ROSS and HARRY take a walk on the wild side!

One of our favourite walks where I can let the boys off the lead so that they can go ferreting around the woods and fields to their hearts' content! Good exercise for ALL involved!! and great 'thinking time' before the 21st Century demands of the day take over.

Uncle Joe...

My Uncle Joe was training to become an accountant in 1939 when a nasty little Austrian man decided to lead German troops across the Polish border and the die was cast that Uncle 'J''s life would take another course altogether.

He signed up for the R.A.F. and put himself forward for pilot training, but the service in its' wisdom felt he would make a better Radio Operator.

He was then posted to Bomber Command and a crew flying in a Halifax Bomber. They initially flew out of Linton in Yorkshire, bombing targets on mainland Europe. Then were moved upto Scotland on a special mission, to bomb the pocket battleship, "TIRPITZ" which lay at anchor in a Norwegian Fjord.

Following that, he got his orders that half the squadron would move out to the middle east (Egypt) to haress and bomb German and Italian targets around the Med. It was on one of these missions bombing a Luftwaffe base on occupied Crete that his plane was attacked by German fighter aircraft (I found this out from talking with one of the crew in the plane immediately behind Uncle Joe's - he's in his 80's now). The aircraft was seen to go down with only two parachutes deploying (the other crew must have died horrifically as the plane caught light).

He and another man landed safely on occupied Crete (well the other fellow had some breakages), with German troops hunting for them. They were very lucky in that a Cretan shepherd tending his sheep, was involved in the resistance and found them. He led them to a resistance group hiding in the hills. The group were a mixture of Cretans and SOE agents (Special Operation Executive) who harrassed the Germans through kidnapping officers and sabotage, harrassment and assassination. They couldn't believe their luck when a fully trained Radio Op (they were so rare to get hold of) almost fell into their laps from the heavens above! Uncle Joe was officially seconded into SOE and remained working with them for over a year. For this he was decorated with the MM (Military Medal) by King George VI at Buckingham Palace.

As you will see from his wedding photos, his unexpectected tour with SOE on Occupied Crete really took its' toll on him, as he doesn't look well at all.

Other photos are of him with his pals in the service just enjoying life and letting their hair down.

PS: Just popped a pic of me alongside Uncle Joe when we were roughly the same age (he was flying out of Linton then in the early 40's).

Bedtime Story Reading at Paddy's Cocktail Lounge

Are you ALL sitting comfortably by the open log fire in Paddy's Cocktail Lounge...? Cocoa or hot milk at the ready? Jim Jams ON...? Teddy Bear's to hand...? Light's dimmed?

Hold tight, because I'm going to take you on a long-loooooong journey to a faraway land with a little boy called 'Max.' Just before I do, squint your eyes and look around your bedroom, as you might, just MIGHT, see that the wall-paper is beginning to change into trees and vegetation, the light is transforming into a moon-like object burning in the sky like an orb over the sea and the carpets are turning to grass, and... 'if' that is so, ...

THEN...I shall begin...

Vintage Bedtime Lounge Wear - Lighten up the Night

Lounge Wear around the home, at After Dinner Parties or even on the Beach (Beach Pyjamas of the 20's and 30's) is ALL very De Rigeur for us followers of Vintage Fashion. Why throw on an old tee-shirt and underwear, when YOU CAN DRESS for the occasion of entering the Land of Nod or just that special ME TIME around the house after a hectic day or night?

I LOVE vintage PJ's or Jim Jams. And the great thing is THEY ARE unisex folks!! Nothing sexier than seeing Louise Brooks of silver screen fame, donning a pair of pyjamas. And more recently with the promotion of the movie COCO, the very poster shows Madamoiselle CHANEL in her PJ's. Is this a RENAISSANCE I see before me?

Even the fashion companies such as RRL; Klein and Boden have switched onto this idea that PJ's can be relaxing as a modern form of Lounge Wear (whereby they sell just the bottoms - I know..a compromise) . Little do they know (as we know) that they've been sported by the IT CROWD of the Golden Era well over half-a-century ago.

So recently, when I had the chance to snap up two pairs of vintage men's PJ's from the exclusive London Knightsbridge store, Harrods, well, before you could shout BED-TIME...they were in my possession!!

And 'trust me,' there's nothing as relaxing as throwing off the day's work togs, and donning one's PJ's with a cocktail or Hot Cocoa, a good book and some of your fav music in the background - sheer BLISS! Whether it's the lady in her silk, or a gentleman in his flannels, you can still look GREAT and chilled in a pair of Old Fashioned PJ's.

And at the SUMMER 38 event last August down in rural, leafy England, after one of the black tie dinners, the gang were invited to dress in Bed Wear for the last few dances and before the National Anthem signalled the end of a wonderful vintagesque evening. What FUN!!

Does size really matter to men these days?

WELL CERTAINLY in the watch department it does seem to. As modern day watches have seen a growth in size whereby they can dwarf those with spindly wrists. Does this say something about the psyche of the modern male I wonder? Men who drive BIG CARS ..etc are compensating for smaller areas in their life...just speculating!

What I do know is that in the 30's and 40's, there was a fashion for men, REAL MEN ..like Bogart, Grant..etc, to sport a smaller, daintier sized watch that in today's world would be seen as a woman's watch. They were 'generally' pretty small watches!!

I am now the proud owner of a couple of original 30's men's watches, but also one of the more modern 'large' watches (albeit, modelled on a 30's military dive watch of the Italian Navy). What a contrast, and I seem to choose them according to how I feel on the day. Little and LARGE eh!! How fashions change, and I wonder WHY the fashion for larger watches has taken over from the day that men wore smaller time pieces on their wrists, that 'today' might be classed as effeminate.

And yes, I admit that when I wear the BIG WATCH I am over compensating for my smaller parts - I'm MAN ENOUGH to admit it. My feet have always been quite dainty!!

Just found this today.

Beautiful old Hollywood 'Golden Era' studio photo of 30's starlet, Norma Shearer, framed in the most gorgeous old vintage frame. The string at the back has rotted away, so I need to replace that (easily done). Now just have to find a place to hang it and give Norma her place.

Funny how some things are just 'meant to be...' I've always liked Norma and even went to see her little hand-prints on the pavement at Hollywood and Vine, and now 'this!'

A land of Castles, Mountains and Beaches...

THE area that I live in currently has more castles in it that any other place in the UK. It has been fought over time-and-time again throughout the ages. The legacy of this bloodlust are the ruins of fortifications and castles dotted around this varied land of mountains, hills, rivers and beaches. The one's I've photographed are, Alnwick; Dunstanburgh and Warkworth Castles (all of which I believe have been used in movies of one sort or another, ie: Alnwick in Harry Potter as Hogwarts and Elizabeth ).