Goodbye to the West Country

Once again, thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post. Jos is doing well and getting better day by day, although I guess it will be some time until everything is back to normal. But although the latter might have received a bit of a battering and changes are still ongoing - which, as an HSP person I'm not finding particularly easy to deal with - our resilience has rather caught me by surprise. 

As I was writing my last post, I was reminded of the fact that in the past blogging has more than once saved my sanity, and in fact my heartbeat instantly slowed down as I sat in front of my PC and shared my thoughts and feelings with you.

For obvious reasons, no outfit photos were taken, nor did we embark on any adventures during the past few weeks, so I think I'll just continue where I left off, and take a couple of trips in the time machine back to before our lives went pear-shaped.

As I still owed you the final episode of my travelogue, why don't I start with that?

Admittedly, I had to rewind and reread my previous travel posts to get back into the moment. What with everything that has happened since, it's a bit like looking through a pair of inverted binoculars, shrinking and slightly distorting my memories of our week away. 

Anyway, here goes ...

We've arrived on Friday the 6th of September and, after treating us to a blustery and granite grey day at the seaside on Thursday, the weather gods had now dropped all pretense at good behaviour. 

According to our weather app, there wouldn't be any let-up in the rain any time soon, which meant that we would have to get our thinking caps on. After all, having spent the first week of September in the area since 2012 we had exhausted most of its wet weather options. 

But fear not, we did find exactly what we were looking for at the Bakery Museum on the outskirts of the town of Veurne, about 30 minutes from our cottage.

The rain clouds were taking a breather as we arrived, so that we managed to make it from our car to the museum's entrance without getting wet. Once inside, I donned apron and baker's hat and briefly joined the line-up of Confiserie Vanbelle's personnel.

The museum is located in the former buildings of the 17th Century Zuidgasthuishoeve, one of the guest houses in Veurne which used to care for the poor, the sick and the elderly.

The museum, which is recognized as a regional museum by the Flemish Community, opened its doors in July1985 and has undergone a major renovation and expansion in 2001. 

The museum's collection comprises a mind-boggling 24,000 pieces relating to the baking trade and baking culture in Flanders from the 19th Century to the present.

The collection was started in the 1970s by Walter Plaetinck (1931-2018), a travelling salesman who collected the materials from the hundreds of bakers who were his customers.

As well as everything to do with making bread, the museum displays ice-cream, speculaas and chocolate moulds, waffle irons and other baking equipment. 

There's a replica of a 1960s bakery shop, where you can listen to the latest gossip, or you can take a look behind the scenes in the baker's pantry, where you can marvel at the array of ingredients and try your hand at a scent guessing game. 

Afterwards we sampled some strawberry tarts accompanied by the ubiquitous cappuccinos in the museum café.

Having finally run out of steam, the rain clouds had decided to call it a day after we arrived back at the cottage, offering the perfect opportunity to show you my outfit.

My favourite denim maxi skirt was joined by a Finnish peasant-style blouse - both picked up from Think Twice - and a charity shopped orange Zoë Loveborn cardigan. My necklace was charity shop find too, while the green stretchy belt with its faux-bamboo buckle was last Summer's sales bargain.

We were happy to see that hop-picking had commenced in the hop field across the road, the proceedings of which we watched from the comfort of our first floor perch for a while. 

Later that evening the sun, who had been conspicuous by her absence for days, finally managed to get a look-in, painting a golden glow on the horizon just before going down.

All that moisture had left a misty morning in its wake, which the sun soon made short shrift of, promising a perfect Summer's day. 

The temperature was on the up from Friday's mediocre 18°C and would climb to a balmy 23°C by the afternoon.

We had plans for that afternoon - the only ones which were set in stone that week - but as we had oodles of time to spare in the morning, we decided to go for a walk in the woods.

I've lost count of the number of times we've been for a walk in the local Helleketelbos, which is about 10 minutes drive from the cottage. However, one way or another, and in spite of the numbered markers and handy map, we always manage to get lost here.

Knowing this, we threw caution to the wind this time and started our walk on a path we'd never taken before. One which wasn't indicated by a marker ...

Although this should have been a recipe for disaster I'm happy to report that we didn't get more lost than usual. We might not have ended up where we thought we would, but we soon came across some of the landmarks we remembered from our previous visits, such as the tiny half-timbered cottage (two collages above, bottom right). And no, I didn't add a photo from one of our UK holidays by mistake (above, top left). 

While walking on one of the main paths, I noticed a flash of bright orange in the undergrowth of the woodland to our right. Thinking it must be some kind of fungus, we decided to investigate and clambered through the thicket of unruly shrubs and thorny bramble stems. Might this be Orange Peel Fungus (Aleuria aurantia), I wonder? 

Later on, we spotted this peach-lookalike specimen on a tree trunk. My search for its name remains fruitless, so I'm hoping one of my knowledgeable readers might be able to help me out. Kezzie, I am looking at you! 

Having arrived home without any further hiccups, we had lunch and then took a little siësta before proceeding to our afternoon destination, which involved a mere couple of minutes's drive from the cottage: the house of local sculptor and ceramist Lucien De Gheus (1927-2013).

The artist was successful in the post-war fifties and sixties, his main oeuvre consisting of sculpture,  ceramic objects and bas-reliefs. The peak of his success was reached at Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, where he won a gold medal for ceramics.

Right from the start the house, which was built by the artist himself, was meant to be a sculptor’s home, with a large and high hall/exposition area, a heatable winter studio and a summer studio with high windows to the north to let in neutral light.  

Lucien and his wife Suzanne moved into the house in August 1962 and stayed there until their deaths. The “Gheuzenhol” (transl. Gheuze's hole), as the artist called his home, exudes his soul in every corner and keeps fascinating visitors to this day. The house is a  sample of all the artistic disciplines he excelled in: stained glass, paintings, glazed floor tiles, ceramic windowsills, furniture and chandeliers.

By will Lucien De Gheus left his house and possessions to the foundation Private Stichting Lucien De Gheus – Druant, in order to open up his artistic legacy to the public. 

He also stipulated that the foundation promoted contemporary art by organizing Summer exhibitions in the Museum House. This year's exhibition was called Fuga's en Pimpelmezen (transl. Fugues and Blue Tits) and I even recognized the work of one of the artists. It's the sculpture two collages above, bottom right, and it's by Sharon Van Overmeiren (b. 1985), whose work I'd admired at Middelheim.

We absolutely loved the juxtaposition of the various works of art with the paraphernalia of daily life as lived by Lucien and Suzanne, who was his muse.

Also, I could have moved lock, stock and barrel into this wonderfully spacious 1960s house.

It's simply mind-boggling that, in spite of having holidayed in the area for so many years, this was our very first visit to this fascinating museum. But it definitely won't be our last!

So, that was it, our September getaway all wrapped up. Finally!

Before returning to the here and now, I'll be taking another couple of trips in the time machine. I hope you'll join me for the ride.

See you soon!