June's journey

We’re currently counting down the days to our long-awaited UK holiday and I actually can't believe we will be there this time next week! As I’ve got to work until Wednesday and we’re leaving already on Thursday, I needed to plan ahead and do the majority of my packing this weekend. Always glad to have that out of the way!

But a promise is a promise so, before we leave, here’s a little update on what else has been happening lately. Catching up completely keeps being quite beyond me, so once again I’m taking you on a little trip in the old time machine, travelling back to the month of June. Be prepared to see lots of outfits, both worn before and after our stay at the cottage in Poperinge.

Monday, which was the first day of June, had a sunny start with highs of a delicious 23°C.

I was wearing the same skirt I wore for the previous day's walk in the park: a blue cotton midi skirt with a most groovilicious pattern. Its companion that Monday was a parrot-patterned top from the Belgian Sweet Soda label. Both were charity shop finds, as was the big green bird on a branch brooch.

My green stretchy belt with its bamboo buckle - a true wardrobe stalwart - was a high street buy a couple of years ago. 

For various reasons, no outfit photos were taken for the rest of that working week, which offered a string of days on which the sun kept playing hide and seek with the clouds and showers were rife.

Think Twice were having another one of their famous sales. With prices down to € 5 and then € 4 per item it would have been rude not to have a rummage!

Not one, but two butterfly-sleeved dresses found their way into my wardrobe, the one on the left being vintage C&A, while the one on the right is good old vintage Diolen.

I fell head over heels for the skirt, which has a rather posh-looking label reading Gerard Pasquier, Paris.

Googling it, this is what I found, neatly translated from the French:

Founded at the beginning of the last century, Gérard Pasquier was initially a leading French brand renowned for its elegant and sophisticated clothing. Embodying the Parisian chic that made it great and famous, Gérard Pasquier now embraces a more understated elegance in keeping with today’s fashion.

I'm not sure of its age, but isn't that pattern just fabulous?

Now, let's fast forward to Friday the 5th of June. The weather gods were clearly having an argument about whether to send sunshine, clouds or rain our way, resulting in a mix of all three, with highs of only 18°C.

My denim button-through skirt was bought on the high street about a year ago, while my colourful dagger-collared coffee-themed blouse is vintage 1970s and was a charity shop find.

Accessories:

- Lilac vinyl belt and orange wooden beads: charity shopped

- Orange cat brooch: Katshop

- Orange plastic ring: Le Petit Souk, a quirky shop which sadly closed its Antwerp branch earlier this year

- Lilac watch: high street bargain shop

I’ve got some garden news for you as well. For quite a while now, I’ve been referring to Dove Cottage’s little patch as the impenetrable jungle or wilderness, which definitely wasn’t an exaggeration.  A true sanctuary back in the days of Covid, neglect had slowly but surely started creeping in during the Summer of 2022, when our neighbour’s kitchen extension threw more than just one spanner in the works.

Bags of compost mixed with rubble were still cluttering the back of our garden, and ivy and other climbers had been left to their own devices, which they gleefully made use of by smothering our tiny patch with their rampant growth. I now regret not having taken any before photos, but at one point we couldn't even see the back of our garden from the kitchen window ...

 

At Jos's local, he'd made the acquaintance of a guy who cleaned up gardens in his free time and who agreed to come and do ours. So, on Wednesday the 3rd of June, he and a mate arrived with some heavy machinery and, taking their job description a bit too literally, completely obliterated all signs of life from the main part of our garden. I actually cried when I saw the concrete desert they'd left behind when I came home from work! Thankfully, they'd left the narrow border on the right, home to our white currant bush, Fuchsia magellanica and magnificent Acanthus mollis aka Bear's Breeches, virtually untouched.

That weekend saw us driving down to the garden centre and spend a small fortune on plants. Just positioning them around the garden still in their pots made all the difference, although without any climbers, ferns and the low Cotoneaster shrubs lining the steps to the sunken part of the garden, it was still looking more than just a little bit desolate.

The weather was another mixed bag of sunshine and dull grey clouds on Monday the 8th of June, but at least the mercury deemed to climb into the low twenties.

My outfit was a mixed bag as well, the green and navy Breton top, ankle boots and enamelled butterfly brooch all being second-hand finds, while the floral skirt, necklace and belt were high street buys. As they've all earned their keep in my wardrobe by now, I'm calling them fast fashion turned slow!

Monday's temperature had clearly been a one-off, as by Wednesday we were down to a miserly 17°C.

Mostly cloudy, with heavy showers and some thunder in the evening, it made me reach for warm layers, in the form of a vintage polyester knit skirt, a vintage long-sleeved blouse and short-sleeved but chunky knit Dralon cardigan. 

My belt with its flower-shaped buckle was another high street find, and I picked up the pale pink suede ankle boots in the closing-down sale of New Look's Antwerp shop back in February 2019.

The showers came thick and fast on Friday the 12th, although there was a brief spell of clear weather in the afternoon. Again, the temperature didn't rise above 17°C.

Following a morning of chores and shopping, we were invited by my friend Inneke for her 65th birthday drink at Bistro Jules in nearby Wilrijk. We went to school together but she's a couple of months ahead of me :-)

Both my faux-snake skirt (by posh label Caroline Biss) and funky patterned blouse came from the rails of the same charity shop, as did the orange wooden tile necklace. My brooch is vintage and was a flea market find. In fact, I think that the only item which was new rather than new-to-me is the belt!

Initially, Saturday's weather didn't look too promising either. A thick layer of grey greeted us as we got up, but it didn't take all that long for the clouds to disperse and present us with patches of blue sky which grew wider and more plentiful as the day progressed.

With temperatures of around 20°C, it was the perfect weather to plant up all these patiently waiting new acquisitions! 

In the meantime, one or two hesitant fern fronts had been brave enough to rise from the dead. 

Planting done, this is what I changed into to sit outside and admire the fruits of my hard work.

My denim maxi dress was a gift from Vix and Jon back in June 2023. I added a multi-coloured pleated leather belt at my waist, wore a string of plastic orange beads - both charity shopped - and pinned a funky lady's head brooch - a cheeky retail buy - to the dress's bodice. 

On Monday the 15th, there was no sign of the heatwave forecasted to start later that week. Both the sun and the day's highs of 21°C must have overslept and took their time to arrive.

My wide floral cotton button-through skirt winged its way from Think Twice into my wardrobe about two years ago. I acquired the short-sleeved thin knit jumper, in an eye-searing pink, around the same time. Together with its green sister, I bought it in the sales from the Sweet Soda - a Belgian label - shop near my office. Another one which has since closed its doors ...

Accessories and shoes were all charity shopped.

Tuesday was the day that Jos had his fall and hurt his knee, jeopardizing our upcoming holiday in Poperinge end of that week in the process. After an evening at A&E, where thankfully it was ascertained that he'd sustained no fractures, we were sent home with nothing more than the advice to take some paracetamol and do some gentle exercises. Needless to say, stress levels were high and neither of us slept well that night. 

But we did make it in the end, even if it was a holiday with a hurdle ...

One last picture of our garden before we go. I'd picked up some solar lights during one lunch break the other week, which we'd dotted around the garden. We've added more in the meantime, but this is how it looked on Saturday the 20th of June.

I'm happy to report that the vast majority of our new plantings had survived the heatwave of our week away virtually unscathed, although our pots and hanging baskets were gasping for a good soaking.

Our bedroom was akin to a sauna but after briefly considering sleeping on the sofa downstairs, I decided to brave the +30°C for the comfort of my bed. Jos was so lucky to be able to sleep in his hospital bed downstairs!

The mercury was still flirting with 30°C on Sunday, which was a vast improvement to the +38°C we'd arrived home to on Friday.

This is what I wore for grandson Cas's birthday party on Sunday afternoon:

- Waxed cotton wrap skirt: Think Twice

- River Woods t-shirt, necklace: charity shopped

- Birds in flight brooch: bought in Cardigan during one of our Welsh holiday

Monday the 29th was the last day of my holiday. The temperature had dropped to a much more bearable - but still much too warm for me - 28°C.

I was wearing the Missoni-esque skirt which was part of my holiday wardrobe but which I hadn't worn.

Both the skirt and the King Louie blouse were charity shopped, as were the bangles and necklace. The pleated yellow belt was a flea market find. 

We sat out in the garden for most of the afternoon and were delighted to see the butterflies and bees return to our little slice of paradise. In spite of being spoiled for choice, they seemed to have taken a particular liking to the Echinacea. 

There's a close-up of that old garden stalwart, the Bear's Breeches, on the top left, with the only flower produced by our new Clematis piilu below. Top centre are the pale lavender flowers of Verbena rigida Sky Blue. On the bottom right, my favourite, Helenium Moerheim Beauty. 

So, that was it. See you when we're back from the UK!

Savouring the good days

No, you are definitely not imagining things, as yes, it's another post from me, the second one in less than two weeks!

In spite of everything that's been going on, life has been pretty good lately, with Jos having regained his appetite and lust for life, and getting stronger every day. This in its turn has freed up some space in my mind which had been taken up by sadness and worries ever since we were informed of the extent of Jos's illness back in February. 

So, here I am sat in front of my computer editing photos, making collages and ultimately churning out a blog post like I've been doing for the past 10 years. It often surprises me how resilient I am and I'm actually quite chuffed with myself at how well I've been coping with the bad hand of cards we've been dealt.

My blog still has a lot of catching up to do as in my previous post I left you on the 18th of April, a rainy Saturday I spent having lunch with a handful of girls I went to secondary school with back in the mists of time.

Sunday the 19th saw a return of some sunshine, although the measly14°C the weather gods threw at us were further marred by a strong and chilly wind.

Nevertheless, with Jos having somewhat recovered from his second course of chemotherapy and with his third course looming like a black cloud on the horizon, we wanted to make the most of this temporary time out by going for a short walk.

But first things first, let's have a look at my outfit. My floral skirt is an old vintage find from Think Twice, while the embroidered denim blouse was charity shopped new with tags in Bridgnorth, Shropshire two Junes ago. My accessories were a mix of charity shop, flea market and high street buys. 

The little lady bug brooch was feeling quite at home among my blouse's embroidered flowers!

 

Our destination for the afternoon was Middelheim sculpture park which, according to my blog, we last visited in October 2025. Surely that cannot be right? 

We left our car on the large car park near the entrance to the part of the park called Middelheim-Laag, where soon we came across Trois Figures Debout (1978) by the French sculptor Eugène Dodeigne (1923-2015). 

Then there was this strange contraption (above, bottom right) I had never noticed before. It's called Sculpture for Film (2024) and it's by Antwerp-based sculptor Katleen Vinck (°1976). Looking it up on the museum's website came up with the following description: 

In this sculpture, you might recognise a bunker, a design for a science-fiction film, or the remnants of monumental stone structures from vanished South American cultures. Yet it is neither a model for a spaceship nor a building. Katleen Vinck compresses thoughts, memories and images into a new form that moves between past and future, between science and imagination, between archaeology and science fiction.

Being one of my favourites, I'm sure Welsh artist Richard Deacon's spaceship called Never Mind doesn't need introduction. 

Proceeding clockwise are Why does Strange Fruit always look so sweet? (1998-2008) by Paris-based Belgian sculptor Johan Creten (°1963), Enclosure (2021) by the Belgian multidisciplinary artist Aline Bouvy (°1974) and Diamond Shaped Room with Yellow Light (1986-1990) by American artist Bruce Nauman (°1941). The latter is deliberately built along a path, offering a clear invitation to enter. But the hospitality is limited. The doorways are too low (I once bumped my head on its lintel), rhere is no roof to protect you from the natural elements, the yellow light is disorienting, and the triangular space feels uncomfortable.

Another favourite which I cannot help but photograph again and again is Henry Moore's King and Queen (1952).

Nearby is a striking group of fountain sculptures whose collective name is Adrift, dates from as recent as 2023 and are a creation of the French artist Camille Henrot  (1978), who had a solo exhibition here in the summer of 2022. 

While Jos was taking a breather and resting his feet on a bench, I wandered into the direction of Het Huis (transl. The House), a half-open pavillion designed for temporary exhibitions and opened in 2012.

For the past couple of years it has been home to Birdcalls by the American artist Louise Lawler, in which, using her own voice, she sounds out the names of twenty-nine well-known artists.  

The angular steel-and-concrete pavilion is by the Ghent-based architecture practice Robbrecht and Daem and definitely invites some creative photography. 

We walked back to the car park along the Rhododendron-lined meandering path skirting the very edge of the park.

The weather continued in the same vein on Monday and Tuesday, which would be my only office days that week. 

This is what I wore on Tuesday. Although someone once quite poetically described its pattern as balloons flying up into the evening sky, it are actually stylized flowers which constitute this short-sleeved vintage dress's pattern. It has graced my wardrobe ever since I laid eyes on it in a charity shop in March 2017. 

I took my lead from the pink flowers for my accessories: a charity shopped chunky wooden disc necklace and a stretchy belt with rectangular buckle picked up from a bargain shop on our village's high street. I can't remember where the pink-hearted turquoise felted flower corsage came from but a quick search on my blog revealed this wasn't the first time I pinned it to this particular dress! 

My visits to Think Twice - so much part of my lunch breaks in what sometimes feels like a past life - have been few and far between lately, but I finally made it to one of their shops that day. I was promptly rewarded with this deliciously patterned skirt.  

Daily hospital visits were on the agenda for the rest of the week, starting with Jos's weekly Wednesday appointment to see if his bloods were satisfactory for the next round of chemotherapy to go ahead. It was during this particular consultation that it was unanimously decided not to go ahead with the planned surgery but to go for a 4th and final round of chemotherapy instead. 

But he still had to go through with his third course, for which we returned to the hospital in the early morning of Thursday the 23rd.

My blouse is from the Belgian Who's That Girl label and found on the nightwear rail in a charity shop a couple of years ago. The denim skirt was charity shopped as well. I picked it up from Oxfam in October 2020. A holy grail at the time, I later found another denim skirt which I actually preferred, so that this one was relegated to the back of my wardrobe. 

I'll explain why in a minute, but let's have a look at my buttery yellow accessories first. All were either flea market or charity shop finds. Literally nothing new here!

Now, back to the skirt! The reason why I wasn't reaching for it were the fake back pocket tabs which rather annoyingly refused to lie down. Enter a packet of buttons (brats) which were a present from Claire (who used to blog at Winter Peach Photography) the last time we met. Ta-Da!

What with Jos being given strong, cortisone-like medication in the days immediately before and after chemotherapy, he was actually feeling on top of the world, and didn't even need to be taken to and from his chemotherapy session at the day hospital in a wheelchair. 

Striking the iron while it was hot, Jos promptly made an appointment with his hairdresser on Friday morning. Then, at noon, we were back at the hospital for a CT scan. Again, no wheelchair was involved in taking him through the endless warren of hospital corridors to his appointment.

The sun kept playing hide-and-seek with the clouds all day but with no rain and highs of around 20°C there was no reason to raise one's fist at the weather gods. 

Another one of my Diolen Delights came out to play that day, its playful floral pattern featuring a mix of blues and greens and putting paid to that silly old adage that blue and green should never be seen.     

I opted for different shades of blue for my accessories, which include a navy belt with cream buckle which used to belong to my late Mum. I do wish my Dad had kept more of her things after she passed away back in 2001.

Before I'm bidding you goodbye once more, here is some of my reading matter of the last couple of months. Found together on the local charity shop shelves during one of my last visits, I loved the escapism offered by Jojo Moyes' Me Before You and its sequel. Not something I would generally go for, but I'm still not up to anything more taxing.

Thank you for reading. 

I'll try to catch up with your blogs soon and hope to be back with another post before we go on a little escape of our own in two weeks' time.

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!