Collectors' Lot

As April stepped aside for May, the world kept holding its breath for what this month's got in store. 

Weather-wise, Spring had temporarily packed up its bags and left us, turning down the thermostat several degrees and, while we were still treated to the odd sunny spell, intermittent showers were the order of the day. And while these might have put a damper on things for us, they were no doubt welcomed with open arms by our thirsty gardens. 

The cooler temperatures meant that I was back in the opaques I thought I'd left behind until October, choosing a green pair to match the leaves in my black frock printed with poppy-esque flowers.

Even with its three quarter sleeves, it was still far too chilly to go it alone, so that I added a green cardi when I stepped outside between showers.

A green beaded necklace, embroidered flower brooch and hessian belt were my accessories on that first day of May.

Before another shower drove us back indoors, I removed the spent flowers from the tête-à-tête daffs and put the bulbs with their foliage in an out-of-the-way corner, to die down and absorb its nutrients for next year. I'm determined to plant them out in the garden come Autumn.

In the space they'd vacated, I temporarily plonked down some of the plants we'd acquired at the garden centre, to be potted up properly once the weather improves.  

Browsing the 7000 square metre garden centre, we were seduced into buying a strawberry plant in a hanging bucket. They are of a repeat fruiting variety and, although we don't expect to be getting masses of fruit from it, we are looking forward to adding some homegrown strawberries to our breakfast fruit salad now and then.

Just before sundown, a heavy but sunlit shower prompted me to take out my camera for some parting shots. No need to get out the watering can that evening!

Showers became even more prolific on Saturday and it was only by late afternoon that there was a break long enough to allow us to take some outfit photos.

It had been another long-sleeve day, on which I opted for a skirt and blouse, both having have made previous appearances in different guises on the blog. Both with my trademark floral prints, the skirt was a charity shop find, while I picked up the blouse at Think Twice in Bruges while on a day trip last September. A red vinyl belt and red beaded necklace completed my outfit. 

The sun did her best to bleach out any colour and make my face look pale as a ghost's, so we moved to a shadier spot in the garden. By that time, I'd added a hat to tame my unruly hair and a charity shopped King Louie cardigan, to which I pinned a butterfly brooch.

Lots of real butterflies - mainly cabbage whites - seem to be flitting around in our garden, as do different varieties of dragonflies and damselflies. I even had to rescue a poor damselfly which had got itself into a pickle in a cobweb under the awning. I had to rescue a bumblebee which had ended up on its back that very same day.

That day's rainy weather prompted a continuation of Operation Kitchen Cleaning, which has now been going on (and off) for several weeks. It's slow going, mainly because of my procrastination habits, in their turn caused by the fact that we have so much stuff! There, I've said it. I wouldn't want to have it any other way, I should add.

The next area on the agenda was the set of shallow shelves to the right of our big kitchen cupboard and it was my plan to not only clean them but rearrange them in the process. First, I freed up some space by moving the coffee pots on the top shelf to the dresser in the dining room.

The shelves themselves are collector's items in their own right. They are by Tomado, a Dutch kitchenware company founded in 1923. Dating from the 1950s, Tomado's lacquered metal shelves, often painted in the red-yellow-blue colours associated with the Dutch De Stijl movement, have become highly collectable.

The two shallow sets we have in our kitchen are so-called mini Tomado shelves and are even more sought after.

A view of the top three shelves after they were cleaned and re-organized. 

The top shelf now features a Lurpak toast rack (bottom left), which was a local flea market find, and a creamer (bottom right), bought in an antique shop in Cardigan. The set of 1930s swallow decorated canisters on the third shelf were a flea market find from this time last year. I do miss our monthly flea market trawls very much!

Proceeding to the bottom three shelves, where some new introductions include the Devon Blue Ware jug and teapot, which previously lived behind the glass doors of the central display part in the big cupboard. The eagle eyed among you may spot them in there in the picture of the original arrangement with the coffee pots.

The wooden beehives at the back are two piggy banks. Although neither of them is the original, there used to be a similar one at my paternal grandparents' house. The beehive at the front is a ceramic honey pot.

Here are some more close-ups for you to enjoy. The pale green tea set is vintage Fire King and the boxed egg wedger is part of our Tala kitchenware collection.

The beehives are joined by several chocolate moulds, one of them Bakelite, while the only remaining two of the seven dwarfs are part of a ceramic set belonging to my paternal grandparents. I loved playing with them when I was a child, which is why the rest of them died an untimely death!

The lower shelf holds a collection of Melitta coffee filter holders, the two regular sized ones on the left actually being used at Dove Cottage!

Hanging from tiny hooks from the side of the shelves is a small collection of 1970s keyrings. Again, they are not the originals I collected as a young girl, but picked up at flea markets in recent years.

Encouraged by my Dad, who custom made a rack for them, they were my very first collection in the early 1970s, when during a short period of time they were a craze and given as freebies with many products.

How cute is the tiny Samo crisps packet (Samo was a popular Belgian brand of crisps, or chips, at the time) and the diminutive bar of Lux soap!

I took the opportunity of the weather's continuing fickleness on Sunday by undertaking yet another kitchen project, which I'll tell you all about it in my next post.

But before I go, here's what I wore that day.

Yet another dress that has remained unworn for years is this vintage burgundy number from the Swedish Aspens label.

It has alternating bands of light and dark burgundy sprinkled with a squiggly print, which is denser on the darker bands. 

To accompany it, I chose an elastic woven belt with a round buckle, a long glass beaded necklace and a multicoloured stone brooch. The latter two were both holiday souvenirs, the necklace bought retail from a shop in Wantage, Oxfordshire in 2006 or 2007, while the brooch came from Carmarthen Flea Market, when we visited it back in 2015. Happy times!

Finally, here's another of my #coronahair solutions, a slightly stretchy scarf (they seem to work best) with a hair flower clipped to it.

That's it for now, do stay safe and sane, my friends!