Two Twixmas walks

Time has clearly been running away from me again. Back on the work-eat-sleep-repeat wagon since the 2nd of January, I've just woken up with a jolt, realizing that we're already heading towards the middle of the month. It's quite uncanny how being back on the hamster wheel for just over week has already managed to make my Christmas break recede into the far distance.

With barely a smidgen of energy left at the end of each working day - which isn't at all helped by the mind-sapping greyness of these short January days - it's all I can do to keep up with blogland, let alone pen a new post.

By rights, this one should have been published yesterday and, in fact, I had every intention of doing so if a life-affirming frosty yet gloriously sunny day hadn't lured us outside for an afternoon walk.

Obviously, my blog hasn't made it this far yet and is still firmly stuck in those final December days.

The weather on Friday the 27th of December initially looked identical to that of its predecessors. Mizzly, foggy and of a uniform grey, with highs of just 3°C, it wasn't extending an invitation to spend it elsewhere than inside Dove Cottage's cozy confines.

Cozy is the exact word too for this flower pot patterned vintage frock in the softest of wool blends. Found at Think Twice in November 2019, it is one of my go-to dresses when the temperature descends towards freezing point. Both the teal plastic flower brooch and the wooden pansies-and-leaves necklace were charity shopped, the latter being one of my Boxing Day finds.

The weather forecast insisted that we were in for a dry afternoon so, as we were in desperate need of stretching our legs and clearing the cobwebs from our post-Christmas heads, we chose to believe they'd got it right for once and drove down to Middelheim.

Contrary to our previous visits finding parking space was a doddle this time. In fact, we were able to park our car right next to the new entrance to the part of the park called Middelheim-Laag.

Instead of making straight for the large open space where the majority of the works of art are, we meandered along the path through the green belt which encloses it. This is part of the former flower garden of  Nachtegalenpark (transl. Nightingale Park) which was incorporated into Middelheim Sculpture Park in 2012. 

The lingering fog caught between the trees was adding a magical twist to the rock garden with its tiny pond and the rust-coloured remains of the dying ferns surrounding it.

Still circumnavigating the large open space, we continued our walk into the semi-woodland beyond, where I had a disastrous encounter with a couple of white, red-roofed houses. Oops!

Joking aside, obviously no real harm was done, as the houses are of course a work of art! They are called Musterhäuser (Model Homes), Typ "Bomarzo" and are by the German conceptual artist Timm Ulrichs (°1940).

The murky, brown-ish water of the pond had no problem adding to the overall gloom of the day, reflecting the skeleton trees surrounding it. A lonely cormorant sat digesting its lunch while spiky silver giants kept watch from the opposite bank. Dating from 2012 and by Belgian sculptor Peter Rogiers (°1967), they are supposed to represent palm trees, although the artwork's name, Silver Fruit, Silver Cakespoons, The Garden, doesn't really give the game away.

Belgian architect Charles Vandenhove's (1927-2019) Pillared Pavillion (above, top left) consists of two parts: the pavilion itself and a gateway. Both betray the influence of ancient Greece. The pavillion is strictly geometric and soberly constructed, while the gateway is a slightly more frivolous interpretation.

Inside the pavillion two sculptures are hiding from the dismal weather conditions. They are Sibilla (above, bottom left and top and bottom centre), dating from 1947 and by the Italian sculptor Pericle Fazzini (1913-1987), and Grande Bagnante N°1 (above, top and bottom right). The latter dates from 1956 and is by another Italian sculptor and contemporary of Mr. Fazzini, Emilio Greco (1913-1995).

Finally arriving at the heart of Middelheim-Laag, I briefly joined the queue for the spaceship called Never Mind (2017) by Welsh artist Richard Deacon (°1949), but then decided against boarding it as the weather forecast for its home planet turned out to be truly atrocious. 

At least, our weathermen were adamant that we'd get to see the sun on Saturday!

At a measly 2°C, though, it was time to break out the woollies! 

With its generous wool content, this grey, white and black diamond patterned Trixi vintage skirt is one of the warmest in my wardrobe. It was joined by a 100% wool purple jumper, the diamond lace knit pattern at its yoke echoing the skirt's, an embroidered leaf or flower nestling in each of the diamonds.

My "faux sheep" gilet was a fast fashion find from a local shop, now going into its eighth season. The deer brooch was a flea market find and the pale green fabric belt with its scalloped metal clasp buckle used to belong to a dress I no longer own.

 

As it was the first time in many weeks that we'd actually get to see some sunshine, we wasted no time in driving over the the park in Duffel for a stroll. However, we were tempted to have a brief look at what the charity shop goddesses had on offer in the charity shop across the road first.

My spoils were a cinnamon openwork knit jumper and no less than five belts! Oh, and another cardigan, which you'll get to see in my next post.

Afterwards, we recrossed the road and entered the park where a meeting of all sorts of waterfowl seemed to be going on. Apparently someone had just emptied a bag of stale bread near the pond, which was very much appreciated by all and sundry, by now including a flock of screeching gulls.

Lord and master seemed to be a rather agressive, loudly honking goose (below, top left) which was having a hissy fit whenever another bird even dared to come close to a choice piece of bread it had its eye on. 

The day's sunshine and blue sky were veiled by persistent rags of fog which kept blotting out the horizon.

Silhouetted against a blurring blanket of white, the trees, now completely devoid of the final of their leaves, seemed to be at peace with their lot, knowing their time will come again in Spring.

The blanket of fog which was swaddling the park only allowed the sun to be a mere pinprick reflected into the water of the rill, recently dug to avoid flooding of the main pond.

We decided the risk it and take the path around the latter, which in times past used to be flooded in the Winter months. The rill must have done its work, however, as rather than being faced with a partially submerged path, we only had to negotiate a couple of muddy patches.

The dregs of low-slung sunshine was adding an eerie glow to the almost opaque surface of the pond, rendering it picturesquely atmospheric.

Here and there, a fiery carpet of bald cypress leaves joined forces with the banks of bleached reeds edging the pond in adding a splash of much-needed colour.

It turned out that we'd be seeing the year's final rays of sunshine that day and we'd be back to endless grey to see out its last days.

These, as well as our first tentative steps into the new year, will be the subject of a next post. Hope to see you again soon!

What's Another Year

So here we are: January 2025, and the start of a spanking new year. If the 60-odd years I've been spending on this planet have taught me one thing, it's that absolutely nothing changes as we yet again hang a fresh calendar on our walls or gingerly crack open a new diary, its pages still virginally blank. 

Well, I got news for you: time doesn't give a damn that it's supposed to be another year, it just keeps marching on relentlessly from one day to the next. There's no wielding of magic wands or sprinkling of clouds of fairy dust to make things different or - god forbid - better than they were in December.

I've given up on New Year's resolutions a long time ago, as they usually die an untimely death before the first weeks of January are over. So I just continue to live my life, adapting and making changes as I go along. 

Meanwhile, the tale of those final December weeks is still begging to be told, so I'll be starting where I bade you goodbye in my final post, which was on Sunday 15 December.

Yet another gloomy and drizzly day, we were both feeling a bit morose so, after a morning of aimless pottering, we hit upon the idea of driving down to the garden centre to buy a new (fake) tree. But I already told you all about that ...

The day's highs of 8°C might have been a bit too warm for the dress I was wearing that day. It was love at first sight for this wool and acrylic blend vintage C&A dress found at Think Twice in February 2022.

The beads and beret - which once again I wore to hide that day's less than perfect hairdo - were charity shopped as well, while both the belt and the flower corsage worn in lieu of a brooch were picked up on the high street.

The weather continued along the same vein in the working week that followed, the mercury flirting with the low double digits, the drizzle often almost horizontal as a result of a quite unpleasant wind.

Sales at Think Twice's had reached the € 2 mark on Monday At this stage I wasn't really expecting to find anything, but then this groovily patterned 1970s frock was winking at me from its hiding place among a rail of coats.

Then a surprise was waiting for me when I got home on Wednesday. My friend Inneke had found these two brooches among the contents of a deceased neighbour's flat which she and Maurice are helping to clear. Obviously, I was happy to give them a home, which I hope they don't mind sharing with 800-plus brothers and sisters.

I'd taken Thursday 19 December off to accompany Jos to the hospital where he was due to have another batch of tests. To cut a long story short, we were told that he would need surgery as part of his prostate is blocking his urethra. No date has been set yet as I type, so we continue playing a waiting game while Jos is still having to deal with the unpleasantness of a bladder catheter.

Needless to say, we were both feeling quite low and overwhelmed after being the recipients of yet another piece of bad news ...

Having taken Thursday off, I'd promised my bosses to come in for a couple of hours on Friday, which as a bonus did manage to take my mind off things for a while. 

When Jos picked me up from the tram at around 1 pm, he told me he was a bit worried about the car, as it kept showing a message that the battery was almost empty. When the message appeared again after we'd driven off, I asked him why it mentioned the word "key" in front of the word "battery". Then the penny dropped that it was the car key battery which needed replacing :-) We drove straight to the garage where the matter was fixed in minutes ... Phew!

Back at home, I walked into town to pick up some Christmas cards from the bookshop, finding a book which I thought would cheer up Jos in the process. It's about how daily life in Belgium changed in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and I'm currently waiting for my turn to read it.

Reading my journal for that weekend doesn't make for much fun. For fear of sounding like a broken record, the weather was simply atrocious. Although on both days the thermometer insisted on temperatures of around 6°C, rain, hail and wind, culminating in a thunderstorm on Sunday morning, made it feel quite a bit colder.

The list of household and other chores which occupied me would make for a yawn-inducing read, so I'll limit myself to the outfits I was wearing.

On Saturday, I wore this groovily patterned vintage wool-blend dress found at Think Twice back in the mists of time. With so many colours to choose from, accessorizing it is a doddle, this time picking up the tiny bits of orange in its pattern with my suede belt, fluffy cardigan, necklace, ring and brooch. The only non-second-hand items were the belt - and my ancient tan boots.

On Sunday, this handmade vintage dress came out to play. It was a charity shop find at our most local shop once upon a time, but due to its - in my eyes, at least - Christmassy print, I only seem to wear it this time of year. 

I can't remember whether the faux-ivory carved beads were a charity shop or a flea market find, but my tall red boots definitely were the latter. The eagle-eyed among you may recognize the brooch as one of those I got from my friend Inneke earlier that week.

 

Monday 23 December was my last working day of the year. For some reason, my bosses had insisted that we come in, although the office turned out to be dead. This prompted both my colleague and me to  cheekily run a couple of errands during office hours in order to beat the hordes of Christmas zombies which would descend upon Antwerp's shopping streets by lunch time.

The day started and ended with rain with a couple of sunny spells in between. On the left is the sight that greeted me when I stepped off the metro's escalator that morning. By late morning, the sight of the sun bathing the cathedral's tower in an eerie white light while dark clouds were gathering behind it, prompted me to whip out my phone. The heavens opened just a I was waiting at the tram stop in front of my office, and had become quite torrential while it was taking me home.

Grey and mizzly, with highs of around 8°C, Christmas Eve was spent doing nothing much at all, our only outing being a trip to a small local supermarket for some last-minute shopping, where things were much quieter than we'd thought it would be.

One of the perks of not having to go into work is the time I can spend playing around with the contents of my wardrobe, which that day resulted in a happy mix of old and new items.

Both the blue cord skirt and the tan mock-croc belt were retail buys which have more than earned their keep in my wardrobe. My vintage blouse is actually a jumper and blouse in one, with a knitted bodice and cuffs and flower patterned collar and sleeves. I picked it up from Think Twice for just € 1 in the Autumn of 2019.

The tank top recently came home with me from the charity shops while the brooch I pinned to it was found at Shrewsbury Antiques Centre in June 2019. The blingy perspex ring was, again, a retail buy.

Apart from editing photos and making a couple of collages for my next post, most of the day was spent on the sofa, totally engrossed in my latest read, The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, and the only one of her novels which was still in my reading pile.

That night, we had the first part of our traditional Xmas gourmet for dinner. For those who are not familiar with the concept, gourmet is kind of a thing in the Low Countries, involving a variety of tiny pieces of meat one fries individually in tiny frying pans on a raclette-like device. As we are currently without a proper dining table and it would be too fiddly on our small-ish kitchen table, Jos just fried up all the pieces in a large frying pan, and we enjoyed them with potato salad, a selection of veggies and home-made cocktail sauce. There was enough for two meals, so we'd be eating the remainder on Christmas Day.

We were treated to the same un-Christmassy weather on the day itself. 

After sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely breakfast while still in my pyjamas, I stood in front of my wardrobe and assembled this outfit, which might very well be a contender for favourite outfit of the year.

The vintage, flower patterned velvet skirt was yet another old Think Twice find, which I combined with a vintage 1980s jumper I rescued from being sold at our flea market stall by my friend Inez. What was she thinking?

The massive orange suede belt was last Summer's sale bargain, the ring was a flea market find and the brooch with its blingy threesome of cats came from a Shrewsbury charity shop last June.

My outfit was bookended in purple with my bargainous Western-style ankle boots and mohair beret from Think Twice. It might have been Christmas, but I wasn't in the mood for washing my hair!

As a Christmas treat, we'd picked up these mini Yule logs from the supermarket the other day. Yummy!

Another tradition we are trying to keep up is going for a walk at Middelheim on Boxing Day. Unfortunately the weather gods weren't being supportive of our plans and sent us another grey and rainy day.

As we were champing at the bit to escape the house after those two days of inactivity, there was nothing for it but to go for another rummage at the charity shops.

These two wicker handbags jumped into my trolley mere minutes after entering the shop in the nearby town of Mortsel.

I also couldn't resist these glittery gold-tone ankle boots by Schmoove, a French brand founded in 2001. With boots on their website retailing at well over € 200, the € 5,90 I paid for these are nothing short of a steal.

Flush with our success, we then tried our luck at our most local shop, where I found these two almost matching items.

The unlined cotton jacket (it's not a shirt, as I first thought) with its turquoise and purple Paisley-esque pattern will have to wait until the weather's warmed up, but I've already worn the wooden necklace with its row of pansies and leaves.

I'll be back with more Twixmas tales and other news in my next post. 

See you soon!

Another year over ...

... and what a year it has been! A true annus horribilis if ever there was one - although it wasn't ALL bad, I hasten to add. I've got the fondest memories of our Shropshire holiday and meeting up with Vix and Claire, for instance. But 2024 and I got off on the wrong foot only days in, when an unpleasant altercation with my bosses poisoned my days for several weeks to come.

However, all this, plus the generally under par weather and the doom and gloom in the world at large instantly paled into insignificance when Jos started having serious health problems back in September. The subsequent events rather knocked us both for six and turned our world upside down, so let's keep our fingers crossed for an infinitely better 2025. 

For now though, let's cast our minds back to Saturday the 7th of December! If initially this felt like absolutely ages ago and I was thinking I'd been letting standards drop, blog-wise, I was relieved to find that I was in exactly the same position when I published last year's final post.

I totally loved the outfit I wore that day, the combo of super-strokable forest green suedette skirt - bought brand new at Mango many years ago - and charity shopped multi-coloured Caroline Biss cowl neck jumper managing to make me feel both fabulous and comfortable. The stretchy belt was charity shopped as well while the brooch, which I'm inviting you to take a proper look at in a minute, was either bought from H&M or Accessorize about twenty years ago.

Whatever its origins, the fact remains that this is one of the brooches which kick-started my collection, which at the time I obviously had no inkling would take on such proportions :-)

Isn't this tree of life with three birds perching in its branches utterly gorgeous? I've lost count of the number of times that people asked me whether it's vintage. Well, perhaps it is after twenty years ...

But I happened to mention a deluge of vintage and other finds in my previous post, so I suggest I get cracking with what I found in the charity shop that Saturday.

The brocade midi dress on the top left is from EDC by Esprit, which filed for bankruptcy in Belgium and other European countries earlier this year. Funnily enough, I don't remember ever buying anything from their Antwerp shop, which is around the corner from my office, its empty premises currently taken over by a huge pop-up Christmas shop! 

The black mock-croc belt proved to be a perfect companion for the dress.

I fell head over heels for the Missoni-esque skirt on the bottom right. I can't wait to wear this one in the Spring!

The temperature, which had remained stuck at around 10°C for the last couple of days, had taken a dive into the single digits on Sunday. Dark and gloomy, with the odd bout of drizzle, I had a hard time dragging myself from the cozy confines of my bed that morning, particularly as I had another list of those never-ending household chores to tick off. 

No reason not to dress up though! Surely, wearing such a fabulously patterned frock makes even a morning of vacuuming, mopping and dusting, if not enjoyable, then certainly more bearable.

In spite of its long sleeves and high neckline, it's not the warmest of garments, so I was wearing plenty of layers underneath and a snuggly, fluffy orange cardigan on top.

Dress: Think Twice

Cardigan: charity shopped

Opaques, ankle boots, belt and felted flower corsage bought on the high street

I spent the afternoon on the sofa, finishing my latest read, Laurie Graham's Gone with the Windsors,

which was quite hilarious at times. The book is the diary of Mrs Simpson's fictional best friend in pre-war London, a wealthy American widow who arrives in London in 1932 and discovers that her old school friend is also in town: a certain Bessie Wallis Warfield, now Mrs Ernest Simpson.

The working week ahead continued to be gloomy but mostly dry, the temperature steadily going down from 6°C on Monday to 3°C by the end of the week.

As I walked into the shopping centre near my office, where the majority of the regular shops have been replaced by a bevy of pop-up ones, my eyes alighted on this fabulous pair of magenta suede boots in one of the latter. A handwritten card proclaimed that all boots and shoes were € 20. What's more, they all turned out to be sales samples and were all in my size, 37 or UK size 4! Needless to say, I didn't hesitate for one second. 

Then I ummed and ahhed over another pair which in the end I didn't buy ... at least not that day.

Tuesday's lunch break was spent walking down to the Think Twice shop nearest my office, where another one of their famous sales rounds was in full swing, with all garments going for € 5. Not a bad price for two jackets, one of them three-quarter sleeved and probably handmade, the other vintage Harris Tweed!

I also snaffled this burnt orange velvet turban, which was just perfect to combat the chilly weather, keeping my ears warm and toasty. I made this selfie for the benefit of my friend Inez while on the tram home. Clearly I haven't got Bess's talent for making selfies, but never mind that.

As that other pair of boots kept playing on my mind, I decided to have another look at them on Wednesday. I'm still not sure what kept me from buying them on Monday, as clearly they were meant for me. And who doesn't need a pair of purple Western style ankle boots in their wardrobe? I know I do!

And they've already had a lot of wear too, starting with Friday the 13th of December.

Charity shopped back in February, this blue, black and burgundy patterned skirt in a thick blanket-like fabric originally came from & Other Stories. It's such a treat to wear on a cold Winter's day, so I'm thankful for whoever had been foolish enough to get rid of it. 

Its companion this time around was a blue vintage jumper from Think Twice.  My mohair beret, which happened to match my boots, was found at Think Twice as well. It might have been cold but I was primarily wearing it to hide my hair, which was sorely in need of a wash. Such a slob!

My red-eyed deer brooch came out to play among my jumper's flower pattern. I remember finding it in a long gone vintage shop on a Sunday afternoon back in the mists of time. The painted wooden beads were charity shopped earlier this year.

What with the weather gods once again refusing to play nicely, we cancelled plans for a walk and went charity shopping instead. Which wasn't much of a hardship, obviously.

Riffling through the rails of dresses, I found these two vintage Diolen ones in the XL section. They were a 1970s size 42 and 44 respectively, but I'm currently about a size 40 and they both fit me perfectly, which shows how much sizing has shifted over the decades. Sizing being quite haphazard at the best of times, it always pays to look through all sections, from XS to XL and beyond ...

Forever on the lookout for tank tops, I was happy to come across this gorgeous tan cable-knit one, which shows every sign of having been handmade. It's just what I had been looking for and has already been worn in the meantime.

I also fell hard for this maroon atomic patterned vintage jumper!

My final find was a chocolate brown embroidered and rick-racked tiered linen skirt. It's by the French Devernois label and I'm imagining myself floating around in it on a warm Summer's day. 

It's absolutely perfect apart from a couple of minor stains, which I intend to spot clean as its care label says dry cleaning only. 

I'll be wrapping up 2024 in my next post, but for now I'll leave you with these photos of Her Royal Highness, who is wishing you all a Happy New Year!

I'll be in my pyjamas after dinner, and will probably nod off before the clock strikes 12!

And so this is Twixmas ...

In this post, I'm once again taking you on a couple of trips back and forth in the time machine.  Although Christmas was still in the future in my tiny corner of blogland, I couldn't possibly continue where I left off without sharing Bess's adventures with the Christmas tree. 

Being much slimmer than our usual faux fir in order to fit neatly into a corner of our sitting room, we were rather hoping that she wouldn't be able to climb it. Still, knowing Miss Mischief, we didn't risk using our fragile vintage baubles and decorated the tree with our collection of felt icicles, fabric angels, fake apples, wooden bird houses and resin wrens and gingerbread men instead.  There were some new additions too, in the form of the papier mâché stars (centre and bottom right) which wormed their way into our shopping trolley at the garden centre. 

After wearily eyeing our new, as yet undecorated, acquisition, Bess's curiosity soon got the better of her, but as so far the penny hadn't dropped, she soon lost interest and settled herself in her favourite spot on Jos's bed for a catnap. 

Her lightbulb moment arrived when she spotted the fully decorated tree upon waking up and it didn't take long for her to disappear up the tree, her butter-wouldn't-melt face soon peeking out from between its tightly packed branches. In the meantime, ornaments have been dislodged right, left and centre, and we are counting our lucky stars that so far - touch wood - the tree is still in an upright position.

Christmas intermezzo over, I'm now urging you to fasten your seatbelts, as I'm whizzing you back to the first weekend of December and take you on not just one but two short walks.

Hello! May I remind you that technically speaking, Saturday was
the last day of November? Oh, but you're right there, Bess! Nice selfie, by the way!

She definitely makes a better selfie than yours truly, so I'm thankful for the assistance of my faithful photographer Jos for outfit photos. Truthfully, he was also the one who assisted Bess with her selfie while I was touching up my lipstick in the bathroom.

The day's highs of 6°C called for the wearing of this wool and polyester mix vintage dress, a Think Twice sales bargain in November 2023. Big poodle brooch, matching the dress's carved off-white buttons, came out to play again as well. The dress's self-fabric belt with its matching off-white buckle was replaced with a wine red leather one matching the squiggles in the dress's pattern. More wine red was added with my necklace and opaques.

The day's sunny outlook obviously called for a walk to clear our fuzzy heads and top up the vitamin D levels. Having the delights of Middelheim sculpture park practically on our doorsteps, the decision on where to spend the afternoon was a fairly straightforward one.

Entering the park through the so-called Artist's Entrance, which gives access to Zone East, we soon came upon this intriguing contraption. Dating from 2019 and called “Puppetry & Puppets”, it is by  Belgian artist duo Sarah & Charles. Reminiscent of a puppet show, the sculpture is about storytelling and scenography, and is all about interaction with the viewer: it invites you not only to look, but also to tell your own story in it.

The container monument, Orbino (2004) is by Belgian contemporary artist Luc Deleu (°1944), who is an architect, visual artist, and world traveller. Orbino consists of two containers which are horizontally attached to a tower of three containers. The stairs at the back invite you to explore the space at the top, the glass wall in the final container affording a view of the art park. Perhaps it's my vertigo which has prevented me from going up there so far? Half-hidden between the bare branches of the trees, I thought it had the look of a giant alien, with the glass wall being one big eye!

On the bottom left, on the edge of Zone East: Zonnewagen (transl. Chariot of the Sun) by another Belgian artist, Camiel van Breedam (°1936) and dating from 1974. In the words of the artist, it's a  a chariot made to transport the sun to an ideal place. Don't we all need one of those?

In addition to the sunshine we were blessed with that day, I brought some of my very own by wearing a bright yellow woolly beret and crochet scarf, the latter a gift from my blogging friend and ultimate queen of colour, Monica.

We just wandered at will, exercising our weary limbs and enjoying the sensation of the sunshine on our pasty white faces taking precedence over seeking out the works of art.

But there's always one that makes you stop in your tracks! Sheltering from winter's harsh weather conditions was The Voyage of the Mascot (2021) by Sharon Van Overmeiren (°1985). The Belgian contemporary sculptor creates “fictional sculptures"  composed of references to various cultures and times, from pre-Colombian motifs to contemporary cartoons.

The ceramic sculpture represents a bear which, in the artist's words, we associate with the cute, comforting teddy bear or know as an emblem for strength and courage. However, there is also a link between bears and evil powers, and the black worm - which I think is rather cute  - drilling its way through the sculpture symbolizes the digestion of meaning.

But enough of that, let's have a look at what I was wearing on Sunday 1 December!

I found the green button-through cord skirt in the Green Ice outlet shop in the shopping centre near my office during one lunch break. Here I paired it with a diamond patterned blouse from Think Twice and charity shopped brown cable-knit tank top. The burgundy belt was charity shopped as well, while the grey diamond patterned and orange-eared cat brooch was a gift from my lovely blogging friend Kezzie, whom I had the pleasure to meet up with twice already.

After a morning of catching up with household chores, most of which are currently on my to-do list while Jos is recovering, we decided to make the most of the sunshine which according to the weather forecast would be leaving us from late afternoon onwards.

As it was already getting late, we didn't venture too far from Dove Cottage, settling for Fort 5 in the neighbouring village of Edegem.

Nature has slowly but surely been taking over the old fort buildings, built in the 1860s as part of a ring of forts to protect the city of Antwerp from enemy fire.

Part of the path takes you through some of the eerily atmospheric buildings, which seem to have been taken over by aliens.

The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds by the time we arrived back at our car, and would soon disappear completely, giving herself up to the gloom of December and yet more rain for the rest of the week.

One afternoon while I was making my way home she only had time to briefly show us her face before setting and calling it a day. 

The first week of December was another humdrum one, punctuated by a check-up at the hospital for Jos on Wednesday and a hairdresser's appointment for me on my Friday off.

Rain and a blustery wind were on the menu which rather put a damper on the day's highs of 10°C. On top of that I'd woken up with a headache which refused to go away so that, in spite of Michel's best efforts my two-hour colour and cut session at the salon was somewhat of a bit of an ordeal.

At least I was wearing one of my all-time favourite frocks, a vintage one from the Finnish Petri label I found at Think Twice many years ago. And as adding lots of orange always makes things better, that's exactly what I did.

Apart from my old half-elasticated belt and my opaques, the pops of orange were supplied by an enamelled brooch from Memory Lane Antiques in Shrewsbury and a charity shopped beaded necklace.

That weekend would mark the start of veritable deluge of vintage and other finds. But that, my friends, will be revealed in the final post of 2024. See you again soon!