Moving in circles

As I start writing this post, it's a wet and miserable November Sunday, with the rain beating incessantly against the windows. All of a sudden, Autumn has entered its nasty, soul-sapping stage, which rather takes getting used to after October's balmy, Indian Summer weather. With the mercury not showing any sign to climb out of the single figures, it's all I can do to keep warm. It's a toss-up between keeping on the move or putting the heating on, and I'm afraid I succumbed to the latter. I might be able to add an extra pair of socks and pile on the layers, but I'm drawing the line at fingerless gloves while I'm typing.

Such a difference with Sunday 23 October, when the weather gods were still lenient, treating us to temperatures effortlessly reaching 20°C.

It would have been a perfect day for a walk if it hadn't been overcast, the sky awash with angry black clouds threatening rain. As it was, the previous week's office ordeals had drained my energy levels, so we just strolled to the Museum of Folklore during a sunny spell mid-afternoon to take outfit photos in front of its rusty garden gates.

I was wearing a black, white, blue and yellow plaid skirt from Think Twice, picking up the yellow with a funky top by French retro brand Mademoiselle YéYé, which was a charity shop find in July 2019.

I matched the black in both the skirt and top with one of my stretchy chevron patterned belts and a black-based pin I'd picked up during Saturday's charity shopping trip. Finally, I paid tribute to the blue in the skirt's plaid by adding a teal-ish blue waterfall cardigan and blue flower ring.

Oh and I wore my denim blue embroidered Western style Sacha boots again. Everything including the boots was found second hand, by the way.

Our lazy Sunday enabled me to take photos of Saturday's finds, some of which I already offered a sneak peek of at the end of my last post.

But first up is a closer look at the pin I was wearing that day. It was one of a set of three creepy but cute badges, which came on a card. I couldn't find out much about La Marelle en Papier, other than that it is French, but at € 1,50 I wasn't going to leave them behind. They were on the jewellery display of the second shop we went to, which was the one near the park in Duffel.

The clothing rails of the same shop yielded this pink and green patterned wool blend vintage dress from the French Le Gaillard label, which I can't wait to wear when the weather gets really cold.

Quite unintentionally there seems to be a French theme going on here, as this dusky pink cord blazer I found in the first shop we visited is from the French mail order company 3 Suisses. Just seeing the label instantly takes me back to the 1970s, when I loved nothing better than poring over their hefty catalogues which arrived twice a year like clockwork. My mother often ordered from them, which I guess was easier than taking the bus into Antwerp and traipsing around the shops.

The company, which was initially called La Filature des 3 Suisses, and started life selling knitting wool, was established in Roubaix, France in 1932.  They launched their first Textile Catalogue in 1949. Apparently, in 1969 they caused quite a fuss by putting a photo of a woman wearing trousers on the catalogue's cover. Quite revolutionary at the time, it seems. If that surprises you  then let me tell you that as late as the early 1980s, when I was at college, I had a teacher who insisted on all girls wearing skirts during exams! Ever the rebelling feminist, I hated the guy with a vengeance.

The first shop, which is the one in Mechelen, can be very hit or miss, but this time it was a true treasure trove. Shortly after snapping up the blazer, I found this bottle green and off-white checked wool-blend skirt by Tommy Hilfiger. Both the skirt itself and its content label look pristine, so I'm guessing it was hardly worn. My camera, however, refused to properly pick up the green, which looks almost black here. I've got it earmarked for its first outing soon so I'm hoping to reveal its true colour when I'm out and about.

In spite of owning a plethora of cardigans, there's always room for one more. Particularly when it has an eye-catching zig-zag pattern in fuchsia pink and yellow on turquoise. And even more so when it comes with a matching short-sleeved jumper with a keyhole neckline. A twin-set with a twist, from the Belgian Van Hassels label.

More zig-zags and another short-sleeved jumper, in black, white and yellow this time and by the Belgian CKS label. I paid just over € 13 for the blazer, skirt, twin-set and jumper, which is a steal. This particular shop doesn't differentiate between labels. In those who do, I would have paid a lot more, as these would all be considered higher end labels.

For my final find of the day, we have to return to the second shop. This cable knit short orange poncho has its origins in Belgian high street shop Lola Liza. Perfect for supplying extra warmth when I'm churning out blog posts, or to nip out into the garden on a cold Winter's day.

Speaking of nipping out into the garden, I have a confession to make. Apart from just outside our back door, I hadn't actually been into the garden since we returned from our September getaway. With next door's building work and the upheaval caused by seemingly never-ending story of The Wall in particular, I temporarily lost the will to do any gardening. It was all I could do to look at the mess through the kitchen window, so it slowly but surely reverted to its pre-Covid jungle state. 

The Ivy - which produced yellow and green blooms for the first time in its career - conspired with Akebia quinata, also known as Chocolate Vine, in twisting and climbing towards our neighbour's garden. We will tame it eventually but for the time being we let it be and secretly hope it bothers our neighbour who is not a fan of greenery - his word, not mine.

Our Fuchsia magellanica shrub really comes into its own this time of year and, just like the Cotoneaster berries there is no need to go out into the garden to appreciate them setting the garden alight.

When I finally plucked up the courage to walk down the garden path, I was delighted to see the splashes of purplish blues supplied by Monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii 'Cloudy', top right) and some Campanula bells. The latter is growing in a pot we had to move to the back of the garden and it's doing better than ever, taking advantage of the warm weather to produce a second flush of flowers.

Pots, plant stands and ornaments, including our famous pot of marbles, are jostling for space in the grandly named courtyard at the very back of the garden. These are the former contents of the passageway, which we hope to be able to move back before too long. 

The Salvia who lives here permanently is still going strong, and keeps contrasting nicely with the yellow of the old enamel sign.

Other stalwarts which keep on providing colour are Red Valerian, Verbena rigida and the ubiquitous Nasturtiums which are the offspring of the climbing variety sown two years ago. The black berries belong to Liriope muscari, which is sharing space with the Heuchera in the window box that used to be in the passageway.

The working week which followed was only marginally less manic than the previous one, but I won't bore you with the details for now.

It remained unseasonably warm and mostly sunny. I know I should have made the most of the remaining handful of days when it was still light enough for outfit photos after work, but it took until Wednesday, which was the 26th of October, before I had enough get-up-and-go left to do so.

My dress was a € 2 Think Twice sales bargain about three years ago. I'd been stalking it in the shop until the girl whose basket it had landed in was discouraged from buying it by her friend, who declared it too granny-ish. Well, her loss, my gain!

Isn't that print, which manages to combine stripes, chevrons and diamonds in pinks and purples with the a splash of burnt orange, just fabulous?

I love purple and orange together, so I took my lead from the burnt orange diamonds and added an orange cardigan, belt, necklace and ring. The burnt orange background of my classic cameo brooch ties in with the colour scheme as well. 

Thursday was my last working day of the week. Now that my colleague is back I am able to take regular Fridays off again. 

Like Wednesday's outfit, Thursday's contained lots of orange, although I admit my cardigan, which is a very bright and deep orange, does look like more of a red in the photos. 

Whatever the case, I matched it to the orange leaves in my skirt's pattern. The skirt is a pre-blog Think Twice find, which has been in my wardrobe forever. 

The blue vintage blouse with its naive flower print came from Think Twice as well. My blog tells me I bought it in the Spring of 2019. 

The half-elasticated belt with its square buckle is a fairly recent high street find, which has been working overtime in the last couple of weeks. It appeared in one of the outfits in my previous post and I've worn it yet again since.

My necklace was charity shopped and the vintage brooch with its red berries I pinned to my blouse was a flea market find.

I was breathing more than just a sigh of relief at the thought of closing the office door behind me in just half an hour, when I got a phonecall which I would rather not have had. 

Ever since coming back from our September getaway, there's been talk of renovating our office. For this, we will have to temporarily move to other premises on the same floor. That fateful phonecall established that we would be moving on the 10th of November which - eek! - is in just two days now! I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end, but I can't say I'm looking forward to yet another round of upheaval. I'm currently surrounded by a wall of boxes at the office, which feels quite claustrophobic.

I'll back with the final weekend of October's adventures in my next post. That is, if they haven't put me in a straightjacket after Thursday's move!