MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 34

What on earth is going on, weather-wise? Yet another few inches of snow have been dumped on the bower, which is looking more like an igloo at the moment rather than the rose and clematis haven of summer. The daffodils, which were just about to bloom, have become bent and spoilt under a snowy coat, whilst the crocuses have more or less given up. A week ago, the weather was perfect – although the wind was a bit chilly, the sun was warming and Hatfield Forest was a joy, with the mallards pairing up and the coots pottering around busily.

I’ve spent a couple of days sorting out my jewellery. Now, before you become too excited, in my case ‘jewellery’ actually means, in the words of the song from the musical Kismet, ‘Baubles, bangles, bright shiny beads’. I’m very fond of beads, probably due to spending most of the mid-sixties and early seventies with several strings of them around my neck – as well as a hippy cow bell, though perhaps we won’t go into that!  That was a great time, wasn’t it? Before the hippy scene became seedy and disreputable? When it started out, girls were wearing flowers and giving them to passers-by – it was initially a gentle trend.

‘If you’re going to San Francisco,

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you’re going to San Francisco,

You’re going to meet some gentle people there.’

Twiggy Doll

Thus sang Scott McKenzie in 1967, and though not many 1960s’ British teens could afford to go abroad to San Francisco (we couldn’t even afford to hop across the channel to France), it was fun to pretend, and fun to perplex our parents by dressing up in kaftans, smocks and cheesecloth blouses. Boutiques in the King’s Road and Carnaby Street, as well as the ubiquitous C&A store which could be found in every high street, stocked cotton mini dresses and gauzy maxi dresses, which we teemed with sandals or trendy white boots. (In my case, white wellies as I couldn’t afford leather boots! Actually, the wellington boot manufactures very cleverly latched on to the trend and produced short welly boots in white, cream or beige for all of us would-be Twiggys.) We must have looked mad, clumping around, but we thought we were the bee’s pyjamas. Later came psychedelic designs for clothing, in shades of lime, citrus yellow and ‘shocking pink’, as well as the op-art influenced black-and-white plastic raincoats which made your eyes go funny if you stared at them for too long. I still have my op-art mac – it doesn’t fit me now, of course, but it’s a super memory of a carefree youth.

Most of my beads are kept in a large pretty box. They are mainly made from colourful plastic though I do have a few strings of wooden ones as well. It’s so easy to throw on a string or two of beads, unlike a necklace where you spend ages fiddling with a stubborn clasp. Do you remember the plastic popper beads of the 1950s? I was given some when I was a child. They were a great novelty; it was enormous fun to have a long necklace, and, then, by removing some of the beads, make it shorter. And it was a good thing to twiddle with too – each bead had a hole and a peg, and when you pulled the peg from the hole it made a satisfying ‘pop’. We were easily amused back then!  I also had a necklace made from pink, yellow, blue and white plastic daisies which popped together. About thirty years later when my daughter was small, I found an identical necklace in a toy shop – it must have been a popular line to stay in production for so long. I love bangles too. You can buy packs of ten for a couple of pounds in the chain stores, and they jingle very satisfactorily as you move your arms. I like the wider ones as well, which are often decorated with patterns or flowers. When – if – summer ever returns so we can go around with our arms bare, a few bangles look attractive against the bare skin, they don’t seem to look so good with thick jumpers!

There is something of a hippy trend in the shops at the moment, and I have started a sixties’ panel in the kitchen, decorated with signs such as ‘Love’, ‘Peace’, ‘Love Is All You Need’ and ‘Believe’. I found most of these signs in our local garden centre, which has really embraced the movement and hangs beads, signs and 1960s-type decorations from a tree in the gift shop. What I would really like is one which paraphrases the Beatles song to read, ‘Give peas a chance’! That would really be appropriate for the kitchen.

This seems to have been a really convoluted blog entry, and so leads on quite nicely to the news that, for the next few days, my Kindle book ‘Twisty Ends and Tangly Tales’ is on free promotion on Amazon. It’s a collection of short stories, most of which were previously published in women’s magazines during the  1990s and early 2000s, and the stories range from humour, through to romance and twists in the tails. I hope you like it, and if you do maybe you will consider leaving feedback on Amazon. Thank you very much!