May days

And just like that, Summer arrived on our doorstep and we've turned the calendar's page from June to July.  

My mind boggles that it's well over two weeks since my last post, which had its feet still planted firmly in May.  In the meantime, we've survived a whopper of a heatwave, part of which was spent doing nothing very much at all in the cottage in Poperinge we fell in love with 14 years ago. 

But all of this was still in the future when I was wearing this outfit on a Mid-May day when the temperature barely climbed into double figures.

It was wet and cold, a gossamer layer of frost decorating our kitchen extension's roof when I drew the bedroom curtains. Nothing odd about this at all, as we were in middle of that period in May popularly known as the IJsheiligen (transl. Ice Saints). These are the feast days of the Medieval Catholic saints, Mamertus (11 May), Pancras (12 May), Servatius (13 May) and Boniface (14 May). According to folk wisdom, these days in May are the final days of Spring which can sometimes still have night-time frosts.

It was Ascension Day, which is a public holiday in Belgium and, apart from it being cold enough to wear a jumper, my diary tells me I dug one of my Winter coats out of the wardrobe it was supposed to be spending its Summer break in.

Next stop in the time machine is Wednesday the 20th of May. I had taken the day off to accompany Jos to what would be his last hospital appointment until September. Although he was starting to feel a little bit better, his appetite still wasn't up to scratch and he was still experiencing sudden drops in his blood pressure.

We were seen by the Professor who coordinates the hospital's thorax oncology department, who was very understanding of Jos's situation. She suggested prescribing a low-dose cortisone-like medicine to see if that would be of any help. At this point in time, I'm happy to report that it spectacularly improved - and keeps improving - his quality of life!

At 17°C, the weather gods were a little bit better behaved by now, although angry-looking clouds, the odd shower and a chilly wind did their best to spoil the game. 

No jumper this time, but I was still wearing long sleeves. My M&S blouse, picked up in a Shrewsbury charity shop in June 2024, was paired with a vintage green and white polyester knit skirt from Think Twice, and accessories bought on the high street at various times.

By Friday the 22nd of May the meteorological deities had cranked up the thermostat to 27°C and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. 

Instead of our usual weekly catch-up, my friend Inez and I had agreed to meet up at Hof ter Linden in Edegem for a walk, followed by drinks on the on-site brasserie's terrace.

No proper outfit photos were made that day, but I was wearing these wide-legged silk blend Fab India trousers I charity shopped in July 2025.

With our garden still being an impenetrable jungle - and you can take this quite literally - I'd been admiring the glorious herbaceous border of the Museum of Folklore down our street, longing for the day when our little plot would be accessible again. At that point, we were still waiting for the gardener we'd contracted to turn up and tackle the job.

This was what I was wearing on Saturday for a day of running errands and tackling a couple of chores.

- 1970s cotton button through skirt trimmed with rick-rack: T2

- Lobster print top: charity shopped new with tags from Flair Goes Retro, produced in 2015 for Belgian women's magazine Flair

- Red pleated belt and necklace: charity shopped

- Lobster brooch: indoor flea market, February 2024

It was only when I was photographing the details that I noticed the lobster brooch was missing its

diamanté heart. Suspecting that it had gone AWOL while I was running errands, I'd already made a mental notation to look for a suitable replacement when Jos found the missing part on our hall carpet!

Sunday saw us driving down to the park in Duffel for a long-overdue walk. In spite of the temperature climbing steadily into the direction of 30°C, Jos insisted on wearing a jacket! Oh well ...

We met this cheeky little fellow near the end of our walk. After playing hide-and-seek among the trees for a while, I was finally able to catch him scaling this tree, where he obliged me by pausing (or should that be posing) for a second or two. Snap!

My outfit was built around a chambray skirt with faux embroidery I'd cheekily bought from a village boutique on Saturday. 

My funky print T-shirt, belt and necklace were all charity shopped while a found the sailing boat brooch at a flea market many years ago.

The weekend contained a bonus day, as Monday was yet another public holiday in Belgium (Pinkstermaandag or Whitsun Monday). 

For a 30°C day of not doing very much at all, I wore a green and red combo with a touch of black.

The hand-made green cotton circle skirt with its tiny white checks and red dots - a wardrobe resident for many years - couldn't have found a better companion than the red and white dotty River Woods top. Both were charity shop finds, albeit several years apart.

Necklace and butterfly brooch: both bought on the high street.

Stretchy chevron patterned belt: charity shopped.

Clarks sandals: Shropshire sales bargain back in June 2018, still going strong after all these years.

According the my journal, the mercury kept flirting with the 30°C mark all week

After a short, 3-day working week, Friday, and thus another weekend rolled by in no time.

I'd finally plucked up the courage to have my hair coloured again, which would be the first time since my final appointment with Michel back in December. He had kindly jotted down the exact mix of colours he'd been using, but as Mitte, my new hairdresser, is using a different brand of dye, the end result turned out to be just a little bit redder than before. I absolutely love it!

A € 5 Think Twice find back in August last year, this vintage sleeveless cotton frock in shades of green and orange got its very first outing.

The brooch, which echoes the dress's print perfectly, was a Shropshire charity shop find in June 2024.

In spite of the continuing heatwave temperatures, guess who insisted on sleeping in our bedroom, which is officially Dove Cottage's warmest room ...

Although the sun kept playing hide-and-seek with the clouds on Saturday, the mercury still climbed to a cloying 30°C.

Cool cottons to the rescue!

I found the fuchsia crinkly tiered skirt at Think Twice back in March 2025. Be prepared to see it pop up on my blog a lot, as it has turned out to be my most-worn Summer skirt so far.

The tie-neck blouse is from King Louie, charity shopped obviously.

On May's final day, Sunday the 31st, the temperature had dropped to around 22°C while a welcome breeze accompanied us on our morning's outing to the leafy park in Boom.

As I wanted to see what was going on in the garden belonging to the ecological visitor centre we made a little detour to stop and smell the roses.

Again, it totally escaped my attention to make proper outfit photos, so you'll have to make so with a mere glimpse of what I was wearing.

My blouse is another King Louie, found at Think Twice in August 2024, and exactly the same model as the one I was wearing on Saturday. The blue, psychedelically patterned, cotton midi skirt (this one) was a charity shop find back in November 2023.

So, that was the month of May all wrapped up.

I'll try to be back with a mini travelogue of our little trip to Poperinge soon. With yet another little holiday - to the UK this time! - on the horizon, I'll definitely need to get my skates on!