It's the final countdown

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of work and holiday prep. However, yesterday I waved goodbye to the office until the end of June, which means that I am officially on vacation. Yay!

Today, we finished the dreaded packing, and with our bags already stashed away into the boot of our car, there's no going back and I can only keep my fingers crossed that I made the right choices for my travelling capsule wardrobe!

Tomorrow we'll be getting up at the crack of dawn, so how about a little catch up before we go?

Right, let's start with Whit Monday, the 29th of May. 

Although it was mostly sunny, the mercury didn't quite reach Sunday's highs and got stuck at 18°C, while a hazy layer of cloud played hide and seek with the odd patches of blue sky.

I was wearing one of my Diolen delights, a sky blue dress scattered with orange, yellow and white flowers. The vintage daisy brooch I pinned to one of its lapels couldn't have been a better match.

My oldest raffia belt - a charity shop find many years ago - came out to play, as did the orange, yellow and white bubblegum necklace I picked up from a long gone vintage shop.

At my feet, the pale blue suede shoes which almost match my beloved Cloudsteppers for comfort.

After a morning of chores, which yet again included a bit of ironing, we were more than ready to go for a head clearing walk.

A short drive took us to Hof ter Linden in the neighbouring village of Edegem, where you have joined me quite a few times before. 

Although renovation of the Neoclassical manor house is rumoured to be imminent, there was still no sign of it. In fact, the poor thing was looking more dishevelled and crumbling than ever.

We gave it and the sphinxes and lions who are guarding its entrance a wide birth, skirting the domain and walking along the reed edged moat where the first of the yellow flag Irises were putting in an appearance.

We stopped for a photo next to a stone plinth, which we suspect once supported one of the sculptures illegally removed by the descendants of the castle's last occupant shortly before the domain was sold to the village authorities in March 2012. 

Handing over my camera to Jos, I misjudged and accidentally dropped it. Thankfully, it didn't fall from a great height - the advantages of being vertically challenged - and made a soft landing, sustaining nothing but a couple of superficial scratches, but its near demise had left me reeling so that I had to sit down on the nearest bench and recover.  

Feeling better after having ascertained my camera was still in working order, we continued our walk.

The path had by now veered away from the moat and meandered along and through wildflower meadows, until we reached the lake at the back of the mansion, which we circled until eventually we passed its courtyard. From here, it was only a short walk back to where we'd left our car.

We'd been charity shopping on Saturday, but apart from the haori I wore to get lost in on Sunday's wilderness walk, I still needed to show you my finds. 

The dove grey flower patterned maxi skirt feels like silk, but unfortunately has lost its contents label to confirm it. It's by Jackpot - a label which featured abundantly in my late 80s, early 90s wardrobe - and,  in spite of missing a whopping six of its ten buttons, I fell in love with it on the spot. I knew my button stash would come up trumps and it did, as the tiny grey shank buttons I used are hardly distinguishable from the remaining self-fabric ones!

There's no label whatsoever to identify the floral magenta blouse, but it followed me home nonetheless.

My final find that day was the cropped orange Zoë Loveborn cardigan with its black trim and buttons, which is part of my travelling capsule wardrobe!

Later that week, I also made a couple of purchases from Think Twice, who appeared to have started another one of their famous sales. On two consecutive days, I found the peach coloured, puff sleeved jumper and the vintage frock in dotty pinks and pale green.

Other lunch time activities included buying a travel hairdryer as I busted my old one back in September, and a visit to my hairdresser, Michel, for a colour and cut on Wednesday. He gave me a bit of a fright when he told me I was his last client before his retirement ... but then he said he would continue working a couple of mornings a week regardless. Phew! It would have been quite a thing having to change hairdressers after 28 years!

Meanwhile, the weather gods kept being on their best behaviour with lots of sunshine and temperatures ranging from 19 to 24°C.

Saturday dawned sunny and the mercury effortlessly reached the forecasted highs of 22°C.

Nevertheless, with a to-do list as long as my arm, our only outing was a walk into the village to run some errands.

The day's outfit was an effortless one as well, combining a black and white striped New Look skirt with a groovily patterned black, white, green and red vintage top, both of which were old charity shop finds. 

The stretchy black raffia belt with its round faux tortoiseshell buckle was a bargainous high street find a couple of weeks ago, while the green birds-in-flight brooch was a holiday souvenir from a shop in Cardigan. Beads, bracelet and ring were charity shop and flea market finds.

First time wearing sandals this year - they're my comfy old red Gabor ones - but I couldn't be bothered to paint my nails.

Our garden's pinks and purples are supplied by - clockwise from top left - a bowl of cheerful fuchsia Busy Lizzies, frothy Lobelias, a glorious Foxglove and the Petunia 'Purple Vein' in our hanging basket.

Meanwhile, the trailing Geraniums in their green enamelled cones have made friends with the purple and yellow Million Bells in the half basket on the potting shed wall.

 

Isn't the colour of that indigo Delphinium fabulous? They offer a lovely contrast to the delicate lavender blue Campanulas.

After a couple of nail-biting months, we were happy to finally spot the first of the lime green Hydrangea flower heads, which are expected to metamorphose into head-turning Wedgwood blue beauties soon.

Together with the hanging baskets, the strawberries are spending the two weeks of our holiday on Inneke's and Maurice's balcony. With the sunny and warm weather forecasted, they will soon ripen to juicy red berries for our friends to enjoy!

The weather gods cranked up the thermostat to 24°C on Sunday.

Yet again, the day was mostly spent ticking tasks off our list. These included setting up a rudimentary watering system which will hopefully keep our patio pots happy during our holiday. To this end, we grouped them all together in the shady passageway, well away from the wilting heat of the sun.

Sunday's dress was a King Louie by way of a charity shop. I added a modern dusky pink butterfly brooch to flit among the dress's exotic foliage. The pink translucent beaded necklace was charity shopped as well, while the navy belt with its white plastic buckle used to belong to my late Mum.

We had been anxiously waiting for the first of the scarlet Oriental Poppies to pop open and it finally happened on Sunday morning. By Monday, at least six of them had shrugged off their furry bonnets (thank you Vix!) so as soon as I got dressed I popped out into the garden before work to take some photos. 

The pops of red behind the white Foxglove on the top left aren't poppies, though, they're the flowers of Geum chiloense 'Mrs. Bradshaw'!

And you can see some of next door's building materials stacked against the garden wall on the bottom right ... 

So, that's it for now. Obviously, I couldn't leave without a photo of our beloved furry family member, the only and only Queen Bess!

We will miss her, that's for sure!

I'll be back with tales of adventures in a couple of weeks. See you on the other side!