Stripes and flowers

Weather permitting, this time next week we might be watching the sun go down over the domain surrounding our holiday cottage in Belgium's west country. Because yes, it's that time of year again when, for a week or so, we'll be exchanging life in the fast lane for a slower pace of life in a part of Belgium which has truly captured our hearts. 

Before we leave our worries on our doorstep, however, there's still two days of work to be wrapped up at the office, the dreaded packing to be done and, including this one, two blog posts to be churned out.

As I'm still in the throes of catching up after our mini break in the first week of August, let's get on with it, shall we?

In my last post, I did mention an iceberg of vintage and charity shop finds, so why not start with these?

We had reached the end of my first week back at work, and boy was I glad when Friday finally rolled along!  As you might remember, I'm taking up last year's leftover holiday quota by working 4-day weeks until I've used it all up.  This turned out to be a wise decision, as I'm finding my return to the full-time grind to be quite the balancing act.

Fridays are therefore for fun things only, and as a bonus, Friday the 13th of August turned out to be our lucky day in more ways than one. Not only was it a bright sunny day, with the temperature climbing to an unheard of 23°C, the goddesses of the charity shops more than rewarded us for our trouble.

The dress I was wearing was a € 3 Think Twice sales bargain snapped up during lunch break the day before, which I was so besotted with that I decided to wear it immediately. 

In a polyester blend with a touch of linen - hence its slightly wrinkled appearance - this classic fit and flare shirt dress was an absolute joy to wear. I've got a bit of a thing for stripes lately, so my eyes instantly picked it out from the rail of otherwise mediocre offerings. The bodice's red, blue and yellow stripes meeting in a chevron pattern in the button through skirt set my heart aflutter. And that was before I noticed the pockets!

Both my blue moulded flower ring and the 1930s Gentian brooch I accessorized it with did their best to compete with the floral exuberance supplied by the garden. 

The pots grouped at the back of the garden seem to be doing surprisingly well, even after having been left to their own devices for days on end. I just couldn't be bothered to do any deadheading after work, and the watering can had only be used very sparingly. Must do better!

But let's get back to the matter at hand, which is what I found at the charity shops that day!

If initially I thought I would leave the first shop empty handed, finding the orange midi skirt with its purple Paisley pattern and the yellow short-sleeved top with its subtle tiny leaf pattern in quick succession must have been what turned the tide.

Both are initially from the high street but were simply too good to be left behind at a snip of their original price. 

Then along came one of the shop assistants, wheeling a rail full of new stuff. Immediately, a gaggle of thrifty shoppers gathered, pouncing on the new offerings even before the rail had come to a standstill, the shop assistant beating a hasty retreat. 

Without even looking at sizes, I quickly grabbed the two items which stood out for me. 

First up was this midi dress from the Danish Only label, with its Autumnal millefiori pattern. As it was a size 36, I thought it would be too small, but it fit me perfectly. 

Next up was this perfectly formed and rather funky Scapa jacket, which I suspect had hardly been worn. It even had its tiny paper bag of spare buttons still tacked inside.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the vintage Worcester Ware tray, to be admired on the bottom right of the above collage, which we spied on our way to the till. 

Before returning home, we stopped at the charity shop at the edge of our village, where I tried on several things but ended up buying just two items. 

While queueing at the till to pay for the zigzag patterned dress by the London based Louche label, I spotted a shop dummy wearing the chartreuse Zoë Loveborn cardigan, which we managed to wrestle off the poor thing just in the nick of time.

Saturday turned out to be another sunny day, with glorious highs of about 25°C.

After breakfast, I pottered in the garden, which culminated in another massive cutting back session. 

We had to run an errand after lunch, then decided to continue to the park in Boom for a walk. In spite of our best intentions, walking seems to have ended up on the back burner again, which I'm sure we'll have to pay for when walking up those Flemish hills next week!

It was high time I gave my recently charity shopped embroidered red cotton skirt an outing and found it its perfect companion in my peasant style green broderie anglaise blouse. Picked up in the New Look sales several years ago, it is one of my favourite Summer tops.

A shiny white vinyl belt, red and white beaded necklace and a couple of bangles completed my outfit. Oh, and have you noticed the almost perfect match between the embroidered poppy on my skirt and the poppies on my vintage ceramic brooch?

Having arrived at the park, we decided to walk its perimeter path, until we arrived at 't Kleibrood, which is a centre for environmental education. There's a herb and flower garden which, in spite of looking a bit sparse and past its best, was still a sight to behold.

There were giant sunflowers towering over the house, Calendula, and a patch of one of my favourite high Summer flowers, Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty' (top right), which I had to share with the resident bee population.

 

Near the house, several roses were intoxicating us with their heavenly scent, while Brachycome and Agapanthus filled a stone trough and an old brick well respectively.

Soon after passing the garden, we took a side turn into the heart of the park itself, where we did a circular of the lake, finding a gold-hearted stone of joy in a tree trunk.

What better way to display it than together with the pair of vintage, Italian made sandals I found in the charity shop we briefly stopped at on our way to the park!

There isn't much to tell, and even less to show you about Sunday and the rest of the week.

In view of our upcoming holiday and the possibility that we will cross the border into France, we downloaded the so-called CovidSafe app on our phones, which shows that we are fully vaccinated.

In other Covid related news, we were happy to learn that the vaccination percentage in our village is now well over 90%!

On Monday the  temperature took a dive to just 17°C, dipping even lower, to 15°C on Tuesday. These decidedly unsummery temperatures came accompanied by at times heavy rain, which prevented us from making outfit photos in the garden after work.

Tuesday, however, was made a whole lot better courtesy of the arrival of a package all the way from Bosnia-Herzegovina! The lovely Ivana had sent me a handmade brooch and some of her fashion illustrations including the one of yours truly on the right. It goes without saying that they will get a place of honour here at Dove Cottage!

It was only on Thursday - which was dry, with the odd ray of sunshine and 20°C - that we managed to make the first outfit photos of the week.

I was still wearing ankle boots, though, my sandals certainly haven't been doing overtime this Summer.

The dress which was lucky enough to get an outing that day was this green vintage one, picked up from Think Twice in March 2019. Combining my favourite colour with a chevron pattern makes this a winner in my book!

It originally came with a self-fabric belt, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't exchange it with one offering more contrast, going for an off-white stretchy belt with a round faux-tortoiseshell buckle.

The brown and burnt orange enamelled butterfly brooch was a flea market find.

For once, it was a quiet day at the office, so that I was able to enjoy my lunch break hairdresser's appointment in peace, and have a good old gossip with my hairdresser, Michel.

As you might have noticed in the outfit photos, the area next to the bench, which is our favoured spot, is becoming quite the jungle. I swear, hand on heart, that I didn't plan on having such an overwhelming amount of Nasturtiums! Most of them are the offspring of last year's Triffid-like climbing variety but, rather than removing the most rampant ones like I did earlier this Summer, I am now just letting them be.

Meanwhile, tiny buds have started appearing in the herbaceous Clematis 'Mrs. Robert Brydon' which we planted to grow up the remains of our old, deceased Lilac back in April. Some of them have opened into tiny lavender flowers as I type.

And in spite of Phlox, Crocosmia and Co. still giving it their best show, there's no denying that Autumn is lying in wait around the corner, complete with spiders weaving their webs right, left and centre.

There's a rusty tinge to some of the leaves in the Virginia Creepers covering the garden shed, from the top of which Bess's boyfriend was making moon eyes at her, while she was watching him from our bedroom window. Not quite the Lovecats, though, as she usually chooses to ignore him entirely.

So, that was it for now. I expect to be back with one more pre-holiday post, which might very well be a scheduled one.

Hope to see you again soon!