With the rain lashing against the windows and the winds battering the trees, Storm Arwen had already arrived when I rolled out of bed at 6.30am on Friday morning, having had a wonderful night's sleep beneath the new wool duvet.
Our brass Eid lights cast a welcoming glow in the kitchen on a miserable morning.
After breakfast, we decided to tick a few jobs off the to-do list. First was cutting up the old duvet and using it to restuff some cushion covers, saving it from landfill.
I bought these hand-embroidered climate change cushion covers from the Ian Snow sale a few years ago, they are an amazing fair trade company, follow the link at your peril, there are about a hundred things on there I'd buy if I could.
The other £1.50 planter we'd bought did end up in the bathroom.
Between showers, I managed to dash outside and take some stock photos and list a few things on eBay whilst Jon mended the bannister which had been hanging at a strange angle for far too long.
After lunch, we walked to the postbox on the corner to post a parcel. I did have a coat on (it was freezing!)
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| WEARING: Kharibu block printed dress (eBay), vintage Indian cottage waistcoat (Last year's Xmas present from Liz), Mjus boots, planished silver bangle & '70s sheepskin hat (charity shop finds), Heatgen thermal polo neck & leggings (M&S seconds, bought from eBay) |
In recent years the UK has embraced Black Friday and when he got up I'd told Jon that I'd bought a massive telly and an American-style fridge the size of a garden shed while he was still asleep. Funnily enough, he wasn't fooled!
Stephen Squirrel had spent most of the day slumped on landing, across the heating pipe. He managed a couple of hours rampaging around the garden before the heavens opened and the winds raged with renewed ferosity. We could hardly hear the tv above the noise outside.
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| WEARING: Schott NYC pea coat, Fat Face cashmere jumper, canvas cap and Clarks' boots (all charity shop finds), Levi 510s (eBay), Antiqued leather cross-body bag (bought in Rhodes) |
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| WEARING: 1980s Indian block printed dress (Olds Cool Traders), Frye Campus boots(eBay), me-made hat and vintage Aran cardi (charity shop) |
With it blowing a gale outside, I spent a lazy afternoon sewing a craftism banner.....Lynn sent me the book, it's so inspiring.
It was an evening of rum, cola and The Americans. We're 15 episodes in now, with 60 more left to watch.
On Sunday morning, I followed Stephen outside, poured boiling water on the birdbath only for it to freeze over moments later. I took mugs of tea back to bed and lay reading till almost 9am - I love Jo Nesbo even when his books don't feature Harry Hole.
After negative lateral flow tests, buttered toast and the Andrew Marr Show, we got dressed and headed into town for our weekly clearance charity shop rummage and it looked like most people had taken heed of yesterday's government update and were pretty much all wearing masks.
I'm wearing a vintage '70s Anokhi skirt, a Reiss felted wool fedora & Mascob for Liberty velvet Badin jacket (eBay), Mum's Biba boots, an embroidered leather Kashmiri belt (charity shop), a hand-embroidered blouse bought in Greece, a gold leather bag (India) and some wool beer-mittens, knitted by Liz.
We came back with a canvas Helly Hansen jacket; a 1980s orange leather cartridge bag; a fold-up barbeque, a couple of paperbacks; some leather combat boots by Zara; a Light of Asia, Madras Indian cigar box (McDowells, makers of the white rum we always drink in India, sold the company in 1951 so its at least 70 years old) and a pair of 1970s crepe-soled Italian sheepskin-lined suede boots which fit me perfectly - hooray!
It's still icy cold and we keep getting flurries of snow and to add to my woes, Jon's only gone and passed on his cold. I never get colds and this is the second in six weeks. I'm off to take a couple of echinacea tablets and curl up in front of the fire with Jo Nesbo.....I'll see you soon!