Skirting the issue

The sun had joined us again on Sunday two weeks ago, when it was time for the next edition of our favourite indoor flea market.

It is usually being held once a month, from September until June. But wait, I can hear you thinking, hasn't there just been one about two weeks ago? Well yes, you're absolutely right. There was an extra edition in October!

I've been wanting to wear this blouse, with its cheerful bird print, ever since I happened upon it in a charity shop last month, but hadn't got around to it yet.

On this day, balancing on the edge of Autumn, I thought it appropriate to combine it with this tweedy rust coloured vintage St. Michael skirt, which came with a matching short-sleeved jacket.

I added an ochre yellow cardie on top, and chose a pair of burnt orange tights, which happen to be my favourites.

The gorgeous, behatted lady on my brooch is wearing similar colours, and as she's wearing a green beaded necklace, I thought I'd to the same!

And here is the first of my charity shop finds of the day before, the orange belt!

I thought my mock croc bag deserved another outing as well.

The berry coloured cord jacket, originally from H&M, provided contrast and as a final touch I added a yellow felted flower corsage (bought in Narberth, Pembrokeshire) and a charity shopped crushed velvet ochre yellow scarf.

It goes without saying that we didn't come away empty handed. There's always something to catch our eye at this fabulous flea.

Here's a nice little tableau of the things we brought home!

Childhood nostalgia for Jos, who remembers having this booklet on the sign language used by American Indians as a young boy. It's another one of those albums where you had to collect the pictures by eating lots of chocolate!

The disc on the bottom right, with its picture of the Antwerp skyline, and probably dating from the 1950s, is a clever little device which enables you to find out the day of the week of any date between 1849 and 2007.  So, we now know that I was born on a Tuesday and Jos on a Saturday!

Although there were lots of stalls selling jewellery, I generally found prices a bit high, so I only bought three brooches this time.

I couldn't resist this little yellow handmade shopping bag, which folds up and closes with a cute vintage button, although I have to admit that the big round bamboo handles are a bit incongruous when folded up.

One of my first buys was this funky pair of red boots in a butter soft red leather. They are hardly worn and a snip at € 15. The box still had the original price label of € 140!

The wicker handbag matches their deep red colour almost exactly. 

From Tania, one of our favourite sellers, and reader of my blog, came this caramel brown Melitta coffee pot and filter set.

This cute set of shot glasses, in typical Mid Century style, was a snip at € 5.

The stall which yielded this fabulous mounted Art Deco style head sculpture is run by Rita, another follower of my blog. 

The week following the flea market was a short one, as I'd taken Monday off. Additionally, we had a public holiday on Thursday 1 November, All Saints Day.

It turned out to be a dreary day but although Jos said this is typical for 1 November, my blog tells me otherwise, as this is what we did on this day in 2016 and 2017.

We were dithering over whether to go for a walk, in the end deciding on a short outing to a park in a neighbouring village where, funnily enough, we had never been before. 

Inspired by my friend Ingrid, who had shared some photographs of it on Facebook a couple of days earlier, we thought we would check it out.

Annoyingly, it started raining the minute we'd stepped out of our car but, in spite of the fact that we hadn't thought to bring umbrellas, we went ahead regardless.

The rain, lightly at first and hardly noticeable when walking under the trees, steadily increased in intensity, and for the first time this season, it actually felt like an Autumn day, one of those interminably grey and foggy days when there is no place like home, curled up on the sofa with a good book.

But we were there, so we thought we might as well take some outfit photos.

Passing a sign pointing to an ancient ice house hidden behind an insulating barrier of yew hedges, we climbed the winding path leading to its top, where a gazebo resting on gnarled pillars was awaiting us.

Perfect! 

As you might notice, I am wearing the same St. Michael skirt again, this time combining it with a brown floral print polyester blouse. I wore it over the skirt, with a slim green belt at my waist and topped by a green batwing sleeved woolly cardigan. Needless to say, all vintage or new-to-me!

While you can just make out the Cotoneaster berry necklace I'm wearing, there's no need to point out the bright orange plastic ring I'm wearing.

Oh, and finally, it's beret time! Yay! The sage green one I'm wearing came from a vintage per kilo shop in Antwerp called Riot.

Jos has swapped his green jacket for his warmer Harris Tweed one, charity shopped last year.

The park, originally part of the grounds of the neo-classical castle you can spot between the trees, is laid out in English landscape style, inspired by Capability Brown. 

We will definitely have to return on a better day.

In the meantime, we will be going on a short holiday this week. I might squeeze in another post before we leave but if not, I'll be back next week with new adventures.

Linking my rainy day outfit to Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style once the link is up!