Summer Washout

After tantalising us with one week of tropical goodness (sunburnt shoulders from coffee date at garden centre, I live on the edge) the weather here has gone completely to pot - cold, rainy, windy....blaaaaah.

The pond has returned to the road, but this time I have to report that Mrs Mallard , single mother, is no longer in residence.  She valiantly sat on her eggs day and night for about 4 weeks, only leaving occasionally to eat out (she spurned my offerings of water and lettuce which is apparently what you should give ducks - I had a lovely chat with the Protection of Birds lady).  I had cardboard boxes ready to transport Mama Duck and chicks to local pond.   A bit like having your bag ready for the hospital.

Then one morning Ma and the eggs were gone - they appeared to have hatched - so I guess she marched them off in the early hours herself.  I really hope they got there safely.  Mama Duck had plenty of time to observe my skills at getting Boys 1 and 2 out of the door, so probably decided she had better get on with it herself, without letting an amateur in troop movements intervene. Wise old bird.

I do miss her, I got used to peeking at her every time I left and returned to the house.  Should I be worried that my most important emotional attachment recently was to a duck? Don't answer that.

Here's video of a duck rescue.

In other news, before I went to Paris (did I mention I went to Paris?) I had a little scoot round the old Happy Valleys Shoppe Centre .

Silk dress by  French Connection, made me feel cold just looking at it

French Connection

Brrrrr, not warm enough for these

Loved the navy sequined jumper - Whistles

Whistles

Hobbs - loved this on the mannequin

NW3 - younger sister brand of Hobbs

NW3

 Snuck into changing rooms to play dress up. Noooo,  I look like a deckchair

Hobbs

NW3

NW3

All about NW3 here.  I liked these dresses but with the navy one priced at £99 I resisted temptation, back in the day you could get that sort of look at TopShop for a lot less, of course now Toppers has gone all micro mini and frilly...
Anyway, enough of dresses, the only sensible attire right now is raincoat and wellies..and possibly waders for visiting ducks..

Good Books, Fab Shoes and an All New Fashion Disaster

Dahlings, hope you all had good Easters!
 
Thought I'd mention a few completely unrelated things: books, shoes and my All New Fashion Disaster.

Books: I've had a really good run recently, largely thanks to recommendations taken from the Read All Day lady ( I know I've mentioned her before, she has her own book coming out soon, recounting how she came to read a book a day for a year and how it affected her).

http://www.readallday.org/about_tolstoy.html

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson was about an uptight retired English major who falls for an Indian lady who runs the village shop.

 The Crazy School by Cornelia Read was a dark and gripping thriller set in a school for troubled teenagers. It's part of a series featuring the same female character.

 If you like dark and gripping, then you will love Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton, a completely over the top, twisty-turner thriller set on a island off Scotland.

Old Filth by Jane Gardam reminded me a bit of Major Pettigrew, just because both main characters are widowers I suppose.  Old Filth is sad in parts, as it features Raj Orphans - children sent back to England from India by their parents during the days of the British Empire

One Day by David Nicholls was an engrossing read: a young man and woman get together on their last night at university; the book then follows their lives on the same day each year.  I think Faux Fuchsia was reading this book during her trip to the UK last year.  It kept me sane on the journey back from Barcelona!!

Finally, a literary detective novel with a twist at the end which had me going back through the book trying to work out the significance of the last few sentences...

In other important news, I have found these fab shoes from super cheap shop, New Look.  As recommended by the girl at Wearing It Today.http://wearingittoday.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Look

  And they are only £7.99 a pair - cheap as chips!  They fit the Blighty daisy tramplers like a glove.  I definitely have cheap shaped feet - years ago I had some Ferragamos and they were totally the wrong shape for me - they were meant for narrow footed Italian heiresses. I also bought, in my dark, tangled retail past, some ballet pumps from French Sole - 8 times more expensive and they never fitted comfortably.  These plastic numbers are much more suitable!

So I got them in red.

And in turquoise.

And in purple.

And in black. (Blighty's motto: if a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing..)

If they had them in orange I would have got them too!  Oh Happy Feet!

 

SSSSSh! Don't tell Mr Blighty.  He won't notice unless  even if they all fall out of the cupboard onto his head....

 

Now the fashion disaster. I was very taken with the Whistles Carrie skirt everyone has been blogging about, including Notting Hill Girl who has it in bubblegum pink and looks very fetching in it.http://nottinghillgirl.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-04-06T13%3A45%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=7

Notting Hill Girl in her Carrie skirt

I ordered a similar skirt on-line from Zara in what looked to be a soft peach colour.

The horror! It's nylon tights brown, as worn by bankrobbers..on their heads.

But worse than that: this skirt has CELLULITE!!  

I have no room in my life for clothes that mimic bodily imperfections. I can do those by myself, thank you very much.

Goodbye skirt! And get yourself some of this when you get back to Zara.

 

Mothers' Day Out

Last week me and some Mummy friends went up to London on the train to do lunch and a spot of shopping. We launched ourselves on an unsuspecting Marylebone High Street. Here are some snaps, taken in the brief moments when I was stopping to draw breath in between my chatting!

We went past the very attractive window of Designer's Guild.



Then we had a good browse and restorative tea in a foodie emporium called Natural Kitchen.

Some of this Pukka tea was purchased; I am a big fan of Tick Tock Rooibos tea

Next we checked out Agnes B.  Very French, very stylish but heart-stoppingly expensive for What It Is.

Agnes B laidback cool

I liked this Agnes B toile de Jouy dress

With this dress you get scarves attached - but too frightening to think of dishwasher related accident

Below, Daunt Books is one of the nicest bookshops in London - originally specialising in travel books but now does all sorts, worth going inside just for the building.

I insisted we went into Malene Birger, so I could pay hommage to one of Faux Fuchsia's favourite shoppes.  I last went here with Faux herself when I met up with her last year.

One of the Mummies - my friend K, isn't she cute?  And sooo tiny! A real doll! Can you believe she has 2 boys same ages as mine and a little girl too!

The decor in Malene was very fancy but it just wasn't the same without the supreme glamour of the Faux Fuchsia.



Malene seems to have gone all hippy-boho for summer, lots of maxi dresses, no good for shortie me.

I liked this, not least because it was 70% off but I saw nothing as nice as the dress Faux bought.

Next we went to Matches. Nice but full of super expensive designer kit.

Dummy with hand out is saying, "No, Mrs Blighty, do not come in here, you are not a high net worth individual and you shop at Tesco"

Chloe bag, did not bother looking at  price as shouting out "Good God, what a price!" not cool

Pretty cups at Matches - we did not get offered any beverages, you probably have to spend lots of money whereas I kept cracking jokes about how I would need a lottery win first...strangely the sales assistants did not find this funny...

Marc Jacobs dress at Matches, about £3 trillion

After Matches we staggered into Cologne and Cotton, a nice homeware, bed linen shop. 

And finally we perused Whistles where I liked this dress, not least because Grandma Whacker often accuses me of Doing Too Much and, an even more serious accusation, Galloping Around.

The time honoured response to a charge of Galloping Around is to neigh, shout "Clip Clop" and demand a nosebag for all meals

Grandma W has been following Louise of InTownsville's blog and is very concerned about Louise's poor broken back.  Recently G pronounced that Louise was Doing Too Much and Galloping Around.  So Louise - behave, otherwise I will send you this dress!!

And then we went home and the other Mummies reminded me that I needed to collect Boys 1 and  2 from school.  It's really important I go on trips with responsible adults.