For when she thought of Summer rain

Ah, Summer rain! It does come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from a gentle morning shower to an electrifying thunderstorm at the end of a string of sizzling hot days. But Summer rain can be relentless too, bucketing down from a granite grey sky with no sign of letting up for days on end. If it weren't for nature's general verdancy, it could just as well be Autumn on days like these. 

Umbrellas are permanently wet and sandals have to be put on the back burner in favour of last season's boots. The garden has taken a bashing, and some of my beloved plants have collapsed under the watery onslaught, their horizontal positions providing an easy meal for slugs and snails.

And yet, who are we to complain? This is a tiny cross to bear compared with the severe flooding which is currently hitting Belgium's southern regions, the Liège area in particular. Record rainfall made rivers and streams burst their banks, the resulting flash floods causing cars and everything else to be swept away in their wake and buildings collapse. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their flooding homes - some of them having to wait for help after having climbed upon their roofs - and at the time of writing the death toll has reached at least 20, whilst searches are ongoing for at least another 20 missing people, And it's even far, far worse across the border in Germany ...

But all that was still in the future on Thursday, the 1st of July, my final Thursday of freedom.

Grey skies reigned throughout the day but, ever thankful for small mercies, it remained mostly dry. At a measly 17°C, however, it didn't feel like July and, as you can see, it was another one of those ankle boots rather than sandals day.

The dress I was wearing is Finnish vintage and an old Think Twice find. Being short-sleeved, it needed a cardigan worn on top, which due to the dress's complicated turned up cuffs made my upper arms look like the Michelin man's. Of course, I only realized how bad it was after I'd uploaded the photos (*roll eyes*).

At first sight, the dress's pattern consists of a blowsy floral pattern, its main colours being a rich chocolate brown and a fudgy orange. Look closer, however, and you'll find the odd splash of green, which I made use of for my cardigan, beaded necklace, bracelet and transluscent neon green perspex ring. My brooch's green background is decorated with icing-like fudgy flowers and tiny white pearls.

Fudge appears again in my belt - which replaces the dress's tie belt - and slim plastic bracelet, which is accompanied by a slightly wider orange one.

With the weather not much to write home about, we ran some errands, one of which brought us to the outskirts of the town of Mechelen. Here, we hopped into the local charity shop, which we hadn't been to for well over a year, ever since our our last visit - post Lockdown I - turned out to be fraught with obstacles. Not being too busy, we could browse at ease, but apart from this groovily patterned long-sleeved top, nothing caught mine or Jos's eye.

After lunch and taking the obligatory outfit photos, we did some garden chores, cutting back the wilted Red Valerian, Heuchera and Delphinium flower spikes to encourage new growth.

A pink self-seeded Foxglove has made itself at home among the luxuriant planting in one of the borders along the garden path, attracting the local population of bumble bees, as do both the 'Tiny Monster' and 'Rozanne' hardy Geranium varieties.

Keeping one eye on the weather, under gardener Jos was contemplating head gardener Ann's handiwork among the tapestry of cottage garden plants in front of the bench.

Raindrops are caught between the feathery fern fronds (top right). They too have to be kept in check to keep them from smothering the smaller plants they are towering over.

I'm delighted by one of this year's additions, Jacob's Ladder or Polemonium caeruleum (bottom right), its almost fern-like foliage providing almost as much interest as its dainty yet sturdy and certainly plentiful lavender flowers. The plant earned its common name due to the rung-like arrangement of its leaves, which rise along the stem like the ladder of the Biblical dream of Jacob.

After a cloudy start on Friday - an office day - we got sunshine in the early afternoon, and highs of 23°C. The gorgeous Summer weather combined with the start of the sales, had made people flock to Antwerp, and its streets were chock-a-block when  I made my way to our pick-up point after work.

Waiting for Jos to arrive, I rolled my eyes at the number of people who were either not wearing a mask at all or wearing one the wrong way. As usual, there were quite a lot of "bearded ladies", which is my nickname for women wearing their masks under their chins. A great look it isn't :-)

Bess is becoming ever more daring and adventurous. She seems to love watching things from  vertiginous heights. We'd caught her sitting upon the Bakelite 1950s radio which is gracing the top of our beloved 1930s cabinet, holding our breaths when she decided to jump off again.

Things came to a head on Friday night, when she went one step further, jumping from the cabinet on to the Billy bookcases. As we feared for our precious Idina's life - she's the hat wearing 1930s plaster mannequin - we rescued her and gave her a new home among the mantelpiece and wall of heads in the blue room.

A mostly cloudy and humid day awaited us on Saturday, its temperature feeling quite a bit warmer than its 24°C highs. 

This coral Diolen frock shouted the loudest when I opened my wardrobe doors, so that I decided to give it its annual outing. You can find some of its previous wears here (September 2020), here (July 2019) and here (May 2016).

Yet again proof that I'm a creature of habit, as I've been wearing shades of blue with it each and every time. I've actually diverted a bit from the norm here, opting for turquoise, which I picked for my belt, brooch, ring and one of my bangles. The latter is joined by two flower patterned wooden ones.

The necklace, which is one of my favourites and features multi-coloured wooden rings and discs, has been making regular appearances on the blog. It was bought retail, from Accessorize, back in the mists of time.

My tomato red sandals were a retail buy too, bought in last Summer's sales in a local shoe shop.

Rain was forecasted for the afternoon, but eventually held off until early evening. With the weather too uncertain for a ramble of any length, we opted for a visit to the garden centre instead.

Now that bedding plant season was well and truly over, we thought we'd risk it on a Saturday, and indeed it was an oasis of quiet.

We had a wander around and, apart from the metal plant stakes we had come for in the first place, we couldn't resist taking home some more plants. These included another Salvia, a yellow Snapdragon and some small flowered Tagetes. To add interest in the passageway, we also snapped up two shade loving Astilbes, also known as false goat's beard.

The mosaic solar light and the tiny snippers - perfect for deadheading - landed in our trolley as well.

We couldn't wait for darkness to fall that night to see the solar light in action, but our patience was amply rewarded, as it is really quite magical, never mind the rain.

After a reasonably sunny wake-up on Sunday, we once again found our plans for going for a walk thwarted by the weather forecast, which was predicting horrific weather from 1 pm onwards.

The temperature hovered in the low 20s, which was just right for the outfit I had in mind, combining two of my recent finds.

The 1970s chocolate brown polka dot cotton wrap skirt was a Think Twice sales bargain back in May, and as soon as I brought he charity shopped H&M blouse home in June, I just knew they would be a match made in heaven.

More often than not, outfits planned in one's head can be quite disappointing in real life. Not this time, though, it was every bit as wonderful as I'd imagined. The only gripe I had with it was that the blouse kept escaping from my skirt, even after I'd belted the latter, and tucked the former firmly into my knickers! 

I kept the colour palette fairly neutral, adding an oatmeal stretchy belt, a cream oval brooch depicting a brown bonneted girl and a dark brown, polished wood necklace.

My tan sling-back shoes are vintage and found at a flea market several years ago.

My pale pink bracelet is an old H&M buy, while the rosewood flower patterned bangle was part of a charity shop haul in October 2019.

I was feeling a bit maudlin as that day would mark the end of my days of semi-leisure, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to the working week, even if it was only a 4-day one.

But more about the week ahead in my next post.

With the Delta variant on the rise, I'm urging you once again to stay safe, wherever you are.

See you next time!