May days

And just like that, Summer arrived on our doorstep and we've turned the calendar's page from June to July.  

My mind boggles that it's well over two weeks since my last post, which had its feet still planted firmly in May.  In the meantime, we've survived a whopper of a heatwave, part of which was spent doing nothing very much at all in the cottage in Poperinge we fell in love with 14 years ago. 

But all of this was still in the future when I was wearing this outfit on a Mid-May day when the temperature barely climbed into double figures.

It was wet and cold, a gossamer layer of frost decorating our kitchen extension's roof when I drew the bedroom curtains. Nothing odd about this at all, as we were in middle of that period in May popularly known as the IJsheiligen (transl. Ice Saints). These are the feast days of the Medieval Catholic saints, Mamertus (11 May), Pancras (12 May), Servatius (13 May) and Boniface (14 May). According to folk wisdom, these days in May are the final days of Spring which can sometimes still have night-time frosts.

It was Ascension Day, which is a public holiday in Belgium and, apart from it being cold enough to wear a jumper, my diary tells me I dug one of my Winter coats out of the wardrobe it was supposed to be spending its Summer break in.

Next stop in the time machine is Wednesday the 20th of May. I had taken the day off to accompany Jos to what would be his last hospital appointment until September. Although he was starting to feel a little bit better, his appetite still wasn't up to scratch and he was still experiencing sudden drops in his blood pressure.

We were seen by the Professor who coordinates the hospital's thorax oncology department, who was very understanding of Jos's situation. She suggested prescribing a low-dose cortisone-like medicine to see if that would be of any help. At this point in time, I'm happy to report that it spectacularly improved - and keeps improving - his quality of life!

At 17°C, the weather gods were a little bit better behaved by now, although angry-looking clouds, the odd shower and a chilly wind did their best to spoil the game. 

No jumper this time, but I was still wearing long sleeves. My M&S blouse, picked up in a Shrewsbury charity shop in June 2024, was paired with a vintage green and white polyester knit skirt from Think Twice, and accessories bought on the high street at various times.

By Friday the 22nd of May the meteorological deities had cranked up the thermostat to 27°C and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. 

Instead of our usual weekly catch-up, my friend Inez and I had agreed to meet up at Hof ter Linden in Edegem for a walk, followed by drinks on the on-site brasserie's terrace.

No proper outfit photos were made that day, but I was wearing these wide-legged silk blend Fab India trousers I charity shopped in July 2025.

With our garden still being an impenetrable jungle - and you can take this quite literally - I'd been admiring the glorious herbaceous border of the Museum of Folklore down our street, longing for the day when our little plot would be accessible again. At that point, we were still waiting for the gardener we'd contracted to turn up and tackle the job.

This was what I was wearing on Saturday for a day of running errands and tackling a couple of chores.

- 1970s cotton button through skirt trimmed with rick-rack: T2

- Lobster print top: charity shopped new with tags from Flair Goes Retro, produced in 2015 for Belgian women's magazine Flair

- Red pleated belt and necklace: charity shopped

- Lobster brooch: indoor flea market, February 2024

It was only when I was photographing the details that I noticed the lobster brooch was missing its

diamanté heart. Suspecting that it had gone AWOL while I was running errands, I'd already made a mental notation to look for a suitable replacement when Jos found the missing part on our hall carpet!

Sunday saw us driving down to the park in Duffel for a long-overdue walk. In spite of the temperature climbing steadily into the direction of 30°C, Jos insisted on wearing a jacket! Oh well ...

We met this cheeky little fellow near the end of our walk. After playing hide-and-seek among the trees for a while, I was finally able to catch him scaling this tree, where he obliged me by pausing (or should that be posing) for a second or two. Snap!

My outfit was built around a chambray skirt with faux embroidery I'd cheekily bought from a village boutique on Saturday. 

My funky print T-shirt, belt and necklace were all charity shopped while a found the sailing boat brooch at a flea market many years ago.

The weekend contained a bonus day, as Monday was yet another public holiday in Belgium (Pinkstermaandag or Whitsun Monday). 

For a 30°C day of not doing very much at all, I wore a green and red combo with a touch of black.

The hand-made green cotton circle skirt with its tiny white checks and red dots - a wardrobe resident for many years - couldn't have found a better companion than the red and white dotty River Woods top. Both were charity shop finds, albeit several years apart.

Necklace and butterfly brooch: both bought on the high street.

Stretchy chevron patterned belt: charity shopped.

Clarks sandals: Shropshire sales bargain back in June 2018, still going strong after all these years.

According the my journal, the mercury kept flirting with the 30°C mark all week

After a short, 3-day working week, Friday, and thus another weekend rolled by in no time.

I'd finally plucked up the courage to have my hair coloured again, which would be the first time since my final appointment with Michel back in December. He had kindly jotted down the exact mix of colours he'd been using, but as Mitte, my new hairdresser, is using a different brand of dye, the end result turned out to be just a little bit redder than before. I absolutely love it!

A € 5 Think Twice find back in August last year, this vintage sleeveless cotton frock in shades of green and orange got its very first outing.

The brooch, which echoes the dress's print perfectly, was a Shropshire charity shop find in June 2024.

In spite of the continuing heatwave temperatures, guess who insisted on sleeping in our bedroom, which is officially Dove Cottage's warmest room ...

Although the sun kept playing hide-and-seek with the clouds on Saturday, the mercury still climbed to a cloying 30°C.

Cool cottons to the rescue!

I found the fuchsia crinkly tiered skirt at Think Twice back in March 2025. Be prepared to see it pop up on my blog a lot, as it has turned out to be my most-worn Summer skirt so far.

The tie-neck blouse is from King Louie, charity shopped obviously.

On May's final day, Sunday the 31st, the temperature had dropped to around 22°C while a welcome breeze accompanied us on our morning's outing to the leafy park in Boom.

As I wanted to see what was going on in the garden belonging to the ecological visitor centre we made a little detour to stop and smell the roses.

Again, it totally escaped my attention to make proper outfit photos, so you'll have to make so with a mere glimpse of what I was wearing.

My blouse is another King Louie, found at Think Twice in August 2024, and exactly the same model as the one I was wearing on Saturday. The blue, psychedelically patterned, cotton midi skirt (this one) was a charity shop find back in November 2023.

So, that was the month of May all wrapped up.

I'll try to be back with a mini travelogue of our little trip to Poperinge soon. With yet another little holiday - to the UK this time! - on the horizon, I'll definitely need to get my skates on!

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future

Now that, courtesy of my tripod, I no longer have to depend on Jos for outfit photos, I've got quite a backlog of them gathering dust on my phone.

We've also been able to go for a couple of short walks in the limited time right before and after chemotherapy when Jos was being spared the worst of the side effects, meaning that I've got some photos of these to share as well.

However, with Jos's stamina once more in decline, time kept on running away from me again, quietly slipping into an uncertain future which neither medicine nor Mystic Meg's crystal ball is able to shed a light on.

On this sunny and summery bank holiday, though, I've finally found a minute to myself, so please allow me to take you along as I travel back in time to Mid-April, when I was still getting to grips with my new assistant's foibles.

A full update on how Jos is currently doing will follow at the end of this post. If you are itching to find out, why don't you head over there, but promise me you'll retrace your steps later. All is well, or as well as can be, but there's been more than one change of plan.

April's third week brought a mix of clouds and sunny spells with temperatures ranging between 15° and 18°C.

Tuesday's outfit featured a floral extravaganza of a vintage skirt, found at Think Twice back in the mists of time. It is part of what is now called co-ords, its companion a wide-lapelled short-sleeved jacket. See here.

The green and white striped blouse came from Think Twice as well. Snapped up in February 2022 it was a much more recent addition to my wardrobe. 

My wooden beaded necklace and painted metal flower brooch were charity shopped, while the  pink suede belt was a cheeky high street buy in the Summer of 2023.

Wednesday's outfit was based around the first of the short-sleeved frocks of the season. Not that you'd notice as I completely forgot to take off my orange King Louie cardigan for the photo.

Sprigs of delicate yellow and orange flowers and fresh green foliage are sprinkled liberally across a background of palest green in this vintage dress which unfortunately does not photograph well. 

Here's a close-up of its floral pattern as well as the sparkly bee brooch - a flea market find - I pinned to its collar.

A special shout-out to my green suede Van Dalen ankle boots. One of my best charity shop finds ever, they have been gracing my feet since February 2021. That is, until a year or so ago, when they suddenly started giving my grief. I admit I only wore them for the photo, having worn a completely different pair for work.

Speaking of charity shops, I briefly nipped into Oxfam during my lunch break that day, and found this Missoni-esque cardigan, which is by King Louie.

Due to total neglect, our garden is currently akin to an impenetrable jungle. Not for long, though, as we've got a gardener coming to take care of it later this week. Fingers crossed I'll soon be able to make my mark on it again.

I was overjoyed to see that some self-seeded honesty and the indestructible bluebells still managed to show their pretty faces among the tangle of ivy and other rampant climbers.

We woke up to sunshine on Friday the 17th of April. Sadly, by the time I'd done the weekly shopping and ticked a couple of chores off my list, any trace of blue sky had disappeared behind a layer of angry looking clouds. 

As Jos was finally emerging from the fog brought by his latest course of chemotherapy, we were determined to go for a walk regardless. Thankfully, in spite of initial misgivings, it looked set to remain dry. 

Our destination for the afternoon was the park in nearby Duffel, which has lots of parking space at its edge. Circuiting the biggest of the parks's ponds, I was drawn to the cheerful sight of this border of red, white and yellow tulips.

Now, let's have a look at what I wore that day. 

My floral vintage skirt was yet another Think Twice find. From its orange, green, grey and white pattern, I picked orange for my short sleeved v-neck jumper found on the high street a couple of years ago.

The pattern's mossy green bits were highlighted with my triple-strand beaded necklace and suede belt, which were both charity shop finds. 

My vintage flower basket brooch came from an antiques shop in Shrewsbury.

The rain clouds, which had kindly held off their liquid load on Friday, returned with a vengeance on Saturday. 

Thankfully, no outdoor activities were on the menu that day. 

Instead, I had lunch with some of the girls I went to secondary school with. Some of us hadn't seen each other for a mind-boggling 47 years! Such a shame there were only five of us ...

My outfit that day started with the red skirt I'd charity shopped earlier that month. After a couple of false starts, I paired it with a blouse I'm sure most of you have seen here before. Originally from high street label Zoë Loveborn, it was a flea market find in October 2016.

Both the stretchy belt and the vintage brooch were charity shop finds.

And here's the update I promised you.

First of all, Jos's originally planned surgery isn't going ahead, as he isn't considered strong enough for such a complex procedure. As it would only buy him a year - half of which he would have to spend recovering - it was unanimously decided that it wasn't worth the risk. 

Instead he was offered a 4th course of chemotherapy. However, the side effects he suffered after his 3rd course were even worse than before and kept him housebound for the better part of 3 weeks. As he was slowly losing the will to live, he opted to stop treatment for now, particularly since the CT scan he'd had just after his 3rd course showed that things looked, as his doctor said, quiet.

He has now been given a 4 month pause, after which he'll get another scan to see what's what. 

During these months, we are planning to spend as much quality time together as possible and will be going on a couple of short holidays between now and Mid-September. In fact, we've already booked the first of these in just under 4 weeks, when we will be returning to our cottage in Poperinge for a couple of days.

Hope to see you again soon!

Life goes on

 After a week's delay, Jos finally got green light for his second course of chemotherapy on Thursday the 26th of March. During the procedure, which generally takes about three hours in total, I kept him company with my current read and enjoyed a free cup of coffee in the lounge provided for patients and their families.

No chance of sitting outside in the courtyard as the sunny spell was very short-lived, the sky reverting to granite grey mere minutes after I'd taken this photo. The eagle-eyed among you may notice the wet paving stones outside, the result of the rain we'd started the day with.

As we were out of bread, I went to buy a loaf in the tiny supermarket in the lobby and, with Easter virtually on our doorstep, treated us to half a kilo of scrumptious chocolate mini eggs in the on-site Leonidas shop.

With Jos's appetite having made a temporary come-back, it didn't take very long to get to the bottom of this bowl. 

That evening, Jos declared a craving for frietjes van de frituur, meaning Belgian (not French!) fries bought from that most traditional of Belgian institutions, the frituur, as ubiquitous as the British chip shop. With one of these virtually around the corner from Dove Cottage, that was our evening meal sorted.

In the next couple of days Jos was feeling quite energetic and, just like during his first round of chemotherapy, didn't suffer from any side-effects to speak of. Apparently, this is due to the cortisone-like medicine which he is given before and after chemotherapy to prevent nausea and which has the welcome side-effect of giving some lucky people an energy boost.

We knew it wouldn't last, so we decided to make the most of it. If only the weather gods had been better behaved!

We woke up to overnight frost on Saturday and the forecast wasn't looking very promising. Spring was dragging her heels and, with a chilly wind blowing and the mercury refusing to let go of the single digit temperatures, Jos drove me to the local charity shop for a rummage in the afternoon. Meanwhile, he took the car for a spin, finishing with a non-alcoholic beer at his favourite village café.

Contrary to their colleagues of the weather department, the gods of the charity shops were on their best behaviour and finds were plentiful.

For starters, these two skirts ended up in my shopping basket. The red one with its brown and white garland pattern is handmade from a sturdy cotton, lined, and perfect in every way except, alas, for a lack of pockets. I'm actually wearing it as I type.

The red, white and blue leaves and berries patterned A-line skirt is by King Louie.

There were dresses galore, and from the armful I took into the fitting rooms these three have joined my wardrobe. The embroidered chambray knee-length dress is from C&A, the red and white striped maxi from H&M and the black floral with the odd bird maxi from Vero Moda.

Finally, I fell head over heels for these two very different blouses. 

As I am partial to a bird pattern, the green flamingo patterned one was a no brainer. Same as the black floral maxi, it's from the Danish Vera Moda label.

The blue short-sleeved blouse with its sprinkling of red, orange, green and white dots is label-less and has every indication of having been handmade.

As we are no longer in the habit of making outfit photos, we cleanly forgot to do so that day.  However, here you can catch the briefest of glimpses of my rust coloured opaques, orange socks and my stripy vintage skirt (this one!). 

But I'm sure you only have eyes for Queen Bess of Dove Cottage!

We woke up to a repeat of Saturday's weather on Sunday, although the clouds did make way for the odd patch of blue sky.

With the temperature still not having caught up with the season, I pulled this thick knit zipper front King Louie dress from my wardrobe. Charity shopped back in September, this was actually its first outing, for which it was joined by a contrasting mustard cardigan. As the latter is buttonless, I pinned a green-hearted brooch to its collar to keep it closed. Teal opaques, an old pair of tan boots, a mustard beaded necklace and chunky yellow ring completed my outfit.

As it looked set to remain dry, I persuaded Jos to go for a long-overdue walk, for which we drove to the park in one of our neighbouring villages, Duffel. However, he looked quite doubtful when I uttered the words "15-minute walk", protesting that he'd probably only make it to the first available bench.

Much to our mutual surprise, he just kept on going - that's him in the distance in the top left photo of the above collage - and insisted on continuing around the park's biggest pond.

All in all, we walked for over half an hour, sampling the sensory delights of Spring, which seemed to have arrived regardless of us being otherwise occupied. 

Surely, this host of daffodils, tiny as it is, must be Spring personified, the ultimate symbol of new beginnings. 

Additionally it's also the symbol of cancer charities in many countries ...

Thank you for reading. I hope to be back soon!

Days of leisure

On Saturday 21st of June we came home from our little sojourn in Poperinge to hot weather, a happy Bess and thirsty patio plants. After a thorough watering of the latter and unpacking a handful of essentials, we left the rest of our luggage for another day and spent most of the afternoon not doing very much at all.

As the temperature had climbed to 30°C by now, I was feeling hot and sweaty after our journey, which wasn't helped by the sauna-like conditions of Dove Cottage, which hadn't had an airing for a week. A quick rummage through the hot weather section of my wardrobe unearthed this lightweight green cotton kaftan style dress. 

Charity shopped at the tail end of last Summer, this was actually its very first outing. To make up for its long wait on the rails, I lived in it for two days running.

We'd brought one of the delicious salads from the local supermarket in Proven - one of Poperinge's sattelite villages - for our evening meal on Saturday, but needed to stock up to replenish our bare cupboards on Sunday morning, buying the ingredients for that night's Salade Niçoise among other things.

With the temperature still stuck at 30°C nothing strenuous was on the menu that day, and we joined Bess for a long siesta in the afternoon.

As I'd taken two weeks off work as usual, I still had a full week of leisure to look forward to. While in our cottage we'd tossed around some ideas, including a day trip to Bruges and being tourists in our own town for a day. In the end, none of these plans came to fruition, as we preferred not to stray too far from home and to take each day as it came.

Courtesy of a deliciously cool night, the mercury had dropped to the low 20s on Monday, the sun playing a game of tag with the clouds for most of the day.

After a morning of pottering, making a start with the unpacking and doing the first of a series of wash loads, we drove down to Duffel for a rummage in the charity shop followed by a walk in the park. Always contrary, I'll tell you about the latter first!

Starting our walk by circumnavigating the largest of the ponds, we spotted a heron at the water's edge.  I'm sure it had spotted us as well, but it was kind enough to indulge me by making me come close enough for a photo.

The starting point of my outfit of that day was the green embroidered linen blend skirt I queued for the better part of 20 minutes for during Zara's summer sale in July 2022. I never regretted its purchase as it has become a true summer staple, worn with many different companions over the years.

Wearing it with this Finnish peasant-style blouse - picked up from Think Twice in June 2023 - was a first though, but definitely one worthy of repeating. Aren't they a match made in heaven?

Both the big bird brooch and the green wooden necklace by the Belgian Les Cordes label were charity shopped, while the stretchy belt was a recent Think Twice find.

The hot weather combined with the lack of rain in the last couple of months had turned some of the grass into hay, particularly in the field at the edge of the park where a baby stone circle lives. Nothing prehistoric about it whatsoever: it's fairly recent and seems to commemorate some kind of village milestone. 

The park used to have imaginatively planted herbaceous borders, which unfortunately, and for reasons which remain a mystery, were dug up a couple of years ago. There's still a great variety of flowering shrubs, though, with quite a few Hydrangeas, now in their prime, among them.

The vegetation was still relatively lush and green at the water's edge in this, the first of the summer months, with the trees across the pond donning their best verdant hues, which they will gradually and inescapably lose over the coming months.

Suitably refreshed of mind and body, and flush with our success at the charity shop, we returned home. 

This is what found its way into my basket, starting with my favourite find, a pair of wide-legged silk-blend Fab India trousers, closely followed by a no-label giraffe print midi skirt.

Although I've got plenty of belts, I can never resist a good old rummage through a box of them, adding no less than three to my collection. Only the pewter coloured stretchy one with its linked metal buckle hasn't been worn yet at the time of writing.

The jewellery display yielded a red wood and metal necklace and a pair of translucent plastic ones in chartreuse and turquoise. Not that I needed any more necklaces either ...

My final find was done in the book aisles. As I'd just finished my previous read, I started The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer that very same day. The novel tells the story of Carrie Bell, a 23-year old woman who is engaged to her high school boy friend. Unhappy in the relationship, she is considering ending it when her fiancé Mike dives off Clausen’s Pier into shallow water and breaks his neck. Although I had my doubts at first, I thought it was an excellent and absorbing read.

Tuesday 24th of June brought a mix of sunshine and clouds, with a light shower thrown in around midday. The temperature was on the up again, though, effortlessly reaching the forecasted 25°C for that day. 

One of the upsides of a week off work without any definite plans is the amount of aimless pottering one can indulge in, not to mention having oodles of time to spend in front of ones wardrobe(s) dithering over what to wear.

I found the cotton, grooviliciously patterned skirt I was wearing at Think Twice last August and thought I'd found it its perfect patterned in the t-shirt I'd paired it with on its first outing. However, the t-shirt's latex printed red chevrons had rubbed off and all but ruined my belt by the end of the day, after which I showed it what's what by relegating it to the bin. No second chances for that one!

Still keeping to red to echo the pops of red in the skirt, I selected my red and white flower sprinkled King Louise blouse, charity shopped back in the mists of time. To its collar I pinned a tiny vintage summer hat brooch decorated with red and blue flowers. A flea market find, if I remember correctly.

Both the blue beads and the red belt were charity shop finds. The eagle-eyed among you may recognize the belt as one of Monday's haul!

We'd purposely waited to replace the spent contents of our hanging basket - the sorry remains of its spring planting of daffs and pansies - until we were back from our holiday, so that was our afternoon outing sorted. 

At the garden centre, we selected some purple and cream Surfinias for the basket, as well as a Begonia and pots of Dianthus, Coreopsis and Astrantia to brighten up the passageway and the plant table under the awning outside our back door.

As we drove past our local charity shop on our way home, we stopped for a quick rummage. Surely, it would have been silly not to!

The gods of the charity shops delivered once more, spoiling me with two retro-style skirts (the birds and leaves print one is by Fever London) and a quirkily printed blouse by the defunct Belgian Who's That Girl label.

Back at home, I planted up everything we brought back from the garden centre and gave all the pots a good soaking. 

In spite of the heatwave temperatures during our week away, nothing seemed to have suffered much, except for the strawberries, which I had to cut back completely ... No worries though, as it produced new shoots within the day. Whether it will still produce any berries this year remains to be seen, though. 

So, that was it for now! As my week off wasn't nearly finished yet, I'll be back with more tales of leisure in a couple of days. 

See you soon!