April fools

At the time of writing, the second of my official three-day weekends has come and gone. You'd think that with all that extra time at my disposal, I'd be upping my blogging frequency, but frankly speaking all I've been doing so far is honing my procrastination skills. Which is why I've still got to show you what I was wearing underneath that Desigual coat on Easter Sunday!

As Spring still didn't get the memo, it was up to me to jog the season's memory, which I did by wearing a dress whose pattern is a veritable tribute to Spring. Or rather, Tribute with a capital T, according to its label. I'm in two minds whether it was a charity shop or Think Twice find, but I'm leaning towards the latter. Whatever the case, it's been in my wardrobe forever, and it was long overdue an outing.

I made use of all its colours for my accessories, which were a mix of charity shop and high street purchases.

Here I am making my plea to the weather gods to send some sunshine our way on the final day of my Easter break. Perhaps foolishly so, as Easter Monday was the First of April, known to all and sundry as April Fools' Day!

And so it was that we could hardly believe our eyes to find our prayers answered. After a cloudy start, patches of blue soon dotted the sky and by midday the sun was out in full force, with the temperature climbing to a balmy 15°C once more.

Our initial plan had been to go for a stroll in Park Den Brandt. After parking our car, however, a glance towards Den Brandt's opposite neighbour, Middelheim Sculpture Park, made us notice an entrance  which we were sure hadn't been there before.

We decided to check it out, crossed the street and found ourselves exploring the part of the sculpture park called Middelheim-low instead. 

Clearly, a lot of work had been done here since our last visit, and it was a delight to come across the sculptures we've gotten to know so well over the years in their new settings.  It's definitely not finished yet and some areas were cordoned off by red and white tape where new grass was sown to repair the disruption caused by the machinery, but I'm sure it's going to look fabulous!

Almost inevitably, we ended up at Het Huis (The House), a half-open pavilion designed for temporary exhibitions and opened in 2012.

For a couple of years now, strange bird calls have been emanating from The House. These are part of a work of art, not surprisingly called Birdcalls, by the American artist Louise Lawler. Using her own voice, she has sounded out the names of twenty-nine well-known artists - a list of which is on one of the walls, above, bottom right - into bird calls.

Here's a sample in case you're intrigued. I can't for the life of me make out which artist's name this particular bird call represents, though.

The sculptures in the park come in all shapes and sizes, and there are some strange creatures among them indeed. 

Why does Strange Fruit always look so sweet? is the name of the mysterious overgrown figure on the top left. Created between 1998 and 2008, it was born from the fantasy of Flemish artist Johan Creten (°1963).

On the top right is Miss Television II (1979) by the Belgian sculptor Olivier Strebelle (1927-2017).

And yes, the chair is a work of art too. I couldn't find it in the museum's online catalogue, so hopefully by our next visit it has been labelled and I'll be able to properly identify it.

Like many of the sculptures, Three Standing Figures (1978) by the French artist Eugène Dodeigne (1923-2015) used to be in the other part of the park, but has found its perfect setting here, in a garden room of their own. The pink blossom in the background added another dimension.

Half-hidden by the green-sprouting branches we spotted the roof and turret of Villa La Chapelle over in Park Den Brandt. The fairy-tale like miniature castle was originally built in neo-Gothic style between 1880 and 1885 as the gardener's residence of Castle Den Brandt, commissioned by the then lord of the castle, Emile Augustin Joseph della Faille de Waerloos (1835-1890).

Always hoping for a glimpse of Flora, we recrossed the road and entered the park. It wasn't to be, though, as the villa's garden gate was firmly closed this time around.

Nevertheless, we extended our walk by a stroll around the park, as was our original intention.

On our way back, we passed the ornamental English-style cottage called De Peperkoek (which literally translates as The Gingerbread), currently under well-needed restoration. By the looks of it, it's going to be quite the transformation. Here's what it looked like when we last passed this way.

The weather reverted to its usual grey and rainy self in the first week of April which, what with Easter Monday and then my first official Friday off, thankfully was only a very short one, 

This is what I wore on Wednesday when for once we made to effort to take outfit photos after work.

I combined the funky InWear blouse I charity shopped in the weekend with a chevron patterned wrap skirt by the Belgian high street label JBC. This too was a charity shop find, about two years ago.

Apart from my boots and glass ring, which were both retail purchases, everything else was picked up second-hand from flea markets or charity shops.

A highlight of my short working week was the fact that everything was down to € 5 in the latest Think Twice sales. After only recently complaining about the lack of Diolen dresses, I was happy to come across not just one but two on the very same day!

The sturdy fabric bag on the left was found for € 4 later that week, while the genuine leather Italian made clutch-cum-shoulder bag was a € 1,50 charity shop find on the Friday.

A rare visit to the always busy Dutch bargain store Action at the edge of our village for some essentials yielded no less than 4 of my beloved stretchy belts. With their € 2,90 price tag, it would have been silly to leave any of the available designs behind.

The weather on the menu on my first official Friday off - I clearly can't mention this enough :-) - was cloudy and overcast with some light drizzle thrown in, which somewhat tempered the dizzy heights of 18°C shown on the thermometer.

My outfit consisted of two recently charity shopped items, the vintage skirt I scored back in March and the Who's That Girl blouse I found in February.

The cardigan I layered on top is from the line created for women's magazine Libelle, while the belt is from the Belgian CKS label. Both via the charity shop, obviously. My green and turquoise beaded necklace and green brooch were both second-hand finds too.

While we were out in the passageway, we marvelled over the rows of fully developed heart-shaped blooms in our Dicentra spectabilis. What a feast for the eye!

And finally, here's the latest installment in the life of our feline family member.

Lately she'd been spending a lot of time looking longingly through our kitchen window. We were quite hesitant to let her outside, though, particularly since we are living near a busy crossroads. Both her predecessors, Poesie and Phoebe, never made any attempts to venture outside our little walled garden, but we couldn't be sure that our lively, boisterous Bess wouldn't do so either. 

So, we bought her a harness! She wasn't (and still isn't) exactly a big fan of the thing, but her urge to go exploring outside was much stronger.

Here she is on her very first outing, which went very well indeed.

We had a bit of a scare during her second outing, though. After crawling under a shrub and getting stuck, she somehow managed to escape her harness. Much panic ensued from both sides, as you can imagine. Initially she seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Now where could she have got to? But then I spotted her: apparently she had run back to safety inside the house! Phew! 

To be continued, I'm sure.

We'll be going away on a short break in couple of days, so see you on the other side!