Is there a happier moment in my day than when I open my mailbox and discover several books which I have ordered ! Today I received How To Cook A Wolf by M.K.Fisher and To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear. ***sigh****

I'm about to order the new Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes books. ****sigh****

Lovely to log on this cold wet Autumn morning and get a laugh from the hats!

Vee, wasn't that the hat that Princess Beatrice wore which was auctioned and raised a lot of money for charity? I got hungry seeing the "Full English Breakfast" one! I am too lazy to cook in the mornings and just have cereal or toast...

Nothing like a fascinator to brighten up the morning Annpan, especially when not indulging in the calorie-laden 'full English'. Didn't know Princess B (or was that Princess E?) raffled off that pretzel look-alike.

And on the subject of PB and PE plus the glimpse of a couple of fascinators . . .

Watch the Windsors for a couple of minutes

Re: full English.....beans and a tomato ? Foods usually not found on a breakfast plate in US. Interesting.

On the subject of hats and Windsors ... there's a Royal Hat blog that I've enjoyed very much. The range of headgear is amazing, particularly the hats worn at the Royal Ascot races. As a generally non-hat wearing American, I'm fascinated.

Royal Hats https://royalhats.wordpress.com/

yoyo, yes the full English often includes grilled tomatoes and baked beans . . . bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, black pudding, fried bread and, if there is room on the plate a portion of chips/fries. These days it is often an 'all day' option at cafés, truck stops etc. Usually washed down with a large mug of strong tea.

Sheri, we had to wear the hated hat as part of our school uniform (felt in Winter straw in Summer) but since then have only worn one at DD's winter wedding. There is something to be said for the, by now, deeply unfashionable head scarf so long favoured by HMQ and Princess Margaret. HM used to wear one while out riding; no safety helmet for her!

Vee, I confess, I am a huge fan of British royalty and I'm simply in awe of the Queen. She is one tough and elegant lady whether she's wearing a crown, an elaborate hat, or Hermes head scarf.

When my sisters and I were small, my mother made us wear hats on Easter Sunday, but that went out of fashion ages ago. I did have delusions of coolness in high school and occasionally wore an old fedora that I'd snagged from a school production of "Harvey", thinking it made me look artistic and edgy (or, more likely, just painfully silly). These days the only hats I wear are baseball caps (great for shading your face while gardening) and knit winter hats if it's horribly cold. Elegant hats on other people, particularly at fancy events, are very nice!

I am about to start Fiona Davis's book "The Address." It is about the Dakota building in NYC.

Isn't the Dakota building in NYC that spooky monstrosity that was in "Rosemary's Baby"? Amazing architecture -- wonder who the architect was.

I remember the popularity of the silk head scarf. That even caught on in the '60's in the US. I had a gorgeous scarf from Liberty of London.

wood,

here is a link to the building's Wikipedia page

Most famously known (to my generation/ Gen Xers) as the site of John Lennon's killing at its entrance.

tackykat, interesting about the Dakota building.

Mary re Liberties. They used to have the most amazing selection of fabrics back in the day (they may still have them I haven't been there for years) It was possible to buy lengths of good quality cotton with 'designer' patterns for a few bob, which were easy to make into the Mary Quant type simple dresses of the late 60/70's.

The building is also interesting as much of it was made incorporating ship's timbers,

Liberty Department Store

Sheri, I also wear a woolly knitted hat in the winter. It is surprising how many women refuse to wear them, even in the coldest weather, in case it messes up their hair-dos. I am not so proud and am keen to keep my ears warm. Oh! and I do have a floppy sunhat on 'standby'; just in case.

tacky and vee, thank you both for your diverse postings. Tacky I, too, remember John Lennon, as I was an ardent fan.

Vee, what an amazing building. I missed it when I was in London. I found the Arts & Crafts connection interesting (Ruskin, et al.).

Vee, I'm almost afraid to ask but what is " black pudding " ? All that comes to mind is blood pudding literally made from pig's blood.

It's not usually cold enough here to require a knitted hat, but on the rare occasions that it is, I wear one. I also wear a hat with a brim when gardening if I remember, and when I go for a walk as well. I have very fair skin and I burn easily, which I do not like.

Liberty prints these days are very expensive to buy. They cost about twice as much as other printed cottons do. Of course they are printed on higher quality griege goods. I'm showing off a bit here, courtesy of a fabric course I took. "Greige goods" is the name of the unbleached, undyed, unprinted cotton base fabric. According to our professor, despite the spelling it is correctly pronounced "gray". This made me smile when I was researching colors to repaint the rooms of our house. I ran across a couple of articles that said that color trends are beginning to move away from gray to griege. By this they meant a color between gray and tan, but if they pronounce it correctly no one will have any idea what they are saying.

>>smirk<<

BTW, I selected paint for most rooms in a bright warm white, and for the bedrooms a very pale warm yellow. No griege in my house!

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, yesterday I went with the contractor's shopping consultant to choose stuff for the remodeling job I'm having done to build a laundry room and a powder room across the front wall of the garage. The first stop was a tile and flooring store. When I said I don't like gray or fake wood grain, I was surprised at how that limited my choice. Almost everything in the store was one or both. Eventually I chose a medium brown wood look as the lesser of evils.

Then we went to select bathroom fixtures where almost all the faucets and lighting was in brushed nickel or chrome. I like WARM colors, and I'm too old to change! I was successful in getting brass, but the choices were few.

Carolyn, I hope it is non-tarnishing brass! I still remember the chore of cleaning a brass fender at my Grandmother's house.

A friend was staying in a very upmarket British hotel and the fender was so dull! No more maids doing the brasswork there but in Asian hotels it is still done, I noticed.

Annpan, so-called non-tarnishing brass seems to acquire that 'property' by having a thin layer of some sort of plastic coating added to it.

We live in an old house facing on to a very busy main road and our heavy front door has what is known in the trade as 'brass furniture' ie door knob, knocker, house number plus letter box so small that a post card can arrive on the mat folded in half. It also bears the instruction LETTERS which is almost worn away with years of polishing by house-maids. The amount of pollution from all the passing vehicles has made the brass lose its sheen.

As I am the next best thing to a house-maid do you think if I polished it every day I might become the 'ruler of the Queen's Nav-ee'?

yoyo, black pudding or the French boudin noir is served at breakfast and is made partly using pig's blood plus oats and fat to bind. Recommended as a good source of iron for those who are anemic. Goes back to the days when no part of an animal was wasted. One of those love it hate it foods. ;-)

Rose, I thought that color between gray and tan was called taupe. :) At least, it used to be. No gray in my house, either! Bleh. Carolyn, I don't care for fake-woodgrain tile, either, but it is currently exceedingly popular!

I'm working on A Gentleman in Moscow. It often requires a lot of concentration to follow his flowery prose, but when I'm undisturbed and can really get into it I'm enjoying it. I doubt I'll finish it before it's due. The good thing about e-books is that when I can check it out again it will remember where I was!

Donna

Donna - I didn't know that e-books, when checked out a second time, will remember where you left off. I never even imagined it. (I don't check them out much.)

Yes, Kathy - it's very helpful!

Well, Donna, we should start a Haters of Gray movement. At least there is a slight veering away from black everything.

I finished The Long, Long Trail from the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles this afternoon. The next one is due out on June 28, but my library is slow to get her books and doesn't have any of the Morland Dynasty series. Maybe I will leave my complete paperback set to them in my will. They do have the Bill Slider books, thank goodness.

MsMeow, Like you I also say describe the color between gray and tan as 'taupe'. I suspect that calling it 'griege' is an attempt to rebrand a traditional color and make it seem new and fresh. It is just amusing that they chose that particular name.

I must be really strange --- I find gray/grey a nice, soothing, restful color. I like it especially with touches of sterling silver and cream in home decor. I find it elegant, as well. I tend to be a low key person anyhow, and choose neutrals in clothing and walls. There is a particular shade of light blueish grey that was in the 1920's home I grew up in, in Atlanta, which my parents had chosen for the living room. A chaq'un son gout....

No, Mary, it is we who don't like gray that are strange. It is one of the most popular colors now, along with silver jewelry. The house behind me is newly painted pale gray with cream trim. My own favorite colors are yellow, aqua, peach, pale green, and a rich cream--all the spring colors which are also my clothing choices. I have brown eyes and formerly had streaky honey blonde hair, (now so white I glow in the dark).

A person's choice of color, to live with or to wear is a very individual thing. The only color choice that brands someone as "strange" in my world is when they decide to paint their home purple and force their neighbors across the street to have to look at it every day.

I lived in a beachside place once where a man had painted his large house pink. He was a decorated WW2 war hero who had been on a very secret and dangerous mission and no one laughed at his colour choice! In fact we pointed out the place to visitors with pride.

LOL......beachside + pink house = totally appropriate, pass the margaritas !

Upstate New York + purple house = ugly eyesore ( imo)

In England the county to go for pinkness is Suffolk in East Anglia. Many old villages with half-timbered houses which are often partly covered in 'pargetting' an old tradition of wall designs being laid into wet lime-plaster.

Most attractive.

Some Suffolk Villages

Also worth scrolling down to 'Mildenhall' and the finds now in its museum.

Those houses are amazing, Vee. there was only one that I did not like -- the brilliant, hot-pink one. I liked the softer shades of peach and pale pink -- very picturesque.

Yes, color choice is a very individual thing. My car’s color is called Volcanic Orange, and it’s adorable on my Mini. There is a house nearby painted the same color, and on a house it’s not so adorable. :)

Donna

Now and then, I drive by a house that is black. However, in our mostly gray weather, it doesn't look as awful as it sounds. It doesn't look great, but not horrible either. I'll have to check how does it look on a sunny day. A rare sunny day.

Donna,

Volcanic Orange? How dramatic is that?

I think of pink as a beachy or tropical house color, where it does seem to work well. Not so crazy about it in other places, but then I think people ought to be allowed to paint their houses pretty much color they like, even a color that makes me cringe.

We had a neighbor who painted his house purple. I didn't like it but thought it was his right to do so if he chose. Another neighbor (not us) complained, and the city made him repaint in a more sober color. I actually thought it was a pity. You can probably tell I don't much like HOA's. I can agree with a community setting as many safety standards as they deem appropriate, but don't think they ought to dictate aesthetics. However I seem to be in an increasingly minority view on this, at least in my part of the world.

Try living in my former area of the Cotswolds where the local regulations about house colour/paint work/building regs are very strict.

Recently tourists (via the Twittersphere) complained about a yellow car intruding into their photos . . . so various other yellow car owners arrived at the village and parked everywhere to lend support.

Since then the car in question has been vandalised probably in the dead of night by disgruntled well-heeled incomers.

Yellow Car

Many high end communities have very strict standards . You can't paint it any color you wish but must meet the guidelines set up by the association. You cannot leave your car in the driveway but must garage it. You cannot leave a motorhome or boat in your driveway either....and trash can only be taken to the curb in specified containers on specified days. Rules regarding lawn maintenance, garden appearance, decorations etc are also enforced by the Homeowners Associaton.

I spent a miserable year in a block of apartments ruled over by a Management Committee who were total miseries! Along with other restrictions, I wasn't supposed to have pets so we waged a war over my two. I know cats can't read so the fact that the Himalayan used to escape from our place and stretch out under the "No Pets" sign in the lobby couldn't have been an act of defiance, surely? :-)

Luckily the value of the apartment increased after I had renovated the run down rooms so I was able to sell at a good profit and move into a house after the year was up. To sell before that would have incurred a Government Tax which was why I put up with and fought against the nonsense.

I was delighted to find later that the Committee had been fining residents illegally for some supposed breaches and were ordered to return the money, PLUS interest! Yay!!

Vee, I love his little yellow car! :) I would have brought my Mini to lend support if I could.

There are neighborhoods in my area where the HOA dictates the houses must all be painted the same color. How boring is that?

There's a house near us that is bright salmon with hot pink trim. My DH cringes every time he passes it. LOL

Donna

In many high end communities (some are gated) other rules are that no hanging clothes out to dry on lines in yards, no flying of flags (even the American flag), no childrens' swings and other play paraphernalia placed in yards, no vegetable gardens in front yards, a certain type of mailbox must be appproved, and on and on and on.

Not very much old fashioned American individualism in these -- more like lemmings.

My neighborhood is decidedly middle class, but we have many of those rules. We can hang clothes on a line to dry, but it has to be a portable setup and be taken down between uses. Mailboxes are in pairs in concrete pillars between houses. We are also not supposed to park on the street (HA!) but if you have to, your car is supposed to be completely in the street and not partway on the grass. So, it can be quite the obstacle course driving down our streets due to the parked cars, many directly across the street from each other, leaving barely a car-width in between.

Donna

My neighborhood doesn't allow clotheslines outside, cars parked in the street overnight (though some are), or junk in the yards, but children's swing sets and the like are fine.

Donna, my grandson has an orange mini that he really likes.

I find yellow cars delightful.

In California, it is against state law to forbid the hanging of clothes outdoors. Apparently it is environmentally correct to do so. I just like the way it makes sheets smell. and that fact that clothes last longer if they are air-dried.

To me it is a no-brainer that in good weather clothes should be dried in the fresh air. I love the look of laundry blowing in the wind! Surely in these days of worry about the environment saving electricity . . . and money, must be a priority.

So you would think. My little sixth-class city tucked away in the larger city but with its own police, trash collection, and taxes in addition to county ones, was built in the late 60s to early 70s however and takes itself a bit seriously.

Vee, I certainly agree with you!

However, here in the states hanging clothes out of doors has strong negative connotations. It is associated with deep poverty. Many communities or neighborhoods try to ban it as lowering the value of the properties nearby. Also, I think the fact that many women work full time has made indoor dryers the norm. I am happy to have my dryer, and often fluff clothes on air with no heat for 10 minutes to soften the wrinkles before hanging them outdoors. Living in the midst of Silicon Valley as I do, no one is worried that I cannot afford a clothes dryer. I actually do believe in doing this, but I must admit to a delicious rebelliousness in flaunting what I see as a foolish trend.

One of my sisters always dries her clothes indoors because she has bad allergies, lives in a high pollen area, and wants to avoid getting pollen on her clothes. I can understand that. But my allergies are not as severe as hers, and I hang my clothes to dry a good deal of the time. Carolyn lives near that sister, so she may have similar pollen issues.

Rosefolly

Rose, no it isn't pollen; just the neighborhood tattletale police. I've always hung my clothes outside in nice weather prior to this house. Lah-ti-dah, you know.

Luckily, over here, there seems to be NO 'class consciousness' thing about outdoor washing lines. In fact being 'middle class' is not really about the so-called status money gives you . . . eg a recent arrival in our village, still a blue-collar area, has sold a successful business and with the money he made has bought a his-n-hers pair of Aston Martins, a top of the range Jag, plus something for the nanny to drive.

Of course the guy has every right to spend his money how he likes but locals look on, not in envy, but with slight disapproval over the conspicuous show of wealth. In the UK understatement is everything ;-)

So my British roots are where that comes from!

My ancestors have been in American long enough to shed anything British (or Irish or Scottish), but I still despise conspicuous designer labels. They seriously think that I am going to pay premium prices to advertise their products? Really?