Women's Hair Color

When you are walking down a busy street in London, it is not unusual to see women - both younger and older - who have dyed in a streak of a non-hair color somewhere in their hair - of pink, purple, or blue, for example. That dyed color is generally applied to any where from 10% to 35% of their hair, and is usually in a prominent position on the top and front of their heads.

Mary Lawson, Author

On Thursday evening I went to a presentation by the Canadian Women's Club to meet one of my favorite authors, Mary Lawson. With the Weston Library Book Group, I had read both of Mary's books Crow Lake and The Other side of the Bridge -- and I loved them both. Her stories were set in northern Ontario, and told stories of farmers and their families -- and the relationships between family members.

Mary talked about her background. She was born in Canada, but moved to England at the age of 22 in 1968, and has lived here ever since. She was a psychologist and a mom and a short story writer for many years before writing her novels.
As she described her writing process, the novels took her three to six years to finish. She also told of the many setbacks and frustrations she experienced in her attempts to get her first novel published. When I spoke with her individually, she mentioned that The Other Side of the Bridge was not selling as well as hoped in the U.S.
During her presentation, she also read excerpts from both novels. It was a real treat.

On the way to the presentation, I stopped at a book store and bought a copy of each of her books. (Mine were back home in Connecticut.) After her talk, she signed both of them for me.

Tonight was the closest I have come to being a 'groupie.' This is one author I was very excited about meeting, and the evening more than fulfilled all my expectations. The author was as interesting as her books were.

I was happy to hear she has started on a third novel.....

Gypsies

Last week, while Carl and I and our guests were driving through the Cotswold countryside in England (northwest of London), we saw some brightly painted wooden trailers parked along the side of the road, advertising Psychic Readings. When I asked about them, our guide said they belonged to gypsies.

I have always been curious about the phenomenon of gypsies in Europe - so I decided to learn something about the gypsies in England. On the internet, I discovered that Gypsies are considered to be a race of nomads who reached the British Isles in 1505. The Gypsies role in the British economy has been to provide seasonal employment on farms, harvesting fruits and vegetables in the late summer and early fall. They also engaged in other small trades, such as chair-bottoming, basket-making, rat-catching, wire-working, grinding, selling fruit, fish, and earthenware, and mending bellows. Gypsies also participated in entertainment. They danced, sang, and played musical instruments. However, the entertainment for which Gypsies are best known is fortune telling. Some believe that they have special psychic abilities.

Today, I discovered that Gypsies – or Travellers – have their own magazine and website! I have ordered a book to read, Gypsies and Travellers in their own words to learn more about their way of life throughout the generations.

Tapestries

I have always liked tapestries, but at home they are usually limited to upholstery fabrics.

That is not so here in England. Tapestries are sold in many of the church gift shops, either as pillow covers, throws, or wall hangings. While many of them depict religious scenes, there are some that are just beautiful designs or pictures. When we were touring in the Cotswolds, I found a shop that sold nothing but tapestries. I especially like the ones that were designed by William Morris (1834-1896), a British writer and artist who was a designer in textile arts.

Now we have two tapestries hanging in our flat. They will look good back at home too.

Sightseeing with guests

During the past weeks, while our guests were here, we did lots of sightseeing. Here are just a few of the places we visited - in no particular order.

This was a very entertaining Beefeater guide at the Tower of London.

Here is the Tower of London.


This is just one view of the amazing Westminster Abbey.

Another amazing site is the Canterbury Cathedral.

We also visited Leeds Castle.

Some guests saw the sights from the London Eye (the huge Ferris Wheel built for the centennial)

These were the white cliffs of Dover.

We toured Blenheim Palace in the Cotswolds.

We visited Brighton Beach.

We watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

There was a very large crowd gathered that day (and the arm was unavoidable).

Long Country Walk

Today, Monday, I joined with twelve other members of the local women's group and took a nine-mile walk in the English countryside. We took a train to a small town one hour southwest of London, and then roamed through fields and villages, stopping at a pub for lunch, and briefly touring the house where Jane Austen lived the last ten years of her life.

Our group was led by Hugh, a spry 75-year-old British retired teacher who leads many group hikes throughout the country. Hugh explained to me about the British system of footpaths that crisscross English farmland. Apparently, in earlier days, the people who lived in the country used to walk from their homes to church or to the market or to visit neighbors along these footpaths -- and they were established through common law as a permanent right of way for walkers, even though the paths cross private property. Hugh said that when someone purchases property here, the footpaths are shown on the map and the owner must honor them. According to Hugh, there are more footpaths in England than there are roads.

All day, we walked along roads, beside fields of growing crops, across meadows with grazing sheep and cows, and through woodlands. And throughout it all, we followed the footpaths, climbing over fences on steps, or walking through gates, all of which were constructed specifically for walkers.

The photo gives you an idea of how beautiful the scenery was.

This was a path through some woodland.

If you look closely, you can just make out the narrow path across this meadow below.

This path led between two fields of crops.

The photo below shows the view to the side of this path.

This was a typical 'stair' built for climbing over the fences between properties.

Another woman and I approached closer to this shed to get a good picture of the cow inside.......until we noticed that the bull was taking an interest in us.

We decided to leave in a hurry, without looking back!

In the villages, there were houses with thatched roofing.

The country views were beautiful.

After we completed the walk, we returned to the station and took the hour-long train ride back to London.

At home, I stood under the steady stream of a long, hot shower, and let my muscles feel the relaxation from the heat -- I didn't want them to stiffen up from all the walking and climbing of fences. I need my legs to work for me every day over here.

Royal Wedding

This Sunday's papers reported on the Royal Wedding that took place this weekend at Windsor Castle. The Queen's oldest grandchild, Princess Anne's son, Peter Phillips, married a Canadian, Autumn Kelly.






Notice that all the women guests were wearing hats. That is the tradition here for weddings.

Below is an advertisement for one of several local shops selling hats for the Mother of the Bride.

Dyonni 4002 Antonia Dyonni 4003 Bailey Dyonni 4004 Bumblefleur Dyonni 4006 Cora Dyonni 4007 Calista Dyonni 4009 Camilla Dyonni 4010 Crystal Dyonni 4011 Devora Dyonni 4014 Eleanor Dyonni 4018 Fatale Dyonni 4021 Georgette Dyonni 4023 Hattie Dyonni 4029 Kulua Dyonni 4031 Leila Dyonni 4034 Lomasi Dyonni 4035 Lucy Dyonni 4036 Lyneth Dyonni 4039 Madelene Dyonni 4040 Margot Dyonni 4042 Nell Dyonni 4043 Neola Dyonni 4047 Patu Dyonni 4048 Penelope Dyonni 4050 Pierette Dyonni 4052 Polly Dyonni 4068 Serafina Dyonni 4069 Spyra Dyonni 4073 Thalia Dyonni 4074 Una Dyonni 4078 Yolanda

The following is an article written about the hats worn at the above Royal Wedding.

Royal wedding: Hats off to Princess Beatrice for her choice of headgear

By Kate Finnigan, Style editor, Stella

Last Updated: 10:21PM BST 17/05/2008

There was a pleasing lightness of touch to the headgear at yesterday's Royal wedding which (future mothers-of-the-brides take note) should set a trend for the rest of the summer.

While the Princess Royal made the bold decision to go without a hat (well, she has always had marvellous hair, hasn't she?), the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall, had clearly been in cahoots.

Were they hats or were they fascinators? No matter, both were feathered and in complementary shades of grey and duck-egg blue, Her Majesty's with a warm secondary brown tone.

Lightweight and modern, their hats managed to convey the dignity of a laurel wreath, frame the face prettily, and, most importantly, not mess with the hair: a perfect big-day solution for women of a certain age.

At the younger end of the Royal Family, Princess Eugenie, did stylish and elegant with her jaunty cream cap, but it was her sister Beatrice who stole the show with a magnificent, technicoloured butterfly-strewn headpiece. It was pitch-perfect for an early summer wedding and nicely complemented her tiered chiffon rainbow skirt.

Having recently suffered a tabloid drubbing for daring to possess womanly curves, Beatrice has refused to cower in the corner and showed yesterday that her head is in exactly the right place.