Leaps and bounds

Given the circumstances, life has been coming along just fine lately, rising and falling in the gentlest of undulations. The future may be one big question mark, but as long as I keep taking things day by day, and keep finding pleasure in the little things, I seem to be coping pretty well and taking the unavoidable little ups and downs in my stride.

It was on Monday before last that our single Oriental poppy finally burst into life. Admittedly, it had needed a tiny bit of help as its bud seemed to be stuck in one place, endangering the unfolding of the neatly origami'd flower petals inside.

I was slogging away at the office when Jos sent me a photo of the freshly opened flower with its ruffled scarlet petals.  As its life expectancy greatly depends upon the weather, I asked him to take plenty of photographs, in case I wouldn't be able to see it in real life. I needn't have worried, as it's only starting to lose its petals as I write!

It had been muggy all day and I was feeling decidedly sticky by the time I got home. Before hopping into the shower, I thought I'd go and water the plants, so I stepped outside carrying my watering can, which I'd filled with fresh well water.

The minute I stepped onto the cast iron boot scraper, however, it slid away from under my feet. I dropped the watering can, splashing water all over and, in a bid to maintain my balance, my flailing arms almost knocked over the plant table outside our back door and sent some of the poor plants flying.

Neither the plants nor myself sustained serious injuries, but when I surveyed the plant table, which was basically a decrepit old wooden crate, I had to admit it was time we found our plants a new home.

Scouring both the shed and our basement though, we couldn't find anything remotely suitable to be used as a plant table. In normal circumstances, this would have marked the start of a mammoth charity shop trawl, but as this wasn't an option, I looked at the website of a homewares shop, where I came across some recycled wooden plant tables in two different sizes.

So, on Tuesday, we drove down to their nearest brick and mortar branch and bought both tables, as well as a set of seat pads for our garden chairs and a recycled wooden crate.

It was only when I'd removed all the plants and took away the old crate that it became apparent how much in need of replacing it was!

I had a massive clear up of the accumulated garden waste which had lodged itself between the crate and the kitchen wall, making quite a few spiders homeless in the process. We even had to re-home a tiny wild strawberry plant, which had escaped its mother growing around the corner.

There, doesn't it look neat? There's space for all the plants and more, including those poor plants which were living their lives on top of upside-down flower pots. 

The dress I was wearing is neither vintage nor second hand. In fact, I bought it at a sample sale of Belgian retro label Wow To Go many years ago, when I was able to snap up several of their dresses at ridiculously low prices. 

I ditched the self-fabric belt it came with, replacing it with a brown leather one with a tortoiseshell buckle. My other accessories echoed the brown and turquoise colours of the dress as well. There's nothing new here, even my turquoise Miz Mooz sandals were a charity shop find from last year.

It had been another warm and humid day but even though rain had been threatening all afternoon, nothing had happened by early evening, so that there was nothing for it but to wield my watering can again.

The forecast for Wednesday's office day was more of the same sunny but sticky weather, with warnings of heavy rain and thunderstorms in the late afternoon.

At one point, I needed to flee the stuffy office for a breath of fresh air, so some time around midday I donned my mask and took the lift to the ground floor for a walk around the block. I might even have gone into an almost deserted shop and bought two belts which were on sale.

By 4 pm, however, clouds had started gathering and gearing themselves up for a fine spectacle. Sure enough, less than 5 minutes later we were treated to what I can only call a deluge. By then, Jos had already left home and was on its way to our pick-up point in Antwerp. With a strong wind to accompany the rain, there was no way I would have made it without getting drenched, as my measly little umbrella definitely wasn't made for weather like this!

So, while Jos found a parking space a couple of minutes away, I waited it out in the office building's entrance hall, only venturing outside when the rain seemed to have lessened. 

How wrong I was. I had barely crossed the street when it started pelting down again. Briefly sheltering under a shop's awning, I then decided to just go for it, slipping and sliding in my half-open shoes and literally getting soaked to the skin.

Oh, my poor shoes! I thought they'd be ruined, but stuffing them with newspaper and putting them out to dry seems to have done the trick, as they survived unscathed.

It continued raining on and off all through the evening and night, but mercifully the sun was out to greet us on Thursday morning. 

The garden was a soggy mess, but nothing seemed to have drowned. Even our Oriental poppy  survived the watery onslaught.

While Jos was doing the food shop and the sun was working her magic on the garden, evaporating the last of the raindrops, I tackled another one of those little jobs I never used to have time for.

These two small sets of IKEA drawers live on top of each other in our cramped little bathroom, offering room to a myriad of miscellaneous bathroom essentials. As I am in the habit to multiple buy any tried and tested cosmetics or other lotions and potions, some of the drawers were crammed to the limit.

That morning, when I went in search of a product I was sure I'd only seen the other day, one of the drawers got stuck and refused to budge in spite of my swearing. There was nothing for it but to give it a complete overhaul and reorganize its contents, ditching quite a few things which looked well past their sell by date. You wouldn't believe how many lipsticks I've come across!

I also cleaned all my brushes, which live in a small lilac painted tin bucket on top of the units, accompanied by our beloved Pear's Soap mirror.

By the time I'd finished, Jos was back with the groceries and, after helping him unpack and put everything away, he made Thursday's batch of soup.

Then, after lunch, it was time to finally plant up the new border. Digging the plant holes for the Clematis was even more back breaking than we'd envisioned, as there was a big chunk of old Holly root to be removed. There used to be not one but two huge Hollies here when we moved in. Having grown far too big for their boots and generally being a nuisance, we had them felled about ten years ago.

The rest of the planting was straightforward. Apart from Verbena rigida - a smaller cousin of Verbena bonariensis - we added sage, pink Coreopsis or tickseed, and a grassy plant with pink starry flowers called Rhodoxis 'Fairytale'.

The Clematis will have cream and lavender flowers respectively and, as they do like to have a cool root run, I provided some shade with shards of broken planters.

And this is what I wore that day, although I briefly changed into leggings and a t-shirt for the gardening work. No photos of these, obviously!

By pure coincidence, the blue, red and white dress I'm wearing is from the same label as Tuesday's. Again, it is fit and flare, with a row of tiny blue buttons at the bodice.

I accessorized it with a red and white beaded necklace and bangle, a red woven belt and a blue beaded bracelet. A pearly pink-hued brooch was pinned to the dress. 

The hat was primarily worn to hide my hair, which was in desperate need of a wash.

There were three more days left to complete that week, so I'll be returning with further adventures in a couple of days' time.

In the meantime, dear readers, so stay safe, sane and fabulous!