It's a wrap!

In the days that followed our magical Midwinter walk in the park, we more than once counted our lucky stars that we didn't abandon our plans in spite of the sun doing a last-minute runner on us. It would turn out to be the last day of the Twixtmas week - the last day of the year, in fact - which wasn't a total washout. The temperatures gradually climbing into the double digits again did nothing to alleviate the utter wretchedness of the weather, making the days seem even shorter and darkness descend halfway through the afternoon. 

We got up well before the first light of dawn feebly seeped through our bedroom window on Wednesday 28 December. Wild horses had a hard time dragging me from the comfort of my bed, but I needed to catch up on work for a couple of hours. So, after breakfast, Jos drove me over to Antwerp, where I slogged away for about three hours, trawling through the countless of emails I'd missed due to being ill the week before. I wasn't quite ready for it, but in the end I'm glad I made the effort, as it would make my eventual return to work after the holidays just that little bit less stressful.

Thursday was another grey and miserable day, a carbon copy of Wednesday's, including the almost surreal 12°C indicated by the thermometer.

The iridescent pleated vintage frock I plucked from my wardrobe was a Think Twice find just a matter of weeks before the pandemic hit us. So far, I'd only worn it the once, in February 2020, after which it was promptly forgotten about, hidden away in the depths of my wardrobe.

I picked up the blue from its pattern with my belt, which was a Summer sales bargain from Mango. 

Rummaging through the party dishes which house my rings, I couldn't believe my eyes when I stumbled upon this one which is matching all the colours of my dress exactly. Bought in the closing down sale of an accessories shop on the high street back in January 2018, this is another one I'd quite forgotten the existence of.

First wearing of the blue-eyed fox found on December's flea market. Incidentally, the Tiger's-Eye pendant also originated from the same flea market, a lucky find about 4 years ago.

While Jos was doing the year's final food shop after breakfast, I was staring wistfully out of the kitchen window at our wilderness of a garden. Until about a month ago, the offspring of the climbing Nasturtiums I sowed back in the Summer of 2020 had been rewarding our non-efforts with cheerful orange blooms. Since then, their frost-bitten remains had turned into a soggy and slimy mess, some of which was draped over our Spirea shrub like paper bunting left out in the rain. As it appeared the rain clouds were taking a breather, I went outside, put on my ankle wellies, and removed as much of the mess as I could reach, putting it in the reinstated compost bin.

Then I remembered we'd brought back some bulbs from the reduced bins in the garden centre a while ago. There was a pack of dwarf Irises (Iris reticulata), a harbinger of Spring which is supposed to flower anytime between mid-February to mid-March. I planted some in the window box in the passageway, while I found space for the rest in the borders. I'd just dug in the final one when it started raining again, so that the hoop-petticoat daffs (Narcissus bulbocodium) will have to wait another day.

After lunch, the lure of the charity shops proved to be too much. After all, it had been almost three weeks to the day since we last went for a rummage! Besides, there were two huge bags of donations cluttering up the spare room, desperately needing to be dropped off.

We only visited the one shop, where we were duly rewarded with charity shop Karma. My finds that afternoon were a pair of rust brown waxed nubuck boots, a bamboo and cotton mix jacket by sustainable UK label Nancy Dee, which would have retailed at £ 100 plus, and a sparkly poodle brooch.

Back at home, we could hear loud music emanating from our Moroccan neighbours two houses away. It turned out their youngest son was getting married and boy, do these guys know how to party! That  evening, one of the other sons - the one we've nicknamed Babyface for obvious reasons -  brought over a plate of biscuits, presumably in a bid to butter us up :-) 

Still, I managed to catch up with blogland and make a start with my final post of the year.

On Friday, we woke up to the news that Vivienne Westwood had died. To be honest, I was totally shocked to see that the news bulletins were inundated with stories about Pelé's death, while only one minor item mentioned Vivienne's passing. One of my Facebook friends mentioned that she supposed that punk was now well and truly dead ...

Anyway, it was another dismal day, the incessant rain making it feel decidedly colder than the 14°C it was alleged to be. I was even wearing a jumper, albeit just a thin knit one. It's by posh Belgian label Caroline Biss and was a charity shop find in February 2021. Incidentally, the daisy belt at my waist is by Caroline Biss as well, and was recently charity shopped for a silly € 0,50.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted that I was wearing the boots which were part of Thursday's bounty!

It was love at first sight for the fudge coloured button through cord skirt, which I found on the high street in the Autumn of 2021. The flower brooch is a retail buy too, picked up from a small independent shop near my office many years ago. 

Before nipping outside for outfit photos in-between showers, I quickly grabbed my charity shopped faux fur gilet, which has come out to play more than once these last couple of weeks.

With the rain continuing to play spoilsport for most of the day, there was no chance of going for even the briefest of walks, so we quickly hurried to the car and went for another charity shop rummage.

The previous day's bags of donation contained the majority of my cheap 'n cheerful yet plain and boring cardigans, but there's always room for some interesting new ones. 

These four landed in my basket: a green, flower-embroidered one by Libelle Femmes, produced for the eponymous Dutch and Flemish women's magazine, a red and orange chevron striped one by retro label Zoë Loveborn, a new with tags red one with cream and blue shoulder embellishment by Who's That Girl and a greyish blue angora blend one from the Danish Vila label.

There were two dresses as well, both label-less. On the left, a red and black plaid knit one with an A-line skirt, and on the right a black vintage frock sprinkled with red and lilac confetti-like dots.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Saturday was yet again dark and dismal, with the rain now being accompanied by lots of wind, quite at odds with the mind-blowing16°C indicated by the thermometer.

Yet again, it was up to me to provide a bit of sunshine, which I did by selecting this glorious, groovily patterned long-sleeved dress complete with cowl neck and pleated skirt. After initially leaving it behind at Think Twice somewhere in March 2022, I instantly regretted it and went back for it the next day, when I was able to pick it up at a reduced price as the shop's sales had started that very day.

I made use of the orange in its pattern to pile on more sunshine, adding a half-elasticated belt, beaded necklace, cat brooch and ring in that colour. I was also wearing orange opaques, but they are hidden here by my new favourite pair of boots!

Isn't my new-to-me Zoë Loveborn cardigan just perfect with it too?

We'd slept very late that day. The weather was once again too frightful to venture outside and we weren't in the mood for braving the charity shops on this final day of the year, so we did some long overdue kitchen cleaning instead. Dust bunnies, beware!

There's nothing like a spot of cleaning to make you look at and fall in love with your treasures again. Even on a dark Winter's day, our kitchen, with its motley collection of heirlooms and flea market and charity shop finds, never fails to cheer me up.

Apart from the jar of Moroccan biscuits, I think you've seen it all before.

The rest of the day was spent in semi-hibernation, following Bess's excellent example. Aww!

It might have been New Year's Eve, but we treated it like any other Saturday night, watching an old episode of Midsomer Murders.

We were in bed just before the fireworks started at midnight.  Bess had just joined us but, instead of jumping off the bed and hiding for the duration like her predecessors, she actually sneaked behind the curtains to watch the show! It was earplugs for me, though, as I don't like loud noises. No surprise there, I guess.

Well, that was it for that strangest of years, 2022. Let's hope that 2023 is a good one! Now if only it would stop raining ...