Moody March

I'm shaking my head in disbelief at the fact that we've come to the end of the moody month of March. And moody she was, as well as very, very wet. It's all very well that you English-speaking folks talk about April showers, we Dutch-speaking people actually have Maartse buien, so March showers instead of April ones. 

That doesn't mean April is in the clear though, as we've got what we call Aprilse grillen, meanings April whims, an idiom which I think has the nature of the whimsical month of April down to a T. 

They usually come as a pair, those two, as more often than not they are mentioned in the same breath: Maartse buien en Aprilse grillen.

There was most certainly no lack of Maartse buien in the month's final weekend which, as it often does, already made a start on Friday for me.

During one of Friday's short-lived dry and sunny spells, we stepped outside and into the passageway, which lately has become our go-to space for outfit photos.

My caramel button-through cord skirt was a cheeky high street buy in October 2021, but no regrets there: instead of fast fashion, it has fast become on of my favourite skirts.

Incidentally, the groovilicious blouse I'm wearing started its life in the same shop as the skirt, but followed me home from a flea market in October 2016.

My red glass beaded necklace and ring were both charity shop finds, as were the cardigan and my recently found belt. The yellow cat brooch came from a delightful shop in Antwerp called Katshop (linking 'cause I love, as Sheila would say) which caters for cats and their personnel.

Oh, no, there's that blasted rain again. Quick, let's go inside!

This offered me the perfect opportunity to show you my latest Think Twice finds. I bought them for € 4 a piece during Thursday's lunch break, when I walked down to the recently opened 5th shop, which also happens to be the nearest one to my office. 

Admittedly, it has been quite a while since I found anything half decent in any of their shops. Clearly, the days of my regular and plentiful Think Twice hauls seem to be well and truly over. Is it the pandemic, or the fact that 1990s fashion seems to be the latest vintage craze?

Anyway, I found two dresses and two skirts, so I couldn't have been happier! 

The white and blue dotted one, with its cleverly camouflaged buttons, is Diolen. Hadn't found one of those in a long, long time. Can't wait to give it its first outing when the weather finally cottons on that it's supposed to be Spring!

I can't wait to give the pleated skirt of this flower and foliage patterned blue Summer dress a whirl either. Its lightweight, semi-sheer chiffon fabric comes with a solid blue lining. The presence of belt loops give away the fact that once upon a time the dress must have had a belt, but knowing me I probably wouldn't have made use of it anyway. Instead, I picked up the lilac in its pattern with a 1980s belt in the same colour, one which is in desperate need of another outing.

Riffling through the full to bursting rail of skirts, there were quite a few which caught my eye, most of them, alas, either teeny tiny or way too big. 

I ended up spending my money on a white cotton flower infused skirt, with a veritable Summer flower border blooming near its black hem, and a red polyester one patterned with blowsy indigo and white flowers. 

Friday morning was spent at the optician's in the nearby town of Mortsel, where I had my eyes tested and then splurged on a spanking new pair of varifocals, which I can't wait to show you once they're ready!

Yet another shower accompanied us on our way home but there was a dry intermezzo after lunch which lasted long enough to check on our garden's progress. The threesome of snakeshead fritillaries are coming along nicely (top left) and look at how lush and green some of our perennials are already!  There's a healthy clump of Geranium phaeum a.k.a. dusky crane's-bill (bottom left) and even our Oriental poppy (top right) is showing great promise, even if at this very moment it's hard to imagine it bearing flowers before too long.

It's hard to imagine a Friday without a visit to the charity shops either, so that's what we did in the afternoon, even if we only limited ourselves to one shop.

The skirt fairies were very generous here as well, and magicked another two into my basket. The photo doesn't do the first one justice, as rather than grey, the maxi skirt with its Paisley-esque pattern is more of an olive green. It's from the Belgian Terra di Siena label.

The horizontally striped black, grey and red button-through midi skirt is label-less, and I expect it's somebody's handiwork. With no contents label, it's a bit of a guess, but it does feel like wool or at least a wool blend.

The thin knit green patterned jumper - which I already wore in the meantime - is from the Dutch high street label WE Fashion.

Finally I fell for this wide semi-stretchy burgundy red belt with its unusual metal buckle. This too has already been part of one of my outfits.

Saturday's weather was even worse than Friday's, with almost non-stop rain from the moment we got up, the overall dampness making it feel quite a bit colder than the 13°C offered by the thermometer.

The perfect weather to tackle a couple more chores, this time of the sewing variety. I also got it into my head to make a start with my wardrobe changeover, exchanging my warmest Winter frocks for some of my short-sleeved ones. That way, I'll be ready if/when Spring decides to make an appearance overnight.

When eventually it stopped raining in the early afternoon, we grabbed our coats and walked to our garage to pick up our car, only for it to start pelting down again shortly after we left the house.

Thankfully, we'd had the presence of mind to bring an umbrella! Of course, the minute we'd made it inside the building the rain stopped as abruptly as it had started. There were even some gloating rays of sunshine to be spied through the skylights. Perfect for highlighting my charity shopped Desigual coat ...

... and what I was wearing underneath. 

Surprisingly, it was the season's first - and probably only - outing for this Finnish made 1970s does 1930s dress picked up from Think Twice many moons ago. Too many clothes, too little time, but I am absolutely fine with wearing things only once a year. 

The brooch I pinned to my dress, featuring a mottled green stone set within a crown of tiny pearls, was bought from the Brooch Lady at an antiques fair in April 2017. 

My orange King Louie cardigan, necklace and ring were charity shop finds. I'm fairly certain that the white felted flower corsage was a retail buy, as I've got it in several other colours as well. They possibly came from haberdashery and accessories chain Veritas. The latter also provided the belt, which is the latest one to join my collection. It was winking at me when I dashed into the shop for a sewing essential the other week.

I'm leaving you now with some garden wildlife. This is one of our resident wood pigeons sunning itself on our garden wall after gorging on the bird seeds the gang of picky blue tits had carelessly thrown out of the feeder. It seemed to be quite oblivious of the fact that it was being watched from the kitchen window by a certain furry creature!