Monday 6 August 2007

I've been Bloomsburied



Give me two hot days in summer and my whole attitude to clothes changes. Without really noticing I drift into soft cotton and starched linen, a floppy hat pulled rakishly over my ears. Yesterday I even wore lipstick down the allotment, where there is only the odd rabbit and scarecrow to see me. I don’t count the Loic look alike who works the plot next to mine. Best not to catch his eye if you want to avoid long and boring conversations about sprouts.


All autumn and winter I happily slop around with mud splattered trousers tucked into my boots, but hot sunny weather has me squeezing into diaphanous fabrics. In winter or wet weather I shop with local charities. Give me a warm summer breeze and I dig into the depths of my wardrobe. In a flash I’m under the apple tree sighing romantically into my gin and toxic, wafting clouds of Muguet perfume, as sensuous as any Arthur Rackham fairy.


In your dreams woman!


Actually, I’ve been drifting around in a voluminous blue number I bought back in April, when the promise was a long and steaming summer. I’ll need to get as much wear out of it as I can, else I’ll be stuck with another dratted frock in the back of my wardrobe It will lurk there until it’s so completely out of fashion even my local charity shop won‘t take it. Yes, that's happened to me, but I eventually flogged that item as ‘vintage’ on eBay.


Now I need to repeat to myself,


“No more buying clothes on impulse”. Now where did I put that Boden catalogue.


(The painting is 'July Sunlight' by Douglas Stannus Grey)

17 comments:

patsy said...

Enjoy floating around while you can LWB, sounds cool and comfortable!

Unknown said...

I've got a wardrobe full of stuff I don't / can't wear - mostly because they're all too small ... but it's ok, I'm going to lose loads of weight soon and then I can wear them all again ... who cares if they're fashionable or not??

Are you quite sure you don't have the hots for the Loic lookalike? Would certainly explain the lipstick!!

Posie said...

Oh and the rain has arrived here, so very envious of you floating around. I always get completely lost in what to wear as the seasons change, especailly when summer comes and the layers get stripped off, and the skin is that bright white colour!!

Suffolkmum said...

I love floaty summer stuff too - I love the painting. I also spend about 9 months of the year in jeans and wellies, it's very liberating to be in soft clothes again!

Pondside said...

I can just picture you wafting about the garden, languid posture, air of gentle detachment! I do hope you get to wear the dress often! I bought an outrageously expensive Indian cotton number back in February because it said SUMMER to me. I've worn it once, and my pale limbs sticking out of top and bottom looked so, so wrong.

bodran... said...

I'm at this moment in white cheesecloth, it will soon be beige or green or some other mucky colour!!

Un Peu Loufoque said...

Love the painting !! Ah yes to be teh hiehgt nad shape to wear something long and languid in linen11 Here watch it I will ahve you know Loic is getting to be quite a catch!!

Sally Townsend said...

Living in a black monsoon dress, cleaning, gardening, pottering AND the beauty of it is it does not need ironing (so say's me)now feeling perturbed that I do not own one single item of Boden !

snailbeachshepherdess said...

I've got some of those dresses in the back of the wardrobe...when did you peek in? Have just been all the way down to 'Big Knickers'...nearly needed some...Hell I have just laughed so much!! Lovely picture!

Anonymous said...

I have decided to keep all my clothes together - you just never know what to wear one day to the next.

I daren't put floaty summery clothes on or I might look like a tent.

Crystal xx

laurie said...

are there more magical words around than "blue linen"?

CAMILLA said...

Love the painting. I love to have an excuse for dressing up, but I usually wear trousers and shirts,usually covered in some sort of mud if the dogs have their way. Sooo hot yesterday, I wore a thin floaty thing, anything to keep cool I thought.

Camilla.x

toady said...

I'm a jeans and tee shirt kind of gal. I'm always tempted by linen when shopping but know that if I've got to iron it it'll stay in the bottom of the basket for ever.

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

love the picture and the sentiment. i spend far too much time in either jeans and t shirts or work suits and far too little floating about in linen dresses. i shall model myself on you and wear lipstick to cut back my raspberries!

Westerwitch/Headmistress said...

Oh dear I bought short leggings and some little floaty tops . . . I have barely worn them . . .same as you bought them back in June when the weather was hot - then it rained the next day and the next and the next and now it is cold as well. So next summer when I am digging into the back of the wardrobe I shall think of you.

Cait O'Connor said...

I am the same. I love wearing skirts and dresses in the summer. Long, floaty ones of course that cover up well!

Fennie said...

Lovely blog. I share the sentiments entirely. I love the chance to go barefoot on hot summer days and be loose (well in the clothing department) and carefree.