All Creatures Great and Watkyn Bassett. . .

Tristan and Siegfried Farnon?  The Earl of Grantham?  Or Tuppy Glossop?  Nope.  It's Heinz-Ulrich, channeling his best 1930s country gentleman on the way to the local village fete.

Going for a 1930-ish English country vibe today. . .  although sadly my horse, riding boots, and pack of hounds are nowhere to be found.  The above combination of clothing consists of various items all anchored by an old tweed jacket that I found almost right off the bat when I began visiting thrift/charity shops in the summer of 2010 and discovered that there was all kinds of good quality classic menswear for the taking at rock bottom prices.  

Here's a breakdown of everything:

*Hunting Horn brand Harris Tweed Jacket (thrifted)
*Land's End Sweater (seasonal clearance)
*Land's End Dress Chinos (new in 2005 or '06)
*Club Room Oxford Cloth Button-down (a sale item in late '06 pr early '07)
*Rooster Plaid Wool Necktie (thrifted)
*Allen Edmonds Long-wing Brogues (Ebay)
*Italian Silk Pocket Square (thrifted)
*Ralph Lauren Charcoal and Olive Argyll Socks (new some years ago)
*Land's End Tan Leather Belt (new in '04)


The jacket is, admittedly, a bit long on me, but I think it still looks pretty good all things considered, and it's always fun to pull it out in mid-October and wear it during the colder months.  Speaking of which. . .   It has been a cool, gray fall day outside today, so the Grand Duchess and I had a few minutes of fun snapping three or four photographs before heading our separate ways back to opposite ends of campus for our respective afternoon classes.  

My particular batch of undergrads did nicely this afternoon.  We had another student-led discussion today, this time on the John Landis horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London (1982), and the two young ladies in charge ran a good session.  Of course, it always helps when the rest of the class has an "on" day, and indeed, there was lots of lively discussion, commentary, and laughter about the movie and related readings.  You can't ask for more than that.  I always have one group of students per year that I genuinely enjoy spending time with thanks to just the right mix of personalities, and this is the group for this semester at least.

I also touched base briefly with an old professor of mine, via telephone, at UW-Madison for a few minutes, and it was nice to hear her voice after so many years.  A good afternoon all the way around, and tomorrow is a fairly easy day, so no lesson planning or related course preparation this evening.  Who knows?  I might just enjoy a wee bit of single malt after the Young Master's bedtime before turning in early myself.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Stand still, will ya??!!

Normally, I'd button my jacket, but it seems a shame to hide such a pretty sweater, and it wasn't quite that frigid outside this afternoon either.