Holiday with a hurdle

It's been exactly a month to the day that we exchanged Dove Cottage for our home away from home in Poperinge on Sunday the 21st of June.

However, as my blog title suggests, it was definitely a holiday with a hurdle. In fact, what with Jos's fall earlier that week, it was nothing short of a miracle that we even made it to the cottage which first captured our hearts back in 2012.

As a result of some gentle exercise and the benefits of the cortisone-like tablets he'd been prescribed, Jos's knee had healed sufficiently by Sunday, so that he was able to drive without any pain and walk short distances with the aid of his walking stick.

He was even able to climb and descend the eleven stairs leading up to the studio apartment above owner Marino's carport, albeit slowly, taking it one step at a time.

A hurdle in quite a different form would be the impending heatwave. With the temperature expected to steadily climb into the 30s, this would rather limit our options.

After our luggage was lugged upstairs by yours truly, we made ourselves at home and sat downstairs in the shade with a cool drink and a view of the flat-as-a-pancake landscape beyond the domain's duckweed covered pond.

Serenaded by a chorus of frogs, we'd slept like the proverbial logs, waking up still sleepy-headed around 8-ish on Monday morning. 

A glimpse through the cottage's French windows made me grab for my camera to catch the landscape beyond the pond veiled in a thick layer of fog. In front of the pond, three of the domain's four lawnmowers were already hard at work. Once the midday sun made it too hot for any living creature to bear, they retreated to their den under the trees and wouldn't be seen or heard of until she'd made her slow descend towards the horizon.

Not having made any plans whatsoever, we decided to take the short drive to the nearest of the Commonwealth cemeteries to our cottage. 

Only 5 minutes up the road, we would actually have been able to catch sight of Nine Elms British Cemetery from our cottage's balcony if that weeping willow wouldn't have blocked our view.

Entrance to the rectangularly shaped cemetery is through an archway with the Cross of Sacrifice visible in a central position at the far end. 

The cemetery contains 1556 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 37 German war graves from this period. There are also 22 Second World War burials, all dating from the Allied retreat to Dunkirk in 1940.

The cemetery, which was begun in September 1917, was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Having walked the length of the cemetery, Jos was in need of a sit-down, offering the perfect opportunity to have a look at my outfit.

- Black and white diagonally striped max skirt: C&A Summer sales 2025

- King Louie t-shirt, necklace, belt and fake snake bag: charity shopped

- Butterfly brooch: AKotee (gift shop near my office)

- Hat: flea market

Leaving the cemetery, we continued to a small local supermarket to stock up on food and drink, after which we returned to the cottage for lunch.

The afternoon was spent having a lengthy siësta and reading. Note how my literature of choice matches my skirt!

On Tuesday morning, we were rudely awoken by a single thunderbolt followed by the pitter-pattering of rain against our windows. The rain lasted all the way through breakfast after which the mercury had dropped to a refreshing 21°C. 

Breakfast, by the way, consisted of softly boiled local eggs, obviously eaten with the obligatory soldiers!

With the last of the raindrops evaporated into thin air, it didn't take long for the temperature to reach 30°C (and beyond) again. 

Before it became too hot, though, we drove down to the one of the local woods for a walk.  The so-called Sixtusbossen (or Sixtus woods) are a 300 hectares complex of woods, which is cared for by Natuurpunt, the largest Belgian nature conservation organization.

There, I left Jos sitting on a shady bench while I went for walk based on the area's numbered walking map. 

Although signposted, I was a bit reluctant to take the overgrown path on the top right, which looked like it hadn't been walked on in ages. Still, I persevered, accompanied by the fierce barking of a dog who seemed to live behind the hedge on the right. I met the creature in question at the end of the path, where it turned out that the gate for the garden it was in stood widely open. Probably sensing my fear, it bared its teeth and continued its barking, which had turned quite menacing. I tried to remain cool headed and slowly proceeded along the tree-lined path on the bottom left, quite relieved that it didn't decide to follow me. Phew!

Back at the bench where Jos was waiting for me, I discovered that I'd lost my walking map somewhere along the way. Knowing the final numbers by heart, I hadn't made use of it for some time, so I had no idea where exactly it had made its escape. Nevertheless, I'm blaming the dog!

As the loss of the map would even further limit our options, we drove down to Poperinge in the afternoon to acquire a replacement from the tourist office in the town's buttery yellow neo-Gothic style town hall. 

Just look at that deep blue sky!

Before returning home, we stocked up on ice cream and cold drinks at the local supermarket.

Back at the cottage, we sought out that shady spot in front of the pond again, where we sat and sampled some refreshing alcohol free beers.

I was wearing the skirt I officially declared as my most worn this Summer in my previous post. It made no less than two appearance during our holiday.

- Skirt: Think Twice, March 2025

- Retro style naive flower print t-shirt: pre-blog high street sales bargain 

- Cat brooch: Katshop

- Spanish fan: charity shopped

That evening, we sat and watched the sun go down on our balcony before calling it a day and enjoying another night, its soundtrack once more provided by the resident frogs. 

 

With ever increasing temperatures of around 34°C forecasted for Wednesday, it was cool cottons to the rescue. 

I was wearing the tropical print tiered C&A skirt (a C&A Summer sales bargain in 2019) I'd worn to travel in on Sunday, its companion a green peasant style broderie anglaise blouse, picked up in the New Look sales several years ago. I was still in my slippers, which obviously I exchanged for sturdier footwear for the walk we'd planned that morning.

Armed with our new map, which we made sure not to leave out of our sights, we drove down to another wooded area, the Galgebossen, which lies about 8 kilometer to the Northeast of Poperinge.

Once arrived and parked, we left our car in the care of the local band of chickens, one of which seemed to have taken a shine to it.

We did a wonderful 6,5 kilometer walk here back in September 2022 but, although Jos declared himself ready to join me, we limited ourselves to a shorter version of just over 2 kilometer.

It was absolutely heavenly to walk on a succession of sun-dappled woodland paths, although the regular patches of sticky mud and puddles rather took us by surprise.

After a rest and refuelling at a little brick barn turned shelter with a view of a dew pond ringed by ancient pollarded willows, we embarked upon the return route.

Having guarded our car so diligently, we were ever so sorry that we'd come empty handed and were unable to reward the chicken with some tasty bites.

Thursday - and our last full day at the cottage - dawned all too soon.

Another scorcher with highs of 34°C, I was glad I'd packed my bag with lightweight heatwave proof clothes only. My fuchsia crinkly tiered skirt came out to play again, this time worn with a butterfly sleeved Zara blouse I'd charity shopped a couple of years ago. My string of multi-coloured beads was picked up from the charity shop here in Poperinge in September 2019.

With the temperature becoming more and more unbearable, we were at a bit of a loss what to do that day. That is, until Jos suggested another visit Talbot House in Poperinge.

It wouldn't be our first visit here. Our penultimate visit was back in September 2024, while I first introduced you to this wonderful place in September 2016.

Here's some potted history. 

Talbot House was opened in 1915 by British army chaplain Philip Clayton as a soldiers' club. During the Great War, Poperinge was part of unoccupied Belgium. Away from the turmoil of battle in the Ypres Salient, the town became the nerve centre of the British sector. Talbot House provided rest and recreation to all soldiers coming in, regardless of their rank.

It is still run by British wardens, aided by volunteers, and all visitors are offered a cup of tea or coffee, included in the ticket price. 

We got talking to that week's group of volunteers, who came from Bruges and whom we delighted with our knowledge of their home town. While I briefly explored upstairs, one of them accompanied Jos to an exhibition space in the garden where, courtesy of aircon, it was mercifully cool. He then came to look for me telling me where he'd left my husband.

We spent the afternoon lounging around the cottage once more and spent a very sweaty and uncomfortable final night before loading our car and driving back home in the morning.

With our UK holiday fastly approaching, I hope I'll find some time for another catch-up before we leave. If not, thank you for reading and see you on the other side!

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!

Good times, bad times

Now that life is more or less back to normal**, it feels strange to revisit the time, now well over a month ago, when things weren't exactly a bed of roses.

For the sake of the continuity of my blog, however, let's once more hop into the time machine and alight at the end of April.

Only two days after Jos's third - and as it would turn out, final - course of chemotherapy, things were still tickety-boo, with Jos's energy levels still being boosted by the magical properties of the cortisone-like medication he was given right before and after his session.

After a morning of chores on Saturday the 25th of April, I walked into the village for an afternoon of drinks and a catch-up with my friend Inez. 

While I was waiting for her to lock up her e-bike (she'd cycled over from the next village) I was complimented by a passer-by on the skirt I was wearing. It's a vintage Trachten one, a € 5 sales bargain from Think Twice last August. After trying on a couple of tops, I think it found its perfect companion in this charity shopped blouse with its groovilicious caramel, cream, burgundy and lilac pattern.

My accessories were a blend of second-hand and high street finds.

With Sunday's highs of 18°C and oodles of sunny spells, it would have been downright silly to spend the day inside. Instead, we drove to Fort 5 in Edegem, our neighbouring village, for a walk. 

Due to roadworks, we'd had to drive around a bit to find a parking spot, but eventually we managed to grab a space just a short walk from the entrance.

We ended our walk, which took us along and inside some of the atmospheric old fort buildings dating from the 1860s, by soaking up some Spring sunshine on a sun-dappled bench.

My outfit of the day contained no less than two Shrewsbury charity shop finds. I picked up the magenta short-sleeved jumper in June 2024 and the pink floral trainers 5 years earlier.

The skirt came from a long-gone vintage shop in Antwerp. 

Let's have a look at my accessories!

Clockwise from top left: lilac watch and ring from the high street, funky wood and plastic necklace from Accessorize UK, who used to have a branch in Antwerp many years ago, charity shopped pleated leather belt and a dragonfly brooch found on a flea market in Middelburg.  

In the week that followed the chemotherapy side effects started kicking in one by one and, although he was still feeling relatively well on Wednesday, we didn't take any chances and made use of a wheelchair to go for his weekly blood test and consultation at the hospital.

After an interminably long wait, we were finally seen by the doctor, who told us that not only were his blood levels satisfactory, the CT scan he'd had the week before showed that things were stable.

I was wearing my vintage poppy dress that day. I can't for the life of me remember whether it was a charity shop find or a Think Twice one, but it definitely joined my wardrobe pre-blog. Looking back at my previous wears of this gorgeous dress, I always seem to combine it with green accessories, so why break the habit of the last 10 years or so?

My pale pink suede boots were bought in the closing down sale of Antwerp's branch of New Look back in 2019.

I'd taken both Wednesday and Thursday off, as on Thursday we needed to return to the hospital for another check-up, this time for the inguinal hernia surgery he'd had back in January. 

We were running late that morning and were only just in time for our appointment. Expecting the usual delay, we were pleasantly surprised that we were called into the consultant's s office mere minutes after we'd sat down in the waiting room. As everything was looking fine, we were in and out in less than 10 minutes.

A quick look at my outfit, which was all charity shopped over the years, except for the brooch, which was a flea market find. 

The disadvantage of my newly acquired photography assistent is that he or she completely refrained from telling me that my necklace was wonky!  Definitely a he then, I guess :-)

Friday the 1st of May was Labour Day, and thus a public holiday in Belgium.

With Jos being in the full throes of post-chemotherapy misery, the day was spent mostly inside, even if the mercury had climbed to the mid-twenties.

Again, most of my outfit consisted of charity shop finds. This time, the odd one out was my belt with its faux tortoiseshell hexagonal buckle:  a cheeky high street buy back in May 2021.

And then another Saturday rolled along, the afternoon of this moody 23°C day being spent having another meet-up with my friend Inez. We're trying to make this a weekly thing, as it allows us so much more time for drinks and a natter than our former lunchbreak cappuccino catch-ups. 

The dress I was wearing is one of my vintage Diolen Delights and again green was my colour of choice for accessorizing it. I wore a comfortable pair of red shoes by the Portuguese Kiarflex label, charity shopped in the Spring of 2022. This is one of only a handful of pairs of non-sandal shoes I'm able to wear barefoot without causing rubbing and blisters.

The day ended with the thunderstorm which had been brewing all afternoon and which lasted well into the evening.

On Sunday - we were the 3rd of May by now - I woke up with a painful ulcer in my nose, which gave me a headache and meant I could hardly bear the weight of my glasses. I hadn't slept well and needed a steady mix of painkillers to get me through the day.

I still managed to get dressed though, opting for a vintage skirt and Breton top combo, accessorized with an orange belt and necklace to match the orange bits in the skirt.

In spite of having had another sleepless night and being in lots of pain, I dragged myself out of bed on Monday morning and foolishly went off to work. Thankfully, I was able to make a doctor's appointment for that evening, when I was prescribed stronger painkillers, hydrocortisone cream, antibiotics, lots of rest and the advice to take the rest of the week off work.

With wearing my glasses still being an issue there was nothing for it than taking regular naps in between reading bits of Julia Glass's The Whole World Over. I'd read and loved her debut novel, Three Junes, a couple of years ago while on holiday in our cottage in Poperinge, and this one didn't disappoint either.

It took until the Friday of that week until I started feeling myself again and was able to leave the confines of the sofa. With Jos still feeling unwell and not up to anything productive, I caught up on a couple of long overdue chores.

The weather gods weren't particularly on their best behaviour that day so that I was forced to wear a jumper. A thin knit one, but still! My faux patchwork skirt is vintage C&A and again I picked green accessories and wore my Kiarflex shoes.

Not having left the house in days, I was starting to get cabin fever, so I walked into the village to run an errand. As always, I ended up for a quick browse at bargain store Zeeman where I fell hard for these granny square slippers, which obviously had to come home with me.

One final outfit before I call it a day.

Saturday's weather was infinitely better than Friday's, with highs into the low twenties.

No need for a jumper that day. Instead, I chose a red and white floral short-sleeved blouse (from the Belgian Wow To Go label via the charity shops) which I wore with a skirt with the funkiest of patterns, which someone on Instagram once likened to a collection of colourful plates. 

This time, I picked black for my accessories to tie in with the black background of my skirt. Again, the charity shops supplied the majority of my outfit. 

*** I will try to catch up with your blogs soon but please do bear with me as I might have jinxed it when I said that life was more or less back to normal. Earlier this week, Jos fell and hurt his knee, which made us end up in A&E once more. Thankfully nothing is broken or seriously amiss but it will take time to heal, meaning that our little holiday - which starts tomorrow - will be one with a hurdle!

See you soon!