April golden, April cloudy

It's been a bit of a week, involving chaos at the office, which left me too tired to do much of an evening. As a result, my blogging schedule went down the drain again, so that it has been more than my usual week between posts. If I keep going at such a slow pace, I'll never be able to catch up before our UK holiday in June ...

For the sake of my blog's continuity, however, I'm now taking you one month back in time to the final day of my Easter break. 

Although Middelheim sculpture park normally closes on a Monday, they do make an exception on public holidays, which enabled us to meet up with our friends Inneke and Maurice again on Easter Monday. 

The weather forecast had been indecisive for days, forecasting rain on Monday morning one day and in the afternoon the next, but we'd agreed to go ahead regardless and take refuge in the museum café if necessary. But such is the fickle nature of weather forecasting that in the end we woke up to a bright sunny day without any rain whatsoever on the horizon!

While Inneke and Maurice had grabbed the last parking spot on the grassy verge lining the street, we were obliged to leave our car on the - surprisingly empty - car park around the corner and walk back to the nearest entrance to the park. 

We then passed the stainless steel fountain, originally  designed by Belgian architect and sculptor Jacques Moeschal (1913-2004) for the courtyard of the Belgian pavilion at the 1967 Montreal World Fair, before joining our friends in front of the visitor pavilion and museum shop.

Rhododendrons were out in their masses and we could actually catch the honeysuckle scent of Rhododendron luteum, also known as yellow azalea, before we caught sight of the shrub, which was dripping with yellow bell-shaped flowers. As the colour of the yellow flowers in my skirt's pattern picked up those of the shrub's almost exactly, Inneke insisted I pose in front of it.

Inneke's green denim jacket, in its turn, offered a wonderful contrast to the magenta flowers of the Rhododendron behind her.

Taking advantage of the sunny weather, but still glad of our jackets as the mercury didn't climb higher than 17°C, we went for a walk before making our way to the museum café's terrace for a drink.

I couldn't resist photographing one of my favourite sculptures, Sharon Van Overmeiren's The Voyage of the Mascot (above, top left) now that she's been freed from her protective Winter prison.

After saying our goodbyes, Jos and I returned to the car park by crossing the road into Middelheim-Laag and following the path which meanders along the edge. Here, more Rhododendrons awaited, including some snow white ones (above) and the orange ones I included in the opening collage.

Back at home, it was time to show you my outfit in detail. It was based around the Diolen maxi skirt which has been gracing my wardrobe for absolutely ages.  I matched the blue flowers with the dotty denim shirt by Esprit, charity shopped a couple of weeks ago. My cropped yellow batwing cardigan - which might very well be my most worn garment on the blog - is from H&M by way of a charity shop back in August 2017.

Both the painted wooden brooch and the necklace with its wooden cherry-shaped beads were charity shopped earlier this year.

As my working week only started on Tuesday, another Friday, and thus another three-day weekend, rolled along in no time. The weather gods hadn't been on their best behaviour, though, treating us to a string of grey, windy and rainy days with highs of just 13°C.

My diary doesn't give me a clue as to what I had been wearing on Wednesday, but Tuesday saw me repeating Monday's Middelheim outfit, while on Friday I was wearing a repetition of Thursday's.

My fudge coloured button through cord skirt was bought brand new on the high street in October 2021, while I picked up the shirt, which is by the former Belgian label Wow To Go, from an outlet shop exactly one year later. I forgot to take a detail of my charity shopped plum coloured suede belt, but it matched the stripes in my shirt almost exactly.

Both the deer brooch and the tiger eye pendant are vintage - from a much missed vintage shop and a flea market respectively - but the ring was part of a haul from the closing down sale of a high street shop several years ago.

We'd booked our UK holiday cottage - a different one from previous years - back in January, paying a bit extra for a cancellation fee due to Jos's health issues. Thankfully, having received a clean bill of health just before Easter, we could now start making plans, which involved booking our LeShuttle train journey and digging out maps and brochures. 

We will now be on the Shropshire/Worcestershire border which will offer a plethora of new places to explore. I spent a happy hour or two on Friday afternoon browsing the National Trust handbook we were kindly given by one of the volunteers when we visited the Rock Houses at Kinver Edge in June 2023 and taking note of any properties within easy reach of our new abode.

As the weather forecast for Saturday 26 April had been claiming it would be gloriously sunny with temperatures into the low twenties, we'd originally planned to take a picnic to Blaasveldbroek, one of our favourite nature reserves.

Unfortunately, the fog we woke up to was quite persistent and when it finally lifted it left a layer of grey which the sun had a hard time dealing with. It felt quite chilly as well, so that we decided to postpone our walk to Sunday.

Although reminiscent of Autumn, it appears I hadn't worn the pleated skirt with its wild print of flowers interrupted by rows of berries and paisley at all during the appropriate season. Both the skirt and the almost sheer coral crepe-like blouse delicately sprinkled with flowers were Think Twice finds at one time or another. 

The gods of the charity shops provided my sky blue King Louie cardigan, moss green suede belt, beaded necklace and burgundy ankle boots.

As my seasonal wardrobe switch continued, I'd filled yet another bag of charity shop donations, which we dropped off at the shop in the nearby town of Mortsel after lunch. 

A quick trawl of the rails yielded this blue retro print dress, which I could instantly tell was King Louie. As this chain of shops no longer differentiates between labels, applying the same price for both upmarket labels and the likes of Primark, it was mine for just € 5,90.

Sunday was gloriously sunny, the highs of 21°C only slightly tempered by a cool breeze at the water's edge. 

Champing at the bit to sample the delights of nature on an April's day, we packed a picnic and drove to Blaasveldbroek straight after breakfast. One of our regular haunts, it truly beggars belief that we hadn't walked here since October 2023!

We started our chosen walk along an avenue of trees with one of the big ponds on our left, until we reached the boardwalk leading down to the latter. 

It's easy to believe in the fairies and marsh spirits who allegedly lived in this magical waterlogged wonderland in ancient times. For all it's worth, perhaps they still do. 

Brilliant shafts of sunlight were spotlighting the woodland path until we reached the giant sunlounger at the other side of the pond. Partly taken over by buttercups and stinging nettles, we gingerly sat down at its edge for a spot of sun-worshipping.

The frog chorus erupting from among the reeds and rushes suddenly fell silent as we approached. Although cleverly camouflaged and quiet as a mouse, we still managed to spot one who hadn't been fast enough to hide. 

Dandelions were plentiful and a favourite source of nectar for a flutter of red admirals.

My flower power skirt was part of a skirt suit - or should that be co-ords - charity shopped back in 2015, and last worn together in April 2019.

The skirt's companions were a hot pink short-sleeved jumper, one of my stretchy zig-zag belts and a  chunky beaded necklace by Belgian label Les Cordes bought new with tags from a charity shop back in 2023.

Accompanied by the persistent call of a cuckoo echoing over the domain, we walked until we found a suitable bench to eat our sandwiches, which tasted all the better after breathing in lungfuls of that delicious Spring air.

The next working week would again be a short one, with a 4-day weekend beckoning us at its end.

Would the gorgeous Spring weather still be with us? Find out all about what we have been up to in my next post.

Thank you for reading and hope to see you soon!