Tuesday morning's sunrise was so beautiful that I temporarily abandoned my Wii Fit workout to dash outside and capture it on camera.
After breakfast, we walked down to the town centre vaccination centre for our Covid boosters. The doctor in charge (and a couple of the nurses) went into raptures over all the South Indian textiles I was wearing. The Hindu Kush dress & coat are both from Afghanistan, the zardozi work bag hails from Pakistan and my jewellery is Indian, Nepali, Tibetan and Turkomen.
Booster vaccines are mix and match so, as our first two vaccinations were Astra Zenica, our boosters were Pfizer. Previously as soon as we'd had our jabs we were free to go but, this time around, we had to sit in the observation area for fifteen minutes. It was quite busy and I'm glad to report that nobody keeled over!
We called into the cobbler's to collect the boots I'd left on the way to the pub on Friday, had a bit of a chat with him and were back home drinking coffee at the kitchen table by 10.30am.
![]() |
| My vintage lace-up boots, reheeled by our friendly cobbler for £5.99 |
I had to pose by these gates on the way back, they're in the next street and have been on my blog before. I just love the patina. If the homeowner who lives here ever gets them replaced I'll be straight in the skip hauling them out!
We'd heard numerous reports of ill-effects from the booster but both felt absolutely fine. As advised by the medical staff at the vaccination centre, we took a couple of paracetamol and then spent the afternoon photographing and listing stock on eBay, wrapping the sales and whilst Jon cooked tea, I lounged on the chaise reading Rummage, the book Vronni had sent me. I spoke to Liz for the first time since we'd lost Disco and Frank. Hopefully, we'll see each other next week.
The evening was spent in an equally lazy fashion, drinking rum & cola and watching an episode of
Fake or Fortunewe'd not seen before, featuring this gorgeous painting by the celebrated Orientalist,
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Arab at Prayer.
On Thursday morning we went into town (again!) to collect the dress I'd left with the tailor last Friday. It had needed a new zip and, as I've yet to find a Treacy Lowe dress for less than £400, I was a bit scared to do it myself. Just like with our lovely cobbler, it feels good to support a local, independent business.
It goes without saying that we had to pop into the clearance charity shop whilst we were in town. We left with three early 1960s handmade, back fastening blouses and two 1980s midi dresses as well as a couple of cool bits of vintage kitchenalia - a 1950s Nutbrown "sandwich toaster" and a 1970s Hamilton Dale "snack cooker". I was keen to try them but we'd got no bread in the house so it'll have to be a weekend project.
After 48 hours of drying on a rack over the bath, my new-to-me chazza-shopped merino wool jumper by
Hush was finally ready to wear. I teamed it with a vintage '70s Anokhi shirt and maxi skirt and my uber posh
Masscob for Liberty velvet jacket. My hair's had a bit of a growth spurt!
With the weather set to turn colder at the weekend, I cut down the last of the dahlias in the pot outside the front door, planted a pack of allium neopolitanum bulbs and covered the lot with compost. Hopefully, they'll look like this in six months' time!
The postman arrived with a parcel containing the two hand-printed, Indian cotton, ethically produced dresses I'd won on eBay last Friday and they were every bit as lovely as I'd hoped! Not bad for a fiver each.
While I photographed and listed some stock on eBay, Jon looked out his soldering iron and had a bash at repairing my Mum's bangle.
When I was a baby I teethed on the coin, which hung from this silver bangle Mum always wore. I never knew its origin and had always assumed it was something Dad brought back from his time in the Middle East. A couple of years ago I posted some photos on an ethnographic jewellery forum and nearly passed out when I was told that the silver coin dates from the Moghul era, cast during the reign of Aurangzeb (1658 -1707), the son of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal (which we visited in 2018). It's definitely the oldest thing I've ever worn.
In other news, Lord Jon got a mention in this week's Guardian (
HERE). Thanks for sharing, Annie!
On Friday, after my final Wii Fit workout of the week, I swept & mopped the downstairs floors & rugs and watered the houseplants. Whilst Jon did a tip run I took advantage of his absence and cleaned the kitchen.
After lunch I ironed some stock, Jon photographed it and I listed it on eBay. Needless to say that despite only going as far as the postbox I still got dressed, giving one of the dresses I'd bought from eBay it's first outing.
This dress features the ancient method of dabu, mud-resistant printing which can be traced back to the village of Akola in Rajasthan as far back as 675AD. The fabric is first washed to clear off surface impurities then the printing blocks are dipped in natural dyes and hand-printed on the plain fabric. A mud resistant mixture made with black clay, gum Arabic, lime and wheat husks is applied to the fabric and then dried. After drying, the fabric is dipped in a vat of dye, followed by a wash to remove excess dye and paste.
Oh look, there's me having a go at block printing at the Anokhi Museum in Jaipur, back in 2019. I can't wait to get back to India - fingers crossed for 2023!
Why have I not seen this video by Wales' finest, Goldie Lookin' Chain, before today? I've been crying with laughter all afternoon. Flat Earthers, look away now.....
Have a fabulous weekend!
