Theme Thursday : Hats

There was a character in a book I once read (I have long forgotten the title, the author or, indeed, the plot) who, when asked how on earth he knew whether he was coming or going, replied that he just had a look to see which way his hat was pointing. I feel a bit like that this week : except that I fancy I might have my hat on the wrong way around. Following the recent long holiday and the even more recent trip to France, I am having difficulty getting back into a routine. I don't know whether I am coming or going. I have managed to get a few blog posts up, but I am way behind on my visiting and I suspect that there is such a back-log of posts I need to read that my best hope is to simply wipe the slate clean and start afresh. If I have missed out great chapters in the colourful lives of my blogging friends, I apologise : I will carry on reading the tales as they unfold and fill the missing bits in with my imagination.

It is Theme Thursday and the subject this week is hats. I was tempted to let TT pass this week in order to carry out further research as to whether I was coming or going, but once I saw the theme I had to join in. Hats are a great favourite of mine on both an aesthetic and a practical level. Aesthetically, and with the possible exception of a macaw, nothing sits better on the top of a man's head than a good hat. How I wish that I could have been around in the days when a man could wear a decent hat without being accused of being dissolute : in the days when the Knapp-Felt Hat Company could introduce a new hat every month. On a practical level I do wear hats on many occasions in order to protect my precious cochlear implant from the ravages of the English climate. When you are walking around with a few thousand pounds of microscopic computer equipment stuck on the outside of your skull, it is always wise to provide it with as much protection as possible, whether it makes you appear rakish or not.

The top picture shows a selection of my hats. The one third from the left served me well during the recent visit to France as this final picture of myself and the Good Lady Wife, taken in Strasbourg, shows. 

Read how other people have interpreted this week's theme by visiting the Theme Thursday Blog. Sepia Saturday will be running again this week and if you would like to participate you can sign up over at the Sepia Saturday Blog. Now it is time that I started visiting a few of my blogging friends before they abandon me for ever. As Bob Dylan once nearly said, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way your hat blows"