In between showers

The forecast for April's penultimate weekend promised a high probability of rain on both Saturday and Sunday and, while the showers might be interspersed with a sunny spell or two, there was a strong possibility that the blanket of grey would be too thick to allow the sun a look in. In short, they - and by they, of course, I mean those dratted weather people - had no clue whatsoever, and made sure there would be no complaints by forecasting all kinds of weather bar snow and heatwave temperatures

It was therefore a welcome surprise to wake up to a modicum of sunshine on Saturday, and as we'd been promised highs of 13°C, I decided to throw caution to the wind and forego the long sleeves, opting for ... three-quarter ones instead. How very daring, no? 

First outing for this predominantly blue flower infused vintage dress I found at the vintage per kilo shop back in January. As it was missing one of its buttons, which I didn't like anyway, I replaced them with vintage black and white moulded flower ones, which turned out to be so well-suited they almost seem to be part of the pattern.

Among the blue-hued flowers are some tan-hearted daisies and leaves, which I took as my lead to add tan and burnt orange to my outfit.  At my waist, my latest stretchy belt with a tan faux-bamboo buckle, which was a naughty high street buy back in March. On top, a charity shopped diagonally striped orange and burgundy Zoë Loveborn cardigan.

The plastic flower brooch is vintage, an outdoor flea market find in the Summer of 2016, while the necklace with its multi-coloured beads followed me home from the charity shop in Poperinge during our week in Belgium's west country in September 2019.

This wasn't my initial outfit of the day though, as after breakfast that morning I donned my gardening gear. The idea was to dig over the narrow border in the passageway, remove the building rubble which had ended up here courtesy of our neighbour, and plant the shade-loving perennials we'd brought back from the garden centre the other week. 

After doing the hard graft in spite of suffering from backache, Jos left me to do the planting. I'd only just made a start when he came running back outside, telling me I would need to hurry up as rain was imminent. I'm glad to report that I made it, if only just in the nick of time, as the first drops were starting to fall while I was putting in some yellow archangel I'd dug up from elsewhere in the garden.

The yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) joined the fresh from the garden centre Vinca minor (Lesser Periwinkle),  Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor', Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle), Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' (Bugle) and Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Purple' (Foxglove).

Then there were the Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' and the Helleborus sternii which had been living in pots in the passageway since the Autumn, as well as some surplus self-seeded foxgloves and Welsh Poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) from the garden.

We'd lost a big chunk of the border's edging during the building work, so that the rain soon washed away some of the freshly dug over soil and turned part of the passageway into a mud-fest.

We'd looked for suitable border edging in the garden centre on our last visit but hadn't been able to find anything to our liking. As rain kept stopping play for the rest of the day, we decided to have a look in another local garden centre as I thought I'd seen something which might suit on their website. 

Before we proceed, though, here's a look at my vintage teal new wool coat found at Think Twice many years ago. Its lining has been repaired countless of times, but otherwise it's still in perfect condition and will be worn until it literally falls apart. Still wearing a beret and thin knit scarf as well. I do wish Spring would hurry up! 

Sadly, the border edging I'd seen online turned out not to be what we were looking for either, so we settled for some boring green flexible plastic edging to tide us over for the time being. We also bought a bag of wood chips to mulch the new border with.

It would have been rude not to have a look at their plants as well, although the colour coordinated displays did put me off a bit.  Choice was rather limited and there wasn't anything we couldn't have found at our regular garden centre anyway.

Before making our way back home, we went to feed Inneke and Maurice's cat, Nessie, as they'd departed on holiday to the seaside that morning. At least, we tried to feed her, but the key we'd been given didn't seem to work. A phonecall with Maurice revealed the hiding place of a spare key, but that didn't seem to be working either. Meanwhile, we could hear Nessie meowing pitifully. It was all solved in the end but it did involve Maurice having to come back from the seaside. It's a good thing Belgium is a small country ...

Back at home, I spent some time rearranging our bookshelves, as we are facing a serious lack of space. Then I hit upon the idea of doing a reshuffle of my collection of vintage sewing baskets which live on a shelf in the redundant fireplace in our bedroom, creating space for our Victorian and Edwardian themed books. When I posted this on Instagram, people oohed and aahed over the sewing baskets. 

The stuffed mouse on top of the basket on the right isn't one of Bess's toys. I bought her in a WWF shop in Antwerp in the late 80s, and she's called Gorgonzola!

Sunday once again went off to a sunny start, and as the temperature was forecasted to climb to the unheard highs of 15°C, I decided to go one step further and wear a short-sleeved dress.

Well, that's what long-sleeved t-shirts are for, aren't they? I bookended the watercolour patterned dress - another wardrobe stalwart picked up from Think Twice - with a teal t-shirt and ditto opaques. 

Accessories included an old tan leather belt, a blue plastic butterfly brooch and purple beads.

I only wore the shoes for the photos as, apart from the garden, we didn't leave Dove Cottage's confines at all that day.

Aren't they sweet?  They were charity shopped almost exactly two years ago. I've never been able to find out anything about the brand mentioned on the inside (Soulier), but their very 1970s looking block heels make me think they are definitely vintage. 

It would be raining again in the afternoon, but until it did, we made the most of the dry spell by fixing the temporary edging to the border and adding the wood chips. 

Then, Jos removed the old wood from our Fuchsia magellanica bush, while I did some random garden pottering.

I can't believe how lush the garden has become all of a sudden. All that rain must have done the trick!

The Bluebells are in their element and are taking centre stage in the garden right now, a shimmering haze of blue visible from our kitchen window, so that they can even be enjoyed when it rains.

The Cowslips (Primula veris) are doing well too. Even if they can't compete with their exuberantly flowering blue neighbours, their clusters of delicate lemon bells never fail to delight.

The tiny coral bells belong to one of the Heucheras in the window box in the passageway. It has been flowering since early April, which I'm sure is very early indeed. There's no sign of any flowers in those planted in our garden yet.

Another early bloomer, as it's supposed to flower from May to July,  is our Clematis "Guernsey Cream", whose big fat flower buds are opening one by one into gorgeous large cream with a tinge of green flowers. Admittedly, some voracious creature has been nibbling some of the buds, resulting in holey blooms ...

April's final working week had its usual ups and downs, some rain, some shine, and temperatures reaching the low double digits. It was a long one too, as I had to work on Friday as well. What a drag that was!

My lunch breaks were spent running some errands and going to my hairdresser, but on Tuesday my feet took me to the second-hand pop-up shop which opened a couple of months ago. It's a large, spacious shop, with everything neatly displayed on rows and rows of rails, and so far I haven't come across any Primark stuff or the like.

I was in luck that day, as I found a Wow To Go skirt - I used to have a dress in the same pattern - a pair of gold/silver patterned Western style ankle boots by defunct Belgian label Beoriginal, and flat blue Velcro-strap shoes by good old Damart.

I went for a walk on Thursday, the intention being that I would take you to the raised promenade along the River Scheldt, only to be thwarted in my plans as a major redevelopment of the quayside is taking place. Before I reached the quayside, however, I was halted in my tracks by this fantastic mushroom decorated façade.

As I couldn't access the promenade, I walked towards the Ferris wheel opposite Het Steen - the castle I blogged about in a previous post - along the pavement.

To my left, a row of rusty gabled hangars with decorative ironwork pediments. Dating from the late 19th century, they will get a new purpose in the redevelopment of the quayside, but at the time of writing they mostly offer parking space.

It had been a frosty start to the day, which offered the ideal opportunity to wear the short-sleeved plaid wool-blend dress I found at Think Twice back in October. 

Again, I added bookends in the form of a long-sleeved t-shirt and opaques combo. The red Western-style ankle boots were a fairly recent charity shop find.

A flea market, vintage shop and a chazza supplied my brooch, necklace and belt respectively.

As it had warmed up to 14°C during the day, I was sweating in this by the time I went home, but otherwise this was an absolute joy to wear.

Nevertheless, I am truly craving my Spring/Summer wardrobe by now!