Sunday to Sunday

By the time this post is published, our bags will be packed and our team of catsitters will have received the necessary instructions on how to wait on our spoiled little madam!  By this time tomorrow we'll be ensconced in our happy place in Poperinge for the second time this year. We're fully determined to enjoy every moment, no matter how many spanners the weather gods decide to throw in the works, 

But a promise is a promise, so before I go, here's a quick catch up of what I've been wearing, buying and doing in the week after our day trip abroad.

When we woke up to a mix of clouds and showers on Sunday the 27th of July, we thanked our lucky stars for the breezy yet sunny weather we'd been treated to in Middelburg. Still, with the day's highs of 22°C, we couldn't really complain about the temperature, which was more or less the same as on Saturday.

I was wearing a thin knit short-sleeved orange jumper - a sales bargain back in the Summer of 2022 - which I combined with my recently charity shopped midi skirt with its Art Deco style pattern. 

While the jumper tied in with the tiny bits of orange in the skirt's pattern, I paid homage to the browns with my accessories. These included a charity shopped beaded necklace, my stretchy belt with hexagonal faux tortoise-shell buckle (a cheeky retail buy) and a butterfly brooch picked up from a flea market.

Monday was a dark, grey and dismal day, its highs of 21°C unable to do away with the cotton wool which seemed to have lodged in my brain.

Thankfully, it wasn't too busy at work, so that catching up with last Friday's emails was a doddle for once. 

My lunch break took me along Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfare, where shop windows were touting the last of the sales bargains. It was almost inevitable that I'd succumb to this pair of steeply reduced green Miz Mooz shoes!

Although initially presenting a sunny outlook, we were treated to a thunderstorm accompanied by torrential rain just as I was about to go on my break on Tuesday. Typically, the rainclouds had decided to depart elsewhere in the afternoon, when sunny spells were again the order of the day.

My outfit of the day - which I would rewear on Wednesday - consisted of some old favourites, starting with a denim maxi skirt I found in the Shropshire Cat Rescue charity shop in Shrewsbury in June 2022.

And yes, it is a skirt, although the wind was doing its best to make it look like a pair of wide-legged trousers!

The crazily patterned top is vintage but my memory fails me as to whether I picked it up from Think Twice or a charity shop, although I'm pretty sure it was the latter which provided the white pleated leather belt, originally from Esprit.

I decided on shades of green for the rest of my accessories, but while the carved plastic heart brooch matches the fern green bits in my top almost exactly, the grassy green of my necklace is a little out of tune. Still, it manages to more or less match the green of the jungle-like foliage in the passageway, so there's that!

More often than not, Wednesdays are synonym with a cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez during my lunch break. Our place of choice being the coffee bar in the nearest Think Twice shop to my office, it is almost a given that a quick trawl of the rails is part of the deal.

The shop having just opened their doors to the new collection after the sales, the rails were full to bursting with new stuff.  This blue, diagonally striped box-pleated midi skirt wormed its way into my wardrobe.

Drum roll please! My blog has finally reached the month of August!

The month didn't go off to the best of starts, though. The weather gods insisted on presenting us with a day filled with showers, which made it feel quite a bit cooler than the 21°C shown on the thermometer. I mean, I even felt the need to wear long sleeves!

But I just love a Breton top, particularly when it comes in this lovely shade of fern green. Its colour was hard to pin down with my camera, but is closest to its actual colour in the outfit photo.

The flower-sprinkled silk blend skirt was a recent Think Twice sales bargain, as was the belt, which I've been reaching for a lot since I found it back in June. 

My glass ring was bought on the high street, while both the necklace and brooch were vintage finds.

What with the abysmal weather keeping us inside Dove Cottage for most of the day, we decided to go for a rummage after lunch, driving over to the three-floored charity shop in Duffel.

While Jos repaired to the coffee corner with a book he'd selected from the shop's shelves, I descended into the basement, which is completely devoted to clothing and textiles. After trawling the aisles and filling my basket with any items which tickled my fancy, I made my way to the fitting rooms.

It was only when I was about to try things on that I noticed the short-sleeved button-through maxi dress (above) and the pleated maxi skirt (below, top and bottom right) had exactly the same floral pattern! After some dilly-dallying, I declared them both fit to take home. Both the dress and skirt are from a JBC, a Belgian chain of high street shops.

The 100% cotton tiered off-white skirt sprinkled with lavender flowers is by Lollys Laundry, a Copenhagen-based Danish fashion brand founded in 2007. 

Both skirts have been worn in the meantime, but I've as yet to wear the dress.

My final find of the day was this delightful mustard floral patterned blouse with frilly yoke, which I can see myself wearing with the Lollys Laundry skirt. Incidentally, it's by Kaffe, which is yet another Danish label.

Rain continued to play havoc with our plans on Saturday, when the temperature dropped to just 19°C.

After catching up on chores and photographing my latest finds, we had some errands to run. As these took us past our most local charity shop, it would have been downright silly not to stop for a quick browse.

But let's have a look at what I was wearing first. I'm not blaming you if your eye is instantly drawn to the wide violet belt, which I'd picked up from the charity shop in Duffel on Friday. I'd omitted showing it to you since I knew I'd be wearing it straight away.

I hadn't worn this vintage faux-patchwork patterned dress in absolutely ages, so that it was long overdue an outing. It's from a label called Carol Caroline, for which, apart from a couple of 1970s references, I drew a blank online. I've got a wonderful short-sleeved jumper from the same label as well (see here) which, admittedly, has even been more neglected than the dress. I know, too many clothes, too little time ...

My other accessories were a beaded necklace in a similar shade to the belt and a brooch, which is often mistaken for vintage but which I bought from H&M in the early noughties.

So what did I do? Buy even more clothes, obviously :-)

I couldn't resist the yellow cotton blend long-line cardigan with its garlands of embroidered flowers and was seduced by the silver and blue leaf pattern of the top, which is by the Dutch Anna Scott label.

I also found this silky blue floral trousers, which much to my joy was exact the right length for me. It was only when I wore them on Sunday that I noticed it was considerably shortened by its previous owner, which must have been as vertically challenged as me!

I wore them with a green short-sleeved thin knit jumper (an old sales bargain from Sweet Soda), a wooden beaded necklace from Accessorize and a charity shopped flower embroidered denim jacket.

We'd slept late-ish, but as we'd woken up to sunshine and wanted to make the most of the forecasted highs of 23°C, we wasted no time in going for a walk.

Our destination of choice was Den Brandt, part of the cluster of parks which also comprises the sculpture park, and which is in fact directly opposite one of the entrances to Middelheim-Laag.

You've been here with me many times before, so I'll just whizz you through. As usual, we entered the park via the picking garden, where we went straight for the Gautam Buddha. Among the gifts he'd received was a selection of apples, flowers and herbs, as well as the usual array of lost objects. It seems he'd got a letter as well ... I wonder what was in it. We were briefly tempted to find out but didn't want to invade his privacy.

Rusty limbs oiled and stretched and heads duly cleared, we returned home, ready for another week's worth of August days.

But that will be for another time, as our next set of adventures beckons.

See you at the other side!

A January state of mind

So far, January's weather has been a continuation of December's - and November's for that matter - offering an endless string of days in soul-sapping shades of grey, with sunny spells a rare and mostly short-lived commodity. On the handful of days that it doesn't rain, a persistent fog is overstaying its welcome, if not an eye-stinging beast-from-the-east wind is making one scuttle back inside.

In the last week or so the temperature, which had been up and down like a yo-yo, finally decided to duck below freezing point. Just a laughable couple of degrees to some, mind you, but quite enough to dig out my stash of jumpers. Gone are the days when the menopause made me break out in a sweat at the mere thought of them!

As I'm sitting here typing this post, rain is lashing against the window and I can hear the wind - the dregs of storm Éowyn which is wreaking havoc elsewhere - howling down the chimney, making it feel much colder than the 10°C promised by the weather forecast.

It was a different kind of weather we woke up to on Saturday 4 January. Miraculously, the sun managed to briefly break through the sky's uniform layer of grey once or twice, although the mercury got stuck at a mere 2°C. I needed an extra layer in the form of a chunky pink cardigan to combat the chill but, diligent blogger that I am, I briefly removed it to show you what I was wearing underneath.

The vintage wool blend Betty Barclay dress ticked all my boxes when I found it at Think Twice in November 2021. Making use of the pink stripe in its tartan pattern for my accessories, I added a textured belt from the high street, a charity shopped necklace and a vintage carved celluloid brooch I picked up from the Brooch Lady's flea market stall in 2017. My ankle boots are actually burgundy rather than the pink they appear to be in the photo.

As we had a family thing on Sunday, we needed to tick off a couple of chores on our to-do list on Saturday, which in my case included mending a fallen hem on the cord skirt I'd been wearing that week.

Not an easy task to accomplish with a feline who insists on making herself comfortable on your lap no matter what. 

Having reluctantly finished Sarah Waters' The Paying Guests a couple of days earlier, it was hard to find a suitable follow-up. I thought the playful tone of Nigel's Slater's Eating for England, a collection of short and often quite mischievous essays about the British and their relationship with food, would fill the gap nicely.

Sunday was an extremely wet day, during which the temperature gradually climbed from 2 to 12°C.

After dismantling the Christmas tree - much to Bess's chagrin, obviously - in the morning, we drove down to Jos's son and daughter in law for a family get-together and the reading of grandson Cas's New Year's letter (Nieuwjaarsbrief in Flemish). 

Flemish children are expected to write a letter with New Year’s wishes for their parents, godparents and grandparents, which is then read out loud in front of everyone. The tradition originated in the 16th century and was at first limited to the upper classes, who had access to education. At that time the letter was usually written in Latin and in verse. Since the mid-20th century, the custom has spread and is now an essential part of local culture.

Obviously Cas, at only 3 and a half years old not yet being able to read or write, got the necessary help from his Mum, Carolien.

The happy mix of stripy patterns I was wearing that day consisted of a knitted skirt from the German brand Bleyle and a faux-wrap jumper from C&A's Clockhouse label. Both items wended their way into my wardrobe through the charity shops, as did my necklace.

The green fabric belt with its scalloped metal clasp buckle - recently worn back in December  - used to belong to a dress which is no longer gracing my wardrobe, while my flower embroidered brooch was bought from Shrewsbury Antiques Centre in June 2019.

The weather during January's second week was quite a mixed bag, starting with a wet and very windy day with highs of 10°C on Monday. In spite of having had a fitful night's sleep, I managed to stay reasonably clear-headed throughout the day. Obviously, this might have been due to a cappuccino-fuelled catch-up with my friend Inez during lunch break! 

One of the perks of our catch-ups being at Antwerp's largest Think Twice shop is that we can go for a quick rummage afterwards. I might even have found a tartan skirt! 

The temperatures took a dive to the low single digits again the next day, where they would remain for the rest of the week and beyond. Lashings of rain and a gale force wind prevented me from venturing too far from the office, so that I inadvertently ended up at Think Twice again during Wednesday's lunch break.

This gorgeous mustard crochet purse insisted on coming home with me that day.

It started snowing quite heavily that evening, swiftly covering the world outside our window with a thick layer of the white stuff. Thankfully, it didn't stick and was all but gone by morning. However, as I was waiting for my bus, we were treated to another couple of flurries, which prompted me to whip out my phone and take this snap of our spotlighted village church.

Funnily enough, in spite of the wintry weather my bus arrived on time for first time that week! Belgian public transport definitely has its little idiosyncrasies - which is a nice way to say that most of the time it actually sucks big time.

As that morning my phone alerted me that another Think Twice sale was kicking off that day, I couldn't help but heading once more into its direction during my break. 

A green, yellow and white floral pussy-bow blouse and a green and purple midi dress were duly snapped up at 30% off. 

It was nothing short of a relief when Friday rolled along! What's more, it turned out to be a gloriously sunny but cold day, the mercury flitting around freezing point. The kind of Winter's day, in fact, that I would sign on the dotted line for. 

With my new-found need for wearing jumpers, I've been avidly adding to my collection, so that my wardrobe is more than ready to deal with this kind of weather!

Apart from my accessories - a mix of flea market and charity shop finds - the main components of my outfit were picked up from the high street.

I bought the chunky lilac and purple striped jumper in Belgian label Terre Bleue's closing down sale back in October, while the mustard flannel skirt was a bargain from Uniqlo two years previously. It's from the shop's collaboration with the French model and fashion designer Inès de La Fressange and I had been lusting after it for months. Having initially been told it was sold out, I couldn't believe my luck when I was able to buy the one which had been in the shop window at a reduced price. 

The unexpected bonus of sunshine was making me feel quite giddy and raring to go for a walk. If the weather forecast was to be believed - and they are usually spot on when bad weather's in the offing - it was actually now or never, what with the rest of the weekend looking quite atrocious.

After tossing around a couple of ideas over lunch, we settled on Den Brandt, one of the pearls in Antwerp's crown of parks to the south of the city centre.

Just like our beloved Middelheim sculpture park, those of you who have been reading my blog for a while have accompanied me here many times before. In fact, its entrance is just across the street from the part of the sculpture park called Middelheim-Laag.

I was remarking to Jos that we hadn't visited for months, but he was adamant that the last time had been after he'd been discharged from hospital. And while I was quite certain that it had been longer ago than that, I was still shocked when a search on my blog revealed that our last walk here was back in August!

After checking out the offerings made to the Gautam Buddha in the picking garden, we ventured into the park itself, relishing the fact that it was so much quieter here on a weekday afternoon in Winter than it was on that sunny August Sunday.

Back then, I photographed Jos against the backdrop of one of the park's veterans, a 200-year-old weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica pendula), at the height of Summer still fully and lushly in leaf. After Autumn ravaged its green canopy, its crooked and twisted branches (above, top left) might be looking dead to the world, but I'm sure this ancient giant will go on to live another day.

Nothing much remained of Thursday's snowfall, but I made a point to purposefully crunch through some of the patches we came across. After all, it might very well be my only chance to do so this Winter.

There was a flimsy layer of ice on the pond behind the recently renovated English-style cottage. This fairy-tale gingerbread cottage (see the ornamental stork perched on its roof on the top left) is purely ornamental and was placed in the garden as a romantic element, a folly if you like. Even after its renovation its door remains firmly locked and its shuttered windows do not allow for a peek inside ... which is a shame really!

Having meandered the park's paths for well over an hour, we now found ourselves at the front of the late classical castle which lies at the heart of the domain. Looking like a perfectly iced wedding cake from afar, up close it is clear that it is yet another victim of shameful and ongoing neglect. 

Before making our way back to our car, I photographed these mad-looking maidens which have been dancing around the fountain in the castle's front garden since 1911. 

Created by the German sculptor Walter Schott, I greatly prefer their nickname, the Dancing Nymphs rather than their official Three Graces moniker. 

The water in the fountain's basin was frozen solid and I imagine the maidens in their flimsy frocks were close to hypothermia!

Wearing, walking and wardrobe additions

First of all, apologies to those of you who were expecting to find the first installment of a brand new travelogue here. 

Since coming home to an ecstatic Bess on Sunday, we've been catching up on cuddles and, in the rare moments my lap wasn't claimed by a loudly purring feline, I've had the mother of all catch-ups with blogland. The photos of our travels have all been uploaded and I'm raring to start writing about our adventures. 

However, for the sake of continuity, there's a batch of outfit and other photos dating from those final August weeks to go through. What with its late start - remember those cold and rainy June days - Summer has been short enough as it is, so a two-week gap definitely wouldn't do. My mind being a bit of a blank after all this time, however, I was definitely in need of a helping hand from my diary.

 

It appears that I left you on Thursday the15th of August at the end of my last post. As this was a public holiday in Belgium, I briefly went into the office on Friday to deal with some urgent matters, followed by running a couple of errands since I was in Antwerp anyway. No photos were taken that day, so the above is what I was wearing on Saturday.

I've been sadly neglecting this dress, which I bought at a sample sale of the Belgian label Who's That Girl and its big sister Wow To Go back in 2013, if I remember correctly. I was quite obsessed with both labels at the time, resulting in many purchases, not all of which are still gracing my wardrobe.

On this day of sunny spells and highs of 25°C it was absolutely perfect. For its companions, I made use of the brown bits in its pattern. The brooch and belt were charity shopped, while the magnificent Lucite necklace was a flea market find.

We decided to drive over to Mechelen for our weekly fix of charity shopping, but left the shop empty handed. 

On our way back we stopped off at the small charity shop in the neighbouring village of Reet, where I found a pale green flower patterned needlecord jacket. There's a matching skirt which sadly doesn't fit me. The vintage green and tan patterned dagger-collared shirt came home with me as well. I also found a replacement in the proper size of this wrap skirt, originally charity shopped in 2022 and a tiny bit too tight on me.

Sunday brought a bit of a moody day, on which it felt that rain was imminent. At around 23°C, it was quite warm-ish so, after tossing around some head-clearing options, we settled on a walk in Fort 5 in the next village to ours. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while have accompanied me here many a time over the years.

Part of a ring of eight identical forts around the city of Antwerp, and dating from the 1860s, it has long ago been turned into a nature reserve and recreational area. The domain is criss-crossed by a myriad of paths, the most popular one circumnavigating the moat. This we took on our way back after having a mooch around the atmospheric old fort itself.

No close-ups were taken of my outfit, which consisted of a flower sprinkled cotton H&M skirt, a zig-zag patterned t-shirt and my favourite haori to at least protect my upper arms from any voracious insects. Everything except from my ancient Clarks Cloudsteppers was supplied by the charity shops.

I sorely neglected my blogging duties in August's penultimate week, only making the effort to take outfit photos on two occasions, on both of which I was wearing 1970s Diolen frocks. I can't remember where or when I obtained the floral, butterfly-sleeved delight on the left, but the blue and white tile patterned one on the right was found at Think Twice in July 2023.

My diligently kept diary tells me it was a week of sunny spells and showers, with temperatures ranging between 21 and 24°C, which I suppose wasn't too bad.

With Think Twice's latest sales being in full swing, and prices descending into single figures per item, there are no prizes for guessing how I spent my lunch breaks. The spoils of two consecutive days included two long-sleeved dresses - which I can't wait to wear once the weather's into single figures -and a skirt whose first outing might very well be imminent as I type.

The neither here nor there weather continued into the weekend, culminating in a moody yet sweltering 29°C day on Saturday, which ended in an almighty thunderstorm.

Again, no outfit photos were taken that day, but I can offer you Friday's red and black zig-zaggy dress, which is Mexx by way of a charity shop. Apparently, I last wore it in 2020, so it was another one which was well overdue an outing. I absolutely loved wearing it which puts paid to the advice of the fashion police to get rid of anything you haven't worn in a year. What utter rubbish!

Our rummaging urges were satisfied by a trip to the charity shops on both Friday and Saturday.

A lightweight green cotton kaftan style dress and a long-sleeved maxi with a gold detail Art Deco style pattern ended up in my cart. 

As did a pair of red canvas Tamaris wedges and a pair of denim blue Mary Jane-style Jana shoes. The latter have already been worn and approved. Any pair which can be worn on bare feet without causing blisters deserves its place in my shoe wardrobe.

Saturday's thunderstorm had brought down the temperature to a much cooler 22°C on Sunday.

I spent the morning assembling some essentials to be packed for our upcoming trip, then, after lunch, we drove down to Den Brandt for a walk. 

There seemed to be some kind of children's birthday party going on in the picking garden, so we soon made our escape by climbing the steps into the park proper. But not before making our way to the Gautam Buddha to have a look at the offerings he'd received. We were glad to see they were plentiful and even more so that he'd been returned to his perch. The poor thing had been sitting in the grass at the time of our last two visits.

The fenced-in giant tree Jos is standing in front of is the famous weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica pendula), with its nearly 200 years one of the veterans of the park. One could easily have a party - birthday or otherwise - under its canopy if it weren't fenced in to protect its delicate root system.

Nearby is a reproduction of Michelangelo's David (above, bottom left) purchased by the city at the 1910 World Fair in Brussels. 

I was wearing one of the latest Diolen frocks to join my collection, on its first outing although I purchased it back in April. I might have somewhat gone off my Diolen Delights lately, but this one is definitely a keeper. My faithful denim jacket kept it company.

We were delighted to see that the park's folly, a gingerbread English-style cottage which was still under renovation last time we visited, had now been fully restored to its former glory. It looked particularly fairy-tale like amid its miniature cottage garden, although I was rather glad to find its door firmly closed, fully expecting to find the wolf masquerading as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother inside.

I left Jos resting his feet on a shady bench, walking across a little bridge and around the corner to admire the vista towards the late classical wedding cake castle at the heart of the park.

Only one outfit was photographed during the month's final working week.

Wednesday the 28th of August was sunny and hot, the mercury effortlessly climbing to 30°C. I briefly escaped the airconditioned office for a hairdresser's appointment during my lunch break.

Just look at that sky of the purest azure blue framing the tower of the baroque Sint-Carolus Borromeus church!

My vintage cotton button through skirt was joined by a charity shopped River Woods top. The beads were charity shopped as well, while I picked up the little hat brooch at a flea market. The belt is the one which was all but ruined by that pesky t-shirt but which I managed to save by vigorously scrubbing the top with a soapy cloth to remove most of the red residue. It's hardly noticeable unless one knows where to look.

And then it was Friday, and officially the start of my holiday. It's hard to get my head around the fact that today is its final day and I'm due back at the office tomorrow ...

I'll be back with my travel adventures soon, but wanted to show you Friday's outfit before I go. Both the 1980s style pleated skirt (by Jacqueline de Yong, a sub-division of the Danish Only label) and the petrol coloured top (by Essentiel Antwerp) were charity shopped on the same day in July. A match made in heaven, don't you agree? 

I was also wearing an umbrella brooch to try and ward off any rain coming our way. Did I succeed? You'll read all about it in my upcoming travelogue!