Have you seen her dressed in blue?

The day after our little trip abroad was the 21st of July, which is Belgium's National Holiday. As this year it fell on a Sunday, this would have entitled me to a day off on Monday. However, our office is in the habit of saving days like these to fill in the gaps between Christmas and New Year, enabling us to enjoy a week off at the very least.

So, back to work it was on Monday, which thankfully wasn't too much of a hardship as it was rather quiet. The day was further enhanced with a lunch-time catch-up with Inez at Think Twice's coffee corner, followed by a quick dash around the shop. Sales prices being down to € 2 by now, I snapped up a flower-infused skirt - with pockets! - which you'll get to see me wearing later in this post.

The day's outfit was built around this cobalt blue dress with its eye-catching pattern of orange and white dots and swirls, found at Think Twice earlier that month. This is my contribution to Nancy's August edition of the Good Buy/Good-Bye book, a monthly series where people are invited to share either a Good Buy or a Good-Bye, or Bad Buy, if you must. There's a different theme every month (August's was the colour blue) and although I have participated a couple of times, it had been a while, as either I forget to send in my entry on time or the theme isn't one I can relate to. September's theme will be wide-legged trousers, which I can do if my memory doesn't fail me. 

Anyway, back to the dress, which I accessorized mainly with orange. The beaded necklace came from a long-gone vintage shop, while the enamelled brooch was part of my haul from this year's Shropshire holiday. There was a plastic orange ring too - charity shopped in Bridgnorth last year - which you can see if you squint at the first photo. The stretchy belt came from the high street.

Speaking of the latter, look what I found in the Summer sales during one of my lunch breaks later that week: a glorious pair of ochre wide-legged trousers with a massive white-ish flower print. They've got generous side splits and are from the Danish Vero Moda brand. Nancy, if you are reading this, I know what you're thinking :-)

It was a week of sunny spells and showers, highs of around 25°C, and lots of neighbourly building noise in the evening. If you thought all that was finished, you've thought wrong. After months of relative peace and quiet, we're now back to evenings and weekends filled with drilling and hammering. Will it ever be finished, we wonder?

Anyway, it's part of the reason I only felt up to making outfit photos again on Thursday, when I wore the vintage cotton C&A skirt I was lucky enough to bump into at Think Twice at the end of April.

Its companion that day was a rainbow-dotted King Louie pussy-bow blouse I charity shopped many years ago. My navy translucent beaded necklace was a charity shop find as well, and so was the € 0,50 lizard brooch I'd picked up on the Saturday. In fact, I think this particular chevron-patterned stretchy belt had its origins in a charity shop too. 

Although Friday was my day off, there was no avoiding going into Antwerp as I had a hairdresser's appointment for a colour and cut. So, Jos drove me all the way there and afterwards I took the tram back to Mortsel - the nearest town to ours which can be reached by tram - where he picked me up again.

My tie-neck Diolen frock with its veritable explosion of red and pink flowers has been in my wardrobe for close to ten years. It came from yet another long-gone vintage shop called Vintage Styling which sadly closed down back in 2016. Although it came with a matching belt, I once again opted to replace it with a chevron patterned stretchy one. So comfy, particularly when one has to sit in a salon chair for nearly two hours.

Back at home, I did a bit of housework, something we've been sorely remiss in lately. After ticking a couple of tasks off my list, I indulged myself by sprawling on the sofa - joined by Bess obviously - with my latest read. And very good it was too. My second Barbara Vine novel but definitely not my last! I am on the lookout for more but so far the charity shops haven't obliged.

The sunny Summer weather continued into the weekend, although the weather gods, possibly taking a breather before the next week's heatwave temperatures, only came up with a moderate 22°C on both days.

As promised, here is the € 2 skirt I found at Think Twice on Monday. The green short-sleeved knit top I wore with it has been in my wardrobe forever. After racking my brain as to its origins, I'm now inclined to think it came from the fabulous Blender Vintage Shop, another one which closed down in 2016. 

As for the stuff, as Sheila would say, it consisted of my stretchy belt with hexagonal faux-tortoiseshell buckle (high street), multi-coloured necklace (charity shop) and yellow perspex ring (flea market). The cat brooch deserves special attention, as it was a gift from Goody, who sent it to me all the way from Omaha back in 2018!

A peek at my life-saving journal tells me I caught up with blogland and - wait for it - did a stint of ironing. Oh, and we went for a rummage in the charity shop in Duffel, where I found this 1950s style fit and flare dress from retro label Voodoo Vixen. If you look closely you can see it's got some stylized black cats among its print.

Neither black nor stylized, our very own furry creature was basking in the sunshine streaming in through the sitting room window. As she'd claimed the sofa and didn't seem intent on leaving it any time soon, we took this as our prompt to go for a walk.

We hadn't been to Middelheim sculpture park since before our Shropshire holiday, so that was our destination sorted. At the time of our previous visit, preparations for the park's Summer exhibition, Come Closer, had been in progress, although a handful of participating artworks were already in place among the half-finished installations.

Case in point is Gilt (below, top left) by London based artist Hew Locke. There are a total of four of these richly decorated golden trophies. Made of gilded resin, they are just beautiful façades and rough at the back, meaning that they are literally imposters or cheats. 

Clockwise from Gilt, you can see one of three sculptures comprising Berlin based Zuzanna Czebatul's Macromolecule Exploiting some Biological Target. They are actually XXL versions of popular party drugs.

The television screen in the middle of nowhere is showing a performance called The Dreamer of the Forest by Paul Kindersley (UK, 1985), in which he brings the ‘characters’ in the Middelheim collection to life. One can see the actual performance on a stage on an island across the moat (above, bottom right) on eight different occasions during the exhibition.

I'm standing in front of Symptomatic Relief by Monika Grabuschnigg (Austria, 1987), which incorporates which looks like a piece of church furniture. According to her website she engages in themes such as longing, grief and melancholy by processing domesticated and commodified objects like clothing, home appliances and plants into sculptures and installations.

The skeleton riding a bike in the canopies of the trees is part of the museum permanent collection, Zwart Schaap (Black Sheep) by Belgian artist Johan Muyle (1956).

We wandered at will, ending up at the Organic Brutalist Braem Pavillion, where some kind of alarm seemed to be going off. Peeking inside, we couldn't see anything untoward going on. One can never be sure what's real and what isn't here, so perhaps it was just part of the exhibition ...

Anyway, our next stop was the Open-air depot where - I'm quoting the museum's website here - works of art that are being restored, or have been removed from the display of statues in the park for other reasons, find their home. Quite a few of my favourites are here, including Colonne, the reflective column by Belgian sculptor Félix Roulin (1931).

In my opinion, it's just a sorry and quite disrespectfully displayed jumble of works of art for which, surely, they could have found a more appropriate spot in the park. The mind boggles, as clearly there is more than enough space elsewhere.

Poor Sibilla (above, bottom right) by Italian artist Pericle Fazzini (1913-1987) clearly shares my opinion. After all, she has been sidelined after residing in the park since 1956!

Feeling more than just a little dejected, we crossed the road into Middelheim-Low, passing the delightful thatched warden's cottage called Aubette, sadly now being used to store some of the iconic gold and silver painted chairs one can find all over the park. 

Then our walk continued past the Pillared Pavillion (above, top right) by Belgian architect Charles Vandehove (1927-2019) and the aluminium monsters of the intriguingly named Silver Fruit, Silver Cakespoons, The Garden by the Antwerp artist Peter Rogiers (1967).

We were now in the Urban Nature zone of the park, where strange encounters are rife.

Take Blue Barrel (above, top left) for instance. It is part of a series of actions in which its creator, Swiss visual artist Roman Signer (1938) launches objects using a ramp. The performance at Middelheim Museum took place in May 2012. From a height of 15 meters and over a distance of about 35 meters, a metal barrel filled with water rolled down a ramp at high speed and exploded against a concrete wall. What you see now is a remnant of that action, a lasting reminder of the moment for those who were present, and a stimulus to the imagination for those who were not.

A clear case of now you see me, now you don't is Setting, dating from 2019 and by Filip Vervaet (1977) and consisting of four glass panels creating as series of garden rooms. In one room is a vase sculpture, while in the other one is a tree, but one the artist made in aluminum. When you walk around the artwork you alternately see the real trees in the park, the vase sculpture, and the bare tree trunk. The windows sometimes offer views of the interior and sometimes of the exterior, but it is never quite clear exactly what you are looking at. 

Can you see me? Answers on a postcard, please!

I will finally be wrapping up July and make a start with August in my next post. And that's a promise!

And still the pensive Spring returns

I was feeling somewhat lightheaded from the overdose of fresh Spring air when we returned from our waterlogged walk on Saturday before last. In fact, I kept nodding off in the car on our way back, so Jos dropped me off at Dove Cottage and, while he ran an errand and returned the car to the garage, I had forty winks on the sofa. Bess wasted no time in joining me and, struck by the perfect harmony of her eyes and my tights, I quickly grabbed my phone and snapped this picture.

The remainder of the day was spent reading, catching up with blogland and, after our evening meal - Dove Cottage's version of Chili con Carne, if you're wondering - watching an old episode of Midsomer Murders. 

On Sunday - we noted the 12th of March by then - Saturday's blue skies had reverted to grey again. Nevertheless, the mercury eventually climbed into the double digits, although the rain which followed in the afternoon soon made us forget the previous day's attempt at Springtime.

Browns and blues were the main ingredients of the day's outfit, which consisted of a mix of vintage, charity shopped and the odd high street purchase.

My skirt, with its brown, black, grey and white chevron pattern, was a Think Twice find back in October 2020, while the chocolate brown blouse with its crazy multi-coloured print was an earlier purchase from one of their shops. 

The charity shop goddesses recently provided the two-tone blue and tan diamond patterned Zoë Loveborn cardigan and the No Stress caramel suede lace-up ankle boots. The blue beaded necklace and flower corsage were charity shopped as well.

The high street ingredients of my outfit are the turquoise plastic ring, and the stretchy belt with its massive wooden buckle. Oh, and my blue tights, which were a sales bargain from Inno, a chain of Belgian department stores founded in 1897 in Brussels as A l'Innovation. 

The gloomy, ill-tempered weather kept us inside for the day, but as usual, I had no problem keeping myself occupied. My journal tells me that I washed my hair, assembled some possible outfits for the week ahead, did a minor repair on a dress and continued my wardrobe purge by filling another bag for charity and putting aside a pile of items to be sold at this year's flea market. 

Assisted by the ever helpful Bess, we changed the bed sheets, using the William Morris-style duvet cover and pillow cases which ended up in our IKEA shopping bag for the first time.

After a thorough quality check, it seemed to meet our funny feline's approval.

I also finished my latest read, Alice Hoffman's The Third Angel, which I picked up from a second hand book shop during lunch break the other week.

So far, I've read a dozen or more books by her, loving the elements of magic realism which are such an integral part of her novels. However, I'm still on the fence about this one. Somehow, it didn't grip me as much as some of her earlier works, such as her well-known 1995 novel Practical Magic, Second Nature (1998), Blue Diary (2001), The Probable Future (2004) and Blackbird House (2005).

And so another weekend had come and gone, with another working week waiting in the wings. But even those tend to pass by in a blur, the days akin to the wagons of a high speed train. I don't know what's happening to the passing of time lately, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if someone has been fiddling with the hands of the universal clock. I'm waking up, bleary-eyed, on Monday, and then - woosh! - it's Thursday again, and time to wave the office goodbye for another 3-day weekend.

It had been a week of ups and downs in terms of weather, the days only having had a chilly start in common, but varying from sunny, with highs effortlessly reaching the mid-teens, to grey and rainy, with the mercury not even climbing into the double digits.

Thursday the 16th of March fell into the former category, with glorious all-day sunshine, and it's on days like these that the light noticeably lingers longer.  Cue the first of the after-work outfit photos of the year!

Apart from my necklace and brooch, which were a charity shop and a flea market find respectively, all I was wearing that day was bought brand new. 

The rust coloured faux-suede paperbag waist skirt was a sales bargain, bought at 70% off in January 2022, while the blue blouse with its purple stripy print, from the defunct Belgian Wow To Go label, was snapped up from an outlet shop back in November. Finally, the zebra striped belt was a cheeky retail buy a couple of years ago. One of my favourites, it has definitely earned its place in my wardrobe by now!

I was happy to see that several of the dwarf Irises (Iris reticulata) whose bulbs I tucked into the kitchen window box at the end of December had decided to show their pretty little faces. I swear that only days ago, there wasn't even a flower bud to be spied. Aren't they absolutely gorgeous?

Friday saw a repeat of Thursday's gorgeous weather, and in spite of the fact that a light layer of cloud briefly obscured the sun once or twice, the mercury effortlessly climbed to 17°C.

I was raring to go outside and into the garden to make a start with the gargantuan task of spring-cleaning our little plot. So far, the weather and my mood - but mostly the weather! - had conspired against doing anything but the very bare necessities. It hasn't really helped that the little paved courtyard at the back of our garden is looking like a junkyard of garden waste bags and discarded pots, hastily moved there when our neighbour started work on the infamous wall. 

I chose to ignore the latter for now, and cut back, pruned and filled up our compost bin with garden waste for the better part of two hours.

In spite of the self-confessed neglect, our garden is slowly but surely coming to life, with new green shoots seemingly appearing overnight. Our ancient Spirea shrub, planted in our first Spring at Dove Cottage, is full of tiny flower buds (above, top right). And I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted several Snakeshead Fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris, bottom left) about to burst into flower. Only one Daffodil though ...

Task finished, I changed out of my gardening gear and into this dotty Diolen delight. An old Think Twice bargain, I was surprised to find I hadn't worn it at all last year. A big mistake, surely, as with its joyous multi-coloured dots it's the perfect mood booster on the gloomiest of days!

I paid tribute to the green dots with my opaques, ring and carved heart brooch, the latter bought in Cardigan on one of our last Welsh holidays. My pink, charity shopped, beaded necklace matched the pink dots exactly.

Of course, no Friday would be complete without a rummage at the charity shops, so that was our afternoon sorted.

Our first stop was at the Oxfam shop in Wilrijk, which isn't on one of our regular charity shop itineraries, and therefore often forgotten about. In fact, our last visit dated from October.

I ummed and ahed about a chambray skirt and a chunky aqua long-line cardigan, both of which were put back on the rails.

But then I spotted this coat! And no, I definitely don't need another coat, nor do I usually like Desigual very much. But what can I say? I fell head over heels and even more so when I tried it on and it turned out to be a perfect fit. What's more, it was on the half-price rail, so I couldn't hand over its € 15 asking price fast enough. 

Next, I took pity on this snakeskin bag. It's not in the best of conditions, but it's the real thing, and I couldn't bear thinking of what would happen to it if I didn't take it home. I happily paid € 8 for this.

At our most local charity shop, I purchased this handmade fluted navy and green pin-striped midi skirt. I couldn't get it to look right in my photos, as neither my phone's camera nor my Sony Cybershot seemed to be up to the job, particularly on the gloomy Saturday morning I tackled the task. It does look quite a bit greener in real life.

A dark red belt, Gustav Klimt spectacles case and gold-tone and faux tortoiseshell chain belt landed in my trolley as well. They are displayed on a tartan garment, which I couldn't get Angelica to pose for you. No fear, though, I will do the job myself in my next post ...

My final purchase was plucked from the bookshelves: The Gardens of Emily Dickinson by Judith Farr.

The book highlights the poet's passion for gardening. As I love both her poetry and gardening, this will be a book to regularly dip into.

* Post title taken from Emily's Dickinson's poem Snowdrops in Spring

Grabbing a slice of history

Finally, my blog has reached the end of November, so that for the moment I am not lagging behind as much as I usually do. 

Admittedly, it has been a quiet couple of weeks, the dark and often wet days offering little or no incentive to spend our time outdoors. Additionally, as the lack of daylight continues to keep us from taking photos of my working day outfits, it'll be mainly those I wore from Friday to Sunday which you'll get to see here.

Although there was no shortage of sunshine on Friday 25 November, the mercury kept flitting around 10°C, threatening to dip into the single digits without a moment's notice. 

I'm veering towards my warmer dresses on days like these, preferably with a modicum of wool content. This fusion of leopard and zebra pattern ticked all the boxes that day. Charity shopped about a year ago, surprisingly it was the first animal print garment to join my wardrobe since the leopard print mini skirt of my punk days. Not counting Great Aunt Josephine's heirloom leopard coat, obviously. You can find its story here if I have piqued your interest.

As I last wore the dress with classic red, I opted for berry colours this time, adding a large-buckled belt and long-line cardigan which were both charity shop finds at one time or another. The necklace, whose berry beads are joined by brown and orange ones, was charity shipped as well. I picked it up the other week, but I forgot to photograph it at the time. And what better brooch to add than the vintage leopard which was a flea market find in November 2019?

We were all set to go on our weekly round of the charity shops, but while Jos was once again fulfilling his daily task as newspaper boy, I took the opportunity to photograph my recent loot from Think Twice. As they'd just started another round of their famous sales, I'd spent Thursday's lunch break walking to my favourite branch for a long overdue rummage. 

First up is this vintage cobalt blue C&A frock with its psychedelic floral pattern in light blue, green and orange. It was love at first sight, so I ignored the fact that the zipper was stuck and I wasn't able to try it on.

Back at the office - work was very slow, as our counterparts in Miami were celebrating Thanksgiving - I set to work and finally got it to budge by applying some lip balm as a lubricant and giving it a mighty tug with a pair of pliers. 

This pale blue wool blend shirt-waist dress with its sprinkling of leaves and flowers is from the Finnish Figura label. I love that it still has its original belt, although knowing me chances are that I will wear it with a complimenting or contrasting one from my collection instead.

I grabbed these two skirts as well. The one on the left is a lined knit, although I cannot vouch for its wool content as the identifying label has been cut out. It still bears its origin label, though: it's made in France by/for a company called Bleyle. Interestingly, when I googled the label, it turned out to be a German company which was established in Stuttgart in 1889.

The label of the green, yellow and orange floral skirt on the right says Separates by Delta, and proclaims that it was made in Australia. Not something we see very often here, so I can't help but wondering about its journey to the Northern hemisphere ...

But I mentioned charity shopping, didn't I, so let's have a look at that Friday's finds!

We drove to the edge of town charity shop first, but the only thing that ended up in my basket was the Philippa Gregory book on the left. As our lovely Vix has more than once been singing the praises of this English historical novelist on her blog, I thought it was worth giving one of her books a try.

In order to fully appreciate them, though, I'd better brush up on English history. So wasn't it serendipitous that I found The Story of England by Christopher Hibbert on the shelves of the second shop we visited that day? It's an entertaining and not too taxing guide to England's political, economic and cultural history from the Neolithic age to the the early 1990s, when the book was published. 

The same shop's shelves also yielded the Jennifer Weiner novel on the right.

The shop's clothing aisles didn't disappoint either, with the funky short-sleeved dress by the Dutch Le Pep label and the tartan Zara skirt in delicious berry shades.

The colours of the short-sleeved jumper by Esprit were one hell of a job to get right. When I finally managed to capture the correct shades of green and purple, the pattern of horses and horseshoes were bleached of their palest of pink colour.

The orange cardigan with its lacy sleeves and inset at the back is by ... you'll never guess it ... Who's That Girl!

Saturday's weather could have been a carbon copy of Friday's. 

With a steep drop in temperature forecasted for the week ahead, it was high time I finished my seasonal changeover by getting the last of the warm woollen skirts and dresses out of the antique linen chest.

Most of my Summer frocks, in the meantime, had been languishing inside the built-in cupboard in the corner of our bedroom, victims of my procrastination habits. Now that I'd freed up some space in the linen chest, I transferred them to the correct vacuum bags and, with Jos's assistance, had our vacuum cleaner suck the air out of them. By the time I closed the lid on the linen chest for the season, however, I was starting to get a niggling pain in my lower back as a result of all that lifting and carrying around.

No rest for the wicked though, as back downstairs, we got a little surprise! News flash: our neighbour had finally removed the scaffolding from the passageway! It still needs a layer of paint in the colour of our choice, but that will only happen in Spring. Obviously, wild horses couldn't have kept us from sprucing it up a bit and putting some of our stuff back. We also decided to move our little yellow table and chairs - previously residing at the back of our garden - into the passageway. By then, my back was truly hurting so we reluctantly called it a day.

Anyway, here's a sneak preview ... more to come in my next post!

And yes, I wore this outfit to do garden chores! Minus the fur-collared jacket, beret and scarf, obviously. These I only wore for running an errand in the afternoon. In the garden I layered an old hoodie and my equally ancient denim gardening apron over my skirt and jumper, both for warmth and to keep my outfit from getting ruined.

I'd decided to take the Australian made skirt on its maiden voyage and added some additional sunshine by wearing it with a yellow leaf and flower patterned jumper which I found at Oxfam in October 2021.

My accessories - olive green belt, orange beaded necklace and orange and green marbled brooch - were a mix of charity shop and flea market finds.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reclining on the sofa, finishing my Sebastian Faulks book and making a start with The Story of England.

Any trace of lingering sunshine had upped and left on Sunday 27 November, leaving rain and barely 8°C in its wake.

The good news was that the pain in my back was as good as gone. Plus, we had lunch with our friends Inneke and Maurice to look forward to.

That morning, throwing caution to the wind and hoping this wouldn't be too taxing for my back, I dragged out a couple of Winter coats from my groaning coats cupboard. Then I played around with my wardrobe, assembling a selection of outfits for the week ahead. I'm trying to do this every Sunday, as I often lack time and inspiration on weekday evenings. Nothing is set in stone though. 

This is what I wore for lunch, an outfit I repeated on Monday, earning a rare compliment from my colleague, who hardly ever comments on what I'm wearing and whose style couldn't be further removed from mine.

My vintage polyester pussy-bow dress, which is from the Finnish Marketta label, was a Think Twice find back in October and had been patiently awaiting a cold snap like this for its first outing.

I picked up the green in its pattern by wearing a pair of green boots which I'm considering one of my best charity shop finds ever.

I layered a - charity shopped - mustard Zoë Loveborn cardigan over it for contrast and added a snake print belt at my waist, the latter a cheeky in-between Lockdowns retail buy in 2020. The brooch with its mottled green heart was picked up from a flea market.

Lunch was had at 't Kasteeltje (transl. Little Castle), a restaurant we have been to before, in the nearby village of Boechout. Its location is a turreted mansion built in 1900 in so-called cottage style, hence the castle moniker. The ongoing rain prevented me from whipping out my camera but here's a photo taken during a previous visit.

I had the most delicious fettuccini, with marinated chicken, spinach, mushrooms and candied tomatoes in a mild curry sauce. Yum!

And look, Inneke and I were wearing complimenting outfits!

Sending out an S.O.S.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit low and out of sorts, and in spite of sending out an S.O.S. for my get-up-and-go which I seem to have lost somewhere along the way, it has yet to be returned to me.

It has been a rough couple of months to say the least. The disruptive building work next door - News Flash: the wall still isn't finished and our garden is still looking like a building site! - has a lot to answer for this. As does the fact that I'm on my own in the office until end of October at the very least, with only myself and the stoically silent walls to talk to. Add a more than generous amount of rain and dawn arriving a couple of minutes later each day and at times it's all I can do to crawl out of bed in the morning. And that's before the daily headlines bombarding us with yet another round of bad news.

But I'm sure that's not what you came her for, so I'd better stop my moaning. Let's have a look at some of my outfits instead, shall we?

At least I can still find joy in getting dressed, even if sometimes inspiration doesn't come as easily as it did before.

We've arrived on Sunday the 25th of September when, after a string of rainy days we were treated to some unexpected sunshine and a reasonable 16°C.

Having procrastinated both on Friday afternoon and Saturday meant that I had a list of things to tick off before another working week loomed on the horizon, so we actually only walked to the museum garden up the street for outfit photos. I know, we could have done those in the garden, but our neighbour was working on his kitchen extension roof, and I didn't feel like being watched.

I was wearing a long-sleeved wrap dress I charity shopped back in August. Seduced by its groovilicious print, I ignored the fact that I somewhat fell out of love with wrap dresses a couple of years ago. This was its first wear and I can report that it's definitely going to be a keeper.  

I added oodles of pink, starting with the T-shirt I layered underneath and the long-line cardigan I wore on top. There's pink among the wooden discs of my necklace and as well as the brooch, a painted seascape found in a Middelburg charity shop in November 2019.

My oatmeal coat is vintage, found at Think Twice many moons ago, and the perfect weight for those early Autumn days. The funky grey, green and pink patterned scarf came from a stall on our local Saturday market and the denim blue embroidered western-style boots, originally from Sacha, were a lucky find in a charity shop last November.

All work and no play wouldn't do on a Sunday, of course, so I spent some time lounging on the couch with my latest read.

After finishing the gripping Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris during our holiday - a hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel, anyone? - I started the enjoyable but otherwise forgettable The Missing Pieces of Nancy Moon by Sarah Steele. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad at all, especially if like me you are looking for some pure escapism, but I certainly cannot back up the raving 4 and 5-star reviews on Goodreads. 

The rain returned with a vengeance on Monday and Tuesday and with highs of just 13°C it felt decidedly unpleasant. The kind of soul-destroying murky days on which daylight hardly gets a look in.

We only managed to take outfit photos on Monday, so here I am wearing two of my wardrobe stalwarts, both picked up at Think Twice over the years. The chevron patterned skirt is the most recent of these and joined my collection in October 2020.

I accentuated the blue flowers in my blouse's exuberant pattern by adding a blue beaded necklace and a gold tone leaf brooch edged with tiny blue beads. The latter was found in a Shrewsbury antique centre in June 2019. At my waist, my stretchy belt with its faux-tortoiseshell hexagonal buckle, which was last year's sneaky retail buy.

If I remember correctly, it remained mainly dry on Wednesday, although at 14°C the temperature still was nothing much to write home about. The mornings are getting chillier as well, often starting in the single figures, which is making wardrobe decisions a head-scratching exercise.

My lunch break was spent at the hairdresser's, where my coiffure was updated by my regular hairdresser Michel's wife, as he was out of action as a result of a motorcycle accident. Don't worry, his wife is a hairdresser too and what's more, I think she did a great job. I even had a host of compliments later that week.

When wardrobe inspiration is lacking, there's always a mental library of tried and tested outfits to fall back on. Case in point is this pinkish brown hued floral frock, which I don't think I've ever worn with any other colour than sky blue. And I'm pretty sure that the faux-tortoiseshell necklace and the bird brooch have been worn with it before as well.

The tall, tan mock croc boots have been on constant rotation ever since I got them out of storage, and I definitely don't regret my impulse buy after spotting them in an advertising leaflet which fell through our letter box last Autumn.

Thursday was another mainly dry day with the sun playing peek-a-boo a couple of times, and a mild-ish 16°C. As I had to go for my booster jab, I took the afternoon off and, taking advantage of the extra time at my disposal, I continued with the seasonal swap-over, and even got out my iron and ironing board to give the most wrinkled offenders a once over.

I wore Tuesday's skirt again, but this time combined with a jumper, the sleeves of which were accommodating enough to allow easy access to my upper arm. I'm happy to report that all went well and without any side-effects apart from a slightly sore arm for a day or two.

The reasonably mild and sunny weather continued into Friday, when the weather gods cranked up the thermostat to 17°C.

As I had already taken Thursday afternoon off, I had to work a whole day on Friday, for which I rewarded myself with a naughty high street purchase: a gorgeous mustard yellow wool-blend skirt from Uniqlo, which you'll get to see me wearing here as soon as we're having a cold snap.

Friday's frock was yet another Think Twice find, a teal vintage one patterned in Autumnal hues snapped up almost exactly a year ago. I took advantage of the pops of green and tan in its print by adding a belt, necklace and ring in matching colours. My brooch is matching the dress's print in both colour and theme.

And just like that, September had come and gone, and we now found ourselves in October.

"Then summer fades and passes, and October comes. Will smell smoke then, and feel an unsuspected sharpness, a thrill of nervous, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure." ~Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

The first day of the first of the true Autumn months had a bit of a false start as we woke up to the sound of rain beating against our bedroom window.  Half-way through the morning, however, the rain clouds packed up their bags and made way for blue skies and sunshine. 

We wasted no time in packing a couple of sandwiches and driving to the park in Duffel for a picnic followed by a stroll.

Admittedly, I was dressed a tad too warm for the balmy temperatures we were treated to that Saturday. I certainly didn't need the beret, nor my frilly turquoise scarf and it was no hardship to remove my green Tweed blazer to show you what I was wearing underneath.

I'm sure my tweedy turquoise vintage skirt does not need introducing, as I've been wearing it on the blog countless of times. The orange floral top, however, got its first outing. It was charity shopped earlier this year and has a keyhole neckline to which I pinned a brooch I bought brand new from H&M back in the mists of time. The wide woven belt and the teal King Louie cardigan were charity shop finds, as was the orange flower corsage I pinned to the latter.

And speaking of charity shops, since we were only a stone's throw from one of our favourites, it goes without saying that we went for a rummage. 

The orange and bluish grey striped knitted top with its cute frilly sleeves is by Essentiel Antwerp, while the ajour knit blue cardigan, which as a bit of sparkle, is another King Louie.

I also snapped up Diane Von Furstenberg's autobiography and and a chunky knit orange, pink and purple scarf.

My final find that day was floaty aqua floral skirt by H&M, which I'm already envisioning myself wafting around in next Summer. 

But that's still a long way off, and I will probably have forgotten about this skirt by the time I'm doing my Spring/Summer swap-over. That said, I haven't even finished the Autumn/Winter one as I type!