest National Trust magazine I was salivating over the recipe page and, as luck would have it, we had all the ingredients for this delectable carrot, parsley and mint salad with toasted pine nuts and raisins so Jon made it for tea.
On Saturday night, after watching the final installment of The Perfect Spy, we went through the films on the BBC i-Player and came across Bird, which we'd not heard of. As Jon quite rightly pointed out pointed out, Barry Keoghan doesn't do crap films so we weren't disappointed. It's a quirky coming-of-age film with shades of Kes and has a fantastic soundtrack featuring Fontaines DC, Blur and Sleaford Mods and had a surprise cameo from the marvellous Jason Williamson, frontman of Sleaford Mods.
My Vinted purchase was a recycled sari silk maxi dress from the fairly traded, ethical online boutique, Ian Snow. As these dresses retail at £55 I couldn't not buy this at £6 but, when I tried it on, it was more of a midi than a maxi so I had the genius idea of using the trimmings from the skirt I'd shortened on Friday along with the section I'd cut off another Indian block printed skirt I'd altered a few weeks ago - I never throw away fabric!
So not only a secondhand recycled sari dress but also a recycled skirt dress, you can't get more sustainable than that.
I couldn't resist posing in it on Sunday morning, although I changed into something more suited to gardening after I'd filmed my TikTok video.
Stephen Alley, as this pathway is known (after our beloved tuxedo cat) was virtually impassible until I got my secateurs and trowel out over the weekend. Walking might be a challenge, but sitting on a cushion, shuffling along on my arse whilst dragging a bucket behind me, I can manage.
It's getting there!
On Sunday night, on The Guardian's recommendation, we caught up with Widow's Bay, a comedy horror about a mayor (played by the always excellent, Matthew Rhys) who aims to turn a superstitious, haunted New England island into a tourist hotspot. It's seriously creepy and marvellously good fun. Jon reckons The Sea Hag is based on me, a supernatural entity who lives in the water, scratches men and with the scent of their flesh beneath her long fingernails, pursues them on to dry land, eventually consuming them.
Monday kicked off with an early morning swim. It was bitterly cold walking down to the pool and, to make matters worse, after we'd finished it started peeing it down and we were trapped in Spoons for almost an hour.
In hindsight, a floor length maxi wasn't the best choice for a soggy morning but I tied a knot in one side when I walked home to keep the hem from trailing along the pavement. As you can see, I treated myself to a gold cane (aka Pimp Stick) which compliments my gold Adidas trainers beautifully (not visible, you'll just have to take my word for it!)
With the weather too damp for gardening I touched up my roots (with Jon's help) before getting stuck into my next read. Good Me, Bad Me is a psychological thriller about 15 year old Millie, in foster care under an assumed identity after reporting her serial killer mother to the police.
I'm meeting up with a friend I've not seen in far too long tomorrow. I'll be back later in the week with photos.
On Wednesday we skipped our post-swim Spoons breakfast as we'd arranged to meet Tony in there for lunch and much as I like Walsall Wetherspoons, visiting twice in one day might give us a bit of a reputation.
It was the first time I'd worn this All About Audrey recycled silk maxi dress. I'd been watching it on Vinted for months and snapped the sellers hand off when she offered me a substantial discount. It still had the original tags attached.
I reinvested some of the proceeds from the charity-shopped Clarks boots which I sold on Vinted. As I already own a pair of these boots in velvet (from their collab with Liberty) I knew these Hudson beauties (handcrafted in Portugal) would be comfy....and they were and, of course, navy blue with orange is the perfect combo.
We spent six hours in Spoons, getting back home in time to start watching the final season of Fargo.
We'd been dreading Thursday as William was due at the vets for his annual boosters and he's the world's worst traveller. He was furious at not being fed and aunched himself at me whilst I was doing my Wii Fit workout, biting my leg!
Miraculously we managed to get him there and back without incident. The vet, a young woman we'd not met before, was very pleased with his overall health but said that he was overweight and needed to lose half a kilo. No more fresh chicken or treats!
I wore the co-ord featuring a Mucha print of Sarah Bernhardt which I'd made from a tatty vintage Sears kaftan last year.
My profits from my Clarks boots didn't just cover the Hudson boots, they also paid for these Adidas Vs Nizza high top flatforms which felt like I was walking on air when we did our Vinted parcel drop off.
I started reading All The Light That We Couldn't See, demolishing a third of it before tea (what a stunning read). Later we watched a couple more episodes of Fargo with a break for Race Across The World in between.
Today (Friday) kicked off with an early morning swim followed by a Spoons breakfast and I was delighted to discover that their avocado muffins with pico de gallo, a poached egg and a rocket salad were back on the menu.
After a mooch around the charity shops we headed home. I snaffled a handful of interesting things for the Kinky shed, a lovely 1980s Indian rayon midi skirt by Flowers, a pair of vintage red glittery jazz shoes, still stuffed with their original tissue paper and a lurex turban trimmed with rhinestones.
Our magnificent Laburnum burst into bloom this week...
One of our geraniums, Little Monster, flowered this morning,
As did the Bearded Iris.
Before changing into a bikini for an afternoon of basking in the sunshine, I wore this vintage block printed Indian cotton maxi dress and this gorgeous 1960s Indian embroidered jacket, both found on Vinted during the winter. The dress was £4 and the top, which had been listed for almost 2 years, wasn't much more.
I was joined in the garden by next door's feisty tabby, Kitty.
After almost a month of using Darlaston baths, on Wednesday the Gala pool was finally up and running and I was beside myself with excitement.
Expecting my mile swim to be followed by a Spoons breakfast and a look around the charity shops, I wore this 1970s maxi in celebration, only to discover that the kitchen was closed for refurbishment so we went straight back home. The dress didn't go unnoticed, it got lots of love on TikTok.
I've got a bit of a thing about chokers at the moment so I raided Mrs Kaur's shop for braid and made a few of my own. I'm wearing the purple one with my dress.
After Monday morning's frost and Tuesday's bitter chill, Wednesday afternoon brought a hailstorm of biblical proportions. Thursday felt a little more Spring-like so I thought I'd give this 1970s printed cotton pinafore dress by David Silverman an outing.
A 50-plus influencer recently claimed that floral dresses worn with denim jackets were a no-no for older women and loads of her followers promised never to dress like that ever again. Don't people have minds of their own? Would you change your style on the word of a stranger on the internet? I'm the opposite, as soon as I read a comment like that, I develop a desperate urge to dress in that way and immediately pulled on the Levi's Type 1 denim jacket I'd scored from Vinted last month.
I needed to collect a Vinted parcel so Jon and I had a leisurely stroll down to the pickup point, a former vetinary clinic but now a Kurdish-run convenience store. It's an amazingly well-stocked shop, the array of artisan chocolate and European savoury snacks is astonishing and I counted seven varieties of cheese in the fridge (Gouda, Edam, Cheddar, Feta, Paneer, Haloumi and Stilton). One of the young men who works there told me he'd seen me on the internet so, if he's reading this, hello!!
Check out the groovy label on my Vinted purchase! Anthea Proud was best known for her high-end girl's dresses, often made from Liberty fabric, in the 1960s and 1970s. This grown-up sized dress was listed as being damaged and priced accordingly. I love a bit of mending and soon repaired the damaged area.
As wel as being a talented designer, Anthea Proud also had a well-known husband, Ian Davidson. As well as being an acclaimed screen writer (TV credits included Sorry, The Two Ronnies and The Brittas Empire), he also appeared in my Dad's favourite programme, Monty Python's Flying Circus.
And here's the dress in all its glory, worn to walk down to the swimming pool at 7am this morning.
Disclaimer...I changed my boots when I got home, the ones I wore to town crippled me!
After our swim we walked to Wetherspoons only to discover that the kitchen wasn't reopening until lunchtime so, with time to kill before the shops opened, we popped into the Co-op and had coffee and toasted teacakes in Coffee Republic. We were surprised when the server asked if we wanted jam with our teacakes, is that normal? Surely there's only one thing you spread on teacakes...butter!
The calm before the storm...it was rammed by the time we left.
I've not posted about our film/TV viewing for a while so this is what we've been watching lately.
The two films we've seen were uber-stylish heist movie Crime 101 with man of the moment, Barry Keoghan and Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire, based on the true story of a botched kidnapping in 1977. In real time, we've been gripped to The Capture, Race Across The World (Jo & Kush for the win!) and loved the fourth series of Dark Winds. We've binge-watched the second and third series of the tense Irish crime thriller, Hidden Assets and finally got around the watching Fargo, I've no idea why its taken us so long as we absolutely loved the film and adore anything by the Coen Brothers.
Not name dropping or anything but Fargo's Martin Freeman (and his mate, Jason Watkins) visited our stall when we used to trade at London's Classic Car Boot and is so lovely - he actually came over and introduced himself to us...like we didn't know who he was! I've even got a photo to prove it....
Will it be season 3 of Fargo or a film tonight? The bar opens at 7pm, so I'd better go and slice the limes for out rum & cola.
Have a fabulous weekend and see you on the other side!
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