Wicker-ish Wednesday 13

Not quite wicker...but close enough to count, I think!

This cutie heffalump is on the sale shelf at Homesense and I fell in love. But my head ruled my heart and he was left on the shelf.

Altogether now...aaaah!

Duz yur derg bite?

BRB's Artistic Director, David Bintley, getting in swing of things for Movember!
But I would expect nothing less from a Yorkshire man.

Two Ladies And A Boozy Bear

I spent a delightful couple of hours chin-wagging, (and supping!) with Vix yesterday.

I had an appointment with Andrew the Osteopath, so a little 'Dutch courage' at the German Market seemed like an excellent idea!

How cute is that polar bear? Vix too! Wearing her beautiful fake fur and a hat that I passed onto her from my mum's collection. Have to admit...that hat looks a whole lot more fetching on Vix than it ever did on my mum!
And check out the cute little 'booties' that our Gluhwein came in! It was a hope in vain that they would be offered to us to take home!

The stall is part of a Frankfurt Christmas Market that visits Birmingham every year, I think, and is the largest outside Germany, Vix told me. It was very picturesque, particularly later on in the day, when it was dark and the lights twinkled in all their luminous glory.

So, having managed to not roll off the osteopathic table(!), I woke this morning bright eyed and bushy-tailed and actually baked my Christmas cake. It was 'Stir Up Sunday' last Sunday, but needing a good 4 hours to bake, I just haven't been able to get it done without it possibly encroaching on 'dinner-cooking' time. But now home smells Christmassy. No German sausage in sight - or smell, Vix!

Brilliant to see you again, Vix, do it again soon!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 12

Three wicker dollies prams. Snapped on Mr B's phone at Days.

There's also a corner of one of those old fashioned trunks...that takes me back to boarding school in an instant!

And here is a cute "appreciation" film clip.

Filmed on the Lavender Line, Isfield, East Sussex. Now, I knew of the Bluebell Line, but the Lavender is a new one to me. I have seen the Bluebell running, but have never been on it. But in the run up to Christmas, several years ago, I went with Mr B's family for a Santa Special on the Watercress Line, which was magical. I can definitely recommend a steam train special for any age. Loved it!

The King Of Snakeskin Boots

Guest Post from Mr B

They go up diddly up up, they go down diddly... you get the gist. Some magnificent men at work have been growing moustaches this month for Movember, to raise awareness and, in a lot of cases, money, for men's health issues.
Feargus is Team Leader, said Aonghus, just a few days in and already sporting a well-defined facial adornment. It all seemed a good idea back in Plymouth, when Feargus was telling Johnny about Movember. Yes, I'll do it I said, not to get involved but to support those who were. However, this did get 'ze little gray cells working' as a well-known ambassador for the perfectly groomed upper lip would say!

George Cole as Flash Harry in St Trinians I thought, which sent us on a Google search for 'the spiv moustache'. Another source of inspiration was Private Walker from Dad's Army. John Waters pencil moustache I always thought was a gem.

The best moustache I have ever seen was on a Chinaman, who I had the pleasure of working with in Hong Kong. His name was Eamon and he had a full Fu Man Chu.

A few of the magnificent men have gone for the down-diddly-down-down-style of facial grooming, but as yet no up-diddly-up, y'know like Jimmy Edwards. A month is probably not long enough to craft something as fabulous as that!Then I remembered a style icon from the distant past. Hold onto your hats all you fashion bloggers out there, and take a Googled trip to Peter Wyngarde as Jason King!

Jason King wore snakeskin boots. In my early teens I bought a snakeskin belt new from Oxfam in Elm Grove. I wore it with white jeans, like I say, it seemed a good idea at the time! This was when 'Sailor' were in the charts with 'Girls, Girls, Girls' and 'A Glass of Champagne'.

Possibilities of what I could achieve were coming thick and fast, unlike the trial run 'spiv moustache' that I attempted on the eve of Movember. (Rules stated that you had to start the month clean shaven.) Mrs B laughed and my hopes of becoming the new Mr Sheen man were dashed!

Day 14 and Johnny's wife issued an ultimatum and the fledgling moustache had to go!
So, a big salute to Team Feargus and all the magnificent men, (and women!), who are taking part.

I leave you with the ultimate king of facial of facial hair...
Mr Lon Chaney.

Party Dress

Having thought about Clare's 40th, it dawned on me that the photos that I had scanned of my Raleigh bicycle, inspired by Vix's post, were in fact taken 4o years ago!

This was taken on my 10th or 11th birthday...either 1970 or '71.

I do still have both the dress and the bike. They were both in the shed! I thought for ages that my only party dress had been left behind in a move; then a couple of summers ago, yay!, lo and behold, it was in a bag of clothes long since grown out of. To say I cried a few tears would be an understatement!!

I had managed to learn to ride my bike, but my best friend, Willy, (as in Wilhelmina), couldn't, so she stood next to it.
Willy had loads of party dresses, whereas I had just the one, but it was my pride and joy. None of that 'I can't wear that old thing again'; you wore your dress to every party with pride! I even have a picture of me dressed as Little Bo Peep, with a big hat and a crook that my dad made by bending a knitting needle in boiling hot water and then fixing it to a pole! Goodness, dressing up for a party was so much easier then!

It's the weekend, so party on down everyone and have a good one. We're off to Market Harborough tomorrow for this...

...can't wait!
Z xx

Happy Birthday to CamPo

I like a piece of nice cake! Not too often, altho' my figure belies this!

Danielle had a beautiful cake for her 22nd birthday earlier in the year, which was stunning - beautiful sugar craft flowers in strong colours, not your usual pale pinks and stuff. Cor, it was fab!

Then this week, Clare, (Cameron Poe 2409), of I Have Too Many Shoes posted a picture of her 40th birthday cake. It is cake made to look like a pair of amazing shoes. Wow!

You really should have a look at them both...they truly are works of art!

So, ages ago Mr B promised Clare a scanned picture of the one item not in her shoe collection! I had lost my scanners' lead, but having found it, here it is...

...a rather nifty pair of pink propeller boots!

Happy Birthday, Hun! Have a great time celebrating!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 11

Some of the wicker Christmassy decorations in Homesense the other day.
Now, you may remember me try on the Jan Constantine tea cosy here. Well, Mr B, not to be outdone, thought he'd get right into the Christmas spirit!

Ding! Dong! Avon calling!

It's a good job they know us there...I think any other store may get Security to escort us from the building!

Of course, no trip to Homesense is complete without a sit down visit to the drive-thru Starbucks. No comfy chairs left, but from where I was sitting I espied these wicker baskets sitting on rather nice wrought iron stands. Now, if I had one of those amazing inglenook fireplaces, (or even just a wood burning stove), I think this would be a rather nice look to recreate. What do you think?

Wicker Wednesday is in homage to Mr Alan Whicker, but I am finding it harder to find small, neat snippets of film now. I was tempted to put 'Whicker Island' on again, as it makes me laugh out loud. I Googled this piece, with Mr W talking about his tour of America, many moons ago. I wonder how he'd find it now? Or, in fact, any of the countries he has visited. I feel he captured a Golden Era, which, alas, for all the ease for the traveller nowadays, somehow it lacks something.

I am not a seasoned traveller by any means. I can count my trips abroad on one hand probably! I have in my mind my log book of trips that I will do; but at the moment, just getting myself to the hairdressers tomorrow is about as much as I can manage!

Where are your pipe dream visits to?
Z xx

The weather is totally yuck today! This is a photo of the Lift Tower taken during the Summer. Today the top of it was all shrouded in fog.

The blue sky seems a figment of my imagination. The leaves have all gone. But my little dog rose still has some blooms on and there are still a few marigolds nodding their golden heads at me!

I picked probably the last of the raspberries earlier this afternoon. Not many but enough to make a difference to Mr B's bowl of muesli tomorrow morning!

The pampas has lost its' pretty pink tinge and is now cream. I usually tend to miss the new fronds forming, as it always coincides with our trip to Plymouth. But this year they must've come through earlier and I managed to snap a few photos before we went away, which was nice.

I think, if it's dry enough, I need to do a quick catch-up in the garden. Lots of bulbs that I'm behind with planting. Ditto wallflowers. Got a couple of cheapo roses from Wilkinson's to plant too. Roll on Spring!

Have a great weekend, whatever you are doing!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 10

This is the Clarks store in Northampton. I don't think I even knew there was one; but Mr B spotted it as we walked past on Saturday afternoon! A photo opportunity not to be missed!
This is the poster picture from the last Wicker Wednesday brought to life, so to speak!

Here we have a whole gaggle of 'Whicker lookie-likies'! (Even one on crutches!).
It looked like a Whicker Convention as all these people swarmed off the coach at Totnes Railway Station as we were eating our lunch in the station cafe.

Be warned, the next bit you may find somewhat controversial. It is just my view.
Sadly, they proved a real disappointment! Apparently it was a group of students from Dartmouth College, on their first leave for 7 weeks. My God, supposedly the cream of forthcoming Naval personnel, none of whom seemed to know how to close a door behind them as they all trooped in, and out of the cafe. I don't know about the MOD/Government demolishing our Armed Forces, but if these are the best students that will be picked to run the Navy side of the Forces in a few years time, maybe it's a good job there won't be anything left for them to run! Maybe they all perform extraordinarily well under pressure, but some decent manners wouldn't go amiss!
And relax...

Here we have the very charming and suave Mr W doing what he's good at...this time talking about women and their clothes!

Z xx

Lulu - the firework

Not the singer!

Just had a perfect weekend. Nothing fancy or planned in detail. Just a lovely time with 'me bloke'!
Z xx

Wicker Wednesday 9

Just wasn't up to doing this last week! Then my Internet access went AWOL too! Just wasn't the best of weeks, it has to be said. Even by the time it got to Friday and I managed to get to Totnes, my goodness, I paid for it Saturday!

Still, home now...Hurrah!

A double whammy of posters for Clark's winter boots! I am sure these ads are thought out months in advance, but I had to chuckle and wonder if someone had been spying on my Wednesday specials!!

A rather interesting looking shop across the road from Lesley's This 'n' That in Totnes. More wicker-y things than you can shake a stick at! And that is just the outside; I didn't actually go in to be honest!

And here is the delightful Mr Whicker with another great British icon, theQEII.

When I was at school, it was an annual event that the 4th Form went to visit Southampton Docks. We were lucky enough to visit when she was there, and my, she was a beaut! I love the fact that on the 'comments' part on YouTube someone has commented that they were the window cleaner in the clip. That must've been so funny finding that and watching it back, so long after the event!

And squeezing in by a head, (ie just had it bluetoothed to me by Mr B), the adorable Peregrine.

He was out 'on tour' too. He has now been moved from his handlers in Glasgow to the City Farm in Vauxhall. Apparently he became quite 'famous' during his week in London as George would walk him in from the Farm and then back at night, after the show. He had a photographer with him at one point, and of course you can imagine the delight of drunken revellers falling out of a pub and coming across a tiny white pony! What I think must've been even more weird would be seeing them on the footbridge over the River Thames!! And just a note of interest...he will fit in a black cab!
So here he is in his wicker 'stabling', in the dock at Plymouth Theatre Royal. I never had the chance to see him (boo!), but Mr B took this phone photo of 'The Pasty Thief'!
???????
George had brought back 2 pasties from Looe and had left them on the side. Yep, you know what's coming...Peregrine had been tied up and the little bu**er had nibbled his rope until the knot came undone!! George had gone out to make a phone call and Mr B had just popped some bits on stage, so a in matter of seconds he managed to scoff 2 pastys and their paper bags! Mr B left George one of the pastiies he had bought for the journey home and when Peregrine came back in from doing his bit on stage, he managed to get at that one too, while he was being tended to. And a packet of Polos had gone missing!
Now, I thought horses were vegetarian?

This was Saturday, the last day of the show. I wouldn't like to be the one to open the horsebox after his journey back to London!
Z xx

Divine Inspiration

Oh WOW! What a way to start the week!

Some of you may already know this Company, but if you don't, and you sew, take a look here.

Exquisite items, patterns, notions, gift ideas. Not 'cheap', but some things IMHO are worth spending on (ie scissors). As they point out, the cost of the item is forgotten after many years service. And things I haven't seen for sale since I was a child. I doubt I will buy anything, in as much as I have my tailors' shears etc etc, but it is a beautiful website to just ooo and ah at.
Lovely!

I found the link via TWR, who are always worth a few moments of your time, especially this post! (Ha ha!)

Thank you for your kind 'get well' messages. Pretty at Heart, you hit the nail on the head! I think it was food poisoning, and I still can't eat a meal without suffering the consequences, so to speak! Still, I'm a big lass, so I won't miss a few calories!!!
Z xx