Stuck in the August rain

If all goes according to plan, by the time you are reading this we are recharging are batteries on our yearly sojourn to Belgium's west country. 

Having had a bit of a turbulent week, the weekend and our subsequent week away were obviously welcomed with open arms. However, as we were leaving on Sunday, this meant I only had Saturday at my disposal to check off my packing and to-do list, decide which clothes to take, and squeeze in the writing of this scheduled post. Not to mention giving Bess the cuddles she'll have to miss out on in the week ahead.

So, without further ado, I'm taking you back to two weeks ago on Friday, which was the 20th of August.

Although the mercury climbed to 22°C it was another wishy-washy, grey and rainy day, which only started brightening by late afternoon.

The white blouse with its black vertical stripes and scattering of tiny red and green flowers was among my charity shop haul of the previous week, but never made it to the blog. I decided to continue with the red and green theme by teaming it with a green textured Crimplene skirt. The latter is part of a set, its companion a short-sleeved jacket. I don't think I ever wore it as a set though, and of the two pieces the skirt definitely gets the most wear.

A pale green beaded necklace was added, while further accessories were all of the red variety: a woven belt, plastic ring and a vintage cherry brooch.

It was my weekly day off, and as you'll probably know by now, these usually start with a charity shopping trip. This time we drove down to the three-storey charity shop in the neighbouring town of Duffel, which is one of our favourites. I even remembered to finally take some photos!

While I was trawling the clothing aisles in the basement, Jos had a look around elsewhere, and then grabbed a coffee at the first floor cafeteria, or Koffietheria, as they are calling this particular one.

With my trolley full of treasure, I then joined Jos for a chocolate coffee and showed him my finds.

First up in yet another King Louie dress, its pattern of medley of blowsy, pink, grey and cream roses on purple. 

There's quite a bit of purple in the second dress, which is by Esprit, as well. Its lining is a solid purple, for starters. I grabbed it from a rail in passing but couldn't be bothered to return to the fitting rooms where I'd just had a massive trying on session.

I fell hard for its Paisley-esque orange, yellow, white, purple and lilac pattern, and although its silhouette is a bit out of my comfort zone, it turned out to fit me perfectly.

Yet more purple came in the form of this plastic bracelet and the purple flowers among its yellow, red and green sisters in the vintage acryl blouse. 

My final find is vintage as well. With its thick polyester fabric, it would be out of the question to wear this beige-based sleeveless dress with its cinnamon and brown rushes and birds print on a warm Summer's day. I'm thinking of wearing it in Autumn, layered over a long-sleeved top and opaques in a contrasting colour.

While Jos was finishing his coffee, I went to have a look at the bookshelves, selecting these three books to come home with me.

On Saturday, the temperature was supposed to climb to 25°C. I’m not sure it did but it was very humid, ending in a thunderstorm complete with heavy rain in the early evening.

I wore the short-sleeved Only dress I'd picked up at the charity shops the week before, picking the pale green colour from its print for my accessories.

The brooch is by Miracle and was a flea market find about three years ago. I think the ring was a flea market find as well, while the rest of my accessories were a mix of vintage, charity shop and retail buys.

Weather-wise, Sunday was another mixed bag of sunshine and showers.

We were invited to a barbecue to celebrate the 50th birthday of Jos's eldest daughter, Els, taking the inevitable rain into our strides as this seems to be something of a family tradition.

We started with drinks - mine was homemade elder flower cordial - and homemade pizza made in their state of the art outside pizza oven. 

Centre of attention, of course, was the youngest family member, three-month old Cas, here with pater familias Jos.

As it befits a milestone birthday, we'd all chipped in and bought Els a drawing table and chair to pursue her painting hobby.

But she wasn't the only one who got a present! Jos's children had chipped in to buy me a present as well, although my milestone birthday is only the 12th of September. 

I received a small bag containing a riddle I was supposed to solve first, but couldn't make head or tail of the pieces of nougat, caramel and chocolate and the cuberdon, which is a traditional Belgian sweet. 

To cut a long story short, my present was a voucher for our favourite B&B, Het Soetewater, near Bruges. And the riddle, well, it referred to the B&B's rooms, which are called ... you've guessed it, Nougat, Caramel, Cocolat and Cuberdon!

As the temperature barely reached 20°C - if that - and we didn't know we'd be inside or outside, I dressed warmly, starting with the lined palazzo trousers charity shopped back in February.

The Kookai blouse, with its galaxy of stars and flowers and pink frills at the yoke, was another charity shop find, almost exactly a year ago.

A yellow suede belt, multicoloured wooden necklace and another Miracle brooch - a flea market find in Carmarthenshire back in 2015 - completed my outfit. 

The temperature in August's final full week continued to go up and down like a yo-yo, flirting around 20°C and with the by now familiar mixture of clouds, sunny spells and showers.

It's been an awful Summer so far - and technically speaking, Summer is over by now. Quite a large chunk of my Summer clothes remains unworn and I have barely touched the hot weather stuff.

The garden has long ago lost its initial Summer freshness, although our Fuchsia magellanica and Japanese Anemones are both in their prime. Can you spot the shy butterfly hiding behind the pretty in pink Anemone? You can actually see the top of its antenna peeking out in the photo on the top right!

We only managed outfit photos a couple of times that week, these ones taken on Wednesday the 25th of August. 

I hadn't worn this black-based floral dress for ages and I doubt that it ever made it to the blog. It was among my earliest Think Twice finds and I remember wearing it for the first time for a dinner date, only to discover it had several split seams while we were about to meet Jos's son's in-laws for the very first time. Oh dear! 

As I'm a firm believer of the fact that pink and green should always be seen and taking advantage of the green stalks in the dress's print, I picked green for all my accessories apart from the pearly brooch.

It was the perfect opportunity to give my green 1960s shoes - charity shopped back in July - another outing.

Meanwhile in the garden ... can you believe the size of that Nasturtium leaf? It won't be long before our old parking meter is completely hidden from view!

Now I'm sure that you'll all be wanting to see how Bess has been coming along in the meantime.

Well, we've just bought her a lovely new cat bed, which so far she is totally ignoring. Actually, madam prefers to sleep on top of her Snooze Bay, which is actually supposed look like this. Cats, you've got to love them!

So, that's rainy August wrapped up.

I'll be back with - hopefully sunny - adventures next week. See you on the other side!