The darling buds of May

Spring is trundling along languidly, sometimes with a spring in her step, giving us an taste of Summer, but more often than not behaving very badly indeed. It's not just that rough winds have been shaking the darling buds of May. Rain has been turning them into a sodden mass prematurely littering the ground.

Hardly a day has gone by without any of the wet stuff falling from the sky, but let's forget about that for now. Let's reminisce about those handfuls of days when the sun has been very much in evidence instead. 

It was Sunday the 12th of May and the final day of the first of the month's long weekends. In continuation of Saturday's balmy mid-twenties temperatures, Sunday followed suit, the mercury climbing even higher, to an unheard of 27°C.

Out of my wardrobe came one of my vintage Diolen dresses, snapped up from a long gone vintage shop in the Summer of 2015. Its pattern of leaves and fruits on a coral background never fails to delight me.

My sky blue shoes, which almost but not quite rival my beloved Clarks Cloudsteppers, are just perfect for walking ...

... which is exactly what we did that afternoon!

Being in a bit of a languid mood, we didn't want to venture too far, so we drove down to Fort 5, just over 10 minutes by car from our front door.

Here, we walked on leafy paths and exclaimed about the lushness of nature in general.

Then we spotted some ghostly webbing shrouding some of the trees lining one of the paths. Closer inspection revealed that these contained hundreds of wriggling caterpillars! 

Some research back at home revealed that these are the caterpillars of the so-called Ermine moth. The creatures are harmless, and the webs usually last from May to June after which they slowly disappear over the Summer months. The moths they eventually grow into are white or greyish with many small black dots, hence the ermine name.

 

Harmless they may be, but I was itching all over by the time we'd reached the end of the path. 

Here, we were faced with a choice of possible directions to take. While still trying to make up our minds we suddenly noticed the open gate leading to the inner fort right in front of us. Beyond the gate, which is usually closed, are the premises of BLWRK, which offers coworking and meeting space.

Intrigued, we wasted no time in stepping through the gate and explore this as yet unknown to us and hugely atmospheric part of the old fort, which was constructed in the 1860s as part of a ring of 8 forts to protect the city of Antwerp from enemy fire.

There's exhibition space inside the building as well, which turned out to be the reason for the wide open gate.

We briefly ventured inside trying to find the exhibition which was taking place, but soon got lost in an endless maze of chilly, goosebump inducing passages, and eventually turned heel. Better not to waste the undoubtedly short-lived Summer temperatures, not to mention the one-off opportunity to explore the inner fort. 

The ghost sign on the bottom left is testimony to the fact that once upon a time stables were established here.

Back in the public part of the domain, we sat down for a breather before returning via the narrow path along the moat. 

While we were sitting there, Jos was accosted by a blood-thirsty insect, which bit him right through his trousers. And there I was fretting because I'd been foolhardy enough to go walking bare-legged! The pesky thing had a wasted meal, though, as it had to pay for its greed with its life.

All was soon forgotten when we spotted several nesting coots and in particular their fluffiest of chicks.

By the end of our walk, the sun had all but disappeared behind a layer of clouds again and, sure enough, we were treated to a thunderstorm in the evening. Oh well, mustn't grumble, I suppose ...

The weather continued to be sunny and warm, with highs of about 23°C, on Monday and Tuesday. I wasn't feeling too clever, though, as this was the week of my eye problem. Apparently, it was taking some getting used to my new, stronger, eye drops, which initially caused various unwanted symptoms: a lingering headache concentrated around my eye socket, a dry and itchy eye and, to top it all, that horrid stye I eventually developed. 

Several remedies were tried, including painkillers, artificial tears, ointments and ... retail therapy!

Prices at Think Twice were down to € 4 and € 3 respectively on these days, so I wandered over for a rummage during my lunch breaks, picking up several treasures on both occasions.

Apart from a handful of vintage frocks, a striped seersucker Summer blazer and an off-white slouchy knit jumper with Art Deco style openwork yoke and back.

Thankfully, my eye had slowly but surely started to improve by the end of the week, even if my eyelid was still quite sore and bright red on Friday. 

Not having to go into work made all the difference, though. As did spending time in Bess's company and delighting in her antics. She's a big fan of our kitchen tap, which she insists on drinking from as often as she can, then leaving a trail of wet paw prints all over the house!

I'd rescued the red and white Diolen polka dot skirt from my flea market stash the other day. God knows why, but according to my blog I hadn't worn it since August 2017, after which it had been in limbo for years. When eventually it got back in my good books, it turned out to have become a tiny bit too snug. Trying it on one more time before deciding on its fate, I was happy to notice that it was a perfect fit once more. Not that I've been on any kind of diet, mind you, that's what prolonged stress does to me!

As soon as I'd hung the skirt outside my wardrobe, it dawned on me that it would look fabulous worn with the dotty Who's That Girl blouse I charity shopped at the end of February. And surely nothing but one of my Bambi brooches would do to befriend the deer living inside some of the orange dots!

I'm sure the red ceramic beaded necklace - a charity shop find - needs no further introductions as it has featured on the blog many a time lately. The navy belt with its off-white plastic buckle used to be my Mum's.

What with the lousy weather, my Summer shoes and sandals have barely got a look-in. Here I am wearing ankle boots again, although I wouldn't dream of wearing this delicate silver and gold patterned pair when it's raining either.

In spite of having ignored our Hydrangea until April, when I finally removed last year's flowers and didn't even bother to prune back to the lowest healthy buds, the shrub is in its element and has been producing more flowers than ever! I particularly love them at this stage, when the first hint of blue is appearing.

My eye was almost back to normal on Saturday, which was nothing short of a relief. I even seemed to be getting used to the new eye drops, which was even better.

What wasn't much better was the weather. It was another dismal-ish day with the odd sunny spell in the afternoon. The temperature kept hovering around 18°C, which I suppose could have been worse.

The dress I was wearing is yet another vintage Diolen, which I fell in love with on the spot when I was checking out Think Twice's new collection with Inez on Wednesday.

It did have a couple of minor issues, though, including buttons which were far too small so that they kept popping open. Nothing my stash of vintage buttons couldn't remedy obviously!

My accessories were all of the green variety: a charity shopped textured leather belt with self-buckle, a beaded necklace from the high street and my "super heroine" brooch found on a flea market in October 2018.

With only one more week to go before our UK holiday, time is at a premium, but I'll make sure to squeeze in at least one more post before we go. See you soon!