Rainy October pursuits

I bet the weather gods are laughing behind our backs as they keep showering us with endless rain from their heavenly heights. Surely they must be shaking with mirth when they add some gale-force winds into the mix and watch us, poor sods, trying to hold on to our umbrellas and keeping them from bending over backwards. I imagine them pouring another glass of their favourite tipple, then sit back and play a game of dice in order to decide where next to wreak havoc.

Oh November, so much to answer for!

Not that the second half of October was any better. Once the weather finally turned, it was almost as if we were having to pay penance for the privilege of the string of bonus Summer days we had been blessed with well into the first month of Autumn.

My blog being behind the times as always, I left you on Saturday the 21st of October at the end of my previous post, mentioning that we'd been for a rummage at the Oxfam shop in Wilrijk. So, without further ado, here are some of the things I found.

First up is this rather fabulous dark purple mock croc trench coat, which I wasted no time in wrestling off a shop dummy. It's by C&A's Clockhouse label. Aimed at the under-25s, I remember buying items of Clockhouse clobber back in the 1980s, when I was about the age the label was intended for. But surely age is just a number and, at well over twice the age Clockhouse was aimed at, I'm entitled to wear whatever I like! 

The trench would be absolutely perfect to combat the never-ending rain, but sadly it's far too thin to be a match for the barely into double figures temperatures.

I also snapped up another King Louie heart patterned cardigan, in chocolate brown, for my burgeoning collection. They're my favourite and most worn cardies and I'm quite chuffed that not one of them has been bought brand new!

It must have rained all through Saturday night and we kept being plagued with regular showers on Sunday, with just the oddest of dry and sunny spells and a mere 13°C.

After a morning of aimless pottering and a lunch of homemade soup, we decided upon a visit to the garden centre, as I needed to buy a watering can for the office.

Due to the uncooperative weather, outfit photos were taken against the white painted brick wall in our garage, so I'll start with showing you my outerwear. My grey, brown, blue and pink tweed coat is King Louie, charity shopped for € 6 in February 2022. 

I picked up the pink in its weave with my beret - an old retail buy - and matched the blue with my frilly scarf, which was yet another charity shop find.

The charity shops also supplied the dress I was wearing, at approximately the same time as the coat.

It's by Froy & Dind, a Belgian label which has been making sustainable fashion since 2011. 

For some unfathomable reason, the dress ended up on my flea market stall back in July, but when it was still languishing on my rail at the end of the day, I took this as an omen that it needed to stay with me.

I accompanied the dress with a pair of hot pink opaques to tie in with the dress's floral print, and layered a long-sleeved t-shirt in the same colour underneath. Pale blue beads and ditto cat brooch completed my outfit.

I'm sure my beloved caramel mock croc boots do not need further introduction. Oh, and I kept on my beret as my hair was in need of a wash. I always love it when it's beret season and I can get away with being a slob for a day :-) 

Needless to say, a watering can wasn't our only purchase at the garden centre! Three packets of bulbs (wild daffs, dog’s tooth violets and alliums) ended up in our trolley as well, not to mention a pot of heather and some pansies to replace the tired and leggy Busy Lizzies in the passageway.

As we were having one of those rare dry spells, I planted up the latter as soon as we got back home. The bulbs will have to wait until we have had the time and inclination to do a big garden clear-up. Sigh!

In spite of the continuing neglect, some of our long-suffering plants seem to be thriving, case in point being the Monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii 'Cloudy') on the top right, still flowering its head off at the end of the garden.

When another shower materialized, I scuttled back inside and continued the morning's pottering. This included dusting a tiny cupboard full of charity shop and flea market treasures. Apart from the Matchbox caravan, which was a beloved childhood toy at the time my grandparents used to have a - very similar - static caravan in the countryside where we spent many a Spring and Summer weekend.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing Philippa Gregory's Wideacre and making a start with the 700+ page blockbuster, Atlas, the epic conclusion to Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series. Atlas was co-written by Lucinda's son Harry Whittaker, who finished the book after his mother passed away in June 2021. The heavy tome was kindly lent to me by my friend Inneke, and definitely didn't disappoint, even if I found some passages more than just a little far fetched.

As you can see, I was joined by Bess, who just loves sleeping on her new fleecy throw.

The dismal weather continued all through the working week and it often took all my willpower to venture outside during my lunch breaks. However, as going for regular walks seem to be beneficial to my mental health and definitely go a long way in keeping my anxiety issues in check, I persevered. 

And so it was that I was mesmerized by the wedding cake tower of Antwerp's cathedral and its reflection in one of the square's countless puddles. 

In all honesty, I'm not much of a rainy weather walker, so that, more often than not, my lunch break walks take me to one of the vintage or second-hand shops near my office for a browse.

One of these shops is Melting Pot, a little gem of a shop where clothes are being sold per kilo. Lately, however, it does take some level of dedication to browse its rails for treasure, and true vintage finds are few and far between. Still, I was happy with that day's finds, which included a handmade floral skirt, a rather spectacular Gustav Klimt inspired scarf, a berry coloured polo neck and navy belt featuring the Ancient Olympic games.

Yet another lunch break made me walk towards Inno, a well-known departure store on Antwerp's main thoroughfare. They had a promotion on socks and tights, so I stocked up on some Le Bourget opaques.

If there's ever a world shortage of tights, I'll be good for years to come!

In anticipation of the official start of my 4-day working weeks on the 1st of April, I'm still squandering the rest of this year's holiday allowance on Fridays off. I simply can no longer face working full-time, and I'm usually gasping for a break by Thursday night.

As torrential rain was yet again on the menu on Friday, we thanked our lucky stars that we didn't have to join the daily commute and could have a lie-in instead.

I built the day's outfit around a Diolen dress I found at Think Twice back in January. It made its debut during last February's meet-up with Kezzie in Bruges, when she promptly dubbed it the Tardis dress.

Blue was therefore the obvious choice for my belt - one that used to belong to another dress - and opaques, although I used burnt orange for my King Louie cardigan and beaded necklace. The latter was bought from an antiques centre in Newcastle Emlyn during our wet Welsh holiday in June 2017.

When I was browsing my drawers of brooches, my eye was caught by this vintage 1980s rectangular one. Surely there couldn't have been a better match with the Tardis dress?

When at the end of a morning's pottering there still seemed to be no let-up in the rain, there was nothing for it but to make another trip to the charity shops. 

Our shop of choice was the three-storey one in Duffel. Neglected for many months due to ongoing roadworks, we finally found an alternative route a couple of weeks ago, so that it is once again on our itinerary.

My star finds that day were a dark green short-sleeved Who’s That Girl dress patterned with Bialetti coffee makers, and a pair of delightful lilac Western style boots! Don't they make an excellent outfit?

 

Also found that day were a flouncy cheesecloth skirt - put away until next Spring - and two necklaces.

Would the weather improve during the rest of the weekend? Would we finally be able to go for a much needed walk? You will find out in my next post, for which I hope you'll join me again!