At the close of April

After virtually skipping Spring, early Summer has arrived here in Belgium with temperatures into the mid-twenties and more. For once, this was well-timed, as most of us have been enjoying an extended weekend by making the bridge after Thursday's public holiday, Ascension Day.

Although this string of long-overdue sunny days has been very welcome indeed, it wasn't exactly conductive to writing a blog post. Particularly when its subject matter are those chilly, barely into double digits days of the last week of April ...  

But needs must so, for the sake of continuity, I'm treating you to a little catch-up.

If all things considered the weather gods were reasonably well behaved during out little getaway, they didn't exactly mend their wicked ways upon our return.  With continuing highs of only 10°C accompanied with yet more of the seemingly neverending rain, my Winter wardrobe still had to work hard for its money.

As work had been rather slow during my absence, my return to the rat race went a lot smoother than I expected. Nevertheless, I was still glad when Thursday, my final day of the week, rolled along.

The day stood out from the rest of the humdrum of office life by meeting up with my friend Inez for a cappuccino-fuelled natter during lunch break. Not to mention the fact that there was a dry spell after work which lasted just long enough to take some outfit photos.

Outfit particulars:

1970s A-line midi skirt and Diolen blouse: Think Twice 

Cable-knit tank top: charity shopped

Brooch and ring: flea market finds

Necklace and boots found on the high street

Proceedings were supervised by Bess, obviously!

Friday saw a mix of sunny spells and showers. The day's highs of 12°C were still nothing much to write home about. However, what with the weathermen having dangled the carrot of a sunny and warm-ish weekend in front of us, this didn't unduly bother us.

Being thoroughly bored with the dregs of my Winter wardrobe, I cast around for those items which hadn't made it out of my wardrobe for the longest of times, if ever.

The latter was the case for the orange and brown striped Dralon knit jumper I charity shopped back in November. It found its ideal partner in the chocolate brown, flower sprinkled Diolen maxi skirt picked up from Think Twice in June 2019.

The necklace, which came from a long-gone vintage shop, hadn't seen the light of day for many years, but turned out to be matching the yellow of my other accessories perfectly. Apart from the bird brooch and the chunky ring, these included the yellow woven fabric belt I'd found at the indoor flea market earlier that month.

We hadn't gone for a rummage at the charity shops for weeks, but the perfect opportunity presented itself as we had a bag of donations to drop off, for which we drove to the shop in Mortsel.

Much as I love my wardrobe full of vintage frocks, lately it have been the rails of skirts I'm heading for first thing.

As you can see, I was in luck, finding three skirts in three different lengths. First up is the off-white floral maxi skirt. It's by a Belgian label called Terra di Siena, the same label as one of my all-time favourite skirts (this one) which coincidentally I found in the same shop.

Next, I stumbled upon the green flouncy skirt patterned with massive flowers in the palest of pinks. It's by Jacqueline de Yong, a sub-division of the Danish Only label, and established in 2012. 

My final find of the day was a knee-length skirt, a burgundy floral delight by King Louie. The fact that it has pockets was a deciding factor!

And while we're on the subject of the latest additions to my wardrobe, I almost forgot to show you the vintage dress I found at Think Twice in the week before our Bruges break. Rather unusual for me, it's in a plain turquoise fabric, but it were the floral collar and trim as well the bodice's chevron pin-tucks and inset with row of tiny decorative buttons which won me over.

I'm sure it won't come as a surprise when I tell you that the forecasted sunny weather for the weekend came to nothing. What's more, Saturday was yet another grey and rainy day and, although the temperature was supposed to climb to the heady highs of 17°C, the conspicuous absence of any sunshine made it feel quite a bit chillier.

I ummed and ahhed in front of my wardrobe, finally deciding upon this Who's That Girl dress. Found in a charity shop at the end of February, this was its very first outing. I picked up the red of its front zipper and buttons by accessorizing it with a red cat brooch and a red and white beaded necklace.

My opaques matched the blue of the dress almost exactly, while my boots echoed the reds of the dress's trim and accessories. Not that I wore them for very long, as I only ventured outside for the outfit photos.

Instead, I decided to bite the bullet and finish my wardrobe exchange, hanging up the final batch of Summer frocks and vacuuming the newly filled bags of Winter dresses for their yearly sojourn in the linen chest. But don't worry, I made sure to still have plenty of colder weather options available!

My journal tells me I also switched around some of my coats and moved the buttons on a vintage rain coat which had never fitted me properly.

Catching up with blogland and watching an episode of Vera were the evening's activities.

Oh, and I did some reading as well. After finishing Muriel Spark's delightful A Far Cry from Kensington at the B&B, I picked Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet as my next read. After a fruitless search, I was lucky enough to find it on the charity shop shelves a couple of weeks prior. 

Sunday was supposed to be the best day of the weekend, but once again turned out to be quite the letdown. Thankfully, the rain held off, but it remained overcast for most of the day, with the oddest of sunny spells from mid-afternoon onwards. 

The 14°C the mercury eventually climbed to was tempered by a blustery, almost gale-force wind, which initially made us rethink our planned walk.

With all our will-we or won't-we dithering, it was too late to go further afield when we finally stepped outside. In fact, we almost made a U-turn when the wind did its best to blow us backwards, tugging at our coats and scarves and almost making off with our hats.

But we persevered and drove to nearby Boom park for a turn. This turned out to be not without its hiccups, as we narrowly escaped a falling branch.

But how green and lush it all was. The perfect backdrop for showing you my charity shopped King Louie coat, found for a mere € 6 in February 2022. I picked up the pinks in its weave with my fluffy scarf and marl-knit beret.

That just leaves the rest of my outfit, which was built around the green zig-zag patterned vintage St. Michael skirt, a gift from my lovely friend Vix.

I can' remember whether the blouse, its fabric the softest of polyester knits, was a charity shop or Think Twice find. However, the green short-sleeved Dralon cardigan was definitely picked up from the latter.

The charity shops provided the necklace, belt and even my bottle green ankle wedges, while the enamelled pansies brooch was a flea market find. 

So, that's it for now. I'll be making a start with the month of May in my next post. In fact, with our UK holiday appearing on the horizon - I can hardly get my head around the fact that we will actually be there in a month's time - I'll have to get my skates on to be caught up with everything by then.

See you soon!