Nothing but grey skies

Apologies to all of you who have been leaving comments on my posts these last couple of months. Ever since Jos started having health problems back in September, there seem to be fewer hours in my days, so that replying to them has been falling by the wayside. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get back into my stride. I'm just hoping that once Jos has recovered from his op (which is scheduled for 28 February, by the way), things will get back to normal. 

As we are in desperate need of a change of scenery, we have thrown caution to the wind and have booked a couple of nights at our favourite B&B in Beernem near Bruges in February. And we might even have booked a cottage for our annual UK holiday in June ...

If the latter still seems like a long way off at the time of writing, I won't be fooled as time has a tendency to fly whether one's having fun or not. 

For the sake of this blog's continuity, however, I'm taking you back to 2024's final days as, try as I might, I hadn't finished telling you about them yet.

On Sunday the 29th of December it soon became clear that Saturday's sunny outlook had just been a blip, the weather having reverted to its former gloomy and mizzly state, with highs barely above freezing point.

It was far too cold to make outfit photos in the passageway and, with barely a smidgen of daylight making it through our kitchen window, we had to make use of our daylight lamp to show you what I was wearing. Pardon the ghost-like appearance of yours truly :-)

My black floral Diolen balloon-sleeved dress was a Think Twice sales bargain back in August, while I picked up the caramel short-sleeved cardigan during our Boxing Day rummage at the charity shop. Both the necklace and chunky flower brooch were old charity shop finds.

Bored with spending my time reading and occasionally napping on the sofa, I decided that now was the time to head upstairs for some long-overdue dusting and sweeping. In fact, whole generations of dust bunnies had been reared in our upstairs rooms since they'd last been properly cleaned.

The ladies on the spare room mantelpiece were duly relieved from their gossamer veil of dust as were the myriad of objects and heirlooms which reside on every available surface in our bedroom. Keeping everything squeaky clean all the time is verging on the impossible but as I'll never be a minimalist that's something I've learned to live with.  

We didn't venture outside all day, except for a short walk to our neighbours across the street to feed their cats Bob and Billie while they were off to New York for a week.

Monday's weather was a carbon copy of Sunday's. What's more, as those who are supposedly in the know had us believe, the weather gods' offerings of infinite shades of grey would be repeated as December segued into January.

I'd woken up with a blocked left ear and a niggling headache which simply refused to budge so, apart from accompanying Jos on the year's final supermarket run, the sofa is where I spent most of the day.

It was late afternoon when I finally got my act together as we were invited by our friends Inneke and Maurice to have a rummage at their deceased neighbour's flat which they are helping to clear. It felt a bit awkward going through this late lady's cupboards and wardrobes, but I was reassured by Inneke that she would have loved it that her things were going to such a loving new home.

With Dove Cottage already bursting at its seams, we did have to leave behind any bigger items, picking up some smaller odds and ends instead. These included a couple of tote bags, some hand-embroidered napkins, a pink denim jacket and yet more belts.

I couldn't leave behind this twosome of owls, who are now enjoying the company of the Tiffany-style owl lamp which was a gift from Jos's daughter An last year.

The walnut chocolate mould (above, top right) has joined our kitchenalia collection and we are now the proud owners of a fancy new coffee machine (above, bottom left).

These new additions to our kitchen prompted another cleaning session on Tuesday the 31st. I've got to strike the iron while it's hot, as I never know when the mood for this level of domesticity will next take me. And speaking of ironing, I did indulge in some of that seldom seen activity too! Get me!

This is what I was wearing! Both the skirt and the jumper were bought on the high street. While the rust coloured faux-suede paperbag waist skirt was a sales bargain, bought at 70% off in January 2022, the green poloneck is an old wardrobe stalwart having resided there for at least 15 years.

The indisputable star of my outfit is the tooled leather cowboy belt. It's the genuine article and must have been picked up by Inneke and Maurice's neighbour on her travels. 

The Edelweiss hiking souvenir brooch I pinned to my poloneck was a flea market find in February 2024 and the orange and brown hued wooden beaded necklace was charity shopped.

In order to keep cabin fever at bay we decided to drive down to the small charity shop in the neighbouring village of Reet after lunch. The shop's stock can be rather hit or miss and we were fully expecting the latter, so imagine our delight when it turned out there was quite a bit of treasure to be found this time around.

Apart from a Mango jumper (which you'll get to see me wearing in a minute) there was a pair of floral denim trousers, a dress by posh label Essentiel Antwerp and a cushion printed with Vizzini (Sheila's lovely boy) lookalikes. For some reason, Bess initially wasn't a fan as she was clearly freaked out by it.

I also ended up buying this magnificent red wool dress. Trimmed with faux fur at the cuffs and neck and with braided frog buttons decorating its bodice, I though it was fit for a Russian princess. Not for this particular princes though as, while it fit me perfect in the waist and effortlessly skimmed my hips, it was just a bit too narrow on top. Although I wasn't able to try it on in the shop, I'm generally quite good at guessing my size. Obviously not this time, so I'm letting Angelica do the honours. I even generously lend her my muff which doubles as a handbag!

Wednesday the 1st of January was a complete write-off. Although the mercury had climbed to 9°C by now, the day was even more miserable than those barely above freezing point ones courtesy of a nasty gale-force wind. As if that wasn't bad enough, I was feeling a bit maudlin and wasn't at all looking forward to my return to work the next day. And wasn't it just typical that this turned out to be a sunny one? I bet the weather gods must have been laughing behind my back! 

After the shortest working week ever of just one day we've arrived at Friday the 3rd of January, and the final day covered by this post. A frosty but sunny day, with highs of 2°C, it offered the perfect opportunity to wear that Mango jumper I'd charity shopped on Tuesday.

Biscuit and cream might not be my go-to colours, but add a generous helping of custard and suddenly it's very me indeed. As its companion, I picked a vintage chevron patterned knit skirt in shades of biscuit and chocolate. More custard was added with my fleece-lined opaques - a gift from lovely Kezzie - and charity shopped woolly hat.

The belt by Massimo Dutti and the orange beaded necklace were charity shopped as well, while the brooch was picked up from Think Twice a couple of months ago.

Clouds had gathered by the time we'd had lunch but there were still enough patches of blue sky to tempt us outside for a walk.  For a change of scenery, we opted for the park in the nearby town of Boom [boːm], which apparently we hadn't visited since early October. 

As our last visit was just days before everything went truly pear shaped, bad memories needed to be chased away, so that we entered the park with some trepidation. We needed have worried though, as any lingering negative vibes appeared to have been swept up and buried beneath a deep pile carpet of Autumn leaves. 

Still, instead of circling the ponds as we usually do, we headed to the park's tapering town-side end. 

Here, a modernist water garden punctuated with several bronze sculptures by well-known Flemish artists was laid out in 1931.

The building with the Art-Deco tower beyond belongs to Jos's alma mater and was built at approximately the same time.

The most prominent of the sculptures is Solidarity (above) by the Belgian sculptor, draughtsman and graphic designer George Minne (1866-1941), famous for his idealized depictions of man's inner spiritual conflicts. 

With the remaining sunshine on the wane, the temperature was soon making its way below freezing point. As the cold was numbing our faces and making our eyes water, we decided to call it a day and make our way back to where we'd left our car.

Waffles and hot chocolates were waiting for us at home!