April in Bloom

Slowly but surely life at Dove Cottage is going back to how it was before it was taken hostage by Jos's health problems.

My lovely husband is a changed man ever since he got the all clear from the hospital last week! He is walking at a faster pace, standing taller, has an unmistakable glint in his eye and suddenly seems to possess a boundless amount of energy. In fact, nowadays it's me who's limping behind. As worrying has been my mind's default setting for all those months, it's as if I've got relearn being happy and carefree again. 

On the cusp of turning another page of this year's calendar, I've still got to make a start with posting about the month of April, so, without further ado, let's travel back to the very beginning of this month.

I'm skipping April Fool's Day, making straight for Wednesday the 2nd of April. Now that the days are noticeably longer, it's possible to make outfit photos in the passageway after work once more. 

Sunny but a bit windy, which somewhat tempered the day's highs of 18°C, I opted for a skirt and long-sleeved blouse combo. 

My green and white plaid skirt, its fabric a heavyweight polyester jersey, was a vintage find from Think Twice many moons ago. It was joined by a yellow patterned Wow To Go blouse charity shopped in February 2024. The red pleated belt, fused glass ring and beaded necklace were charity shopped as well, while the vintage celluloid brooch featuring a trio of Scottie dogs was a flea market find. 

Wednesdays generally have a cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez in store. We were both duly impressed by the lovely barista's latte art! 

As the Think Twice sales were once again in full swing, with prices down to € 4 that day, I snapped up this funky green vintage blouse.

The wind had somewhat died down on Thursday, which was a gloriously sunny day with temperatures gently nudging 20°C.

I thought it was time to give my vintage Venetia frock, with its pattern of tiny white dots and garlands of frothy pink flowers, another outing before its yearly sojourn in the antique linen chest.  Picked up from a long gone and sadly missed vintage shop, it has been gracing my wardrobe's rails for the better part of 15 years.

I picked shades of green for my accessories: a minty green for my belt, necklace and opaques, and a shamrock green for my ring and brooch. The fabulous merhorse brooch with its golden mane and tail is ceramic and was a flea market find in January 2020.

In need of some peace and quiet, as well as a Vitamin D top up, I walked towards Den Botaniek, Antwerp's small but perfectly formed botanical garden, during my lunch break. 

It was a delight to see the first of the tulips putting in their annual appearance. The star-shaped and lightly scented pastel pink and yellow Candia tulips (Tulipa saxatilis) were particularly appealing, while the swathes of buttery yellow ones provided additional sunshine.

It's hard to believe that only the garden's retaining wall separates the woodland path on the bottom left from a traffic rich inner city street (above, top left).

Yellow tulips were mingling with a clump of Spring Snowflakes (Leucojum vernum), while my heart made a jump of joy upon spotting a patch of Dog's Tooth Violets (Erythronium, above, top right).

This particular species is called Pagoda, and it's clear to see why, as the nodding, buttery yellow flowers do resemble the tiniest of pagodas. However, silhouetted against the shiny green leaves, they do look rather alien and menacing, don't you think?

The garden's main attraction this time of year, though, is the magnificent Magnolia tree with its snow-white goblet-shaped blooms. The petal strewn lawn was a giveaway that I was just in time before their inevitable decline.

On my way back to the office, I passed one of Antwerp's plethora of Think Twice shops. With prices now down to € 3, I couldn't resist going in for a quick rummage. 

The embroidered Madeira bag was too gorgeous to be left behind and surely there's always room for more belts in one's wardrobe.

Walking through the small and almost empty shopping centre near my office, I hopped into the Green Ice outlet shop, where everything is going at 50% off. I've already got a couple of pieces from this Belgian label in my wardrobe, which have now been joined by this fabulous multi-coloured maxi skirt.

Another sunny day greeted us upon drawing the curtains on Friday the 4th of April. Highs of up to 22°C had been forecasted by those supposedly in the know, but the morning still had a bit of a nip in the air.

As we would be out and about by around 10.30, I dressed in long sleeves once more. 

Remember the  magenta cotton peasant-style blouse with the security tag issue I bought in the January sales? Ever since I managed to get the tag removed, it had been hanging outside my wardrobe, waiting for its first outing.

Its wish finally came true that day! It found its perfect partner in a vintage cotton skirt I charity shopped back in the heady days of September 2020. Remember lockdowns, obligatory face masks and social distancing? It all seems quite unreal five year down the line ...

But I digress! The pink flowers in the skirt's pattern matches the colour of my blouse almost exactly, so pairing them was a no-brainer. 

I thought the blouse called for a brooch worn at its neck. I'm not sure what made me pick out the brown hearted Coventry one - a flea market find in December 2022 - but I loved how it looked, so I added more brown with the faux tortoiseshell necklace, charity shopped at the tail end of 2021. The stretchy belt with its flower-shaped buckle was found on the high street last month.

When my friend Inneke messaged me earlier that week, suggesting a walk in Middelheim sculpture park on Friday, I jumped at the chance. I even managed to convince Jos to join us, as Maurice (Inneke's husband) would be willing to keep him company on the terrace of the museum café if necessary.

In the end, both he and Maurice accompanied us on our walk, after which we enjoyed glasses of non-alcoholic beer on the sun-drenched terrace. It felt so good to be spending time away from Dove Cottage together!

Back at home, I snapped the first of the double tête-à-tête daffs we brought back from the garden centre the other week. That's non-ribbiting frog right there on the bottom right.  He used to make a ribbit sound when you walked past him, but in spite of cleaning him up and changing his batteries, the poor thing has been mute for years. Nevertheless, he once gave Phoebe a fright when out of the blue he started ribitting continuously! 

I'm not sure what Phoebe's successor's reaction to the annoying creature would have been, but here she is, helping with the washing up. After Nancy's comment on my previous post that she was missing Bess, I just had to include her in this one, hadn't I?

I spent part of Friday afternoon going through my wardrobe with a fine comb, filling a bag for the charity shops and putting aside a bunch of items of no-longer loved vintage to be sold at our next flea market. 

And then, unfortunately, I pulled a muscle in my back ... Don't worry, all is well now, but I was in pain for the better part of a week!

To be continued in my next post ...

Life in Limbo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The funny tricks of time

Can you believe we are mid-March already? Surely, some trickster has been tinkering with the concept of time, making it go faster, and faster still. Not that it actually feels like it at time of writing, as a deceptively icy wind is putting paid to the illusion created by the blue sky spied through our windows,  but in just a handful of days astronomical Spring will be upon is. 

My blog, a couple of paces behind real life at the best of times, is now definitely dragging its feet, which are still firmly planted back in February, almost exactly one month ago to the day.

Before I proceed to tell you about February's penultimate week, however, let me tell you that even though there's still some way to go for Jos to be restored to perfect health, he is going from strength to strength and is doing surprisingly well given the ordeal he's been through.

Right, into the time machine it goes again, setting the controls for Sunday 16 February. 

As the weather gods presented us with lots of sunny spells but highs of only 3°C, it was definitely still jumper weather. The one which made the grade that day was an orange and green wing-collared vintage jumper I picked up from Think Twice in  December 2023.

Its companion, a forest green suedette skirt bought brand new at Mango many years ago and last worn back in December. It's super soft and very strokable, its only downside being a lack of pockets.

The enamelled metal brooch I pinned to the jumper - featuring an Edelweiss, a Gentian and a couple of smaller daisy-like flowers - is vintage and was a flea market find back in the mists of time. A search on my blog tells me I bought it from the Brooch Lady, if you remember her. I can't help but wondering if this feisty lady - who was already well into her eighties last time we met in November 2019 - is still around today.

The wooden beaded necklace - which reminded Kezzie of cherries in various stages of ripeness - was a charity shop find.

After tackling those bothersome yet necessary household chores in the morning, we decided upon a walk at Fort 5 in the afternoon.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while might remember our frequent previous visits here. This is, in fact, the nearest nature reserve of any significance to Dove Cottage, only involving a mere 10 minute drive up the road to the outskirts of the neighbouring village of Edegem.

Here and there, in the odd places the sun hadn't been able reach, were some remnants of the flurries of snow we'd had earlier that week.

I was glad of the warmth of my favourite Winter coat, my orange velvet sales bargain turban from Think Twice and the chunky orange scarf I'd picked up in the sales in January. 

We started our walk alongside the moat, where water birds of various plumage are ruling the roost.

The sun and the wind were playing games with the water, rippling it with sparkly sun glitter, which momentarily blinded us and made me regret I'd left my sunnies behind in the car.

The path along the moat eventually takes us through some of the old fort buildings. Dating from the 1860s, Fort 5 is part of a ring of 8 almost identical forts surrounding the city of Antwerp, most of which are still in existence today. Those which do have been turned into nature reserves and recreational areas, with part of the buildings being used by a variety of local clubs.

The brick and sandstone buildings half-hidden among the undergrowth, their woodwork in various stages of dereliction and their crumbling brickwork covered in graffiti, are very atmospheric but more than just a tiny bit creepy. Carrying the weight of over a century's worth of trees upon their roofs surely must be a recipe for disaster ... 

The sunny yet bitterly cold weather continued on Monday, when almost 300 emails awaited me at the office. Thankfully, they weren't all for me to deal with but I still needed to trawl through the lot. So much for working only a 4-day week, I'm always being punished for my 3-day weekends on a Monday.

I had to dash to the shops during lunch break, as I had a mission. Back in the January sales, I'd bought a cotton peasant-style blouse in delicious shade of magenta from a shop in the small shopping centre near my office. As so far the weather hadn't been conductive to wearing it, I'd put it aside in my pile of yet-to-be-worn items. It was when I was dressing up Angelica to photograph said items during the weekend that I noticed the blouse still had its security tag! Thankfully, I'd kept my receipt. Although the alarm hadn't gone off when I left the shop after my purchase, it did do so when I walked in to have the tag removed. Needless to say, and only rightly so, they were very apologetic when I explained the matter!

Tuesday's weather was a repeat of both Sunday's and Monday's but as the wind had more or less died down, I walked to Antwerp's Botanic Garden (a.k.a. Den Botaniek) during lunch break.

Its main entrance is on a street called Leopoldstraat, which is only a couple of minutes from my office and Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfare, the Meir. I came across this postcard from a bygone age on Facebook, showing a much quieter and more dignified street than it is today with its non-stop stream of traffic. On the left you can see the Botanic Garden's retaining balustrade topped with ornate late 19th Century cast iron lamp posts.

Both the balustrade and the lamp posts, each bearing a trio of copper lamps, are still in situ today. No longer lighted by gas, its mantles having been replaced with electric light bulbs a long time ago, it is nevertheless a trick of the (sun) light which makes them glow here ...

Den Botaniek is a landscaped botanical garden dating back to 1825 and covers an area of slighty ​​less than one hectare. The garden has a collection of 2000 plants and a magnificent conservatory which houses a number of cacti and other exotic plants. The city's website claims that the conservatory is closed on Sundays only but although I've been coming here on weekday lunch breaks for many years, it never seems to be open. I'll have to investigate or, better still, ask one of the gardeners when they're around.

The pond was partly frozen and there was no sign of the Koi fish who live here. Apart from a plethora of Hellebores and the odd patch of Winter Aconites, there wasn't much in bloom, particularly when compared to the same time last year. It's not that it has been such a harsh Winter, so perhaps this is due to a distinct lack of sunshine and far too much rain? 

Wednesday was another day of sunny spell with a slight increase in temperature to 6°C. We'll be having a heatwave soon, I'm sure. This was my view when I walked to the office, with the  Art Deco skyscraper which is my office's opposite neighbour batching in golden early morning sunshine. 

It as a welcome sight for sore eyes, even if it was my ear(s) rather than my eyes which were bothering me that day. I'd woken up with a blocked left ear, which is one of the recurring banes of my life.  

Thankfully, things had greatly improved when I got back from my lunch break walk. Perhaps the fact that I found this fabulous frilly-yoked vintage dress in a pop-up shop was part of the cure?

Another temperature boost on Thursday, when the mercury climbed to an unheard of 11°C. Unfortunately, the sun was playing hide-and-seek that day ...

Trying to find things that make me smile every day, I looked up as I returned from running a lunch break errand, my eyes alighting on the bronze eagle with spread wings perching upon one of the shops, designed and built in eclectic style in 1895 by architect Joseph Hertogs (1861-1930). The eagle was sculpted by Alphonse Van Beurden (1856-1938), who also designed the sculptures on the façade of the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In the United Kingdom, he is renowned for his ivory sculptures, and between 1887 and 1904 he exhibited thirteen times at the Royal Academy of Art.

How strange that I never noticed the eagle before ...

The sun returned from wherever she had been hiding on Friday and helped the mercury climb to 16°C. I told you we might be in for a heatwave ...

I had an appointment for a much needed colour and cut at my hairdresser's but when I walked into the salon at the appointed time Michel looked at me quite oddly. It appeared that he'd got the timing wrong and had jotted down the appointment for 21 March instead of 21 February. He was all apologetic, obviously. Having been my hairdresser for 30 years running, apologies were duly accepted, even if I'd had to get up at the crack of dawn and come all the way to Antwerp on my day off for nothing. A new appointment was pencilled in for two weeks later and after a welcome cup of coffee and a chat I was on my way home again.

I'm finishing this post with a look at Friday's outfit, which was built around one of my favourite Finnish vintage frocks. Much to my dismay, it hadn't made it out of my wardrobe yet this season.

I took my lead from the muted green in its Art Deco-style pattern for my bamboo buckled stretchy belt and swallows in flight brooch, while the orangey bits inspired my opaques, ring and beaded necklace. Only the latter of my accessories was a second hand find, while the rest had its origins on the high street. The brooch was picked up from a gem of a shop in Cardigan during one of our Welsh holidays, way before I started my blog.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to join Ms. Bess for a nap on the sofa.

See you soon!

She's not there

This post should have reached you by the magic of scheduled posting while we were living it up in the lap of luxury at B&B Het Soetewater in Beernem near Bruges. But I'm not there, I'm here, sat behind my desk in Dove cottage's spare room, where I've pushed the publish button in real time just a couple of minutes ago.

As last weekend Jos wasn't feeling well and ultimately woke up with severe nausea in the early hours on Sunday, we made the heart-wrenching decision to cancel the little getaway which we'd planned to celebrate our 30th Anniversary. 

At the time of writing Jos is feeling well again. However, what with people succumbing to the flu left, right and centre, we don't want to run the risk of Jos falling ill ahead of his surgery, which is planned for end of the month. So, we will kind of self-isolate as much as we can until then.

Obviously, we will be making up for lost time in the next couple of months!

For now, let's return to the matter in hand, which is how life has been treating us in the last few days of that seemingly endless month of January.

On Sunday the 26th we woke up to sunny spells, which filled our hearts with gladness. But clouds soon gathered once more and a blustery, bone-chilling wind made the air frigid so that the wind chill temperature was quite a bit colder than the 7°C forecasted for the day.

My outfit was one I'd prepared a couple of weeks ago but hadn't got around to wearing yet. The vintage polyester tie-collar dress, which is from the Finnish Marketta label, was a Think Twice find in October 2022. I picked up the green in its pattern with my opaques and belt, and paid tribute to the lilac bits by wearing the purple Western-style ankle boots I snaffled from an outlet shop back in December.

I tamed the rather unwieldy tie with a scarf clip featuring a posy of pansies and forget-me-nots. I'm also treating you to a close-up of the dress's pattern and its delightful flower-shaped black buttons.

With Saturday's raindrops still glittering on the sodden plants in our jungle junkyard of a garden, I'm proudly showing you the Hellebore (Helleborus sternii) whose clusters of nodding pink-flushed flowers are currently brightening up the passageway. 

The rain having kept us cooped up inside for most of the weekend, we decided to make the most of the cold but mercifully dry day by going for a walk in the park in nearby Duffel.

As we were nearing the pond, we were met by the sound of honking and quacking and, sure enough, looking down from the bridge we spotted a paddling of ducks who seemed to be chairing the quarterly meeting of the park's waterfowl.

 

For once, there was no sign of the screeching gulls who are usually trying - but failing miserably - to masquerade as ducks in the hope of a handout. At the other side of the bridge, a single, disgruntled sounding moorhen whose invitation had apparently got lost in the post. Carrier pigeons these days!

The wind was making my eyes sting and water but we doggedly plodded on, our booted feet squelching on the muddy and partially flooded paths.

The landscape was at its bleakest under the canopy of whitish grey,, the leafless trees with their clusters of twigs and gnarled and twisted branches meeting their reflections in the overflowing ponds.

And Jos was meeting his reflection too, standing still for just long enough for me to take a photo until I too negotiated that whopper of a puddle.

And what have we got here? Forget about snowdrops, it's Hellebores - and quite a variety of them too - which are the harbingers of Spring here. Aren't they a sight for sore eyes?

I've been wearing this coat on repeat these last couple of months so I guess it's my current favourite, although in all honesty I've been too preoccupied to drag any alternatives from my full-to-bursting and not very accessible coats wardrobe. The others must feel quite neglected, I'm sure.

My orange scarf and yellow woolly hat are making another appearance as well, but that's purely coincidental.

January's final week was a quiet one at the office as our Chinese business associates were celebrating Lunar New Year, entering the Year of the Snake.

When lovely Andrea of 50 Looks of Love T. wrote about this event a couple of weeks ago, she referenced Kaa, the snake in Jungle Book, the stories originally written by Rudyard Kipling and published in 1894. In the book and many of its screen adaptations, Kaa is an ally of protagonist Mowgli, acting as a friend alongside Bagheera the black panther and Baloo the bear.

Andrea's post definitely took me on a trip down memory lane! When I was six, Disney's 1967 version of Jungle Book was the very first film I saw in the cinema. I've only got the vaguest memories of it though, apart from my Dad taking me on the bus to Antwerp on a Sunday afternoon and taking our seats in the darkened cinema near the end of the previous screening.

Cashing in on the success of the film, coffee brand Rombouts issued a set of  felt animals which could be saved for by cutting coupons which came with their packets of coffee. My parents must have consumed a lot of coffee as I managed to collect them all! In hindsight, I guess they must have got some help from my grandparents.

They were displayed in my room, where they lived on the shelves of the desk unit built by my carpenter Dad. And there's Kaa! I added a yellow arrow to help you spot him!

Sadly, most of the animals haven't survived after being inherited by my much younger siblings, but when we were clearing the parental home after my Dad passed away in 2016, I managed to salvage the two remaining ones, one of them being Kaa! He's usually stored in tissue paper but he got a rare outing to feature on the blog.

After this brief trip in the time machine, let's go back to those final January days!

Mostly grey and often windy, with highs nudging 10°C, Monday the 27th was the only sunny exception.

After tackling the usual onslaught of emails awaiting me after my three-day weekends, I treated myself to a walk to Antwerp's Botanic Garden during lunch break.

Things were still a bit bare, but my heart made a little leap at spotting a clump of winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) which looked as if they were just about to open their buttercup blooms.

And look, there were some Hellebores too.  How delightful is this double-flowered one!

Thursday was a dismal day with almost non-stop rain. To make matters worse, I was obliged to make use of public transport to get to the office, as Jos had a pre-op appointment at the hospital, followed by another catheter change.

We'd both been bundles of nerves for days but everything went well, all things considered. Still, it was a relief to get to the end of the day and the beginning of another weekend.

Friday was - you guessed it! - another day of endless grey skies, which did nothing to enhance the highs of 6 °C.

I pottered upstairs after breakfast and paid a visit to blogland while we were waiting for a technician to come and service our gas heaters. Then, after lunch, we did the weekly food shop, followed by more pottering and some reading.

For that day's outfit, I mixed different patterns in similar colours. In fact, for once, the outfit I'd created in my head turned out to be just as good in real life!

My black needlecord skirt with its cloud-like pattern was charity shopped last Spring. The heart-patterned cardigan worn as a jumper is Diane von Furstenberg. This too was a charity shop find. I snapped it up for a mere € 5,90 in December 2021.

The belt was picked up in a long-gone vintage shop, while both the turquoise plastic beads and the peacock brooch were yet again charity shop finds, the latter found on a whirlwind visit to Llangollen (Wales) in June 2019.

And now, how about some biscuits to go with your tea or coffee?

See you next time!