It's just a question of time

Time keeps on ticking so that we now find ourselves halfway through August and in the middle of yet another heatwave. 

But time and tide wait for no man - or woman in my case - and seeing that my blog keeps running behind the times, having only just made it to July's halfway point, I've given up all hope of catching up by the time our September holiday rolls along. 

Oh dear! I haven't intentionally set out to use the word time(s) so many times, but there you have it. Time to get this thing started, methinks!

Knowing from experience how exhausting running a flea market stall - even one right outside one's front door - can be, I'd taken the day off on Monday the 14th of July.

The day, which brought a mix of clouds and sunny spells, and treated us to highs of 26°C, was fairly humid, so that putting away all our unsold stuff as well as our other flea market stall paraphernalia, turned out to be quite a sweaty affair.

I was wearing a dress I'd picked up from an outdoor flea market many July's ago. It wears like a dream, but while I love its leafy navy and orangey-red pattern, its vintage buttons and the fact that it even has pockets, it hadn't made it out of my wardrobe for years. 

I picked up all of the dress's colours with my accessories, which included a red charity shopped wooden beaded necklace, a white vintage flower brooch and my late Mum's navy belt with white plastic buckle. My navy sandals were bought in the closing down sale of a Belgian chain of shoe shops last Summer.

While we managed to restore order to Dove Cottage, I've got to admit that we still haven't disassembled the new clothing rack, which is still taking up a corner of our dining room as we speak. We even put it to work as extra wardrobe space for Summer jackets ...

After having skipped two working days, I wasn't exactly looking forward to my return to work on Tuesday, and indeed it took me most of the morning to get back on track. 

With the temperature down to a moderate 23°C, I was wearing another dress I've had for absolutely ages but hadn't worn in the longest time. Yet another Think Twice find, it's from a Finnish brand called Muoti-Hovi, and has a floral print featuring coral, brown and green on a background of the palest of yellows.

I echoed the tiny pops of green in its pattern with my accessories: a plastic beaded necklace and a gold-rimmed flower brooch, both of which were charity shop finds. As were my olive green shoes.

After a morning of slog, I was ready for a lunch break rummage at Think Twice, who were once again having one of their famous sales. Prices were down to € 5 (or less for accessories) that day, and I went home with a vintage sleeveless cotton frock in shades of green and orange, a flower-sprinkled silk blend skirt - I've added a close-up the better for you to see its pattern - and a pleated leather belt in orange, blue and yellow.

With my toothache - which had taken a backseat for a couple of days - making a return on Wednesday and clearly getting worse, it wasn't until my Friday off that I was in the mood for posing for outfit photos.

I had been able to make an appointment with my GP on Thursday, who'd given me a new prescription for the pills I've been taking on and off for my anxiety issues. She'd advised me to take half a tablet together with my usual painkillers, which helped getting the pain somewhat at bay but made me feel like a zombie.

The temperature was on the up again, the mercury climbing to 28°C, so it was cotton and more cotton to the rescue. And birds, as both my skirt - from Fever London, charity shopped during my week of leisure - and my blouse were featuring birds in their prints.

My necklace of chunky blue stones, blue plastic ring and green butterfly brooch completed my outfit. Oh, and my beloved tomato red sandals, which I don't think need any further introduction.

Courtesy of Monday the 21st of July, which is Belgium's National Holiday - our country turning 195 old this year, as she was established as an independent nation in 1830 - I had an extra long weekend to look forward to. 

If only I wasn't being plagued by that pesky tooth ...  I'd called the dental surgery on Friday for advice, but it turned out that they were taking an extra day off as well. There was nothing for it but to grin and bear it and make the most of those rare pain-free moments.

Both the skirt and the top I was wearing on Saturday were bought on the high street. I'd fallen in love with the diagonally striped black and white maxi skirt at C&A during one lunch break back in Spring, while the pale blue top with its butterfly sleeves and white crochet trim was a sales bargain from H&M earlier that week. 

I added black and white bling and a delightful brooch featuring a trio of cats I found in a Shrewsbury charity shop last year. My black Clarks sandals - without a doubt my most comfortable pair - came from Shropshire as well, bought in the sales in June 2018.

In spite of the day's highs of 30°C, it was gloomy and overcast all day, with some light rain in the afternoon accompanied by the rumbling of far-away thunder.

We decided on a trip to the charity shop after lunch, adding retail therapy to the mix of medicines for my toothache. 

I'd only just walked into the shop, when I spotted this yellow vinyl suitcase with purple airplane appliqué. It had one or two minor damages and was in need of a good clean and some TLC, but it was mine for € 2. It's not vintage but from a contemporary French label called Bakker Made With Love, and I've seen similar on Etsy Etc. for the likes of € 35.

The clothing rails came up trumps with a sleeveless goldfish patterned dress by Flair goes Retro (Flair being a Flemish women's magazine), a stripy navy and orange label-less sundress and ditto midi skirt with a fabulous Art Deco style pattern.

Oh, and I found this small faux snake cross-body bag as well. 

Sunday was a day of lazing around not doing very much at all. My journal tells me I cleaned up the yellow suitcase and wrote and published a blog post. 

It rained on and off throughout the day, and our only outing was into the passageway to photograph my outfit. At 25°C it was still warm enough for a summery outfit, which featured some old inhabitants of my wardrobe, both of which were long overdue an outing.

I'm not sure about the orange cap-sleeved top with its sprinkling of black and white dots, but if I'm not mistaken I last wore the skirt back in June 2021. 

Again, there's a tiny bit of green in the skirt's pattern, which I made use of for my accessories, choosing a recently charity shopped necklace by the Belgian Les Cordes label, and a modern-day rose brooch bought from a small independent shop near my office.

With its mix of dark clouds and showers, Monday initially didn't invite us to partake in any outdoor activities. Having been slobs for the last couple of weeks, we caught up with some housework in the morning. However, when the sun decided to make an appearance in the afternoon, we wasted no time and drove down to Hof ter Linden in the neighbouring village of Edegem.

We circumnavigated the estate's lake, followed the path around the moat, where the sun was dappling the water with hypnotizing sparkles, then walked into the woods and through an avenue of trees.

We laughed at Jos's weather app, throwing caution to the wind as it kept saying rain was imminent. Then, just as we were taking a breather on a bench, the sky started darkening and it didn't take long until the first drops of rain started to fall. Not carrying umbrellas, and with Jos fearful of ruining his best Panama hat, we tried to walk under the trees as much as we could, at one point taking refuge under a huge old tree while the rain was spitting bubbles into the water of the moat.

Eventually, the rain paused just long enough to make it back to our car. I could tell those sphinxes were none too pleased!

With another 4-day weekend behind us, it was back to the office on Tuesday the 22nd of July. Thankfully, work had been slow during my absence, particularly as, with my colleague on holiday, I was completely on my own.

My first task of the day, however, was calling the dental surgery again. After explaining my ordeal, it was nothing short of a relief to be told they'd just had a cancellation and they could book me in at 4.30 that very same day. 

To cut a long story short, my dentist soon found the root of the problem - which in this case you can take quite literally - and as the tooth was beyond saving, it was swiftly removed.

I'm sure you'll be as relieved as I am that I've been free of pain ever since!

I'll be back with another July catch-up, which includes a trip abroad, in my next post! See you soon!