I spy with my sore little eye ...

... something beginning with double H: a holiday on the horizon! 

It truly beggars belief that in just three weeks' time to the day, we'll be spending our first evening in our Shropshire cowshed! It feels like time is slipping through my fingers, though, as I've still got a million things to do before we leave, both at the office and at home. Lists to make and tick off, instructions to leave, decisions to make: you know the drill. Not even my three-day weekends and the bonus 4-day ones we are lucky enough to have in the month of May seem to hold enough hours to fit it all in. 

Just having had what I can only describe as a week from hell hasn't exactly been helpful either. To cut a long story short: I've recently been prescribed stronger eye drops for the glaucoma in my left eye, which initially left me with a slight headache and a dry, sore and itchy eye. On top of that, I developed a whopper of a stye in the same eye. Not related according to my doctor, but very painful and exhausting nonetheless, so that blogging once again ended up on the back burner.

Now that things have somewhat settled, and I can see more or less clearly once more, it's time for another little catch-up. So, please do hop on for a short ride in the time machine back to the first days of this month. 

The 1st of May is Labour Day and a public holiday in Belgium, and obviously an extra day off in the middle of the week is always welcome! Thankfully, the sun didn't take the day off as well. In fact, after a false start due to lots of overnight rain, she went the extra mile by cranking up the thermostat to 24°C.

I built that day's outfit around a vintage C&A skirt I fell in love with at Think Twice the day before. Isn't its navy cotton fabric dotted with tiny posies of multicoloured flowers delicious? Not to mention its two double zig-zag rows of orange stitching! It's to the latter that I matched my short-sleeved V-neck jumper which, together with the stretchy belt with its massive buckle, were the only items bought brand new on the high street.

I opted for navy for the rest of my accessories, which included a charity shopped bracelet, necklace, chunky glass ring and genuine 1970s watch strap, as well as a brooch found recently at the indoor flea market.

After sleeping in, having a leisurely breakfast and a morning of gentle pottering, we had our friends Inneke and Maurice over for a long overdue catch-up.  Inneke was kind enough to bring cake and biscuits and Jos made a pot of freshly ground coffee and, while a lovely afternoon was had by all, not a single photo was taken.

Passing our kitchen window that evening, I swiftly ran back to get my camera and snap the golden daffodils illuminated by the late evening sun.

Seeing that it was my final working day of the week, it wasn't much of a hardship going back to the office on Thursday. 

After a sunny start, clouds starting gathering in the early afternoon and by the time I went home it had cooled down considerably from the day's initial 23°C. We were even treated to a stiff breeze and some light drizzle.

Everything was still hunky-dory when I walked down to the Botanic Garden during lunch break.

It's hard to believe that only the garden's retaining wall separates the woodland path lined with bluebells and wild garlic from a busy inner city street!

I stopped, not to smell the roses, but to admire the variety of bearded Irises, the fragrant bright yellow flowers belonging to King's Spear (Asphodeline lutea) and the flower spikes of the Gunnera near the pond. 

Friday the 3rd of May was another grey and rainy offering from the weather gods on which initially I struggled to assemble an outfit. 

Riffling through a pile of skirts I'd recently unearthed from the suitcase they'd hibernated in, I pulled out this floral midi one in a symphony of blues. The three-quarter sleeved t-shirt turned out to match the darkest of the blues exactly.

Same as the skirt, the orange, red, and burgundy tank top was charity shopped. It's by the Belgian designer Nathalie Vleeschouwer and although I've had it for about two years now, this was its very first outing. 

Red and blue accessories, a mix of high street, charity shop and flea market finds, completed my outfit.

On my feet, a pair of red slouchy Western-style boots. They too followed me home from a charity shop one day.

For once, we didn't go for a rummage that Friday. Instead, we drove down in the pouring rain to the optician's in the nearby town of Mortsel. Our mission: to choose a new pair of sunglasses for me. As one does on a rainy day! Pictures will follow in due time.

The sun finally got a look in that evening, which was much appreciated by the lovely Art Deco which lives on our bedroom's mantelpiece!

We were up bright and early on Saturday, as we had a wedding to attend: after having been together for over 12 years, Jos's son Kris and his partner Carolien had decided to tie the knot!

Before we go, let's have a look at our outfits! Neither Jos nor yours truly had bought anything new (or even new-to-us) for the event: everything was shopped from our wardrobes, as they say. In fact, both our outfits were Friday's spur of the moment decisions.

My green floral dress was a sales bargain from H&M many years ago, while the belt was picked up in the Mango sales in the Summer of 2022. The blazer is Zara, found in a charity shop in Welshpool back in 2019, while my beloved green suede ankle boots came from a local charity shop.

Jos was wearing a pair of trousers and a floral shirt from C&A. His blazer is part of a suit which has been in his wardrobe for well over 10 years. The green suede shoes were bought in the Shrewsbury branch of Clarks last June. Last but not least, his waistcoat was a gift from Vix & Jon. 

The civil ceremony was taking place in the old town hall of the village next to ours. Built in the typical neo-Renaissance style and dating from 1912, it has been a protected village landmark since 1983. Nowadays, it is mainly used for wedding ceremonies and wedding anniversary events.

Some introductions as we were waiting to go in: next to Jos, his eldest daughter, Els, with next to her, Carolien and Kris and their soon-to-be three-year-old son Cas.

Here's the happy couple during and after the ceremony, with Cas very much in attendance!

Afterwards, we walked to Hof ter Linden with its crumbling castle, as the wedding lunch was taking place in one of the coach houses flanking the courtyard. The perfect place for wedding photos, although the official photographer seemed to think otherwise. 

Who wouldn't want to pose next to those haughty sphinxes, I wonder?

Having arrived in the courtyard, I grabbed the rarest of opportunities to get all three of Jos's elder grandchildren in one photo. To the left of their dad, Tom - the one with the guitar, and husband of Els - is granddaughter Saar. Between the boys Warre (left) and Rik (right), is Warre's girlfriend Sarah. 

If you are wondering about the guitar, the family had prepared a little song for the bride and groom!

The weather gods had been on their best behaviour until then, allowing us to have pre-lunch drinks on the terrace, but decided that enough was enough half-way through lunch.

Thankfully, there was a lull between showers in the late afternoon, as we hadn't had the forethought to bring an umbrella. Son-in-law Tom snapped the below photo of us as we were walking in front of them along the cobbled linden-lined avenue back to the village and our car.

No rest for the wicked on Sunday, as we had the May edition of the indoor flea market to go to.

In contrast to the rest of the weekend, it was mostly sunny that day, which made the mercury climb to a reasonable 18°C.

The outfit I picked for the day's outing was almost entirely charity shopped, except for the green stretchy belt, which came from a fast fashion shop I won't name.

The maxi skirt with its groovilicious pattern is vintage and was a lucky find about 2 years ago. It even joined me on our Shropshire holiday in June 2022 (here).

The floaty floral bell-sleeved blouse is by Vero Moda and picked up the pinks and reds in the skirt's pattern. In its turn, the green of the blouse was echoed by the belt and the greenish-grey necklace charity shopped in Poperinge in September 2019. I can't remember which shop the red cat brooch came from nor when I found it. I was wearing the same green suede ankle boots I wore to the wedding.

Now, onto the flea market! As usual at this time of year, there weren't quite as many stalls, and some of our favourite sellers had given it a miss.  I was also feeling tired and not really in the mood.

Consequently, finds were few and far between, but I still managed to add to my brooch collection.

There seemed to be a green theme going on! Which one is your favourite?

 

January blues

As at the end of January my blog has only just made it to its beginning, it's clear that I've got a lot of catching up to do.

But first things first: I would like to thank you all for your well wishes! I'm glad to report that I've been feeling much brighter this past week as, physically as well as mentally, I seem to be on the mend.

For the sake of continuity, I will have to relive it all though, starting with my first day back at the office on the 2nd of January. Although I didn't exactly relish the early wake-up call, my days of leisure had apparently managed to recharge my batteries even if that pesky cold had done its best to throw a spanner in the works.

The amount of work waiting for me at the office was more than reasonable and as the builders renovating the Art Deco tower building were apparently still enjoying their holidays, it was a haven of peace and quiet for once.

Determined to keep things positive, I ignored the rain which kept falling down in buckets all day, and walked to the nearest Think Twice shop for a browse. The shop in question is in a cul-de-sac with one of the entrances of the recently restored Stock Exchange (Handelsbeurs) at its dead end. 

The ground floor with its beautiful central square is open to the public, but lately only during the school holidays. I instantly abandoned my original plan when to my delight I noticed one of its doors standing wide open.

The original Stock Exchange was opened in 1531, and it was the first one ever built specifically for this purpose, becoming the model for other exchanges all over the world. The original building, which was designed by the Antwerp architect, Domien De Waghemakere (1460-1542), burnt down on two occasions, in 1583 and 1858. 

The architect incorporated a courtyard surrounded on four sides by unusual Moorish arcades. It was originally open to the sky so that God could observe the transactions, but was later roofed over to protect the merchants from the harsh northern climate.

After the last devastating fire in 1858, a new stock exchange was built. 

The current opulent neo-Gothic building was designed by architect Joseph Schadde (1818-1894), who incorporated many of the original building's features, and was completed in 1872.

It went on to serve as a stock exchange until 1997 when most of the business was moved to Brussels. 

Until that time, the courtyard was also used for book markets and events - I remember going to gigs and parties here in the late 1970s  and early 1980s - and the renowned Antwerp Fashion Academy held many of their famous end of year student fashion shows here. Access to the courtyard was eventually closed off for safety and security reasons in the late 1990s, after which it stood empty for almost twenty years.

But then a miracle happened: the city finally found the necessary funds to renovate the building, which took place between 2016 to 2019. 

It was re-opened to the public in October 2019 and if you ever find yourself in Antwerp during the school holidays, it is well worth stepping inside to admire the Moorish arcades, the walls decorated with world maps, the stunning stone columns and the 56 wooden stockbrokers offices.

The figure of the 19th-century architect looks down on the courtyard from a first-floor balcony (below, bottom left).

The metal roof structure has been repainted in its original green rather than the rusty brown shade it was painted in prior to the renovation. This serves to bring out the best in the floral motifs in the roof. They symbolize the goods which were once traded here: barley, grapes, oats, hops, tobacco and cocoa, among others, and thus refer to the original function of the building. 

Here, the architect was well ahead of his time: with their striking ornamental character, these wrought iron structures could be considered a forerunner of Art Nouveau!

The photos were taken on two consecutive days, as it immediately became apparent when I visited on Tuesday that my phone's camera wasn't up to capturing all those magnificent details. I therefore returned on Wednesday, armed with my proper camera.  

As for that browse at Think Twice, I did manage to nip in on Tuesday and find this floral pussy-bow frock.  

It was on the Wednesday that our bosses walked in, paying us a surprise visit from Miami. Although inevitably somewhat exhausting, these visits are usually quite enjoyable, as they are both really nice guys. This time, however, things went a bit pear-shaped, as my colleague and I had quite an unpleasant altercation with them just before they left on Friday. For obvious reasons, I won't be able to go into any kind of detail, but let's just say that my anxiety levels went through the roof and I was down in the dumps for days.

I definitely wasn't feeling up to much on Saturday, so needed lots of colour to get me through the day.

As by now the temperature was on a slippery slope towards freezing point, this thin knit dress of many colours, charity shopped in February 2022,  couldn't have been more perfect for the job. I layered a green long-sleeved t-shirt underneath and was wearing opaques in the same colour, although you need X-ray eyes to see them.

The green wooden necklace is from the Belgian Les Cordes label via the charity shops, and both the darkest green textured leather belt and the waffle knit orange long-line cardigan were old charity shop finds as well. 

Only my tan boots and the little yellow bird brooch were once bought brand new on the high street.

We spent the morning dismantling the tree and banishing it to the basement for another year.

Although initially clearly showing her disappointment, Bess eventually took it into her stride and was happy to have her scratching and climbing posts back where they belong.

Sunday had a dull and grey start, but as the mercury took another dive towards freezing point, the weather gods regaled us with sunny spells and a clear blue sky later in the day.

Both my patterned blue velvet midi skirt and red and navy jumper were found at Think Twice, albeit with several years between them. I couldn't get over how well they got along together!

I can't remember whether the brooch - a girl wearing blue and white and holding a posy of diamanté flowers - was a flea market or charity shop find, but the red beaded necklace was definitely the latter.

The half-elasticated belt with its massive square buckle was picked up from a high street shop near my office in the Autumn of 2022.

As we do every Winter, we have been supplying the winged visitors to our garden with free food. We had been wondering why the left side of our little feeder seemed to be emptying much faster than the one on the right. The mystery was solved while we were having breakfast that morning! In order to avoid the greedy wood pigeons from eating us out of house and home, we have moved the hanging strawberry bucket elsewhere, but still they keep finding ways to get at the feeder.

We went to Jos's son and daughter-in-law for a family get-together in the afternoon. As is the tradition here in Belgium, our 2 and half year old grandson Cas was "reading" his Nieuwjaarbrief (New Year's letter). Children here are expected to write a letter with New Year’s wishes for their parents, godparents and grandparents, which is then read out loud in front of everyone. Obviously, at his very young age, Cas can neither read or write, so it was his Mum, Carolien, who did the honours, with a little help from Cas.

As a reward, he was given presents, ours being puzzles and a Playmobil road sweeper which Bompa (granddad) Jos and Nana Ann dutifully assembled.

In order to close the gap between my blog and the present, I am fast forwarding to the Friday of the next week, the 12th of January. 

In the run-up to the 1st of April, when I can finally start my official 4-day weeks, I am trying to ration my Fridays off so as not to eat into my holiday quota too much. That day, however, I took the afternoon off, to take a rest from what had been an exhausting week and nurse my newly emerged lurgy.

The week had been sunny but cold, with temperatures well below freezing point even during the day. After I had been wearing skirts and jumpers all week, I deemed it time for a dress. 

This Crimplene one, its fabric a mix of polyester, wool and angora, is an old favourite snaffled from a consignment shop several years ago. It's got its original self-fabric belt, which this time I exchanged for the same belt I wore with the dress of many colours. Again, I layered a long-sleeved top underneath.

Apart from my green suede boots, the rest of my outfit were either flea market (ring and bird brooch) or charity shop (cardigan and necklace) finds. 

So, that's all I've got time for now. I'll be back with the rest of the weekend and part of the next one in a handful of days. See you again soon!

Sights for sore eyes

At the time of writing, my eyes and glasses seem to have come to some sort of agreement, which means I'm no longer suffering from daily headaches and sore eyes. 

However, it was a totally different story on my first days wearing them at the office after the Easter break. Although I did  make the effort to take regular breaks and look into the distance to avoid digital eye strain - the ideal is 20 seconds every 20 minutes - my eyes were taking a long time to refocus whenever I was taking time off from the screen.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday saw me reach for paracetamol on more than one occasion while eye drops were administered aplenty. I was so tired in the evenings that I fell asleep on the sofa, which is virtually unheard of for me. But I did manage to go outside into the garden and see - although with slightly blurred vision - that all was thriving. As always the honesty flowers popping up one by one, a sea of bluebells in the making, and the first of the dusky cranesbill (Geranium phaeum) blooms were a sight for sore eyes!

Then Thursday the 13th of April dawned and much to my surprise my eyes were behaving more or less normally. I was gazing out of the office window at the cityscape at my feet when I suddenly noticed the steep gable roof with its rows of dormer windows belonging the 500-year old Gothic Vleeshuis (Butchers' Hall) peeking out above the roofs to the right of the cathedral. It truly beggars belief that I'd never noticed this before in all the 28 years I've been working here! 

Apologies for the crap photo, but I only had my phone at my disposal.

It was a sunny day, with highs of 13°C, and a blustery wind propelling along an armada of clouds. After a string of rainy days which had kept me inside for most of the time, this was the perfect opportunity to go for a bracing walk and give my eyes a well-deserved rest. So, why not walk to the aforementioned Butchers' hall? 

 

My route first took me to the Grote Markt, Antwerp's market square, which is lined with lavishly decorated Guild houses. Admittedly, they are not as old as they look. The original houses being destroyed by fire in 1576, they were rebuilt in Flemish Renaissance style, and revamped again in the 19th century. 

The bronze statue in front of the newly renovated 16th century town hall is the famous Brabo, caught in the act of throwing away a severed hand. According to legend, Brabo rid the city of the evil giant Antigoon, who demanded tolls from people wanting to cross the river, cutting off the hands of those who refused to pay. After slaying the giant, Brabo gave him a taste of his own medicine by severing his hand and throwing it into the river Scheldt. According to popular belief, this is where the city's name is derived from, handwerpen being Flemish for hand throwing.

At the other side of the square,  Antwerp's Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady) is proudly showing off the elegance of its tower, finally rid of its disfiguring scaffolding behind which it was hidden for many a year.

I wasn't too pleased to see the dark clouds behind it, but courtesy of the stormy wind they didn't linger, taking their liquid content elsewhere. Phew!

I left the Grote Markt by taking the street at the right of the town hall and continued walking into the direction of the Butchers' Hall. This part of Antwerp used to be the site of a colourful harbour district. Completely demolished in the 1960s and 1970s, it was replaced by a soulless and much scorned social housing development (below, top left).

Finally arriving at the Butchers’ Hall, I was dismayed to find that construction work was going on in front of it, my view marred by a flock of fluorescent orange-jacketed workmen and their machinery. I only managed to photograph around them by pointing my camera upwards.

A Butchers' Hall was built here as early as 1250, functioning as a meat market where butchers could sell their merchandise. The beginning of the 16th century marked the start of Antwerp’s Golden Age and when the existing hall could no longer cope with the needs of a growing population, a new one was decided upon. Built between 1501 and 1504 in the same spot, it was twice the size of the original hall, its façade made of alternating layers of red brick and white sandstone, locally known as bacon layers.

After the Butchers’ Hall lost its primarily function in 1810 when the French occupying forces abolished the Guilds, the building was used as a storage depot and a theatre. Eventually, in 1899, the city acquired the hall and opened it as a museum in 1919, displaying a miscellaneous collection of historic objects, including pottery, drawings, lace, weapons and jewellery. In the 1970s, musical instruments became a prominent part of the collection, at which time I remember visiting it with my Dad. After another round of renovations, it was finally reopened in 2006 as Sounds of the City, a museum which tells the story of 600 years of music in the city of Antwerp. I haven't been to see it yet, but Kezzie has, on my recommendation, when she visited Antwerp back in February 2022.

Walking away from the Butchers' Hall and into the direction of the quayside, I came across a remnant of the early 13th century town walls, living cheek by jowl with early 20th century and 21st century architecture.

At the quayside, I came face to face with Het Steen. Literally meaning "the stone", it was given its name as it was the city's first large building constructed in stone. What remains today is only a fraction of the once mighty castle. The building used to be the centre of the city's oldest neighbourhood, with narrow streets, gates, towers and a fish market. The castle was altered several times during its history, and it is actually quite easy to see which part of the castle is still original, as the 13th century masonry is much darker than the later additions.

In fact, its latest addition is brand new, built between 2018 and 2021. Once again considered a monstrosity by the citizens of Antwerp, you can see part of it at the left of the old castle in the photo on the top right. You can find a much better photo here, on the Visit Antwerpen website. Opened in 2021, it contains a Visitor Centre, a cruise terminal, The Antwerp Story discovery trail and a panoramic roof terrace. Unfortunately, at the time of my visit, I didn't realize the latter was freely accessible, so I'll have to return for the view!

Near the entrance of the castle stands one of Antwerp's most famous statues. Dating from 1963, it depicts the legendary figure of Lange Wapper who, according to Antwerp folklore, could grow to the size of a giant and terrorized the city in the 16th century.

Above the gateway leading into Het Steen is a heavily worn bas-relief sculpture known as Semini which is said to date from as far back as the 2nd century. Like its female counterpart, the Sheela-na-gig, it is considered to be a fertility symbol. In the 16th century, the local clergy came to find the well-endowed figure inappropriate and had a certain body part removed in 1587. 

On the occasion of the reopening of Het Steen, the city commissioned Antwerp artist Sharon Van Overmeiren to create a new artwork inspired by the Semini. Made from wrought iron, bronze and clay, the contemporary sculpture entitled "De Gulle Waard/The Generous Gatekeeper" is taking pride of place in the castle's courtyard.

All too soon it was time to return to the office. But not before walking past the Water Bus terminal towards the promenade on the banks of the River Scheldt and the giant Ferris wheel called The View.

I'm sure this will offer an even more magnificent panorama of the city, its port and its river. If one doesn't suffer from vertigo, that is!

There wasn't any time for a proper stroll along the windswept promenade - so windswept, in fact, that I had difficulty holding on to my beret - but I promise I will return for more Antwerp views one day soon.

And then we were Friday! No day off for me, though, as my colleague is still on sick leave, but I did manage to take the afternoon off. 

In order to avoid traffic, I'd agreed with Jos that I would take the tram into Mortsel like I did in the olden days, and he would pick me up there. It was my first tram ride in three years, and it felt strange and curiously familiar at the same time.

As my eyes were once again behaving badly, I declined Jos's proposal to go charity shopping and went straight home instead.

After a frosty start, the day brought a continuation of Thursday's sunny weather, with highs of 14°C.

I was quite surprised to find that this plaid patterned Diolen dress hadn't received its seasonal outing yet. Apart from it cheery green, red, navy and white colours, it's got a dagger collar, shiny square black buttons framed in white metal and turned-up cuffs, closing with two buttons. Here are some details, if you're interested.

As usual, I added lots of red (belt, ring, necklace and cardigan), but this time I opted for sage green opaques and my beloved green ankle boots. To my - charity shopped - King Louie cardigan I pinned the green bird brooch I found at the indoor flea market's last edition.

After a slow start on Saturday, the sun came out to play, warming up to 15°C. However, the wind once again played spoilsport, making it feel rather unpleasant in the shade.

After lunch, we drove over to the garden centre and made use of their offer on perennials, choosing some shade loving ones for our passageway project. 

We ended the afternoon sitting outside in the sunshine in Jos's son and daughter in law's garden, watching grandson Cas play with the remote control tractor we gave him as a present.

I'll leave you now with the day's outfit. It was warm enough to the wear the moss green H&M cord jacket I picked up from our local flea market in July 2019. The spotty red blouse was charity shopped between Lockdowns in 2020, and I combined it with the recently found Terra di Siena Paisley patterned maxi skirt.

Accessories consisted of one of my stretchy belts, my green birds in flight brooch bought in Cardigan, and a charity shopped necklace which always reminds me of a set of wooden mosaic tiles I played with as a child. On my feet, the comfy faux-lace-up No Stress boots which came home with me from a charity shop last December.

See you next time!

A spot of Spring cleaning

In sharp contrast to the gorgeous Spring weather we experienced on Friday before last, the rest of the weekend was a bit of a letdown. 

Saturday made a promising start, as the sun was out in full force when we drew our curtains, which, with highs of 16°C forecasted, tricked us into thinking we'd get a repeat of Friday'glorious weather.  

But no. If we needed proof that the month of March can be just as fickle as her sister, April, she certainly delivered. More and more clouds started gathering while we were having breakfast, until soon it was completely overcast. We would get one or two short-lived sunny spells throughout the day, but rain was waiting in the wings, and the first drops could be heard tickling our skylight in the early evening.

What with the reasonable temperatures, I wore this long-sleeved yet lightweight vintage Venetia dress, bought from a long-gone vintage shop about 12 years ago.

Although living in the black section of my dresses wardrobe, its eye-catching pattern of white stripes, tiny white dots and garlands of frothy pink flowers makes one almost forget there's any black in it at all.

I opted for burgundy for some of its companions, notably my large buckled lacquered leather belt and one of my heart-shaped ajour patterned King Louie cardigans, both of which were charity shop finds. I wore burgundy opaques as well, but you'll have to take my word for it as you can hardly make out their colour in the photos. 

Shades of green were added for contrast with my beaded necklace, ring, flower corsage and ankle boots, all of which were provided by the charity shop goddesses at one time or another.

Lastly, let's have a look at my brooch, which consists of multi-coloured frosted berries on a gold-tone leaf. I bought it from the Brooch Lady at a flea market several years ago. As the berries had become detached from the leaf, which we knew was nothing Jos's repair shop couldn't deal with, she knocked quite a bit of the price. 

We were at a loose end that day, as the weather wasn't inviting us to engage in any outdoor activities. Wistfully looking out of the backdoor window, trying to decide if there were any garden jobs that suited my mood, I noticed how grimy the window and the smaller one above the sink were. Admittedly, cleaning windows is not my favourite job, and we do have a window cleaner who comes around at regular times to do the windows at the front of the house, which saves us from being considered total slobs as well as weirdos!

Anyway, I felt obliged to get out the cleaning stuff, so that the two windows are now squeaky clean. I also cleaned the door and window frames, both inside and out, as well as the window ledge. 

Baby Gargoyle was given some flowers to look after. They are yellow Primulas left over from last year, which I planted in a mosaic glass pot, originally the home of a solar light which has stopped working.

Ambling around the garden, I saw some grape Hyacinths popping their heads above the rim of one of the garden waste bags at the back. I duly admired their tenacity for flowering against all odds but to give them the best chance at shining, I cut off the flower stalks and put them in the tiniest receptacle I could find: a vintage ink pot. They still last one week later, having been properly looked after by Dutch kissing boy and girl on one of the kitchen shelves. 

I was pottering upstairs after lunch, when it suddenly dawned on me that I still had to show you the tantalizing tartan garment I charity shopped on Friday.

Ta-da, here it is! It was only when I was in the process of trying it on in the shop's fitting rooms that I noticed that it wasn't a skirt but a pair of cleverly constructed culottes! 

They are Scottish, from The House of Bruar, a shop which started out by selling a range of quality country clothing, but has now diversified into what has been described as the "Harrods of the Highlands". 

The groovilicious pussy-bow blouse is by River Woods, charity shopped in July 2020. I had both the blouse and the belt hanging ready to be incorporated in other outfits, but thought they didn't look out of place at all with the culottes.

Window cleaning and engaging in silly poses are exhausting pastimes, so I spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa with my latest read, which so far I'm liking very much indeed.

While Jos had to get up early on Sunday to take his youngest daughter to the railway station in nearby Mechelen - she was off for a week in Edinburgh and Glasgow - I slept in and then stayed in bed reading for another half hour. 

We had breakfast when Jos came back, then, as the weather was still of the wishy-washy kind, I decided to proceed with a job that had been on my list for a while.

There's a vintage Tomado shelving unit in our bedroom on which we have been displaying charity shop and flea market treasures for years. The top shelf was completely devoted to Lourdes souvenirs - don't ask, it's one of those accidentally started collections - which we had decided to whittle down. Well, now was as good a time as any! 

We only kept some glass Lourdes water bottles and a Lourdes grotto ornament (top shelf, left and right) and a kitschy but fun snow globe doubling as a perpetual calendar (bottom shelf, and detail below, top centre).

Oh, how I love my treasures, each of which has a story to tell. 

The heavy brass Art Nouveau style family tree picture frames have my maternal great-grandmother Aloysia at the very top, followed by my maternal grandparents, Alphonse and Bertha and, finally my parents, Alphonse and Alice.

The monkey riding an elephant is actually a piggy bank and, having belonged to the above-mentioned Alphonse and Bertha, is a beloved family heirloom.

Here's the rest of the Lourdes gang praying for a miracle! They have been relegated to the basement until we've decided whether they are worth keeping for this Summer's flea market.

As I was on a roll, I dusted the rest of the bedroom and reorganized the bookshelves on the tiny landing between our bedroom and the spare room.

Here's a view of our bedroom's mantelpiece, which is ruled by one of my favourite objects, the green frocked Art Deco lady with her pet birds. Oh, and I've added some more of my baskets to the coat stand!

The afternoon was spent catching up with blogland, and playing around with my wardrobe, yet again assembling some outfits for the week ahead.  

I also made some flatlays, as there will be no after work outfit photos as long as the weather keeps playing spoilsport. This is the only one of the prepared outfits I actually wore, combining a vintage mustard yellow shift dress patterned with scrolls and giant flowers, and a sky blue charity shopped Zoë Loveborn cardigan with red buttons and trim.

Finally, here is Sunday's outfit of the day. 

The ochre and brown tartan circle skirt was charity shopped last Summer, and in spite of my best intentions it hadn't made it out of my wardrobe yet. Together with the blue vintage blouse with its pattern of stripes and naive flowers, it was one of the outfits I'd prepared for the previous week but which had remained unworn. 

This was the outfit for which the massive woven belt - last seen with the culottes - had been put aside.

My other accessories consisted of an ochre yellow beaded necklace (a present from my friend Inneke), a blue glass ring and a vintage gold-tone brooch with a posy of mother of pearl flowers.

I wore this again in its entirety the next day, but exchanged my ankle boots for tall ones. I am actually sick and tired of the latter, and can't wait for Spring to arrive in earnest so that I can wear more frivolous footwear! And my Spring/Summer wardrobe, for that matter!

See you next time!