The bounty of Spring

The gorgeous weather we were treated to in the run-up to the official start of Spring continued on Thursday the 20th of March, with highs of around 20°C.

As I'd planned another lunch time outing to explore the delights the city of Antwerp has to offer, I'd taken my camera into work again. 

The destination I had in mind would involve another tram ride. However, arriving at the tram stop opposite my office building, it turned out it was running late, which meant I wouldn't be able to make it there and back within my 45 minute lunch break.

 

Time for a plan B, which was walking the length of the Meir, Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfare, which is quite literally around the corner from the office. Not for a spot of shopping, mind you! I was intent on keeping my eyes peeled for the splendour which is to be found well above the generally uninspiring and generic shop fronts.

But let's have a look at what I was wearing first. 

My red skirt, with its blowsy indigo and white flower pattern, is vintage, and was picked up for a song at Think Twice in March 2023. 

Its companion for the day was a funky Western style blouse from the defunct Belgian Who's That Girl label. It was part of a haul from an Outlet shop in the Autumn of 2022.

Brooch: vintage, flea market find.

Belt: fast fashion turned slow by having become a wardrobe staple eons ago.

The midday sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky of the purest azure blue. The canvas of blue offered a striking contrast with the white tower cranes on the building site where the Meir almost seamlessly segues with the Leysstraat with its opulent 19th Century buildings.

The cranes, which look like mighty giants, are marring Sir Anthony van Dyck's view towards the object of his desire. And no, it's not the rather demure lady on the top left!

It is obvious that he only has eyes for the mesmerizing Electra! Gilded, winged and holding aloft a lightning bolt in each hand, she is taking pride of place on top of the neck-shaped gable gracing a monumental department store built in neo-Flemish renaissance style in 1901. 

I can't really blame him as I've got a soft spot for her too! Her creator was the Belgian sculptor Emile Jespers (1862-1918). 

Initially, the shop space was occupied by electricity business Moyson. However, as early as 1910 the property was incorporated into the adjacent Grands Magasins Leonhard Tietz. As Tietz was German, the department store was placed under sequestration after the end of World War I in 1918. In 1920, it was sold by the Belgian state to Les Grands Magasins A l'Innovation, now still going under the name Inno.

Looking at the wealth of eclectic monumental late 19th century architecture which graces both sides of the Leysstraat, it's nothing short of mind-boggling that these were partially threatened with demolition in 1964. Thankfully, in 1971 this unique ensemble of residential and commercial houses was protected  for its architectural value. 

All the photos in the above collage were snapped while I gaped open-mouthed at the variety in construction and decoration, the sumptuous gables in their varying heights, the more austere neoclassical style enlivened by playful neo-Gothic baroque. 

There is, however, an imposter, as the building on the top right is actually on the Meir, and not the Leysstraat. It is the entrance of the famous Stadsfeestzaal, the former City Festival Hall built in 1908. Now an opulent shopping centre, I promise to blog about it some time.

The weather gods amped up the temperature a couple of degrees to a lofty 22°C on Friday the 21st, with the gentlest of breezes carrying the delicate scents of budding Spring in the air.

I was determined not to waste such a beautiful day inside, but again I'm taking you through my outfit first. 

The skirt is another vintage one, wrestled from a shop dummy in our most local charity shop all of six years ago. The King Louie cardigan, which I'm wearing here as a lightweight jumper, was recently found at the same shop. 

My accessories were a mix of new and new-to-me, the butterfly brooch and necklace of wooden disks being the former and the ring and belt being the latter. All have been in my wardrobe forever. The necklace in particular, which was bought from Accessorize when many years ago they had a shop around the corner from my office, has made countless appearances on the blog.

As Jos - or more to the point, his bladder - wasn't up to walking for any length of time, and my friend Inez was babysitting her grandchildren that day, there was nothing for it but to go for a solo walk.

Hof ter Linden, in the neighbouring village of Edegem, being easily reached by bus, presented itself as the obvious choice. Nevertheless, Jos insisted on driving me there. 

Walking up the avenue of lime trees leading up to the estate, I was bracing myself for the current view of the castle ....

... which is now finally under restoration!

Although temporarily disfigured by scaffolding, I couldn't have been happier. Hadn't I been lamenting its increasingly crumbling state (see here and here, for example) for many years? I was aware that work had started back in September, but I hadn't seen it with my own eyes yet. If all goes well, the project is scheduled to be finished by  the end of the Summer of 2026, although knowing how these things go I'm not exactly holding my breath.

As they'd finished clearing the sludge from the clogged-up castle pond and moat, and the often muddy footpaths had been given a facelift, doing a circuit around the pond was on the menu once more.

I strolled at leisure, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and rejoicing in the bounty of Spring. A pair of Egyptian goose and their fluffy offspring, who were taking a breather on the grassy edge of the pond, swiftly took to the water upon my approach. 

The circuit finished, an hitherto unexplored path was tempting me into the woods. Across the moat, which ran to my left, I spotted a boardwalk which I'd hoped to be able to take on my return journey, making my walk circular. 

However, with no opportunity of crossing the moat in sight, I had no choice but to turn right, away from the moat and onto the broad tree-lined avenue you can see on the top left in the below collage. Another right turn at the end of this eventually brought me back to the pond I'd circuited earlier. 

Still, it was worth the diversion as I stumbled upon this magical, otherworldly pond which suddenly appeared like a mirage in the woods.

Birdsong accompanied me back to the castle, although the peace and quiet was soon interrupted by a group of schoolchildren and their teachers who had invaded the grassy field near the castle for an afternoon of games.

While waiting for Jos to pick me up again - he insisted! - I milled around the courtyard in front of the castle. 

Obviously, I couldn't leave without having a chat with those haughty sphinxes and docile lions!

Down memory lane

Friday the 14th of March got off to a frosty start and a bitterly cold northeast wind halted the mercury in its track at barely 6°C.

It was the day of my postponed hairdresser's appointment and by now my hair was sorely in need for its long overdue colour and cut. As I would have needed to take both a bus and a a tram to get to Antwerp, which would have taken forever, Jos took pity on me and drove me to the nearby town of Mortsel which offers the relative luxury of two tram options. I hopped onto tram 7, which was the first to come along and the most straightforward, with a stop just around the corner from the salon. 

This was what I was wearing to combat the day's chill factor. Again the outfit is brought to you by Angelica as by the time my two-hour session at the salon had finished and I'd finally made it home again, I had lost the will to live. Or at least to make the effort of taking outfit photos!

The caramel button-through cord skirt was an irresistible retail buy back in October 2021, while the striped jumper, originally from New Look, followed me home from a charity shop one day.

Black and white was the theme for my accessories, which included one of my stretchy belts found on the high street, a carved ceramic heart brooch from a craft shop in Cardigan, and a charity shopped string of black and white ceramic beads. 

I was early for my 11.30 appointment, so I made a little detour by meandering along a couple of side streets. Once upon a time these were as familiar as the back of my hand, as they lead to the old punk haunts we frequented on Friday and Saturday nights in the late 1970s.

I must have walked past these Neoclassical entrance gates, giving access to Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts, countless of times back in the day, peering through its railings at the garden with its atmospheric 16th and 17th century former monastery buildings.

Founded in 1663 by the painter David Teniers the Younger, the Antwerp Academy was one of the first art schools in the world. Over the centuries the academy with its historic campus has become an established name in the international art world. It is also the home of the world-renowned Antwerp Fashion Academy, which was founded in 1963.

It took until well into the 1980s for me to step through its gates, when first a boyfriend and then my sister were students here for a year, reading photography and architecture respectively.

The intermittent sunny spells accompanied by a wind chill which turned the air frigid continued through the weekend. 

For a day of running an errand followed by a spot of pottering on Saturday, my forest green suedette skirt from Mango came out to play again, making it officially my most-worn Winter skirt. This time around, its main companion was a funky green and tan shirt by the Danish InWear label, charity shopped almost exactly a year ago.

Accessories were a vintage caramel beaded necklace and big green bird on a branch brooch, both supplied by the charity shop goddesses, and a stretchy belt with a leopard print buckle picked up from the high street.

On Sunday, for a day of household chores, catching up with blogland and joining Bess on the sofa with my latest read, I wore a long-sleeved Trevira fit and flare dress found at Think Twice in September 2023.

There's a tiny bit of green in its pattern, which I picked up with my accessories.

Both my brooch and beaded necklace came from the indoor flea market - which for obvious reasons we'e been giving a miss so far this season - while the elasticated belt with its gold-tone lion's head buckle was a charity shop find.

We were treated to some gorgeous Spring weather half-way through the working week that followed, with temperatures nudging 20°C on Wednesday the 19th.

As variety is the spice of life, I decided to seek out pastures new during my lunch break and took the tram to Het Zuid, Antwerp's fashionable south district. After several decades of decline, the area has seen a revival since the mid 1980s and is now one of the most trendy neighbourhoods in the city.

30-odd years ago, in what feels like another lifetime, I used to live around the corner from this impressive Neoclassical building.

This is the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), which showcases seven centuries of top art, ranging from the Flemish Primitives to modern masters, with prominent roles for Peter Paul Rubens and James Ensor. 

In 1877, Antwerp City Council held a competition to design a new museum, but none of the entries was entirely convincing. The city eventually invited the young architects Jean Jacques Winders (1849-1936) and Frans Van Dijk (1853-1939) to combine their respective designs in a single plan. 

They took everything into account, from a sense of grandeur to functionality and security. After six years of construction work, the new museum was opened to the public on 11 August 1890.

In 1905, the pair of chariots designed by sculptor Thomas Vinçotte (1850–1925), with a team of two horses and a charioteer apiece, were hoisted to the roof by a dozen men. They were intended to symbolize the triumph of art and have been the emblem of the museum ever since they were installed.

Behind the museum, and even closer to where I lived, is this stunning Art Nouveau house. Affectionately known as Het Bootje (transl. the little boat) because of its corner balcony shaped like a ship’s prow, it was built in 1901 for an Antwerp ship builder called P. Roeis. It was designed by Frans Smet-Verhas (1851-1925), who was one of the leading Art Nouveau architects in Antwerp. 

My trip down memory lane took on a bittersweet taste when I rounded the corner of the street I used to live on for nearly ten years, from 1985 until 1994. My heart made a little uncomfortable jolt when faced with my former home on the first floor of the white-painted house in the below collage. The windows and the railings of the tiny balcony were painted white back then, and the façade had clearly received an upgrade from its peeling late eighties, early nineties incarnation. 

Alhough I was reasonably contented during the first handful of years I lived here, they were heady times, and it took me a rather wasteful amount of time to admit to my insecurity and that I wasn't really happy in my own skin.

I took my time returning to the office on foot, basking in the glorious early Spring sunshine and slightly sweating in the coat I'd still been in need of when I left home that morning. Thankfully I'd had the presence of mind to remove my cardigan before setting forth from the office.

On the top right, you can see part of the large monument called Schelde Vrij (transl. Free Scheldt) which was inaugurated in 1873 to commemorate the settlement with the Netherlands that allowed for the free passage of ships to Antwerp, which was vital for the city’s maritime commerce. Standing triumphantly at the top is Neptune, god of the sea, holding a trident in his right hand, and popularly known as Jef Ferket, the latter being Antwerp slang for the Flemish word vork (which obviously means fork).

My outfit that day consisted of a vintage skirt, which is one of my oldest in terms of ownership. You can see a close-up of its textured fabric, with its touches of red, green,white and black, in the below collage. 

The white blouse with its profusion of different sized blue and red dots, is from the defunct Belgian Wow To Go label and came to me by way of a charity shop.

The red chunky knit cardigan is King Louie and was bought from an outlet shop in Poperinge in Belgium's west country back in the mists of time. To its lapel I pinned a vintage daisy brooch found on a flea market. If I remember correctly, it came from the Brooch Lady's vast collection.

Finally, both the blue stone necklace and the red plastic butterfly brooch were charity shop finds.

So, that's it for now. Would the gorgeous Spring weather continue in the run-up to the weekend? You'll read all about it in my next post, which I'm hoping to cobble together very soon.

At the gates of Spring

 Hello dear friends and readers! Thank you for joining me again for this month's final post!

Long-time readers might have noticed that my blogging frequency has taken a bit of a dive in the last six months or so, and lately I only seem to manage to virtually put pen to paper once a week. It truly beggars belief that in a not all too distant past I was churning out a new blog post every 4 days, but then again I was never short of blog-worthy subject matter. 

Lately, however, our weekend walks have been become a rarity, as have any trips to the charity shops and, believe it or not, even my lunch break rummages at Think Twice have lost some of their appeal.

Four weeks after Jos's surgery, however, a pinprick of light is appearing at the end of the tunnel as he is feeling better and stronger every day. Now we're just waiting for his bladder to receive its final wake-up call. The latter having become a bit of a lazybones after more than four months of being ruled by a catheter, any outings have to be planned meticulously and need to be kept as short as possible for the time being. But we're making progress, so hopefully it won't be all that long until some kind of normal service is resumed.

In the meantime, I'm glad to have my photographer back, so that I can at least show you some of my outfits without having to rely on Angelica or having to cobble together a flatlay.

The episode of so-called False Spring continued in the days after Jos was discharged from hospital. Nevertheless, apart from a couple of walks into town to run errands, it seemed to have completely passed me by. I was running on empty by now and any time not spent catching up on chores was spent lolling around on the sofa, trying to read but more often than not falling asleep mid-sentence and in the middle of the day.

I was feeling more energetic on Sunday, when we stepped outside into the passageway for outfit photos.

The skirt is vintage Diolen and an ancient Think Twice find. Not for the first time did I combine it with my funky Zoë Loveborn blouse, found on a flea market in October 2016. 

Both the red and white marled gilet and the burgundy ankle boots were charity shopped, albeit with many a year between them. The yellow cat brooch came from Katshop - a local Antwerp shop catering for both cats and their servants - while the stretchy belt with its flower-shaped buckle was recently picked up from a bargain shop during one of my lunch breaks.

We were running out of provisions, so I walked to the nearest supermarkt, which is just under a kilometer from Dove Cottage.  Jos was more than willing to drive me there - I haven't got a licence - but I was in need of some fresh air and a Vitamin D top-up so I declined his offer.

Although not quite a Wordsworth-worthy host, the cheerful faces of some orange-trumpeted daffodils in a neighbour's front garden made my heart sing.

As did the sight of the first of the wood anemones, those starry harbingers of Spring, in the park I passed along the way. Not quite a galaxy of them, but it was early days yet. They had multiplied considerably when we returned a couple of weeks later.

I was intrigued by the pink painted words Piep Show, which I'm sure doesn't need translating, on the paving in front of the little pavilion. Indeed, I spotted three tiny peepholes in the pavilion's frosted glass door, which I wasted no time in peering through. I even tried to photograph what was inside, which was easier said than done using my mobile phone's camera. 

What is it all about, you might wonder. Well, these are works of art created by the students of our local art academy, and they are changed on a weekly basis.  The students were inspired by the themes of lust, seduction and desire after their visit to the "Les Liaisons Désireuses" exposition in Ursel castle back in October. 

It was back to the office on Monday 10 March: another sunny and almost summery day on which we noted highs of nearly 20°C. I hadn't slept well and was feeling tired and suffering from brain fog and sore eyes all day, which wasn't helped by the fact that work was hectic. By mid-afternoon I could barely keep my eyes open, so that I left and took an early bus home.

Work continued to be hectic on Tuesday, but at least I'd slept well and felt much better. The weather gods, however, were in one of their moods and gleefully turned down the thermostat to a mere 8°C. What a letdown for the books!

Here's Angelica showing you what I wore that day. In order to accommodate the drop in temperature, this catching brown and beige dress came out to play. Bought from a long-gone vintage shop in Antwerp, its label proclaims its fabric is Crimplene, although there's 20% wool into the mix as well. Instead of green, which seems to be my go-to colour whenever I'm wearing this dress, I opted for shades of purple, with some pink and orange thrown in.

Due to a public transport strike, I was obliged to take the day off on Wednesday. Not that I was complaining, mind you. 

The green button through cord skirt, whose colour doesn't photograph well, was bought from an outlet shop near my office back in Autumn. Just like I was on its first outing in December, I wasn't entirely happy with how it looked on me, so it's off to Limbo as Sheila would say. 

The cobalt blue vintage blouse with its naive flower print isn't going anywhere, though, as it's one of my favourites. I picked up the orange from its print with my necklace and belt while as a nod to the skirt I added a green-backed cameo brooch.

With a sky full of angry-looking black clouds threatening rain at a moment's notice, the weather wasn't conductive to being outdoors. But I was feeling jittery and in need of a rummage so Jos drove me to the edge of town charity shop and picked me up again after I was done.

The oatmeal polka dot circle skirt - with pockets! - and the red, blue and white checked blouse provided an instant outfit for Angelica to wear. The belt is one of the stretchy zig-zag patterned ones from my collection.

My jewellery display was groaning at the sight of two more necklaces to contend with, but I didn't show it any mercy.

The bookshelves were a tad disappointing, but still yielded a Maeve Binchy one I hadn't yet read. In need of an easy read, I've just finished it and it definitely lived up to expectations.

I've left my star buy for last! I almost passed out when I laid eyes upon this pair of orange and yellow patchwork boots by one of my favourite brands, Tamaris, and I squealed in delight when they turned out to be my size!

The rest of the day was spent with some gentle pottering and watching some daytime television. 

Tipped off by my friend Inneke, I'd recorded Zaman, a 1983 Belgian crime movie, which had been on one of the Flemish commercial channels in the week Jos was hospitalized. 

If you're wondering what's so special about it, well, yours truly appears in it for one second at around 0.14 in the clip. Blink and you've missed me! Tip: I was 42 years younger and a punk with big black hair!

 

I hope you've all recovered from the shock that yours truly is actually a film star :-)

Before I bid you goodbye for now, here's that week's final outfit, again brought to you by Angelica.

Another vintage dress found at Think Twice, it's been a regular on my blog for years. I ignored all the colours in its mix of abstract stripes on an burgundy background, and rebelliously opted for turquoise for my belt, necklace and brooch, the latter containing a bouquet of roses.

I'll be back with more outfits, and perhaps even an outing, in my next post. Hope to see you soon!

Life in Limbo

What with life keeping throwing us curveballs lately, it nearly escaped my attention that the month of March held a thing or two worth celebrating. And no, I'm not talking about the fact that Spring has finally sprung!

For the first one, we have to go back to the 4th of March 2021, which was the day that Bess entered our lives. She would soon prove herself to be a more than worthy successor to Phoebe, who'd unexpectedly passed away one month earlier, but how tiny and timid she was when she first came to Dove Cottage! She's definitely come along in leaps and bounds in those four years she's been ruling the roost here!

We have to go back even further, to the 5th of March 2016, for the month's second anniversary. It was on this day that I published my very first blog post, all of nine year ago. Aptly named To begin at the beginning - the title borrowed from Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood - it was a brief introduction and contained the explanation of my blog's name. There were no photos of yours truly;  these swiftly followed in my second post a couple of days later. I've still got that first dress although I haven't worn it in a long time. 

I'm pretty sure that the dress I'm wearing today - or rather, one month ago, on the 23rd of February - wasn't part of my wardrobe back then, but it's definitely not its first appearance on my blog.

Found at Think Twice eons ago, I was swayed by its grey and white wallpaper print brightened with splashes of fuchsia and turquoise at its collar, cuffs and hem. 

I chose a pair of dove grey opaques and picked up the pops of turquoise with my accessories - the brooch was part of a haul from an antiques shop in Carmarthen in June 2017 - and cardigan. To the latter, I added a two-tone grey swallow brooch, a vintage find from the indoor flea market back in the mists of time.

With the dark cloud of Jos's surgery looming on the horizon, adequate distractions were few and far between. But nature is a great soother and healer of troubled minds and, with oodles of sunshine and temperatures easily reaching the low double digits, it would have been foolish to mope around inside.

The small but perfectly formed park near the charity shop in Duffel, a mere 15 minutes from Dove Cottage by car, was our destination of choice.

There's a number of paths to choose from but our initial choice, which was the one circumnavigating the biggest of the ponds, turned out to be too squelchy and muddy so that we soon had to head back.

It might have been only February, its feet still firmly planted in Winter, but there was a definite hint of Spring in the air. At first sight, most of the trees were still stark and bare with only the faintest whisper of green, but there were a handful of shrubs which were gleefully showing off their  yellow blossoms against the bright blue of the sky.

The brutalist fountain, devoid of the mossy green hairdo it had sported for years, was still hibernating and dreaming of the day when its gurgling jets of water will once again ripple the pond.

Optimistically, I'd left the house bareheaded and I'd exchanged my heavy Winter coat for my ancient cream, pale blue and brown plaid one. Charity shopped years before my blog was even a glimmer of thought, it has by now seen better days, but I'll be wearing it until it actually falls apart at the seams. My frilly turquoise scarf - also charity shopped - was worn in lieu of the chunky woollen ones I've been wearing these last couple of months. 

The two weeks that followed - February's last and March's first - aren't ones we will forget in a hurry, although I'm sure their rough edges will be smoothed out over time.

Strangely enough, work was a distraction for me, although there was no such thing for Jos, whose upcoming surgery was completely occupying his mind. It took all our combined willpower to get through the days until that fateful Friday arrived.

That day was a waiting game for me and I was thankful for the company of my friend Inez and my latest read, which I kept dipping into to read a chapter until my nerves once again got the better of me.

Wasn't it just our luck that Jos's week in hospital coincided with a week's worth of False Spring? After a frosty start the sun soon managed to warm things up to temperatures ranging between 14 and 18°C.

Waiting for Jos to get the doctor's green light for his discharge, which kept getting postponed on a daily basis, this mural was the view from his hospital room window: a welcome splash of colour among the grey concrete. 

Although I'd initially taken Monday off work as we'd expected Jos would be home by then, I opted to go into the office and postpone my booked time off to the day he would eventually be released, whenever that would be.

While poor Jos was mostly on his own - but don't worry, we called and messaged all the time - at least I got the company of a certain furry someone, who hardly left my side when I was at home.

I hadn't slept well in the night from Sunday to Monday, so it was with a head full of cotton wool that I stumbled through my day. 

In a bid to clear the cobwebs from my head, I made the most of the sunshine and balmy temperature by going for a lunch break walk. Aimless it might have been, I couldn't resist having a quick look at what was on offer at Melting Pot, the vintage per kilo shop. I was in luck as I found this fabulous skirt, 100% cotton and lined and equipped with two generous pockets!

I was amazed to read that, back in November, the shop was mentioned in an article by the Guardian called Amazing Antwerp (see here). It truly boggles my mind that there was no sign of any of Antwerp's five (!) Think Twice shops though.

Tuesday's lunch break saw me walking to Den Botaniek again, where I was happy to see that a sea of Crocuses had popped up since my last visit. I even caught a bumblebee going crazy in one of the lilac and white striped blooms on the bottom left.

I also admired the creamy white Camellias flowering to their heart's content in front of the former gardener's cottage - now a posh lunch restaurant.

I exited the Botanic Garden via the premises belonging to its next door neighbour, the Botanic Sanctuary hotel. Opened in 2022, the 5-star hotel is housed in a former convent and hospital complex whose history goes back to the 12th century. I always have the feeling I'm getting the side-eye when I venture onto the luxury hotel's hallowed ground.

Jos was finally able to come home on Thursday, so we roped in his son Kris, who would be picking us up at around 6 pm. I left work early and took the bus to the hospital to help Jos to get ready and tie up the last of the practical loose ends. 

Finally back at Dove Cottage, he was getting a gazillion headbutts from Bess, who was obviously over the moon to have her second employee back at her beck and call! 

Obviously, I wasn't about to call on Jos for outfit photos yet, so I did a quick flatlay to show you what I was wearing the day he came home.

Strangely enough, it was almost identical to the outfit I wore just days after his previous sojourn at the hospital back in October.  Apparently, the green zig-zag patterned vintage St. Michael skirt - a much loved gift from Vix - found its perfect partner in the fuchsia pink patterned blouse by the defunct Who's That Girl label, picked up from an outlet shop in November 2022. 

I was even wearing the same charity shopped wooden beaded necklace as I did back then. This time, however, I added a contemporary green squirrel brooch to the blouse and picked one of my beloved stretchy belts, the one with the octagonal faux tortoiseshell buckle, to accent my waist.

And so, life at Dove Cottage continues, even if things are still a bit in limbo at the time of writing.

But let me end this post on a positive note. As I was putting a bag of rubbish into the bin in the potting shed, I happened to notice some early-flowering Honesty which had nestled itself in a crack in the paving. Not wanting it to go to waste in this out of the way place, I picked a stem or two and put them in a small vintage vase - a gift from my friend Inneke - together with some late-flowering Winter Jasmine. 

A true sight for sore eyes, don't you agree?