Life in Limbo

What with life keeping throwing us curveballs lately, it nearly escaped my attention that the month of March held a thing or two worth celebrating. And no, I'm not talking about the fact that Spring has finally sprung!

For the first one, we have to go back to the 4th of March 2021, which was the day that Bess entered our lives. She would soon prove herself to be a more than worthy successor to Phoebe, who'd unexpectedly passed away one month earlier, but how tiny and timid she was when she first came to Dove Cottage! She's definitely come along in leaps and bounds in those four years she's been ruling the roost here!

We have to go back even further, to the 5th of March 2016, for the month's second anniversary. It was on this day that I published my very first blog post, all of nine year ago. Aptly named To begin at the beginning - the title borrowed from Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood - it was a brief introduction and contained the explanation of my blog's name. There were no photos of yours truly;  these swiftly followed in my second post a couple of days later. I've still got that first dress although I haven't worn it in a long time. 

I'm pretty sure that the dress I'm wearing today - or rather, one month ago, on the 23rd of February - wasn't part of my wardrobe back then, but it's definitely not its first appearance on my blog.

Found at Think Twice eons ago, I was swayed by its grey and white wallpaper print brightened with splashes of fuchsia and turquoise at its collar, cuffs and hem. 

I chose a pair of dove grey opaques and picked up the pops of turquoise with my accessories - the brooch was part of a haul from an antiques shop in Carmarthen in June 2017 - and cardigan. To the latter, I added a two-tone grey swallow brooch, a vintage find from the indoor flea market back in the mists of time.

With the dark cloud of Jos's surgery looming on the horizon, adequate distractions were few and far between. But nature is a great soother and healer of troubled minds and, with oodles of sunshine and temperatures easily reaching the low double digits, it would have been foolish to mope around inside.

The small but perfectly formed park near the charity shop in Duffel, a mere 15 minutes from Dove Cottage by car, was our destination of choice.

There's a number of paths to choose from but our initial choice, which was the one circumnavigating the biggest of the ponds, turned out to be too squelchy and muddy so that we soon had to head back.

It might have been only February, its feet still firmly planted in Winter, but there was a definite hint of Spring in the air. At first sight, most of the trees were still stark and bare with only the faintest whisper of green, but there were a handful of shrubs which were gleefully showing off their  yellow blossoms against the bright blue of the sky.

The brutalist fountain, devoid of the mossy green hairdo it had sported for years, was still hibernating and dreaming of the day when its gurgling jets of water will once again ripple the pond.

Optimistically, I'd left the house bareheaded and I'd exchanged my heavy Winter coat for my ancient cream, pale blue and brown plaid one. Charity shopped years before my blog was even a glimmer of thought, it has by now seen better days, but I'll be wearing it until it actually falls apart at the seams. My frilly turquoise scarf - also charity shopped - was worn in lieu of the chunky woollen ones I've been wearing these last couple of months. 

The two weeks that followed - February's last and March's first - aren't ones we will forget in a hurry, although I'm sure their rough edges will be smoothed out over time.

Strangely enough, work was a distraction for me, although there was no such thing for Jos, whose upcoming surgery was completely occupying his mind. It took all our combined willpower to get through the days until that fateful Friday arrived.

That day was a waiting game for me and I was thankful for the company of my friend Inez and my latest read, which I kept dipping into to read a chapter until my nerves once again got the better of me.

Wasn't it just our luck that Jos's week in hospital coincided with a week's worth of False Spring? After a frosty start the sun soon managed to warm things up to temperatures ranging between 14 and 18°C.

Waiting for Jos to get the doctor's green light for his discharge, which kept getting postponed on a daily basis, this mural was the view from his hospital room window: a welcome splash of colour among the grey concrete. 

Although I'd initially taken Monday off work as we'd expected Jos would be home by then, I opted to go into the office and postpone my booked time off to the day he would eventually be released, whenever that would be.

While poor Jos was mostly on his own - but don't worry, we called and messaged all the time - at least I got the company of a certain furry someone, who hardly left my side when I was at home.

I hadn't slept well in the night from Sunday to Monday, so it was with a head full of cotton wool that I stumbled through my day. 

In a bid to clear the cobwebs from my head, I made the most of the sunshine and balmy temperature by going for a lunch break walk. Aimless it might have been, I couldn't resist having a quick look at what was on offer at Melting Pot, the vintage per kilo shop. I was in luck as I found this fabulous skirt, 100% cotton and lined and equipped with two generous pockets!

I was amazed to read that, back in November, the shop was mentioned in an article by the Guardian called Amazing Antwerp (see here). It truly boggles my mind that there was no sign of any of Antwerp's five (!) Think Twice shops though.

Tuesday's lunch break saw me walking to Den Botaniek again, where I was happy to see that a sea of Crocuses had popped up since my last visit. I even caught a bumblebee going crazy in one of the lilac and white striped blooms on the bottom left.

I also admired the creamy white Camellias flowering to their heart's content in front of the former gardener's cottage - now a posh lunch restaurant.

I exited the Botanic Garden via the premises belonging to its next door neighbour, the Botanic Sanctuary hotel. Opened in 2022, the 5-star hotel is housed in a former convent and hospital complex whose history goes back to the 12th century. I always have the feeling I'm getting the side-eye when I venture onto the luxury hotel's hallowed ground.

Jos was finally able to come home on Thursday, so we roped in his son Kris, who would be picking us up at around 6 pm. I left work early and took the bus to the hospital to help Jos to get ready and tie up the last of the practical loose ends. 

Finally back at Dove Cottage, he was getting a gazillion headbutts from Bess, who was obviously over the moon to have her second employee back at her beck and call! 

Obviously, I wasn't about to call on Jos for outfit photos yet, so I did a quick flatlay to show you what I was wearing the day he came home.

Strangely enough, it was almost identical to the outfit I wore just days after his previous sojourn at the hospital back in October.  Apparently, the green zig-zag patterned vintage St. Michael skirt - a much loved gift from Vix - found its perfect partner in the fuchsia pink patterned blouse by the defunct Who's That Girl label, picked up from an outlet shop in November 2022. 

I was even wearing the same charity shopped wooden beaded necklace as I did back then. This time, however, I added a contemporary green squirrel brooch to the blouse and picked one of my beloved stretchy belts, the one with the octagonal faux tortoiseshell buckle, to accent my waist.

And so, life at Dove Cottage continues, even if things are still a bit in limbo at the time of writing.

But let me end this post on a positive note. As I was putting a bag of rubbish into the bin in the potting shed, I happened to notice some early-flowering Honesty which had nestled itself in a crack in the paving. Not wanting it to go to waste in this out of the way place, I picked a stem or two and put them in a small vintage vase - a gift from my friend Inneke - together with some late-flowering Winter Jasmine. 

A true sight for sore eyes, don't you agree?