Back to earth

Although my travelogue hasn't even reached the half-way point of our holiday, I thought I'd give you - and myself - a break with a catch-up post on what has been happening since our return back to earth. Not that there is much to tell, mind you. Still, for the sake of continuity, it won't do to skip these days. Plus, what with this weekend's flea market coming up, I simply haven't got the time for a full blown holiday post, however enjoyable these may be.

Anyway, here goes!

From a moderate 20°C, we watched the temperature climbing higher and higher as we travelled down the UK on Saturday the 24th of June, briefly dipping to 22°C again as we neared the coast, only to climb to 28°C and beyond once we'd disembarked  in France. Our journey had been uneventful but still tiring and, after a restful, almost comatose, night's sleep, we woke up to a hot day on Sunday, with the mercury soaring to well over 30°C.

After breakfast, I took advantage of the relative coolness of morning to take stock of the state of our garden. I removed the watering system, which Maurice had been kind enough to top up during our absence, and moved back all the pots to their rightful places in the passageway. I was happy to see that, in spite of the +30°C heatwave which had swept over Belgium, most of the plants had survived, even if some of them were looking a bit leggy and unkempt. Only one Lobelia and the Mimulus which I had been keeping alive since the Spring of 2021, had given up the ghost.

The long-suffering Hydrangea, whom we initially thought had been killed off by our neighbour's wall building shenanigans last year, has actually benefited from the ordeal. The shrub has remained a bit more compact which means the flowers are well below the garden wall and haven't been burnt to a crisp by the relentless heat of the sun. 

Venturing further into the wilderness, I was delighted to spot a handful of bright yellow flowers in Helenium 'The Bishop' (above collage, bottom right), while the Clematis aptly but rather unimaginatively named 'So Many Lavender Flowers' is doing exactly what it says on the tin.

Oh, and the Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica) I transplanted to the passageway border seems to be in its element here: it has been producing several flowers already, with more waiting in the wings.

In fact, everything in the passageway border is doing its best to forget last year's wasteland, including some rampant and ineradicable clover which arrived here on its own accord. The rabbits of our Shropshire valley would have a field day!

More lovely surprises at the back of the garden! Several Drumstick Alliums were bursting out of their skins, there was a flush of delicate pink pincushion Astrantia flowers and the odd bright pink one in our 'Tiny Monster' Geranium. 

The red flowers on the bottom left belong to our Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’. They are supposed to be red with a bit of white, but last year some were half red/half white and we had a  couple of pure white ones too. 

Thankfully, by Monday it had cooled down to a much more bearable 22°C overnight. 

However, it was clear that neither my mind nor my body were very happy to be back. I was feeling jittery and suffering migraine-like symptoms.  It wasn't just having to go back to the office on Tuesday which was on my mind, though. I also had an appointment with an ophthalmologist to look forward to in the afternoon. When I went for my new prescription lenses back in April, I was advised to book an appointment, as the optician had detected a problem with my left eye.

So, after half a day at the office trying to get to grips with over 1300 emails and a couple of complicated files my boss and colleague had kindly put aside until I was back, I spent over an hour in the eye clinic's waiting room, getting more and more nervous by the minute and starting to nurse the mother of all headaches.

At first sight, the ophthalmologist couldn't find anything seriously wrong and - very importantly - the pressure in both eyes was nice and low, but I will have to go back for further tests at the end of the month.

Wednesday was a much better day. Not only had my migraine taken a backseat, I was able to create some kind of order in the chaos at work. 

The temperature still lingered in the region of 23°C, which it would continue to do so for a couple of days. The perfect weather for one of my short-sleeved vintage frocks. In cool greys and whites, patterned with black stalked green and white flowers, it was a Think Twice find back in March 2022. 

I picked up the splashes of green with a beaded necklace and ring, while a green butterfly brooch cavorted among the flowers. All my accessories, including the pink belt, were bought on the high street over time. My sage green and off-white wooden soled slingbacks were a lucky find in an outlet shop in May 2022.

With the impending flea market occupying my mind, I realized I needed some more clothes hangers, so I couldn't have been happier when I happened upon some cheap but reasonable quality ones in a bargain shop during lunch break.

I bought four sets of ten hangers and was taking them to the till when the problem of carrying them home presented itself. Cue the serendipitous appearance of a stack of large wicker shopping baskets in the same shop, which couldn't have been more perfect. 

Perfect too for storing a selection of my sandals and other Summer shoes, so that's its task at Dove Cottage sorted.

Friday's outfit was built around the gorgeous vintage skirt I was given by Claire, as I simply couldn't wait any longer to give it its first outing. From the plethora of colours in its pattern to choose from I picked green for my lacy knit vintage top, oatmeal for my stretchy belt and cream for my vintage beads, plastic ring and ceramic heart brooch.

From my basket of sandals, I plucked this comfortable wedge-heeled tomato red pair, which was a post-Lockdown sales bargain in the Summer of 2020. 

After aimlessly wandering around during my lunch break, I happened to find myself in the large Think Twice shop which opened earlier this year. I was just about to leave the shop empty-handed when this crisp Finnish peasant-style blouse caught my eye.

It had been raining overnight and through the morning on Saturday the 1st of July, after which sunny spells and the odd shower accompanied the day's highs of 23°C.

Upon raising the roller blind in the dining room, we spotted a family of mice running to and fro near the compost bin, including some cute itty bitty ones. Bess, who's normally very alert at the merest sign of movement outside, totally ignored our attempts at drawing her attention to them.

After breakfast, we finished unpacking and ticked a couple of chores off the seemingly never-ending to-do list.

My outfit that day consisted of a mix of vintage and modern in a colour palette of black, white, light grey and red. 

The black button-through skirt with its tiny white flower pattern and three rows of white rick-rack near the hem, is the vintage piece, obviously, picked up from Think Twice many years ago.

My grey and white striped top with its pattern of red lobsters was found, new with tags, in a charity shop back in the Spring of 2019. Still bearing its original retail price tag of € 49,95, it only cost me a mere € 4.

It goes without saying that only the quirky shrimp brooch - a flea market find - was up to the job!

Both the red glass beaded necklace and the red pleated belt were charity shopped. In fact, only the red and cream slingbacks were a retail buy from back in the mists of time.

The uncertainty of the weather ruled out going for a walk so, after lunch, we had a rummage in the charity shops instead. 

I kept finding Barbara Pym paperbacks on the bookshelves of our local shop. Although I haven't read any of her books, I remember Vronni blogging about this author once or twice. At € 0,30 each, surely it would have been silly not to buy them all. And who knows, perhaps one of these isn't yet in Vronni's collection, in which case I'll gladly send it over to her.

I found the swirly patterned vintage dress in the same shop, while the one in nearby Mortsel yielded the three-quarter sleeved blouse with the funky pattern and a yellow wooden tiled necklace. 

The blouse, by the way, is King Louie, which due to oversight hadn't ended up on the posh label rail with a much higher price tag than the € 5,90 I paid for it.

Sunday brought a mixture of clouds and sunny spells and a moderate temperature of 22¨°C.

I spent part of the morning giving the strawberry plant a haircut. It had come back from their holiday on Inneke and Maurice's balcony sans strawberries, as they had been ripe for the picking while we were away. As it's a repeat fruiting variety, I'm hoping it'll produce another crop of berries for us to enjoy.

I also deadheaded the hanging basket and half-basket, both of which had been looked after by our friends as well. As usual, the purple veined Petunia on the bottom right is in the process of taking over and swamping the plants it is sharing the basket with. Perhaps I should pick a less vigorous variety next year ...

The cluster of pink daisy-like blooms on the top left belong to Malva sylvestris. Planted back in 2020, it completely colonized its border in 2021 but after some rigorous pruning didn't come back last year. Now it's here again, most probably with a vengeance.

We had grandson Cas's birthday party complete with BBQ to look forward to in the afternoon. Having turned two years old in June, this was the first date when all the family would be able to attend.

No photos were taken, but I'll show you what I was wearing for the occasion.

You'll recognize the King Louie blouse charity shopped on Saturday, with my pink painted metal dragonfly brooch pinned to it. 

The blouse found its perfect partner in the green embroidered linen blend Zara skirt, which was last Summer's sales bargain. My blue belt was bought in the Mango sales at the same time as the pink one I'm wearing in my first outfit.

Once again, my feet were happy in Friday's tomato red sandals.

So, that's all I've got time for now. I will be back with episode # 4 of my travelogue soon, and obviously I will let you know how I got on with my flea market stall!