Savouring the good days

No, you are definitely not imagining things, as yes, it's another post from me, the second one in less than two weeks!

In spite of everything that's been going on, life has been pretty good lately, with Jos having regained his appetite and lust for life, and getting stronger every day. This in its turn has freed up some space in my mind which had been taken up by sadness and worries ever since we were informed of the extent of Jos's illness back in February. 

So, here I am sat in front of my computer editing photos, making collages and ultimately churning out a blog post like I've been doing for the past 10 years. It often surprises me how resilient I am and I'm actually quite chuffed with myself at how well I've been coping with the bad hand of cards we've been dealt.

My blog still has a lot of catching up to do as in my previous post I left you on the 18th of April, a rainy Saturday I spent having lunch with a handful of girls I went to secondary school with back in the mists of time.

Sunday the 19th saw a return of some sunshine, although the measly14°C the weather gods threw at us were further marred by a strong and chilly wind.

Nevertheless, with Jos having somewhat recovered from his second course of chemotherapy and with his third course looming like a black cloud on the horizon, we wanted to make the most of this temporary time out by going for a short walk.

But first things first, let's have a look at my outfit. My floral skirt is an old vintage find from Think Twice, while the embroidered denim blouse was charity shopped new with tags in Bridgnorth, Shropshire two Junes ago. My accessories were a mix of charity shop, flea market and high street buys. 

The little lady bug brooch was feeling quite at home among my blouse's embroidered flowers!

 

Our destination for the afternoon was Middelheim sculpture park which, according to my blog, we last visited in October 2025. Surely that cannot be right? 

We left our car on the large car park near the entrance to the part of the park called Middelheim-Laag, where soon we came across Trois Figures Debout (1978) by the French sculptor Eugène Dodeigne (1923-2015). 

Then there was this strange contraption (above, bottom right) I had never noticed before. It's called Sculpture for Film (2024) and it's by Antwerp-based sculptor Katleen Vinck (°1976). Looking it up on the museum's website came up with the following description: 

In this sculpture, you might recognise a bunker, a design for a science-fiction film, or the remnants of monumental stone structures from vanished South American cultures. Yet it is neither a model for a spaceship nor a building. Katleen Vinck compresses thoughts, memories and images into a new form that moves between past and future, between science and imagination, between archaeology and science fiction.

Being one of my favourites, I'm sure Welsh artist Richard Deacon's spaceship called Never Mind doesn't need introduction. 

Proceeding clockwise are Why does Strange Fruit always look so sweet? (1998-2008) by Paris-based Belgian sculptor Johan Creten (°1963), Enclosure (2021) by the Belgian multidisciplinary artist Aline Bouvy (°1974) and Diamond Shaped Room with Yellow Light (1986-1990) by American artist Bruce Nauman (°1941). The latter is deliberately built along a path, offering a clear invitation to enter. But the hospitality is limited. The doorways are too low (I once bumped my head on its lintel), rhere is no roof to protect you from the natural elements, the yellow light is disorienting, and the triangular space feels uncomfortable.

Another favourite which I cannot help but photograph again and again is Henry Moore's King and Queen (1952).

Nearby is a striking group of fountain sculptures whose collective name is Adrift, dates from as recent as 2023 and are a creation of the French artist Camille Henrot  (1978), who had a solo exhibition here in the summer of 2022. 

While Jos was taking a breather and resting his feet on a bench, I wandered into the direction of Het Huis (transl. The House), a half-open pavillion designed for temporary exhibitions and opened in 2012.

For the past couple of years it has been home to Birdcalls by the American artist Louise Lawler, in which, using her own voice, she sounds out the names of twenty-nine well-known artists.  

The angular steel-and-concrete pavilion is by the Ghent-based architecture practice Robbrecht and Daem and definitely invites some creative photography. 

We walked back to the car park along the Rhododendron-lined meandering path skirting the very edge of the park.

The weather continued in the same vein on Monday and Tuesday, which would be my only office days that week. 

This is what I wore on Tuesday. Although someone once quite poetically described its pattern as balloons flying up into the evening sky, it are actually stylized flowers which constitute this short-sleeved vintage dress's pattern. It has graced my wardrobe ever since I laid eyes on it in a charity shop in March 2017. 

I took my lead from the pink flowers for my accessories: a charity shopped chunky wooden disc necklace and a stretchy belt with rectangular buckle picked up from a bargain shop on our village's high street. I can't remember where the pink-hearted turquoise felted flower corsage came from but a quick search on my blog revealed this wasn't the first time I pinned it to this particular dress! 

My visits to Think Twice - so much part of my lunch breaks in what sometimes feels like a past life - have been few and far between lately, but I finally made it to one of their shops that day. I was promptly rewarded with this deliciously patterned skirt.  

Daily hospital visits were on the agenda for the rest of the week, starting with Jos's weekly Wednesday appointment to see if his bloods were satisfactory for the next round of chemotherapy to go ahead. It was during this particular consultation that it was unanimously decided not to go ahead with the planned surgery but to go for a 4th and final round of chemotherapy instead. 

But he still had to go through with his third course, for which we returned to the hospital in the early morning of Thursday the 23rd.

My blouse is from the Belgian Who's That Girl label and found on the nightwear rail in a charity shop a couple of years ago. The denim skirt was charity shopped as well. I picked it up from Oxfam in October 2020. A holy grail at the time, I later found another denim skirt which I actually preferred, so that this one was relegated to the back of my wardrobe. 

I'll explain why in a minute, but let's have a look at my buttery yellow accessories first. All were either flea market or charity shop finds. Literally nothing new here!

Now, back to the skirt! The reason why I wasn't reaching for it were the fake back pocket tabs which rather annoyingly refused to lie down. Enter a packet of buttons (brats) which were a present from Claire (who used to blog at Winter Peach Photography) the last time we met. Ta-Da!

What with Jos being given strong, cortisone-like medication in the days immediately before and after chemotherapy, he was actually feeling on top of the world, and didn't even need to be taken to and from his chemotherapy session at the day hospital in a wheelchair. 

Striking the iron while it was hot, Jos promptly made an appointment with his hairdresser on Friday morning. Then, at noon, we were back at the hospital for a CT scan. Again, no wheelchair was involved in taking him through the endless warren of hospital corridors to his appointment.

The sun kept playing hide-and-seek with the clouds all day but with no rain and highs of around 20°C there was no reason to raise one's fist at the weather gods. 

Another one of my Diolen Delights came out to play that day, its playful floral pattern featuring a mix of blues and greens and putting paid to that silly old adage that blue and green should never be seen.     

I opted for different shades of blue for my accessories, which include a navy belt with cream buckle which used to belong to my late Mum. I do wish my Dad had kept more of her things after she passed away back in 2001.

Before I'm bidding you goodbye once more, here is some of my reading matter of the last couple of months. Found together on the local charity shop shelves during one of my last visits, I loved the escapism offered by Jojo Moyes' Me Before You and its sequel. Not something I would generally go for, but I'm still not up to anything more taxing.

Thank you for reading. 

I'll try to catch up with your blogs soon and hope to be back with another post before we go on a little escape of our own in two weeks' time.