Can you believe we are in August already? I certainly can't, particularly since I'm feeling that the month of July has largely passed me by. The reason for this will soon become clear, but as my blog's feet are still firmly planted in the final week of June, let's make a start with that, shall we.
It was Wednesday the 25th of June, and I'd woken up with a whopper of a headache. I'd also been suffering from recurring bouts of unexplained toothache for a while, which I initially put down to the dentist's rigorous cleaning of my super sensitive teeth a couple of weeks earlier. As this has happened to me before, I wasn't unduly worried at first. However, when the pain seemed to be getting worse, I'd called the practice to make an appointment, only to be told that the first available slot was on the 1st of August. Unfortunately, my dentist, who is semi-retired and has closed her private practice a couple of years ago, is now only working at a group practice one and a half days a week, so that there's always a bit of a wait. It's no use trying anywhere else, as it's nigh on impossible to find a dentist who is prepared to accept new patients.
So, the only thing left to do was taking painkillers when necessary and making the most of the pain-free periods, which were still quite plentiful at that time. Sometimes whole strings of days went by without any sign of pain at all!
However, that Wednesday wasn't such a day and as this was supposed to be my week of leisure I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. Most of the morning was spent lying on the sofa in my dressing gown, but at least I was in good company!
Both headache and toothache had taken a backseat by late morning, so that I could finally indulge in one of my favourite pastimes: picking my outfit for the day.
I'd earmarked one of the skirts I'd charity shopped the other day for its first outing. And what a joy it was to wear, having a high Swoosh Factor, as Sheila would say.
Rooting in my shelves of tops, I happened upon this orange and blue leaf-patterned one, a charity shop find back in 2022, which tied in with the skirt's colours perfectly.
The blue and orange theme set, I selected an orange stretchy belt with a massive enamelled buckle - last year's high street sales bargain - and a charity shopped necklace featuring chunky blue stones. Although both are barely visible in the photos, I was also wearing a blue plastic ring and navy sandals, both of which had their origins on the high street. Looking at the photos, it now dawns on me that I wasn't wearing a brooch!
We spent the afternoon running some errands and nipping into the charity shop in Mechelen for a quick rummage. Here, I found a teal cherry patterned King Louie maxi dress and a belt which matches the cherries almost exactly. Again, it was the unusual buckle which cinched the deal.
Thursday was a pain-free day, with a drop in temperature from Wednesday's high twenties to a much more bearable 23°C. The day's mix of sunshine and clouds was accompanied by a welcome breeze, which managed to cool things down considerably in Dove Cottage's stifling upstairs rooms.
This enabled me to make a start with the flea market preparations, tackling the bags of clothes I'd put aside over the past year, assessing them for their saleability and pricing them. There were still a couple of boxes of unsold items left from last year, so that surveying the heap of clothes I'd labelled, I was starting to wonder how I'd fit it all on my one and only clothing rack ...
The afternoon was spent going for a long overdue walk in our beloved Middelheim as, shamefully, we hadn't been there since April!
We left our car in the large car park catering for Middelheim as well as its neighbouring parks and entered the Human Nature zone of the park.
Once inside, one's eye is instantly drawn to the striking group of fountain sculptures taking pride of place in the formal Hortiflora garden (above, bottom left and top right and below, top left and bottom right). The sculptures' collective name is Adrift (2023) and are a creation of the French artist Camille Henrot (°1978), who had a solo exhibition here in the summer of 2022.
Henry Moore's King and Queen (1952) is a favourite, which I can't help catching on camera whenever we're here.
Henry Moore often combined forms from nature with the human figure—in this case, bony structures and royal heads. Moore felt his sculptures were best viewed in natural settings, such as Middelheim Museum.
I was wearing a fuchsia crinkly cotton tiered skirt I found at Think Twice back in March. The retro style top with its naive flower print is by Zoë Loveborn and was a high street buy many years ago. My blush pink stretchy belt was a recent fast fashion buy, which has already earned its stripes in the meantime.
My necklace, which is vintage and came from a Welsh antiques centre, picks up the pops of orange in the top's print, while my brooch - yet another high street find - echoes the pink of the flowers almost exactly.
We paused for outfit photos in Het Huis (transl. The House), a half- open pavillion designed for temporary exhibitions and opened in 2012. For the past couple of years it had been home to Birdcalls by the American artist Louise Lawler, in which, using her own voice, she sounds out the names of twenty-nine well-known artists.
This is what was there instead ...
Shiny polyester sausages form a disturbing scene. A white sausage hangs from a rope, while a black and brown sausage lie cut open on the ground.
This work, which is by the Antwerp based German artist Kati Heck (°1979) is called Dabei sein ist Alles. Dating from 2006, it used to be elsewhere in the park. The polyester sculptures are at once funny and endearing, but they also have something tragic and gruesome about them.
For this new installation in Het Huis, the artist came up with some extras. The photo of the bride standing between two grotesque sculptures is by the Belgian photographer and performance artist Ria Pacquée (°1954) and is called The Girl Who Was Never Asked to Marry.
The apple vending machine (above, top left and bottom right) seemed to be part of the installation as well ...
Further artworks we met that day were:
- Summer Breeze (2020) by Belgian sculptor Peter Rogiers (°1967) - top left
- Bambatha I (2023) by South African visual artist Zanele Muholi (°1972) - top and bottom centre
- Große Badende (Great Bather, 1971) by German sculptor Wieland Förster (°1930) - top right
Friday's weather was almost a carbon copy of Thursday's. Thankfully, it was another day when my head and teeth were on their best behaviour.
The charity shops provided most of the day's outfit, except for the brooch, which was a flea market find, and my favourite and super comfortable tomato red sandals, which were a post-Lockdown sales bargain in the Summer of 2020.
With a heatwave forecasted for the days ahead, I made the most of the moderate temperatures to do some more flea market preparation, making sure I had sufficient clothes hangers and making a start with curating my stash of cast-off jewellery, belts, shoes and bags.
We even drove down to an interior and accessories shop on the outskirts of the nearby town of Lier. Here, our mission, to find a second clothing rack for our flea market stall, was completed successfully.
The temperature was already on the up on Saturday the 28th of June, with the mercury climbing to 29°C.
The day was spent pottering and watering the plants in their pots and baskets, followed by a longish siesta after lunch.
The giraffe print skirt I'd scored earlier that week came out to play, as did one of the belts I'd found on the same day.
My label-less t-shirt top was a charity shop find too, having joined my wardrobe when I fell head over heels with its Art Deco-style print in December 2022.
To keep the giraffe in my skirt company, I pinned a vintage leopard brooch - picked up from the indoor flea market in November 2019 - to my top. The funky necklace with its wooden and plastic beads has been in my collection forever, bought from Accessorize when they briefly had a shop in Antwerp back in the mists of time.
And then Sunday, my final day of leisure, arrived, giving us a taste of what was to come by heating things up to 30°C.
It was another day of gentle pottering, reading and napping, as well as mentally preparing myself for my return to work, which I wasn't exactly looking forward to. What with our scuppered plans and my toothache throwing a spanner in the works from time to time, my batteries definitely weren't fully recharged.
Trying to stay as cool as possible was the order of the day, so I dug out this plunge-necked chevron striped summer dress by the defunct Belgian Who's That Girl label. Like most of the items I own by this label, it was acquired via a charity shop.
I'll be making a start with what I've been doing - and most importantly what I've been wearing - in July in my next post, but for now, let me put your minds at rest.
After my toothache got really bad in the second half of July, it was clear that waiting for my 1st of August appointment would be out of the question. Thankfully, the practice had had a cancellation, so that I was able to see my dentist on the 22nd July. It took an X-Ray of my upper right teeth to find the culprit, which, as it wasn't salvageable, was duly removed. I'm happy to report that all is well and I have been pain-free ever since!
And on that note, I bid you goodbye for now. Hope to see you soon!
