Life goes on

 After a week's delay, Jos finally got green light for his second course of chemotherapy on Thursday the 26th of March. During the procedure, which generally takes about three hours in total, I kept him company with my current read and enjoyed a free cup of coffee in the lounge provided for patients and their families.

No chance of sitting outside in the courtyard as the sunny spell was very short-lived, the sky reverting to granite grey mere minutes after I'd taken this photo. The eagle-eyed among you may notice the wet paving stones outside, the result of the rain we'd started the day with.

As we were out of bread, I went to buy a loaf in the tiny supermarket in the lobby and, with Easter virtually on our doorstep, treated us to half a kilo of scrumptious chocolate mini eggs in the on-site Leonidas shop.

With Jos's appetite having made a temporary come-back, it didn't take very long to get to the bottom of this bowl. 

That evening, Jos declared a craving for frietjes van de frituur, meaning Belgian (not French!) fries bought from that most traditional of Belgian institutions, the frituur, as ubiquitous as the British chip shop. With one of these virtually around the corner from Dove Cottage, that was our evening meal sorted.

In the next couple of days Jos was feeling quite energetic and, just like during his first round of chemotherapy, didn't suffer from any side-effects to speak of. Apparently, this is due to the cortisone-like medicine which he is given before and after chemotherapy to prevent nausea and which has the welcome side-effect of giving some lucky people an energy boost.

We knew it wouldn't last, so we decided to make the most of it. If only the weather gods had been better behaved!

We woke up to overnight frost on Saturday and the forecast wasn't looking very promising. Spring was dragging her heels and, with a chilly wind blowing and the mercury refusing to let go of the single digit temperatures, Jos drove me to the local charity shop for a rummage in the afternoon. Meanwhile, he took the car for a spin, finishing with a non-alcoholic beer at his favourite village café.

Contrary to their colleagues of the weather department, the gods of the charity shops were on their best behaviour and finds were plentiful.

For starters, these two skirts ended up in my shopping basket. The red one with its brown and white garland pattern is handmade from a sturdy cotton, lined, and perfect in every way except, alas, for a lack of pockets. I'm actually wearing it as I type.

The red, white and blue leaves and berries patterned A-line skirt is by King Louie.

There were dresses galore, and from the armful I took into the fitting rooms these three have joined my wardrobe. The embroidered chambray knee-length dress is from C&A, the red and white striped maxi from H&M and the black floral with the odd bird maxi from Vero Moda.

Finally, I fell head over heels for these two very different blouses. 

As I am partial to a bird pattern, the green flamingo patterned one was a no brainer. Same as the black floral maxi, it's from the Danish Vera Moda label.

The blue short-sleeved blouse with its sprinkling of red, orange, green and white dots is label-less and has every indication of having been handmade.

As we are no longer in the habit of making outfit photos, we cleanly forgot to do so that day.  However, here you can catch the briefest of glimpses of my rust coloured opaques, orange socks and my stripy vintage skirt (this one!). 

But I'm sure you only have eyes for Queen Bess of Dove Cottage!

We woke up to a repeat of Saturday's weather on Sunday, although the clouds did make way for the odd patch of blue sky.

With the temperature still not having caught up with the season, I pulled this thick knit zipper front King Louie dress from my wardrobe. Charity shopped back in September, this was actually its first outing, for which it was joined by a contrasting mustard cardigan. As the latter is buttonless, I pinned a green-hearted brooch to its collar to keep it closed. Teal opaques, an old pair of tan boots, a mustard beaded necklace and chunky yellow ring completed my outfit.

As it looked set to remain dry, I persuaded Jos to go for a long-overdue walk, for which we drove to the park in one of our neighbouring villages, Duffel. However, he looked quite doubtful when I uttered the words "15-minute walk", protesting that he'd probably only make it to the first available bench.

Much to our mutual surprise, he just kept on going - that's him in the distance in the top left photo of the above collage - and insisted on continuing around the park's biggest pond.

All in all, we walked for over half an hour, sampling the sensory delights of Spring, which seemed to have arrived regardless of us being otherwise occupied. 

Surely, this host of daffodils, tiny as it is, must be Spring personified, the ultimate symbol of new beginnings. 

Additionally it's also the symbol of cancer charities in many countries ...

Thank you for reading. I hope to be back soon!

As time goes by

I know it's been a while but believe me when I say that my absence from Blogland wasn't in any way intentional. In fact, I've lost count of the times when I woke up, determined to virtually put pen to paper that day, only for it to go pear shaped as, when push came to shove, by the end of the day time seemed to have evaporated into thin air. 

My 10th Blogiversary on the 5th of March, which was supposed to be a red letter day, came and went, with only the briefest of mentions on my Instagram. On one of the rare occasions when we managed to take outfit photos, I happened to be wearing a vintage Crimplene dress from the Finnish Karelia label which I was wearing in one of my very first blog posts back in March 2016.

Funnily enough, I seem to be wearing the same colour of tights - perhaps even the same pair - but I haven't worn the jacket nor the beret in a very long time. I might still have the shoes rattling around somewhere at the bottom of my wardrobe, but I know for a fact that I sold the handbag. 

The post in question, which you can find here, was called A Walk in the Park, which I can assure you cannot be said of life at Dove Cottage at the moment.

To give you a short update, just under a week after his first chemotherapy session Jos started having side effects, notably utter fatigue and complete lost of appetite. If that wasn't bad enough, he also suffered from an alarming drop in blood pressure whenever he got up on his feet. We now know that this too is to be blamed on chemotherapy, but it definitely didn't help that he wasn't eating and drinking nearly enough. The combined result of this was that at one point we ended up in A&E after he'd had a fall - thankfully nothing too serious apart from his face looking like he'd been in a fight - and that his next chemotherapy session got postponed by a week as he needed to get stronger first. I'm not joking when I tell you he was actually prescribed an unhealthy diet involving lots of sugar and salt! 

Now, without further ado, here are some of the things I've been up to since I last posted all of six (eek!) weeks ago.

I've been reading, although admittedly nothing too taxing for my constantly muddled brain.

And I've been wearing clothes, obviously, making the effort to carefully put together outfits like I've always done, even if most of them do not make it onto my camera roll.

Here I am wearing a beloved cord skirt bought on the high street in November 2023, combined with a vintage Diolen C&A blouse I picked up from Think Twice a couple of weeks later.

This black floral A-line dress, which has been in my wardrobe for what feels like forever, was a Think Twice find as well, while my long pink cardigan is from Mango via the charity shops. The gods of the charity shops also gifted me with the green boots back in December 2021. A holy grail if ever there was one.

My lunch breaks rarely take me to Think Twice like they used to, but I gladly made an exception for a cappuccino catch-up with my dearest friend Inez. As the shop had just started one of their famous sales, it would have been a crime not to have a quick look. Priced at a silly € 4,20, this Norwegian style jumper was a no-brainer.

I wore it on a bitterly cold Saturday a couple of days later, combined with an electric blue new wool vintage skirt I'd found back in December and a charity shopped half-elasticated suede belt.

Speaking of charity shops, it boggles my mind to think I've so far only been for a rummage twice this year. However, that day I decided to walk to our most local shop, which is just over a kilometer from Dove Cottage.

I was rewarded for my efforts with this gorgeous Zara jumper, which Kezzie declared to be very Anne of Green Gables when I sent her a photo. I'd been trying in vain to take a decent mirror selfie but had to admit defeat and ask a fellow shopper for help :-)

Any walks have been largely solo affairs, one of which took me to a local park, where the sight of a sea of wood anemones gladdened my heart and put a spring in my step. 

Even so, it truly beggars belief that Spring is once again upon us, and that life goes on even if I haven't felt particularly part of it these last couple of months.

Another day found me taking the bus to our neighbouring village of Edegem for a stroll at Hof ter Linden. 

Here I was, lost in thought and very much minding my own business, when much to our mutual delight I ran into our friends Ingrid and Luc.

We spent half an hour or so sitting and talking on a sun-drenched bench before continuing our respective walks.  It was so good to see them!

Before I bid you goodbye for now - with a promise not to leave it that long this time - here's a view across the lake to the castle, which is currently in the final stages of restoration.

Hope to be back soon!