What I did in February

 Hello my lovelies!

Oh my, I cannot believe it’s time for my monthly round up already, time really does speed up as you age.  And how cruel is that, stealing this precious commodity from those who really don’t have an abundance of it.  Couldn’t He just tweak things so that OAP time has more elasticity?

The month started with a stephdaughter arriving for a long weekend.

This was her room. I do like the white velour quilted bedspread, a purchase last year from Amazon.

It keeps the bedding dust free when not in use, and is easy on the eye too.

Not so easy on the eye is me with no make up!

A black cashmere V and warm khaki jeggings has become my sorta day to day uniform for the winter. 

A slightly posher iteration of jumper and jeans is this. 

I slipped out of uniform for a family restaurant lunch. This pretty green long line jumper and my old Berry coated jeans has become a favourite go to outfit in recent months. Sorry to bore you, but not sorry.

I choose one-two starters at most restaurants these days.  Easier on the tum.  Prawn cocktail is always my starter of choice at this restaurant.

The other starter was spring rolls, very filling.

We took TP’s daughter to meet up with a friend of decades.  They’ve not met before, but got on like a house on fire. They have a common interest in literature, my stepdaughter being a published author and my friend a committee member of our local literary festival.

Call me weird, but I seem to always take visitors to one island burial chamber or another.

But my stepdaughter actually requested she be taken to this Stone Age burial site!

This is a large piece of granite from a nearby quarry, which was erected in 1999, and was unveiled by our dear Queen Elizabeth II the following year to mark the new millennium. 

My kindly stepdaughter brought me a bottle of Salcombe gin. It was rather delicious but sadly we can’t source it locally. 

But not all days is what alcohol fueled! We managed to down a few hot chocolates as the weather was very cold whilst she was here.

So on cold days, it’s really nice to have signs of spring in the house, like these uplifting daffodils.

But not all days are gin and daffodils.  Minor health issues needed to be addressed.

My torso is prone to ugly cysts.  I looked up the condition and in small imprint under the fancy Greek name was its street name, Senile Warts .  Ugghhh!

They’re not sinister but my doc recommended I have the worst of the bunch removed, which was an easy process.

Let’s move on to more pleasant stuff. 

We went to the cinema for the premier viewing of Mad About The Boy, the new Bridget Jones film.   It’s release was on 14 Feb., fitting, and it seems half of Guernsey’s aging population had the same idea as me of a romantic Val Day movie date, the matinee was absolutely packed with those of a certain age.  And yes, mostly female but TP is cool with that!

The film is well worth a viewing . 

My take on her kitchen in the film can be seen 

by clicking HERE.  

Yes, I’m Mad About Bridge again, 25 years on!

My ducks returned for their daily nosh, as they do every early spring. 

This felt appropriate for a family birthday lunch mid February. 

Longline grey cashmere jumper and the old fave berry coated jeans. 

It was sunny but chilly so I added a grey bouanet (hat) for the short walk to Son’s house.  I also slung on a gilet for the walk, not pic’ed. 

We enjoyed a fab chicken roastie to celebrate a special birthday. 

TP looked happy with his plate. 

And no birthday is complete without a yummy cake!

February was a bit of a medical overhaul.  I also needed antibiotics for yet another cyst. 

 It was in an area I couldn’t see so I got TP to take daily photos so I could monitor progress.  It wasn’t the sort of photo shoot TP had in mind. 

Another lunch, this time with dear ex-neighbours.

And yup, I reached for my go-to green and berry combo again. 

I may seem to be wearing this on repeat right now but this feels so right for someone my age, at this time of year, doing this sort of lunchy stuff. 

Do you have an absolute go-to outfit right now?  One you’re wearing on repeat like me?

I also discovered specs make a face more interesting.

If you wear specs, do you prefer your look with or without specs?

Yes, another lunch date cropped up in the month.  The operation to surgically extract me from my green and berry uniform seemed successful as on this day I reached out to a classic all black outfit.  My black cashmere jumper polo neck and black coated jeans seemed appropriate. 

Brightened up with an old silk scarf and cross body, and big bold pearls. 

An old knitted Zara jacket kept the chill off.

And it has a hood!

TP got himself a fine old project in February. 

He started cleaning up and repairing old 

clocks we have around the house.  

This is a commemorative clock from 1898, given to a retiring policeman in the family. 

I wish he’d taken a before shot to compare, but maybe not as the face was embarrassingly grimy,  err, let’s change that to “it had a charmingly aged patina” ! 

It didn’t work.  And now it does.  I’ll explain how he fixed this and two other clocks in another post. 

It started warming up towards the end of the month. 

I’ve focused on beach and headland walks to avoid fungi spores and leaf mold which I have developed an allergy to. 

Filling my lungs with the sea’s ozone seems to help. 

Soups seemed to be de rigeur during this cold month.  I make most of my soups from leftovers.  This one was leftover prawn curry which I called “seafood mulligatawny “.  

I just fry an onion, bung in the leftovers from the previous day’s meal and add some stock and seasonings, and maybe some cream and hey presto, it’s reinvented itself. 

Is this something you do?

My last outfit of the month was still based around the berry coated jeans and floral scarf faithfuls from my Accidental Capsule, but I brought in this cream cardi and jumper twin set, lighter for the defrosting weather.  I can’t remember what it replaced but when I do my spring capsule overhaul sometime this month I’m sure I’ll discover what I ditched!

So that’s February done. 

I hope the month was good for you.

A la perchoine,

Mary x.