Back issues

Remember I ended my last post by telling you I'd pulled a muscle in my back? There I was, going through the contents of a couple of shelves in my wardrobe, making piles on our bed of what to keep and what not, when all of a sudden a dull ache made itself felt in my lower back. As it was more of a stiffness than an actual pain, I didn't pay it too much attention at first, confident that it would have sorted itself out after a good night's sleep.

Well, what can I say? I tossed and turned all night, as by then the pain had migrated to my left hip which meant I just couldn't get comfortable. Still quite bleary eyed, I dragged myself out of bed on Saturday morning and shuffled downstairs. Thankfully, the pain seemed to be bearable as long as I kept moving around, so I suggested a trip to the charity shop to drop off the bags of donations I'd painstakingly assembled - pun definitely intended - on Friday.

A gusty wind somewhat spoiled the day's highs of 20°C, so that I needed to wear a jacket over my three-quarter sleeved lightweight midi dress. But while my pink denim jacket was a gift from my friend Inneke - it used to belong to her deceased neighbour - the dress with its William Morris-esque print was an old C&A sales bargain, plucked from the shop's rails back in 2018.

Both the chunky flower brooch and carved beaded necklace, which echoed the white flowers in my dress's print, were charity shopped. My gold and silver patterned Western style ankle boots were found in a pop-up second hand shop this time last year.

After plying the gods of the charity shop with our donations, it would have been downright silly not to have a quick trawl through the rails.

I was rewarded for my efforts with this vintage cotton Summer dress, which might have been another remnant from the previous month's retro event. As my back wouldn't have thanked me for trying it on in a cramped fitting room, I took a gamble, which I'm happy to report has paid off as it fits me like a glove.

This floaty neon orange H&M skirt found its way into my basket as well. As I was making my way to the cafeteria where Jos was enjoying a cup of coffee, I almost did a double take when I spotted this spotty oatmeal belt among a jumble of others in a box. Clearly, it had been separated at birth from the skirt it used to belong to. The very same skirt I charity shopped a couple of weeks earlier!

The pain in my back and hip was still very much around on Sunday but, as sitting still for long seemed to make things even worse, the day was spent doing a couple of chores followed by making a start with my biannual wardrobe exchange.

The temperature had dropped to just 12°C which wasn't much improved by the sun doing a disappearing act for most of the day. 

While going through my rail of skirts, my eyes alighted on this black woollen one clustered with off-white and brown daisies. If my memory doesn't fail me, I found it in a vintage per kilo shop a couple of years ago.

The blouse I picked as its companion, with its eye-catching blue, cream and orange Art Deco style pattern, was charity shopped back in January. 

My orange plastic beads were charity shopped as well, while both the stretchy belt with its massive enamelled buckle, and the cat brooch, were retail buys. Together with its red, blue and yellow sisters, it came from the delightfully quirky Katshop. Linkin' cause I love, as Sheila would say!

As another working week dawned, I wasn't exactly looking forward to sitting at my desk for days on end. However, aided by anti-inflammatory gel and the odd painkiller, it turned out not to be too bad at all. In fact, by Wednesday - we were the 9th of April by now - I thought I'd seen the worst of it. I was even game for making outfit photos on Thursday after work.

The days had gone off to a frosty start all week, but plenty of sunny spells ensured that the temperature reached average highs of 15°C by lunch time. To deal with the fluctuating temperatures during the day, I layered up, wearing a cardigan in the morning, but stashing it away in my bag on my way home.

Underneath I was wearing a floral extravaganza of a blouse featuring cobalt blue, pale pink and red. From the former Belgian label Wow To Go, I picked it up from Oxfam in December 2021. Incidentally, the denim midi skirt came from the same Oxfam shop, where I bumped into it in October 2020. My pastel pink beaded necklace was a charity shop find but the raspberry pink belt was once upon a time bought brand new on the high street.

Meanwhile, things were looking up in Dove Cottage's jungle junkyard of a garden. There was Honesty aplently and the Spirea bush was wearing its annual bridal veil of tiny white flowers.

In the passageway, which is sheltered from the elements by our kitchen extension and our neighbour's wall, the first of the magenta flowers of the hardy Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor' were putting in an early appearance - it is supposed to flower in late Spring, early Summer only - and there were a plethora of bleeding hearts in our Dicentra spectabilis.

My back issues returned with a vengeance on Friday, the pain now also being felt in the back of my thigh. Refusing to be defeated now that another weekend had arrived, I tried to carry on as normal, starting with playing around with the contents of my wardrobe.

I'd put aside the vintage coffee-themed blouse with its lethal looking dagger collar to be sold at this year's flea market. However, as it was on top of the pile, I made the mistake of trying it on one more time after which I decided it was a keeper after all. 

I can't remember whether I found it at Think Twice or in a charity shop, but it was definitely the latter which provided the pale green cotton circle skirt with its rows of red and black rick-rack at the hem.

The red shoes, belt and beaded necklace were charity shop finds as well, while the purple plastic peacock brooch was picked up at the indoor flea market.

After lunch, I asked Jos to drive me over to the edge of town charity shop for a rummage, telling him that I would make my way back home on foot.

I fell hard for two denim blouses, which are a current weakness. The frilly shouldered one on the left is from the Danish Only label, while the spotty one on the right is from EDC by Esprit. 

While queueing at the till, I unearthed this brand new looking purple floral Oilily purse from a box of miscellaneous stuff. My current purse, which is positively ancient, has been on its last legs for a while, but I wasn't prepared to pay over the odds for a new one. € 1,50, now that's much more like it!

After paying for my purchases, I hobbled home, my back and hip giving me gyp with every step.

We were treated to a gorgeously sunny day, with highs of 24°C, on Saturday.

What's more, I'd had a restful night, and the pain, which now seemed to be mostly in my left leg, was marginally better. 

Wild horses nor any bodily ailments couldn't have kept us inside on such a glorious day, so off to Middelheim we went.

We parked in the large car park near one of the entrances to Middelheim-Laag, the Northern part of the sculpture park, and took the path which meanders along the edge of the park, running between thickets of flowering shrubs.

The thick clusters of crimson blooms of  Japanese quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) were a sight to behold and made us halt in our steps!

Hidden among the trees and shrubs are several works of art. Amongst others, we met Large Seated Woman (above, top left and right), created by German sculptor Georg Kolbe (1877–1947) in 1929.

Catching a ray of dappled sun was Girl Looking Down (above, bottom left and right). Dating from 1956-57, she's a creation of the English sculptor Reg Butler (1913-1981). We're always joking that she actually can't see anything but her fairly large bosom.

We briefly paused for outfit photos next to Chilean sculptor Marta Covin's (1907-1995) Tower of Silence (1960-63). I was wearing my beloved denim jacket for the first time this year. The Trevira skirt, which I'd found at Think Twice earlier that week, received its first outing. I wore it with a short-sleeved thin knit green top and the same raspberry pink belt I wore on Thursday.

We wandered at will, until we spotted the flowering cherry blossom tree (Prunus serrulata) in the distance and strolled towards it.

On the top and bottom right in the below collage is a sculpture by the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Called L'age d'Airain (1876-1880), the confident pose of this young man, hand on his head, is striking. The 22-year-old Flemish soldier August Neyt modelled for this sculpture for 18 months. He originally held a spear, an attribute later omitted by the artist. The sculptor gave this work several titles, including The Vanquished, Man of the Forest, and finally “The Bronze Age.”

Although the pain had kept largely at bay during our one-hour or so walk, it became quite excruciating in the evening. Consequently, Sunday was spent doing nothing much at all. Would you believe I didn't even dress up, which is quite unheard of for me. As I'd had more than enough by then, I called my GP on Monday morning and managed to get an appointment for that afternoon. Typically, the pain had gone completely by the time I made it to the surgery. I was nevertheless prescribed a course of physio in case it would re-emerge which, fingers crossed, it hasn't until now.

I'll be back with further April adventures in my next post. See you soon!