Hello everyone
Well, the month of August has been quite a month what with our heatwave and the big hair cut! Thank you for all your comments about the hair. Those comments, and the ones from friends who don’t read the blog, made me realise that my long hair wasn’t the best style for me. I hung onto that length for quite some time but I can see it isn’t for me anymore!
We continue to have visits from friends who are coming to the flat for the first time and there weren’t any trips to the centre of London, but we did visit its outskirts, going to Dulwich Art Gallery and I met up with a friend at the gallery.
I have known my friend Kate, ever since I was 18. We met in April ’65, when we were student nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London and that, would you believe it, is 57 years ago!!! Jeepers, that is so long ago! But it’s so good we’ve kept up this friendship – have any of you had friends for that long? We hadn’t met up since before the pandemic and it felt as though we were getting back to some kind of normality, to meet again doing our favourite thing which is visit art galleries together.
I’ve bought five charity shop items this month, three of which have been dresses. This month I’ve worn a dress nearly every day and have been glad to do so. The black gingham pinafore was the outstanding chazza dress of the year, and I was pleased to wear the thin floaty yellow dress out and about in the heat. The red dress with the fishes has also been a great success and will be worn into the Autumn, as will this charity shop dress I bought in Brighton a couple of weeks back.
I wore it to a place called One Garden where me and Mr F celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. I mean 48 years! How did that happen, it’s such a long time! But never regretted – we are so suited. Here are some pix to show you what we did and what a lovely place it is.
First of all, here’s Mr F and me.
There’s a market place (really, it’s a shop), a restaurant and this lovely walled garden. This was our view as we ate our lunch.
And this is what I ate.
I actually remembered to photograph the food but not before I’d started! It was roasted aubergine and couscous, with slivers of courgette, pomegranate and feta. Lovely.
The garden was part of the Stanmer House estate and was, at one point, somewhat neglected, but is now run by an agricultural college. It rather reminds me of Monet’s garden.
It was quite sunny, hence the hat!
Different areas have different purposes – there were a lot of vegetables including these!
I absolutely adored the yellow rudbeckia but these pink ones were beautiful too.
I took many more photos, but here’s one last glimpse of the garden.
What I’ve watched and read this month
Television
We finished watching Borgen, which was good, but maybe not quite as good as the original 3 seasons and also finished Ten Percent and I still say, why, as the French version, Call My Agent is so superior to the British version. I kept watching hoping it would improve, but it didn’t. And why, for instance, are all the men stuck in a stuttering Hugh Grant version of themselves, which isn’t cool, scriptwriters, not cool. As for Better Call Saul (Netflix) which has also finished, I am beyond praise for this entire series, as it was just sublime writing, the character development and story arc was superb and we caught up with Saul/Jimmy’s end and realised this is the way it had to finish. Btw I don’t give out any of the plot, because it is for you to find out, except to say it’s a prequel so if you haven’t watched it and are tempted to try it I’m sorry to say you have to watch all of Breaking Bad, all 5 seasons, before starting Better Call Saul!
Currently there are four television series I am really enjoying, first is For All Mankind (Apple TV) which is an alternative history of the space race. You see different historical events and different Presidents. For example, it is President Edward Kennedy instead of John Kennedy and the conquest of space continues rather than slowing down as it has until quite recently. It is well acted, well written and enjoyable. Then there’s the second season of State of Happiness (BBCiPlayer) which is the story of the Norwegian quest for oil. I love anything to do with Norway, but this is very well written and the 70s details are done very well. Interesting to see how Norway developed from a poor nation with fishing as its main industry to its wealth of today. Then there is Bad Sisters (BBCiPlayer) which is glorious romp of a murder story. No, honestly, nothing grisly, it’s really gripping, funny and likeable. You can call it a dark comedy, as at times it’s hilariously funny, as four sisters come together to deal with a simply ghastly brother-in-law. It’s actually a remake of a Belgian series, which we watched, called Clan, which we also enjoyed. Sharon Hogan is co-writing, producing and starring in it, and there is a very strong supporting cast including the wonderful Anne-Marie Duff and Claes Bang as the awful brother-in-law. Finally don’t forget The Great (All4) another alternative history, this time of Catherine the Great, starring Elle Fanning (who has a terrific British accent), Nicholas Hoult and many other great British actors are also in it. Super silly and very good.
Films
We watched one very stupid film on the box which isn’t worth mentioning, but I’m glad to say, we watched one sublime film at The Depot, our independent cinema in Lewes. This was Eric Ravilious, Drawn to War, and was, yes, a documentary, but it is an outstanding example of how good documentaries can be. It tells the story of the artist Ravilious and his wonderful water colour paintings, which were often set in Sussex and are so quintessentially English in their soft delicate colours and details. He was killed in the war, and forgotten for some decades but recently there has been a renewed interest. Funnily enough seven years ago we saw an exhibition of his, the first for many years, at the Dulwich Art Gallery. There were several paintings of Newhaven, which we thought rather wonderful as we were living there at the time of our visit. The film is superb and I do hope it gets a wide international distribution as it does justice to someone who is now regarded as a major artist of the 20th Century.
Books
I read four books in August. The first was Helen Dunmore’s Burning Bright, which I didn’t think was Dunmore at her best. It was only her second book so I think she was learning her craft as Dunmore at her best is superlative. I don’t really recommend it. Equally, after watching Slow Horses (Apple tv) which we thoroughly enjoyed and I highly recommend (and don’t seem to have mentioned in the television section above) I got Slough House out of the library. This book is the seventh in the series of books about MI5 written by Mick Herron, or should I say, this is really about those who don’t do well in MI5 and get booted out to a run down set of offices to do the most menial of tasks. And yet they get caught up into all sorts of trouble. I’ve enjoyed all of the books but this one not so much. Again, I think this book is not one of Herron’s best.
And now from two passable, OKish books to the sublime and superb Margaret Atwood and her book The Testaments, which is a sequel to her wonderful book, The Handmaid’s Tale. Oh phew, what a book. The protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t appear until the end instead one reads the testaments of witnesses to the dystopian world of Gilead. One is Aunt Lydia and those of you who have read the book and/or watched the television series will know who she is, and then there are two other witnesses who are, well, read and find out who they are! It’s quite a revelation.
And finally I’ve read, Sebastian Faulks, A Possible Life, which I enjoyed up to a point and found strange at the same time, tbh, I’m not sure about it. It’s apparently a novel but there are five different lives dissected and set out for us in five separate stories. The connection between these stories was, I think, about memory and the meaning of lives lived. How do we get to grips with the meaning of life, is possibly the underlying reason why Faulks has written the novel this way. But not sure I really got this book at all. If I’m honest, I’d say read The Testaments and none of the others!
That’s all for now. Apologies again for this August review being a little late but I have a good excuse as I dashed off a piece for My Other Blog. It is not the one I am planning on climate change but about the heavily criticised speech Emily Maitlis made at Edinburgh Festival. My writing then segued into a polemic about the cost of living crisis and how we are all normalising the anxiety. Anyway, if you want to read it, you can click on the icon at the side if reading on a PC or Mac and at the end if reading on your phone.
I may not be posting next week as we are away visiting friends in Somerset. So until I do post again, you all take care now and keep warm and dry as I believe the weather is changing! Unfortunately there will be a lot of rain throughout our short break – but gosh do we need that rain!
Thank you for reading this to the end – you are all very much appreciated.
With love, Penny, the Frugalfashionshopper
Love your hair, your photos of the garden, and found the blog very interesting. Your comments on the books is spot on!
Thanks Sandra – appreciate the feedback. As for The Testaments – what a book!
Yes, that length of hair suits you far better. We celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary over the bank holiday weekend at a Vintage music festival called Twinwood in Bedfordshire. We took our motor home, so no camping! They play music from the 40s 50s 60s and 70s. People dress up from the eras and dance to the bands. There are lessons you can do such as jive, Lindy hop and swing. We aren’t fantastic dancers but everybody gets up and dances. It’s on every year on the August bank holiday weekend.
Oh Liz that Vintage music festival sounds so good – must try and get to one! Happy Anniversary to you too!
You and Mr. F are such a handsome couple, Penny! The photo of the two of you is frame worthy! 48 years is quite the accomplishment! CONGRATULATIONS!
Love this newest dress, Penny. The color and style suit you. Looks so comfortable! I made my own frugal purchases last week by exploring a nearby farming community’s Main Street. Found a pair of worn black denim that has just the perfect faded effect and two house decor items. All three were good buys and I had a fun time at the newly discovered consignment shop. I’ll be returning!
Popping over to your “The Other Blog” later today. Finishing up a closet reorganization. Starting the sewing of three Harry Potter robes for the grandsons’ Halloween. Things are loosening up as I am not driving from medical to medical appointment with my husband and dealing with his home health professionals’ visits.
We don’t appreciate the time we have, until we don’t have it! Stay well, Penny! I am praying the same for myself and husband. Have fun with your visiting friends and your cultural adventures!
Much appreciation of you and your sharing…Charlene
Thank you so much for those kind words, Charlene, and I am so glad things are getting better for you. We must seize the day and enjoy life while we can, absolutely with you on that.
What a lovely grandma you are sewing those costumes – bet they’re wonderful!
Thanks again 🙂
Happy anniversary! That’s a very pretty dress! Going to Somerset sounds heavenly, I love it there. Somerset and Sussex are my favourite counties. Have a good weekend.
Thank you Nancy and I think you’re coming to the UK that same week – sigh – one day we’ll meet up again! Enjoy lovely Sussex while you’re there!
Congratulations on your happy 48 years together. Really a nice picture. Yes, and how lovely you look in your green tiered dress. I love the color with your glasses.
Have a wonderful time on your visit.
Thank you so much Elaine – your comments are much appreciated. I will have a great time next week – thanks again 🙂
Happy Anniversary! You had such a pretty setting for your dinner. And the gardens are fabulous! I love garden photos. Dresses are great for summer. And you’ve picked up some pretty ones. So nice you could meet up with your long time friend. I have a friend I met when we were 6. She’s just a part of the family. Better Call Saul was such a great show. I’ll miss watching it. My August review will be later than yours – I haven’t started it yet!
Michelle
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Thank you Michelle, and yes ti was a great setting with a fabulous garden, I didn’t really do it justice as it’s quite large.
Dresses have been really good this summer and wow, that friendship is a long one!
I shall miss Better Call Saul as it was acting and writing of the highest order. But it ended on the right note – where else could it have gone. But I shall miss it.
Happy anniversary Penny. What a lovely place to celebrate. Ours will be our 46th on the 18th. Just amazing. I’ve known one of my closest friends since we met at school aged 11 and our friendship has survived me living abroad for 48 years!
Your hair’s lovely. Well done. You’ve inspired me to take the plunge too – I resist because I just love a pony tail or bun. Xx
Oh congratulations for your 46th! And friends like that are so important.
Thanks re: the hair. I resisted it for so long thinking long hair was something a bit different for a woman my age. But really the horizontal line is so much better for the shape of my face. I realise that now. Good luck with your hair 🙂
Happy anniversary! We celebrated our 20th yesterday! My oldest friend is my best friend, we’ve know each other about 36 years. Since she lives in France we see each maybe every 5 years or so but keep up through what’s app several times a week. Great to have such a long friendship!
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Happy Anniversary to you too! And 36 years is a long time. It is great to have these friendships 🙂
Hello Penny, first off – love those green shoes! You look very stylish in the entire outfit worn to visit the garden – have we seen the yellow jacket before? I hope you have an enjoyable time in Somerset. We live in the far south west of Wiltshire, bordering Dorset and Somerset so know it quite well. Looking forward forward to reading about your travels and seeing your photos. Jane x
Thank you so much Jane and yes, I love those shoes and they’re very comfortable too as I can wear them with bare feet! You have seen that yellow jacket before – bought I think last year and much worn.
Love the area we’re going to but I think the weather is turning to rain, never mind as it will be great to see our friends.
Your new hair cut nicely frames your face and shifts the focus to your nice smile. It’s a really flattering hairstyle for you. You look hip!
Oh wow, very much appreciate you saying I’m hip, Nicole! And thanks re: the hair, I know it’s the better style for me.
Hello Penny
You and your new dress (and hairstyle) look lovely! I wish I could find a nice dress. Whenever I spot one I like someone else is always wearing it!
Ah, friends. Aren’t they precious? You asked about long friendship. Well, J and I met at school when we were four and are still in touch several times a week.We are now 82! As we were both only children she’s always termed us as soul-sisters. I love that.
Congratulations on your wedding anniversary. You certainly chose a beautiful venue to celebrate. I always think there’s something special about walled gardens. (Great photo of you and Mr F, by the way – looking good!) I recently clocked up 61 years with my old fella so I’m beginning to think he might be a keeper!
Have a lovely lovely time with your friends this coming week. I’m sure you’ll cherish every moment.
Zepherine
Thank you so much Zepherine for the kind words about the hair and the dress.
Yes friends especially the long-standing friends are so important. And congratulations on the many years you’ve had together with your other half – that number of years is quite an achievement 🙂
I think your new hairstyle takes years of you. I also like the floaty brown dress, didn’t see the others you mentioned. Could be me getting distracted by my phone pinging and then not returning to the right place. I enjoy your blog.
Thank you so much Kate re: the hair. I realise now the horizontal line of the cut is so much better than the longer more draggy line that I had – for years!
Thanks also for the kind words about the blog 🙂
Congratulations Penny to you and your husband on your anniversary! That is an accomplishment and it great that you are both so active and look so well. I was quite impressed when you decided to make your recent move, many at that age would just have stayed put even if it was not entirely what they wanted. The garden and restaurant where you celebrated is beautiful, I do see the resemblance to Monet’s garden. so here we are in September and facing the end of summer. This was not the season I planned, but it turned out to have it’s rewards. I had some dinners at the beach with friends, two trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, dips in the complex pool, a couple of outdoor concerts. Just being outside without having to bundle up. I can have breakfast on my patio, maybe be visited by a little rabbit or once a humming bird! Just finished reading Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin’s book “Unthinable”. Written about both the death of his beloved, brilliant son and his heading the second impeachment of Trump. It was heartbreaking but did give me some hope that there are those in government who continue to believe and fight for our democracy even in such difficult circumstances. I did read some fiction as well, I had been having trouble concentrating but seems better now. I like all your dresses, I looked a little for something light and floaty for moi but found nothing at the very low end, under 10 American dollars or when in the city at a high end boutique for a cotton dress over 500 dollars!
I am good friends with a neighbor I met 60plus years ago. We were in college together, and although I would see here in the area we were not friends but at a college reunion we reconnected. then about 8 years ago she moved right behind me. I do a lot with her as well as her husband and Beth and I went on a Baltic cruise together in 2019, just before the pandemic hit. And, it turns out one of her sons married a good high school friend of my daughter’s . always a pleasure to read your blog. Love from New York, Darby
Thank you Derby and I loved hearing about your summer which sounds very New York and cultural plus lots of meet-ups with friends.
The book you’ve just read sounds very good – it is important to understand how our politicians think. I’ve just ordered a book recommended to me called Chums: How a tiny caste of Oxford Tories took over the UK. I think you can guess what that’s about.
We are between seasons and everything is very grey and wet, and yet still humid and hot. Twice I’ve made the mistake of wearing jeans and a top and the sun has come out briefly and I have sweltered and really regretted not wearing a cool dress! I got it right in August wearing a dress every day.Now I’m back to getting it all wrong!
Friends are so important and it is great, isn’t it, to have these very old friends who’ve known you so many years.
I shall be back posting here next week after my short break away. You take care in New York and all the very best to you, Darby 🙂
What a busy month you’ve had Penny. Love your hair, bet that’s been cooler over the past couple of months.
Thanks for sharing on my link up lovely.
Jacqui x
Thank you Jacqui for hosting – always a pleasure to read your posts and join in 🙂
Congratulations on 48 years! If we get to that milestone, I’ll be 98 and Mr M 103! Lovely pics of the garden. We also loved State of Happiness. Couldn’t get on with Bad Sisters unfortunately although really wanted to like it.
Actually, as ever, I think the Belgian version was much better as the brother-in-law wasn’t quite the outrageous villain as in this British version. The whole thing was more subtle, and there was more angst and less humour and prettiness, more European, if you get my meaning. Bad Sisters is the black comedy version, which I think might not suit everyone. Even so I know where it’s going so am watching!
And you finally got on. We are tearing our hair out at the Sunday IT glitch. I used to write my blogs on a Sunday I still write but can’t get on to put it together. I think the temporary answer is to never post on a Friday which means people are still commenting on Sunday. But how to resolve it is beyond my other half’s capabilities which really have been so savvy up to this point. I shall have to say something about it next post, which will be in a week’s time. Nothing this week because of my short break away.
Thanks Gail for contacting me – it made me think we HAVE to get on top of it.
I too have a very ‘old’ friend in that we have known each other since we started school at 5. We met up recently after nearly 3 years to catch up on things. She has had cancer & a wonderful surgeon who removed a huge ovarian tumour successfully against the advice of a GI colleague. She feels very lucky to be alive. The gardens are lovely, I always think how wonderful well grown veg can look. I think you’ll find that the pink flowers are echinacea, the cone flower. We have a large garden/arboretum near us which we have been visiting for over 20 years. For our 50th Wedding anniversary our children ‘adopted’ a tree ‘ for us. It is a young hickory that has bright yellow leaves in autumn – we were married in October. A summer highlight in Winchester and Southampton this year has been the Hare Trail. Large decorated hares have been placed around to raise money for the Parish Murray Trust which supports children’s services at Southampton hospital. You can probably see them online. I particularly admired the one that looked most like a real, if giant, animal. I took my 9 year old granddaughter to see them and she said that one looked like it was covered with chocolate icing! I wish it were staying. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before that I’ve discovered a new author, Melissa Harrison. She has written three novels which are different but all infused by the minute observation of the natural world in elegant style. she has won awards and effusive praise which I think well deserved, I can’t recommend the books highly enough. Reading has been an enormous support to me over these last difficult years ; I have no idea how I would have got through it without the escape provided by absorbing books. Re-discovering knitting has helped as well & of course television but reading remains the most important. Still hoping to go cruising again soon but I’m having a CT scan today with fingers crossed for the results!
I have old friends who are barely even acquaintances anymore. I have a dear, dear friend who is young enough to almost be my daughter yet we are as close as sisters. Our friendship is going on 30 years. Nigel and I celebrated our 46th anniversary this year, rather low key with concerns about covid, building a house, and just a general so what kind of attitude! We have actually been together since 1973 so almost 50 years…how can that be?
We have been watching True Blood which is a silly vampire series yet it’s rather interesting. We watched Elvis, but Nigel didn’t really like it. I thought it was fabulous, but then I do love a Baz Luhrman film!
You look lovely in this length hair, but you are also lovely with longer hair. You should wear what makes you feel best. That can change from time to time, right!
Take care, Penny! I always love to read about your life!
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