Vronni's Style Meanderings

Look - a sunflower! Probably courtesy of one of the birds who feed at my bird feeding station - they dropped a seed and it grew and grew. We used to have a huge sunflower on the other side of this one but after several years it has ceased to bloom. That's okay we have a replacement now.  A Saturday outfit. All jewellery charity shopped. This outfit excluding the jewellery cost 7.98 in total! Trousers from Tesco; 99p rail at Barnardo's in Ampthill; tunic Tesco Outlet 5.00; jacket, 99p rail Age UK, Wellingborough. Pumps; 99p at Barnardo's Great Denham. Scarf, present from my friend; Natalie. On Saturday 16th, OH suggested a visit to Emmaeus which is in a village called Carlton about 10 miles from Bedford. Emmaeus is  a UK based charity and community working together to help the homeless. It was originally started by the Abbe Pierre in France but there is a network of shops all over the UK.  They sell mostly second hand stuff but very little clothing!  H

I'm now well and truly back to my 'normal' life and it prompted me to think about some differences that I noticed  between here and Ireland and to tell you about some differences I am making in my life... First, it gets darker later in Donegal. When I first arrived in early July it wasn't getting dark until 11pm; then 10pm and the week we left it was dark by 9pm. I notice it's dark here by 8pm. This is known as a boreen in Ireland - a little narrow country road often with grass growing up the middle of it! The second thing is the difference in the country side between here and Ireland. Of course, there are similarities, too. The fields in Ireland seem larger but I think this is due to the lack of hedgerows dividing the fields. I don't think Ireland was affected by the Enclosures Act of the eighteenth century in the same way as England was. Some fields in Ireland have dry stone walls as enclosures and some have wire fences but mostly there seems to be li

Hello again everyone! I hope you've had a wonderful summer. Back to life, back to reality is the title of a song by Soul II Soul and it perfectly sums up how I felt on my return to the UK last weekend! After eight weeks of holidaying in Ireland with no responsibilities, no commitments and just the need to amuse myself, it was back to household chores; volunteering, grand parenting, school runs, Lidl and Sainsbury's shopping, child minding etc etc. As you can tell I had the most marvellous time in Ireland and I really didn't want to leave. I did miss the children and grandchildren terribly, though... The photo above was taken on our last day in Donegal and it turned out to be a lovely sunny day. I'm wearing my (charity shopped) Primarni kimono over charity shopped green top and trousers. I bought the necklace in a Derry charity shop for £3.00. Here I am with my cousin Doirin and her husband, John. We went out for a farewell meal on our last evening.