Miscellaneous May

Oh dear, it looks as if I'm late for my next date with blogland again! 

Work has been quite relentless these last couple of weeks, which left me with little or no energy to sit in front of my PC of an evening. Add to this the usual pre-holiday prep, so that I won't be returning to utter chaos after my two-week holiday, and I'm sure it's no surprise that cobbling together collages and stringing words into cohesive sentences has been quite beyond me.

And then there's the not unimportant fact that this weekend we were obliged to cancel our longed-for UK getaway ...

Always a bundle of nerves in the weeks leading up to our holiday, Jos was now suffering from full-blown anxiety issues at the thought of having to travel all that way. As a result he once again lost his appetite, which at this moment he is yet to fully regain.

Heart-wrenching though it is to have to cancel - and particularly so this late in the day - we are certain that we've made the right decision. Telling my heart that this is so, however, is another matter altogether. 

In order to soften the blow, we decided to try and find somewhere closer to home, even if only for a couple of days. Enter our beloved September cottage in Poperinge. which by a stroke of luck was still having a six-night vacancy next week. To say that we are looking forward to sitting on its little balcony with a view  in a week's time is a bit of an understatement. 

But let's not be too hasty, as with most of the month of May still having to be written up I've got quite a bit of catching up to do.

The weather gods continued to be on their best behaviour on the day after we got lost in the wilderness. It was Sunday, the 11th of May, and the mercury was on the rise, reaching highs of 25°C. It would have been utter foolishness not to make the most of such glorious weather so, after having dealt with a couple of unavoidable household chores, we drove down to Solhof Park in the neighbouring village of Aartselaar. 

The vintage short-sleeved millefiori dress I'd selected for the occasion was a charity shop find in February 2024. From its multitude of colours I picked blue for my chunky plastic ring, flower embossed leather belt and vintage swallow brooch. There are a couple of blue beads in my necklace as well. Incidentally, the latter came from the charity shop near our west country cottage.

The Clarks Wave Walk shoes, which I'd picked up in a Ludlow charity shop as a replacement for my worn and battered Clarks Cloudsteppers last year, still needed to be broken in, so I decided to give them an outing that day. My feet have given them their thumbs up, but they're currently at the cobbler's as one of the shock-absorbing soles decided to part company with its host. 

Aartselaar's deliciously unkempt municipal park was once part of a castle's pleasure grounds laid out in Capability Brown inspired English landscape style. 

Today, the estate still covers 7.5 hectares and has been protected as a landscape since 1975. 

Its woodland complete with meandering sun-dappled paths and monumental 100 to 150 year old trees is perfect for an impromptu Sunday afternoon stroll. 

One of the park's attractions is the quirky knoll with its gazebo, which is built on top of an abandoned ice house. You can just catch sight of it in the photo on the top left. The ice house, which is claimed to be in excellent condition and one of the rare remaining examples in the area, is now a place of hibernation for a colony of bats.

The knoll can be climbed by way of a narrow, yew-hemmed and increasingly eroded path spiralling up to the top. Not much of a view at this time of year, though, just the merest of glimpses through the tops of the trees of the much modernized 19th Century mansion long ago turned into a hotel, and the last of the Manderley-esque Rhododendrons.

Bess was waiting for us when we got home, impatient for a cuddling session with Jos, who seems to be her current favourite, although I can't for the life of me understand why :-)

And so another weekend had come to an end with the start of a new working week following hot on its heels. And hot it definitely was with the mercury climbing into the high twenties.

My vintage 1970s cotton floral skirt was yet another old Think Twice find, while the green tartan blouse is King Louie by way of a charity shop. My comfortable red Kiarflex shoes were charity shopped too but both the stretchy orange belt and the orange cat brooch (from Katshop!) were retail buys. Not sure where I got the orange beaded necklace from, but it's been in my collection for what feels like an eternity.

Sales prices were down to € 2 at Think Twice on Monday and I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted this vintage watercolour print C&A skirt on the almost depleted rails! Never mind that it had a small tear which I was able to mend almost invisibly.

The gloriously summery weather continued on Tuesday, when I wore a charity shopped lobster print shirt paired with an orange and off-white tiered cotton skirt picked up in the C&A sales in the Summer of 2022. Both the cherry-shaped wooden beads and the lobster brooch were charity shop finds as well while the stretchy belt was found on the high street.

Wednesday's cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez was followed by quick round of the newly replenished Think Twice rails at the start of their new collection. This dress with its eye-confusing green and pink pattern insisted on coming home with me.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse on Friday, with temperatures down to 18°C, a dismal looking grey sky and lots of wind. 

No sleeping in or leisurely breakfast that day, as I had an appointment with my dentist in the town of Boom, about 10 kilometer away, for a check-up, cleaning and a minor filling. Not fun but needs must.

While I was in the dentist's chair, Jos went for a walk around the block and reported the existence of a brand new charity shop, which obviously we needed to check out before returning home.

Aren't those light fittings fabulous?

The shop, which was immaculately laid out, didn't disappoint, as no less than four items ended up in my basket. I fell in love with a pair of wide legged giant poppy print trousers, a pair of squishy yellow shoes, a grooviliously patterned pleated maxi skirt and a chevron striped V-neck top.

As a result of the dentist's drilling, probing, scraping and polishing (ouch!) I woke up with a full blown headache on Saturday, one which refused to budge all day.

But I felt that I'd definitely earned my stripes, so I dug out a red and white Breton top - an ancient high street find - to wear with my charity shopped vintage floral skirt.

Navy belt: charity shopped

White metal and navy hearted flower brooch: flea market

Red Kiarflex shoes and multi-coloured beaded necklace as before.

After our neighbours Wes and Michèle helped us with applying for our ETA, which we would have needed to travel to the UK (sob!), I walked into town to run a couple of errands.

On my way up, I stopped to admire and photograph the exuberance of the cottage garden in front of the museum of folklore. 

More stripes on Sunday, which was a day of utter indolence as I was still nursing the dregs of Saturday's headache and was feeling quite exhausted.

The stripes in question belonged to the jumper of many colours, originally from Monki, but picked up from a charity shop a couple of years ago. My Diolen skirt was an old Think Twice find back in the pre-blog mists of time.

Gold and silver patterned boots + stretchy chevron patterned belt: charity shopped

Wooden disk necklace: Accessorize

Blue cat brooch: Katshop

I'm leaving you now with some snapshots from the jungle junkyard which in spite of our shameful neglect keeps throwing up surprises. It must be the crumbling guardian cherub who keeps things ticking over!

The white foxglove in the passageway has been joined by a batch of purple campanula which has self-seeded between the cracks in the paving. And what a joy it is to see some double saucer-shaped red Geum flowers peeking out from the wilderness. Not to mention the dusky purple nodding flowers of one of my favourites, Geranium phaeum, particularly since it seems that its sister in the passageway has done a disappearing act!

Oh, and we've got some sweet strawberries too!

I might or might not try and fit in another post before we leave, but if not, I hope to see you on the other side!