What I Saw On The Way To The Hairdressers

Hello sweeties, how's your Friday been?

Here it's been mostly trying to catch up on sleep after the all-nighter that was the UK election.  I don't get to vote (though with my DNA credentials I should be given an honorary vote!).  I am interested in politics, though, local, UK and global, so I had very little sleep last night.  And apart from doing the school run today, making lunch and some grocery shopping, I have mainly drifted into snoozeville throughout the day.

So as a Slobby-Pout quick fix I took a few OOTD selfies and applied them to a haircut post I'd already drafted. And that is my solution for posting on a day when I am drifting in and out of slumber.

Did you do an election all-nighter?  And how are you feeling today?

A nippy start to the day found me slipping on some cooler day clothes, black Per Una jeans, Peacocks stone camisole under M&S linen mix stone cardi.  Clarks metallic flatties and some East charcoal/mauve-ish beads finished off my look.  I was aiming for "school run yummy-mummy" ... did I get anywhere near?!!

Back to my recent haircut day.  The trip to the hairdressers started like this.

A cut is definitely needed - just look at that fringe!u

I'm fortunate in having a hairdresser who "gets" my hair and is just a short walk away from home.  The walk is through quiet little lanes, where you are only infrequently passed by a car.  We call these quiet lanes ruettes tranquilles.

Here's what I saw along the way.



On the right, a defunct greenhouse, a sobering memorial to the tasty Guernsey Tomato. 

 But some growing is still going on and there are always things to be found for sale along the hedges.

Even a kitchen!

But these adorable ponies are not for sale!

So, home, after my trim.  No change?  Believe me, it was much tidier!

My hairdresser cuts my hair in a way that allows me to "see my public" immediately after!  I like that it doesn't look particularly "different" after a cut, just a tidier version of the pre-cut me.

A friend once told me "I'm having my hair done today so do you fancy going out tonight?"

That sounded so weird to me because for most of my life I have either gone home and immediately washed out the hairdresser's creation and started again, my way, or in some extreme cases pulled myself out of public circulation for a couple of weeks until it grows out a bit.

But I'm finding that with this hairdresser, I feel acceptable after a cut and don't mind being "on view".  I'd even go out immediately after, if only I had an invite (TP - big hint/plea there!)   

But just in case I have second thoughts, my gigantic Solar Shields allow me to walk the ruettes incognito!

One of my top tips to self is to ask for a dry cut.  Sadly it does reduce my Hello! reading time but does save a little bit of money and because my hair isn't washed and conditioned to within a millimetre of its follicled life, I don't come home looking like a flat pancake has been placed on my head.  My hair clearly performs better dirty!

It sounds a bit, well, pensioner, asking for a dry cut, but that is who I am and where I am right now.

Where do you stand?  Wet or dry cut?

My hair has been bobbed or long through most of my adult life, apart a few short-cut blips along the way.  I'm intrigued to know if you've had lots of hairstyles over the years or just one or two, like me.  And have you made changes to your style as you arrive at a certain age?  Like gone shorter?  I have.

Do you still colour or have you let the grey come through?  You can see what I'm up to, hair -wise, via this blog, but I'd love to hear more about your crowning glory.  I'm nosey intrigued.

And how do you feel immediately after your hair has been cut?

Can you face your public?

Or do you hide away until it grows out a bit?

A la perchoine.

(Not So) Lazy Sunday Afternoon

"Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I've got no mind to worry

Close my eyes and drift away"

That's the way I'd planned it.  The Photographer had other ideas.

He bought me a present.  These top-of-the-range neoprene gardening gloves.

I tried to respond with enthusiasm and gratefulness.

He then directed me to my gardening cloggies (bought in Holland a few years' ago)

And I was put to work.

I emptied last year's pots and hanging baskets.  Cleaned and washed them.  Recycled any reusable plants.  As quickly as he dug up the self-seeding agapanthus, I busied myself potting them up.  Because he likes them.

Bertie was even sent out to check that I was working hard.

Finally I was freed from my labours.   I hastily changed out of my gardening clothes before he changed his mind.  And I scarpered!  To enjoy a Lazy Sunday afternoon walk around my Hood.

I hastily slung on a Woolovers cashmere/merino sweater over Peacock crops and Clarks sandals.

Feeling smug with myself after my labours, I perked myself up with this lovely grey hand-painted scarf which I won on Janice's blogsite, here.  She's taking a break from blogging.  I am missing her already.  I was a daily visitor to her very special blog.

Ready for walking around the Hood's ruettes.

(I apologise for my hair, I had been slaving away in the garden all morning, folks!)

I met Henry, the Hood Cat.  He's so friendly and he pops up just about anywhere in the hood.  Last summer he spent happy kitten times on The Photographer's shoulders as we walked the lanes.  This year he seems to have grown up.  He was far too busy to spend more than a short stroking time with us.

So the rest of the walk was spent without my cute feline companion.

The hedgerows are filling out with lightening speed.

Wild honeysuckle is everywhere.

There are hills to climb - OK, hillettes!

Big eucalyptus trees' shade to walk under.

Celandine-filled fields to wade through.

Wild flowers to admire.

In just a few short weeks all this wild loveliness will be cut back.  Such a shame.  But it's a requirement to do this twice during the summer months and the parish constables tour the roads and ruettes to check that we are law-abiding citizens.  First check is mid-June.

Plants to choose to fill the now-empty pots and hanging baskets back on the Pout Estate.

Luckily I nabbed the last two punnets of strawberries on the Hood's hedge stall.

They'll be nice with a dollop of cream for afternoon tea!

These stalls operate with what the English call honesty boxes.  You are trusted to leave money when taking goods.  

We broadly call them hedge veg.  Because it rhymes.

Maybe a few freshly-laid eggs would be nice too ...

It's a pretty nice hood.

So, peeps.  That's how I spent my Sunday.  Work.  Play.  Eat.  Not much lazing.  Not quite the Lazy Sunday I'd planned, but nice all the same.

Hope you've managed to have a nice Lazy Sunday Afternoon.

What have you been up to?

Has it been a sunny day where you are?

A la perchoine.