Westward ho!

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the worse since we came back from our trip to Belgium's west country last Sunday. Without so much as a by your leave we have suddenly been plunged into Autumn with the temperature having taken a dive to barely into double figures. Bar the odd exception, the days have been dark and wet which did nothing to alleviate our end-of-yet-another-holiday blues.

The contrast with Sunday the 1st of September couldn't have been greater! 

We were a tiny bit too early for the 3 pm check-in into our holiday cottage so we drove over to Poperinge's town centre to get our bearings and do some food shopping. 

However, when we were hit by a sweltering 32°C upon getting out of our airconditioned car, we decided to just pick up some pre-packed salads and a baguette for our evening meal and call our host, Marino, to see if the cottage was ready. It was, so, after purchasing a loaf of bread for our host, which he'd kindly asked us to do - we have been on friendly terms with him for years! - we continued our journey to the cottage on the outskirts of the town. 

It was our 13th stay here and the 9th since I've started my blog so I'm sure the cottage - an all-in first floor studio situated above Marino's carport in a charming thatched wooden building - doesn't need further introduction. 

It's got everything you can think of but unfortunately there's only overhead lighting by way of spotlights placed at the very top of the roof beams, which makes reading after dark a bit of a struggle. In order not to strain my eyes even further, we brought our own reading lamp, bought from IKEA back in August. Therefore, Jos's first job upon arrival was assembling the thing!

One of the reasons we keep on returning to our little cottage opposite one of the town's hop fields is the view from the balcony, which never fails to delight us. We can actually see all the way to France - the undulating countryside on the horizon (above, bottom right) is part of the Franco-Flemish hills - and the view across the domain's lake is truly unsurpassable. The latter is teeming with wildlife: we love watching the antics of the coots and other waterfowl, the herons waiting patiently for their next meal to come along and the myriads of dragonflies dancing in front of our eyes.

But wait, what do we have here? This tiny kitten was meowing at us pitifully. You can see just what a little scrap of a thing it is sitting beneath the cottage balcony in the below collage on the top left. Can you spot it?

It kept us company while we were sitting outside but it scuttled away under the hedge if we tried to get closer. As it was still hanging around the next morning - and was actually waiting for us on the stairs leading up to the cottage - we called Marino to ask if it was his. Much to our dismay, it wasn't. He told us it always seemed to be sitting out there and admonished us not to feed it. I think you can guess how that turned out ...

Anyway, back to Sunday. Once the heat of the day had somewhat come down, I posed for outfit photos in front of our own very posh wrought iron entrance gates ...

... and crossed the road to have a closer look at the hop poles dripping with hop cones, which we knew from experience would be harvested before the week was over. From as long ago as the 8th century, the month of September has been dedicated to hop picking here.

Poperinge is Belgium's hop growing capital and the characteristic hop fields are a typical feature of Poperinge's summer landscape. There are no less than 160 hectares of them, all cared for by 18 hop farmers. A handful of hop farms can be visited, which we did back in 2021 (see here and here). 

I played around with one of the photos I've taken, so there's nothing wrong with your eyes, you are actually seeing things double here!

We woke up to a sunny yet slightly cooler day on Monday, its highs of 25°C perfect for the day's planned activity. We'd slept like the proverbial logs and had taken our time getting ready and having breakfast. Having ditched our original plan to explore a little town on the other side of the border, we decided to stay local instead and go for a walk in the woods.

As due to our late-ish start this would involve a picnic, we needed to drive into Poperinge for provisions first. Mission accomplished, we walked around the corner to the tourist information office in the basement of Poperinge's neo-Gothic town hall to pick up some brochures. As you can see, it was quite windy ...

In the courtyard at the back of the town hall, the death cells and execution pole, where deserters faced the firing squad, can be visited. Quite a chilling and sobering experience, especially as in one of the cells you can see a cinematic impression of a soldier waiting to be shot at dawn. You can also see some of the graffiti left by the prisoners.

As with so many of the sites here in Flanders Fields, one cannot help but be moved, so we were quite annoyed by a group of sniggering youngsters who were visiting at the same time as us. 

It's definitely not the first time I find myself standing dreamily on the town hall steps. History is so tangible here, the now so peaceful region still bearing witness to the one million soldiers from more than 50 different countries which were wounded, missing or killed in action here. 

Back at the cottage, we made some sandwiches, grabbed a drink, and set off for the day's ultimate destination, which was only five minutes or so up the road.

Having exhausted most of the local nature walks - some of which we've done more than once - I was thrilled to find that part of the woods belonging to castle ‘t Couthof, had recently been opened to the public after it had been acquired by the Flemish nature conservation agency, Agentschap Natuur en Bos.

A walking trail has been laid out through the historic estate. Red arrows are pointing the way while information boards are telling you about the rich history of the castle and its woods. These are the oldest in the area and used to belong to Henri d’Udekem d’Acoz, the uncle of Queen Mathilde of Belgium, our current king's wife.

We were lamenting the absence of any benches to have our picnic on, when Jos spotted this conveniently located fallen tree, its trunk smoothed by the passage of time. It was the perfect spot, not just to sample our sandwiches, but to sit and listen to the sound of silence only punctuated by bird calls. 

Hunger pangs sated, we continued our walk on those woodland paths until we came to a clearing. Here, the information board told us, were the remains of a motte and bailey (above, bottom right) and the ruins of a hunting lodge (above, top right). There was talk, too, of Poperinge's oldest oak tree, planted around 1795. However, we couldn't decide which of the ancient trees surrounding us it might have been, as there were quite a few mighty oaks among them, our feet crunching on the acorns which had been scattered around liberally.

Before rejoining the woods for the final stretch of our walk, a folly awaited us. 

Standing menacingly in the middle of a field, cows placidly chewing the cud at its feet, this protected monument is locally known as "de Galge" (trans. the gallows).  Contrary to its name, however, nobody was ever hanged here. 

The neo-Gothic brick arcade used to be the orientation point of an elaborate hedge maze created between 1860 and 1870 by baron Jules Mazeman de Couthove, who owned the castle at the time.

The landmark was considered a symbol of the lord of the castle's jurisdiction, hence its sinister nickname.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent chilling out at the cottage ... and watching the domain's lawnmowers at work.

I'll be back with more soon. Hope to see you again in a couple of days!

Wearing, walking and wardrobe additions

First of all, apologies to those of you who were expecting to find the first installment of a brand new travelogue here. 

Since coming home to an ecstatic Bess on Sunday, we've been catching up on cuddles and, in the rare moments my lap wasn't claimed by a loudly purring feline, I've had the mother of all catch-ups with blogland. The photos of our travels have all been uploaded and I'm raring to start writing about our adventures. 

However, for the sake of continuity, there's a batch of outfit and other photos dating from those final August weeks to go through. What with its late start - remember those cold and rainy June days - Summer has been short enough as it is, so a two-week gap definitely wouldn't do. My mind being a bit of a blank after all this time, however, I was definitely in need of a helping hand from my diary.

 

It appears that I left you on Thursday the15th of August at the end of my last post. As this was a public holiday in Belgium, I briefly went into the office on Friday to deal with some urgent matters, followed by running a couple of errands since I was in Antwerp anyway. No photos were taken that day, so the above is what I was wearing on Saturday.

I've been sadly neglecting this dress, which I bought at a sample sale of the Belgian label Who's That Girl and its big sister Wow To Go back in 2013, if I remember correctly. I was quite obsessed with both labels at the time, resulting in many purchases, not all of which are still gracing my wardrobe.

On this day of sunny spells and highs of 25°C it was absolutely perfect. For its companions, I made use of the brown bits in its pattern. The brooch and belt were charity shopped, while the magnificent Lucite necklace was a flea market find.

We decided to drive over to Mechelen for our weekly fix of charity shopping, but left the shop empty handed. 

On our way back we stopped off at the small charity shop in the neighbouring village of Reet, where I found a pale green flower patterned needlecord jacket. There's a matching skirt which sadly doesn't fit me. The vintage green and tan patterned dagger-collared shirt came home with me as well. I also found a replacement in the proper size of this wrap skirt, originally charity shopped in 2022 and a tiny bit too tight on me.

Sunday brought a bit of a moody day, on which it felt that rain was imminent. At around 23°C, it was quite warm-ish so, after tossing around some head-clearing options, we settled on a walk in Fort 5 in the next village to ours. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while have accompanied me here many a time over the years.

Part of a ring of eight identical forts around the city of Antwerp, and dating from the 1860s, it has long ago been turned into a nature reserve and recreational area. The domain is criss-crossed by a myriad of paths, the most popular one circumnavigating the moat. This we took on our way back after having a mooch around the atmospheric old fort itself.

No close-ups were taken of my outfit, which consisted of a flower sprinkled cotton H&M skirt, a zig-zag patterned t-shirt and my favourite haori to at least protect my upper arms from any voracious insects. Everything except from my ancient Clarks Cloudsteppers was supplied by the charity shops.

I sorely neglected my blogging duties in August's penultimate week, only making the effort to take outfit photos on two occasions, on both of which I was wearing 1970s Diolen frocks. I can't remember where or when I obtained the floral, butterfly-sleeved delight on the left, but the blue and white tile patterned one on the right was found at Think Twice in July 2023.

My diligently kept diary tells me it was a week of sunny spells and showers, with temperatures ranging between 21 and 24°C, which I suppose wasn't too bad.

With Think Twice's latest sales being in full swing, and prices descending into single figures per item, there are no prizes for guessing how I spent my lunch breaks. The spoils of two consecutive days included two long-sleeved dresses - which I can't wait to wear once the weather's into single figures -and a skirt whose first outing might very well be imminent as I type.

The neither here nor there weather continued into the weekend, culminating in a moody yet sweltering 29°C day on Saturday, which ended in an almighty thunderstorm.

Again, no outfit photos were taken that day, but I can offer you Friday's red and black zig-zaggy dress, which is Mexx by way of a charity shop. Apparently, I last wore it in 2020, so it was another one which was well overdue an outing. I absolutely loved wearing it which puts paid to the advice of the fashion police to get rid of anything you haven't worn in a year. What utter rubbish!

Our rummaging urges were satisfied by a trip to the charity shops on both Friday and Saturday.

A lightweight green cotton kaftan style dress and a long-sleeved maxi with a gold detail Art Deco style pattern ended up in my cart. 

As did a pair of red canvas Tamaris wedges and a pair of denim blue Mary Jane-style Jana shoes. The latter have already been worn and approved. Any pair which can be worn on bare feet without causing blisters deserves its place in my shoe wardrobe.

Saturday's thunderstorm had brought down the temperature to a much cooler 22°C on Sunday.

I spent the morning assembling some essentials to be packed for our upcoming trip, then, after lunch, we drove down to Den Brandt for a walk. 

There seemed to be some kind of children's birthday party going on in the picking garden, so we soon made our escape by climbing the steps into the park proper. But not before making our way to the Gautam Buddha to have a look at the offerings he'd received. We were glad to see they were plentiful and even more so that he'd been returned to his perch. The poor thing had been sitting in the grass at the time of our last two visits.

The fenced-in giant tree Jos is standing in front of is the famous weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica pendula), with its nearly 200 years one of the veterans of the park. One could easily have a party - birthday or otherwise - under its canopy if it weren't fenced in to protect its delicate root system.

Nearby is a reproduction of Michelangelo's David (above, bottom left) purchased by the city at the 1910 World Fair in Brussels. 

I was wearing one of the latest Diolen frocks to join my collection, on its first outing although I purchased it back in April. I might have somewhat gone off my Diolen Delights lately, but this one is definitely a keeper. My faithful denim jacket kept it company.

We were delighted to see that the park's folly, a gingerbread English-style cottage which was still under renovation last time we visited, had now been fully restored to its former glory. It looked particularly fairy-tale like amid its miniature cottage garden, although I was rather glad to find its door firmly closed, fully expecting to find the wolf masquerading as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother inside.

I left Jos resting his feet on a shady bench, walking across a little bridge and around the corner to admire the vista towards the late classical wedding cake castle at the heart of the park.

Only one outfit was photographed during the month's final working week.

Wednesday the 28th of August was sunny and hot, the mercury effortlessly climbing to 30°C. I briefly escaped the airconditioned office for a hairdresser's appointment during my lunch break.

Just look at that sky of the purest azure blue framing the tower of the baroque Sint-Carolus Borromeus church!

My vintage cotton button through skirt was joined by a charity shopped River Woods top. The beads were charity shopped as well, while I picked up the little hat brooch at a flea market. The belt is the one which was all but ruined by that pesky t-shirt but which I managed to save by vigorously scrubbing the top with a soapy cloth to remove most of the red residue. It's hardly noticeable unless one knows where to look.

And then it was Friday, and officially the start of my holiday. It's hard to get my head around the fact that today is its final day and I'm due back at the office tomorrow ...

I'll be back with my travel adventures soon, but wanted to show you Friday's outfit before I go. Both the 1980s style pleated skirt (by Jacqueline de Yong, a sub-division of the Danish Only label) and the petrol coloured top (by Essentiel Antwerp) were charity shopped on the same day in July. A match made in heaven, don't you agree? 

I was also wearing an umbrella brooch to try and ward off any rain coming our way. Did I succeed? You'll read all about it in my upcoming travelogue!