Being boring

When we woke up to a foggy and murky day on Saturday 11 January, we were glad we'd had the presence of mind to go for that spur-of-the-moment walk in park Den Brandt on Friday. Without the previous day's copious amounts of sunshine, the temperature, which remained stuck around 0°C, didn't offer any incentive to leave Dove Cottage's warm and cozy confines.

What's more, I wasn't feeling too clever, as it appeared as if a stomach bug had me in its grips. Not known for sitting still for long, though, I still managed to clean the bathroom, resew a loose button on a dress and write a blog post. As daylight was almost non-existent and the world outside wasn't my ally, we skipped making outfit photos that day. Consequently, I have no idea what I was wearing.

This, however, was what I was wearing on Sunday!

For some unfathomable reason, the forest green button-through wool blend dress my eyes alighted on that morning hadn't made it out of my wardrobe for many years. Bought from a gem of a shop called Vintage Styling, which sadly stopped trading back in 2016, it used to be one of my go-to dresses when the temperatures started dropping towards freezing point. Here I am wearing it topped with a faux fur capelet in January 2017.

I was originally wearing the tan mock croc belt in lieu of the dress's original self-fabric tie belt, but transferred it to the chunky mustard cardigan when I layered on top. The necklace is part of a set which also includes the ring I was wearing that day and which, same as the Léa Stein lookalike cat brooch, was a flea market find.

Thankfully, my alleged stomach bug had upped and left, and even the weather gods had mended their ways by raising the temperature to 4°C and surprising us with an unexpected sunny spell in the afternoon.

Too late in the day to go a bit further afield, we decided to go for a stroll in a local park which is almost literally on our doorstep.

Altena park is part of a domain which used to belong to an order of nuns, but which was acquired by the local council in the 1980s.

The big chapel on the top right, built in neo-Gothic style at the end of the 19th century, has been turned into a venue for concerts and exhibitions.

While the park itself was private property during my childhood, the adjacent large playground, opened in 1961, and run by the nuns, was a major attraction which put our otherwise sleepy village on the tourist map during the Summer months. They even had there own picture postcards!

Admittedly, some of the playground attractions - and in particular the vertiginous slide, which you can catch a glimpse of in the top right photo on the postcard  - wouldn't pass health and safety regulations nowadays. Sadly, the playground is no more as it finally closed down in 1986.

As we ventured into yet another working week, the weather continued being the same old boring grey affair. Except for Monday, that is, when after a frosty start the sun managed to warm things up to 4°C.

Technical problems which lasted all day threw a spanner in the works at the office, and I could only despair at the avalanche of emails which would almost certainly await me on Tuesday.

My lunch break brought some relief by walking to one of the Think Twice shops and indulging in a spot of bargainous vintage shopping therapy. 

Sales prices had gone down to € 6 by now and I was lucky enough to find treasure in the form of a teal cable-knit cardigan with the most delightful buttons.

Stripes a-plenty with a zig-zag striped brown jumper and a blue and yellow striped polo neck.

Both the cardigan and the zig-zaggy jumper have already had their first outing. Sadly, both were worn on weekdays, when the lack of daylight after work as well as my lack of selfie-taking skills ruled out the possibility of photographing my outfits.

There's always room for more accessories in my collection, so this green beaded necklace and painted wooden brooch, grabbed from a tray at the till, came home with me as well.

Although by Wednesday the mercury had climbed to 7°C, the sun had once again taken leave of absence. It was an utterly dismal day on which a pea-souper fog refused to budge, robbing the view of Antwerp's cathedral from our office windows. For comparison, here's the same aspect sans fog, and with the cathedral basking in early morning sunshine.

As it was Wednesday, a cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez was on the menu. Always a bright spot in the week, taking place in Think Twice's coffee shop it usually combines a caffeine hit with a rummage fix. With prices down to € 4, Inez snapped up a peasant-style dress and found me another tank top for my modest collection. 

Skipping Thursday for being the usual uneventful and dare I say boring office day, we've now arrived on Friday 17 January.  No rest for the wicked, though, as I had a hairdresser's appointment, for which Jos kindly drove me all the way to Antwerp.

The chocolate brown 1970s does 1940s frock is yet another one which seemed to have escaped my attention of a while. A search on my blog has thus far remained fruitless which obviously doesn't mean that it wasn't worn in all of the almost nine since I published my first post!

The fluffy burnt orange cardigan was very much needed on this gloomy day with highs of barely 2°C.

There's no rhyme or reason to my accessories, I just played around with them until I was satisfied with the final result. They included an agate brooch, which was a flea market find about a year ago, a charity shopped chunky wooden beaded necklace and a stretchy belt with a leopard print buckle. The latter was last Summer's high street sales bargain.

Back from Michel, who has been my hairdresser since 1995, we booked our UK holiday cottage for June. I'll have you know that we have exchanged the cow shed we have been staying in for the last couple of  years for a stable :-) Still a long way off and a couple of hurdles to jump, though.

Yet another gloomy day awaited us on Saturday, the mercury abandoning all efforts to climb above freezing point. As the weather forecast kept insisting we'd get to see some sunshine on Sunday, we ticked the downstairs cleaning off our to-do list, leaving Sunday free for any spur-of-the-moment outings.

A rummage in my wardrobe unearthed the patterned velvet maxi skirt I snapped up at Think Twice in September 2023, its companion a charity shopped Norwegian style H&M jumper.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the brooch I found at Think Twice earlier that week.

I opted for wine red for the rest of my accessories to pick up the pops of red in both the skirt and the jumper. The wooden beads were another charity find while the elasticated belt with its mock croc front panel and massive square buckle was picked up on the high street.

With the weather not being conductive for any outdoor activities, we decided that a charity shop rummage was in order. And about time too, as it would be our first one this year! Oh dear, we are really letting standards slip!

The gods of the charity shops welcomed us back with open arms and rewarded us with plenty of finds. 

These two blouses soon found their way into my basket: the floral pussy-bow one is vintage, while the shirt with its stunning blue, cream and orange Art Deco style pattern is by a French label called Emma & Ella. 

I fell head over heels for the amazing pattern on this King Louie cardigan, so that was a no-brainer. What's more, as this particular chain of charity shops no longer has a separate rail of posh labels they are selling at inflated prices, I just paid the regular price for cardigans of € 5,90. 

There's one final item which came home with me that day, but that'll be for my next post. Leaving you with a bit of a cliffhanger here, but I promise to be back soon!

A January state of mind

So far, January's weather has been a continuation of December's - and November's for that matter - offering an endless string of days in soul-sapping shades of grey, with sunny spells a rare and mostly short-lived commodity. On the handful of days that it doesn't rain, a persistent fog is overstaying its welcome, if not an eye-stinging beast-from-the-east wind is making one scuttle back inside.

In the last week or so the temperature, which had been up and down like a yo-yo, finally decided to duck below freezing point. Just a laughable couple of degrees to some, mind you, but quite enough to dig out my stash of jumpers. Gone are the days when the menopause made me break out in a sweat at the mere thought of them!

As I'm sitting here typing this post, rain is lashing against the window and I can hear the wind - the dregs of storm Éowyn which is wreaking havoc elsewhere - howling down the chimney, making it feel much colder than the 10°C promised by the weather forecast.

It was a different kind of weather we woke up to on Saturday 4 January. Miraculously, the sun managed to briefly break through the sky's uniform layer of grey once or twice, although the mercury got stuck at a mere 2°C. I needed an extra layer in the form of a chunky pink cardigan to combat the chill but, diligent blogger that I am, I briefly removed it to show you what I was wearing underneath.

The vintage wool blend Betty Barclay dress ticked all my boxes when I found it at Think Twice in November 2021. Making use of the pink stripe in its tartan pattern for my accessories, I added a textured belt from the high street, a charity shopped necklace and a vintage carved celluloid brooch I picked up from the Brooch Lady's flea market stall in 2017. My ankle boots are actually burgundy rather than the pink they appear to be in the photo.

As we had a family thing on Sunday, we needed to tick off a couple of chores on our to-do list on Saturday, which in my case included mending a fallen hem on the cord skirt I'd been wearing that week.

Not an easy task to accomplish with a feline who insists on making herself comfortable on your lap no matter what. 

Having reluctantly finished Sarah Waters' The Paying Guests a couple of days earlier, it was hard to find a suitable follow-up. I thought the playful tone of Nigel's Slater's Eating for England, a collection of short and often quite mischievous essays about the British and their relationship with food, would fill the gap nicely.

Sunday was an extremely wet day, during which the temperature gradually climbed from 2 to 12°C.

After dismantling the Christmas tree - much to Bess's chagrin, obviously - in the morning, we drove down to Jos's son and daughter in law for a family get-together and the reading of grandson Cas's New Year's letter (Nieuwjaarsbrief in Flemish). 

Flemish children are expected to write a letter with New Year’s wishes for their parents, godparents and grandparents, which is then read out loud in front of everyone. The tradition originated in the 16th century and was at first limited to the upper classes, who had access to education. At that time the letter was usually written in Latin and in verse. Since the mid-20th century, the custom has spread and is now an essential part of local culture.

Obviously Cas, at only 3 and a half years old not yet being able to read or write, got the necessary help from his Mum, Carolien.

The happy mix of stripy patterns I was wearing that day consisted of a knitted skirt from the German brand Bleyle and a faux-wrap jumper from C&A's Clockhouse label. Both items wended their way into my wardrobe through the charity shops, as did my necklace.

The green fabric belt with its scalloped metal clasp buckle - recently worn back in December  - used to belong to a dress which is no longer gracing my wardrobe, while my flower embroidered brooch was bought from Shrewsbury Antiques Centre in June 2019.

The weather during January's second week was quite a mixed bag, starting with a wet and very windy day with highs of 10°C on Monday. In spite of having had a fitful night's sleep, I managed to stay reasonably clear-headed throughout the day. Obviously, this might have been due to a cappuccino-fuelled catch-up with my friend Inez during lunch break! 

One of the perks of our catch-ups being at Antwerp's largest Think Twice shop is that we can go for a quick rummage afterwards. I might even have found a tartan skirt! 

The temperatures took a dive to the low single digits again the next day, where they would remain for the rest of the week and beyond. Lashings of rain and a gale force wind prevented me from venturing too far from the office, so that I inadvertently ended up at Think Twice again during Wednesday's lunch break.

This gorgeous mustard crochet purse insisted on coming home with me that day.

It started snowing quite heavily that evening, swiftly covering the world outside our window with a thick layer of the white stuff. Thankfully, it didn't stick and was all but gone by morning. However, as I was waiting for my bus, we were treated to another couple of flurries, which prompted me to whip out my phone and take this snap of our spotlighted village church.

Funnily enough, in spite of the wintry weather my bus arrived on time for first time that week! Belgian public transport definitely has its little idiosyncrasies - which is a nice way to say that most of the time it actually sucks big time.

As that morning my phone alerted me that another Think Twice sale was kicking off that day, I couldn't help but heading once more into its direction during my break. 

A green, yellow and white floral pussy-bow blouse and a green and purple midi dress were duly snapped up at 30% off. 

It was nothing short of a relief when Friday rolled along! What's more, it turned out to be a gloriously sunny but cold day, the mercury flitting around freezing point. The kind of Winter's day, in fact, that I would sign on the dotted line for. 

With my new-found need for wearing jumpers, I've been avidly adding to my collection, so that my wardrobe is more than ready to deal with this kind of weather!

Apart from my accessories - a mix of flea market and charity shop finds - the main components of my outfit were picked up from the high street.

I bought the chunky lilac and purple striped jumper in Belgian label Terre Bleue's closing down sale back in October, while the mustard flannel skirt was a bargain from Uniqlo two years previously. It's from the shop's collaboration with the French model and fashion designer Inès de La Fressange and I had been lusting after it for months. Having initially been told it was sold out, I couldn't believe my luck when I was able to buy the one which had been in the shop window at a reduced price. 

The unexpected bonus of sunshine was making me feel quite giddy and raring to go for a walk. If the weather forecast was to be believed - and they are usually spot on when bad weather's in the offing - it was actually now or never, what with the rest of the weekend looking quite atrocious.

After tossing around a couple of ideas over lunch, we settled on Den Brandt, one of the pearls in Antwerp's crown of parks to the south of the city centre.

Just like our beloved Middelheim sculpture park, those of you who have been reading my blog for a while have accompanied me here many times before. In fact, its entrance is just across the street from the part of the sculpture park called Middelheim-Laag.

I was remarking to Jos that we hadn't visited for months, but he was adamant that the last time had been after he'd been discharged from hospital. And while I was quite certain that it had been longer ago than that, I was still shocked when a search on my blog revealed that our last walk here was back in August!

After checking out the offerings made to the Gautam Buddha in the picking garden, we ventured into the park itself, relishing the fact that it was so much quieter here on a weekday afternoon in Winter than it was on that sunny August Sunday.

Back then, I photographed Jos against the backdrop of one of the park's veterans, a 200-year-old weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica pendula), at the height of Summer still fully and lushly in leaf. After Autumn ravaged its green canopy, its crooked and twisted branches (above, top left) might be looking dead to the world, but I'm sure this ancient giant will go on to live another day.

Nothing much remained of Thursday's snowfall, but I made a point to purposefully crunch through some of the patches we came across. After all, it might very well be my only chance to do so this Winter.

There was a flimsy layer of ice on the pond behind the recently renovated English-style cottage. This fairy-tale gingerbread cottage (see the ornamental stork perched on its roof on the top left) is purely ornamental and was placed in the garden as a romantic element, a folly if you like. Even after its renovation its door remains firmly locked and its shuttered windows do not allow for a peek inside ... which is a shame really!

Having meandered the park's paths for well over an hour, we now found ourselves at the front of the late classical castle which lies at the heart of the domain. Looking like a perfectly iced wedding cake from afar, up close it is clear that it is yet another victim of shameful and ongoing neglect. 

Before making our way back to our car, I photographed these mad-looking maidens which have been dancing around the fountain in the castle's front garden since 1911. 

Created by the German sculptor Walter Schott, I greatly prefer their nickname, the Dancing Nymphs rather than their official Three Graces moniker. 

The water in the fountain's basin was frozen solid and I imagine the maidens in their flimsy frocks were close to hypothermia!

Nothing but grey skies

Apologies to all of you who have been leaving comments on my posts these last couple of months. Ever since Jos started having health problems back in September, there seem to be fewer hours in my days, so that replying to them has been falling by the wayside. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get back into my stride. I'm just hoping that once Jos has recovered from his op (which is scheduled for 28 February, by the way), things will get back to normal. 

As we are in desperate need of a change of scenery, we have thrown caution to the wind and have booked a couple of nights at our favourite B&B in Beernem near Bruges in February. And we might even have booked a cottage for our annual UK holiday in June ...

If the latter still seems like a long way off at the time of writing, I won't be fooled as time has a tendency to fly whether one's having fun or not. 

For the sake of this blog's continuity, however, I'm taking you back to 2024's final days as, try as I might, I hadn't finished telling you about them yet.

On Sunday the 29th of December it soon became clear that Saturday's sunny outlook had just been a blip, the weather having reverted to its former gloomy and mizzly state, with highs barely above freezing point.

It was far too cold to make outfit photos in the passageway and, with barely a smidgen of daylight making it through our kitchen window, we had to make use of our daylight lamp to show you what I was wearing. Pardon the ghost-like appearance of yours truly :-)

My black floral Diolen balloon-sleeved dress was a Think Twice sales bargain back in August, while I picked up the caramel short-sleeved cardigan during our Boxing Day rummage at the charity shop. Both the necklace and chunky flower brooch were old charity shop finds.

Bored with spending my time reading and occasionally napping on the sofa, I decided that now was the time to head upstairs for some long-overdue dusting and sweeping. In fact, whole generations of dust bunnies had been reared in our upstairs rooms since they'd last been properly cleaned.

The ladies on the spare room mantelpiece were duly relieved from their gossamer veil of dust as were the myriad of objects and heirlooms which reside on every available surface in our bedroom. Keeping everything squeaky clean all the time is verging on the impossible but as I'll never be a minimalist that's something I've learned to live with.  

We didn't venture outside all day, except for a short walk to our neighbours across the street to feed their cats Bob and Billie while they were off to New York for a week.

Monday's weather was a carbon copy of Sunday's. What's more, as those who are supposedly in the know had us believe, the weather gods' offerings of infinite shades of grey would be repeated as December segued into January.

I'd woken up with a blocked left ear and a niggling headache which simply refused to budge so, apart from accompanying Jos on the year's final supermarket run, the sofa is where I spent most of the day.

It was late afternoon when I finally got my act together as we were invited by our friends Inneke and Maurice to have a rummage at their deceased neighbour's flat which they are helping to clear. It felt a bit awkward going through this late lady's cupboards and wardrobes, but I was reassured by Inneke that she would have loved it that her things were going to such a loving new home.

With Dove Cottage already bursting at its seams, we did have to leave behind any bigger items, picking up some smaller odds and ends instead. These included a couple of tote bags, some hand-embroidered napkins, a pink denim jacket and yet more belts.

I couldn't leave behind this twosome of owls, who are now enjoying the company of the Tiffany-style owl lamp which was a gift from Jos's daughter An last year.

The walnut chocolate mould (above, top right) has joined our kitchenalia collection and we are now the proud owners of a fancy new coffee machine (above, bottom left).

These new additions to our kitchen prompted another cleaning session on Tuesday the 31st. I've got to strike the iron while it's hot, as I never know when the mood for this level of domesticity will next take me. And speaking of ironing, I did indulge in some of that seldom seen activity too! Get me!

This is what I was wearing! Both the skirt and the jumper were bought on the high street. While the rust coloured faux-suede paperbag waist skirt was a sales bargain, bought at 70% off in January 2022, the green poloneck is an old wardrobe stalwart having resided there for at least 15 years.

The indisputable star of my outfit is the tooled leather cowboy belt. It's the genuine article and must have been picked up by Inneke and Maurice's neighbour on her travels. 

The Edelweiss hiking souvenir brooch I pinned to my poloneck was a flea market find in February 2024 and the orange and brown hued wooden beaded necklace was charity shopped.

In order to keep cabin fever at bay we decided to drive down to the small charity shop in the neighbouring village of Reet after lunch. The shop's stock can be rather hit or miss and we were fully expecting the latter, so imagine our delight when it turned out there was quite a bit of treasure to be found this time around.

Apart from a Mango jumper (which you'll get to see me wearing in a minute) there was a pair of floral denim trousers, a dress by posh label Essentiel Antwerp and a cushion printed with Vizzini (Sheila's lovely boy) lookalikes. For some reason, Bess initially wasn't a fan as she was clearly freaked out by it.

I also ended up buying this magnificent red wool dress. Trimmed with faux fur at the cuffs and neck and with braided frog buttons decorating its bodice, I though it was fit for a Russian princess. Not for this particular princes though as, while it fit me perfect in the waist and effortlessly skimmed my hips, it was just a bit too narrow on top. Although I wasn't able to try it on in the shop, I'm generally quite good at guessing my size. Obviously not this time, so I'm letting Angelica do the honours. I even generously lend her my muff which doubles as a handbag!

Wednesday the 1st of January was a complete write-off. Although the mercury had climbed to 9°C by now, the day was even more miserable than those barely above freezing point ones courtesy of a nasty gale-force wind. As if that wasn't bad enough, I was feeling a bit maudlin and wasn't at all looking forward to my return to work the next day. And wasn't it just typical that this turned out to be a sunny one? I bet the weather gods must have been laughing behind my back! 

After the shortest working week ever of just one day we've arrived at Friday the 3rd of January, and the final day covered by this post. A frosty but sunny day, with highs of 2°C, it offered the perfect opportunity to wear that Mango jumper I'd charity shopped on Tuesday.

Biscuit and cream might not be my go-to colours, but add a generous helping of custard and suddenly it's very me indeed. As its companion, I picked a vintage chevron patterned knit skirt in shades of biscuit and chocolate. More custard was added with my fleece-lined opaques - a gift from lovely Kezzie - and charity shopped woolly hat.

The belt by Massimo Dutti and the orange beaded necklace were charity shopped as well, while the brooch was picked up from Think Twice a couple of months ago.

Clouds had gathered by the time we'd had lunch but there were still enough patches of blue sky to tempt us outside for a walk.  For a change of scenery, we opted for the park in the nearby town of Boom [boːm], which apparently we hadn't visited since early October. 

As our last visit was just days before everything went truly pear shaped, bad memories needed to be chased away, so that we entered the park with some trepidation. We needed have worried though, as any lingering negative vibes appeared to have been swept up and buried beneath a deep pile carpet of Autumn leaves. 

Still, instead of circling the ponds as we usually do, we headed to the park's tapering town-side end. 

Here, a modernist water garden punctuated with several bronze sculptures by well-known Flemish artists was laid out in 1931.

The building with the Art-Deco tower beyond belongs to Jos's alma mater and was built at approximately the same time.

The most prominent of the sculptures is Solidarity (above) by the Belgian sculptor, draughtsman and graphic designer George Minne (1866-1941), famous for his idealized depictions of man's inner spiritual conflicts. 

With the remaining sunshine on the wane, the temperature was soon making its way below freezing point. As the cold was numbing our faces and making our eyes water, we decided to call it a day and make our way back to where we'd left our car.

Waffles and hot chocolates were waiting for us at home!