It's the final countdown

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of work and holiday prep. However, yesterday I waved goodbye to the office until the end of June, which means that I am officially on vacation. Yay!

Today, we finished the dreaded packing, and with our bags already stashed away into the boot of our car, there's no going back and I can only keep my fingers crossed that I made the right choices for my travelling capsule wardrobe!

Tomorrow we'll be getting up at the crack of dawn, so how about a little catch up before we go?

Right, let's start with Whit Monday, the 29th of May. 

Although it was mostly sunny, the mercury didn't quite reach Sunday's highs and got stuck at 18°C, while a hazy layer of cloud played hide and seek with the odd patches of blue sky.

I was wearing one of my Diolen delights, a sky blue dress scattered with orange, yellow and white flowers. The vintage daisy brooch I pinned to one of its lapels couldn't have been a better match.

My oldest raffia belt - a charity shop find many years ago - came out to play, as did the orange, yellow and white bubblegum necklace I picked up from a long gone vintage shop.

At my feet, the pale blue suede shoes which almost match my beloved Cloudsteppers for comfort.

After a morning of chores, which yet again included a bit of ironing, we were more than ready to go for a head clearing walk.

A short drive took us to Hof ter Linden in the neighbouring village of Edegem, where you have joined me quite a few times before. 

Although renovation of the Neoclassical manor house is rumoured to be imminent, there was still no sign of it. In fact, the poor thing was looking more dishevelled and crumbling than ever.

We gave it and the sphinxes and lions who are guarding its entrance a wide birth, skirting the domain and walking along the reed edged moat where the first of the yellow flag Irises were putting in an appearance.

We stopped for a photo next to a stone plinth, which we suspect once supported one of the sculptures illegally removed by the descendants of the castle's last occupant shortly before the domain was sold to the village authorities in March 2012. 

Handing over my camera to Jos, I misjudged and accidentally dropped it. Thankfully, it didn't fall from a great height - the advantages of being vertically challenged - and made a soft landing, sustaining nothing but a couple of superficial scratches, but its near demise had left me reeling so that I had to sit down on the nearest bench and recover.  

Feeling better after having ascertained my camera was still in working order, we continued our walk.

The path had by now veered away from the moat and meandered along and through wildflower meadows, until we reached the lake at the back of the mansion, which we circled until eventually we passed its courtyard. From here, it was only a short walk back to where we'd left our car.

We'd been charity shopping on Saturday, but apart from the haori I wore to get lost in on Sunday's wilderness walk, I still needed to show you my finds. 

The dove grey flower patterned maxi skirt feels like silk, but unfortunately has lost its contents label to confirm it. It's by Jackpot - a label which featured abundantly in my late 80s, early 90s wardrobe - and,  in spite of missing a whopping six of its ten buttons, I fell in love with it on the spot. I knew my button stash would come up trumps and it did, as the tiny grey shank buttons I used are hardly distinguishable from the remaining self-fabric ones!

There's no label whatsoever to identify the floral magenta blouse, but it followed me home nonetheless.

My final find that day was the cropped orange Zoë Loveborn cardigan with its black trim and buttons, which is part of my travelling capsule wardrobe!

Later that week, I also made a couple of purchases from Think Twice, who appeared to have started another one of their famous sales. On two consecutive days, I found the peach coloured, puff sleeved jumper and the vintage frock in dotty pinks and pale green.

Other lunch time activities included buying a travel hairdryer as I busted my old one back in September, and a visit to my hairdresser, Michel, for a colour and cut on Wednesday. He gave me a bit of a fright when he told me I was his last client before his retirement ... but then he said he would continue working a couple of mornings a week regardless. Phew! It would have been quite a thing having to change hairdressers after 28 years!

Meanwhile, the weather gods kept being on their best behaviour with lots of sunshine and temperatures ranging from 19 to 24°C.

Saturday dawned sunny and the mercury effortlessly reached the forecasted highs of 22°C.

Nevertheless, with a to-do list as long as my arm, our only outing was a walk into the village to run some errands.

The day's outfit was an effortless one as well, combining a black and white striped New Look skirt with a groovily patterned black, white, green and red vintage top, both of which were old charity shop finds. 

The stretchy black raffia belt with its round faux tortoiseshell buckle was a bargainous high street find a couple of weeks ago, while the green birds-in-flight brooch was a holiday souvenir from a shop in Cardigan. Beads, bracelet and ring were charity shop and flea market finds.

First time wearing sandals this year - they're my comfy old red Gabor ones - but I couldn't be bothered to paint my nails.

Our garden's pinks and purples are supplied by - clockwise from top left - a bowl of cheerful fuchsia Busy Lizzies, frothy Lobelias, a glorious Foxglove and the Petunia 'Purple Vein' in our hanging basket.

Meanwhile, the trailing Geraniums in their green enamelled cones have made friends with the purple and yellow Million Bells in the half basket on the potting shed wall.

 

Isn't the colour of that indigo Delphinium fabulous? They offer a lovely contrast to the delicate lavender blue Campanulas.

After a couple of nail-biting months, we were happy to finally spot the first of the lime green Hydrangea flower heads, which are expected to metamorphose into head-turning Wedgwood blue beauties soon.

Together with the hanging baskets, the strawberries are spending the two weeks of our holiday on Inneke's and Maurice's balcony. With the sunny and warm weather forecasted, they will soon ripen to juicy red berries for our friends to enjoy!

The weather gods cranked up the thermostat to 24°C on Sunday.

Yet again, the day was mostly spent ticking tasks off our list. These included setting up a rudimentary watering system which will hopefully keep our patio pots happy during our holiday. To this end, we grouped them all together in the shady passageway, well away from the wilting heat of the sun.

Sunday's dress was a King Louie by way of a charity shop. I added a modern dusky pink butterfly brooch to flit among the dress's exotic foliage. The pink translucent beaded necklace was charity shopped as well, while the navy belt with its white plastic buckle used to belong to my late Mum.

We had been anxiously waiting for the first of the scarlet Oriental Poppies to pop open and it finally happened on Sunday morning. By Monday, at least six of them had shrugged off their furry bonnets (thank you Vix!) so as soon as I got dressed I popped out into the garden before work to take some photos. 

The pops of red behind the white Foxglove on the top left aren't poppies, though, they're the flowers of Geum chiloense 'Mrs. Bradshaw'!

And you can see some of next door's building materials stacked against the garden wall on the bottom right ... 

So, that's it for now. Obviously, I couldn't leave without a photo of our beloved furry family member, the only and only Queen Bess!

We will miss her, that's for sure!

I'll be back with tales of adventures in a couple of weeks. See you on the other side!

Caught on camera

'Twas October's final Sunday. The weather gods were still on their best behaviour and treated us to another day of sunshine and unseasonable temperatures.

After a morning of faffing and pottering - my memory fails me here on what I did exactly - we cast around for walking destinations which, as we were in one of those archetypal lazy Sunday moods, wouldn't be too far from home nor too strenuous. In the end, we declared that a walk in Den Brandt, one of Antwerp's loveliest parks, would be just the ticket.

The temperatures might have been leaning more towards Summer than Autumn, but there was no denying that it was the end of October, soon to be November, with all the sensory signs of nature winding down present and correct.

In fact, the juxtaposition of the seasons felt slightly unreal as if we were living on borrowed time, which undoubtedly we were, with dull and dark November waiting in the wings.

Short-sleeved it may have been, but my dress definitely belonged to Autumn, with its glorious mix of seasonal colours including the quintessential Hallowe'en pumpkin orange. It's one of my favourite Diolen Delights and I usually keep it out to wear in Autumn if the weather allows.

In spite of the mildness of the day, I was wearing layers, starting with a green cardigan and followed by a fiery orange velvet jacket. The ochre yellows in my dress's print were picked up with my belt and necklace and if you squint you might make out the purple glass ring I wore.

As usual, we entered the park through the adjacent picking garden. Here apples, pears, cherries and plums can be harvested in season, and there's a range of soft fruits and a selection of herbs to take your pick from from as well. At this time of year, though, only half-empty beds of straggling herbs were on offer. 

I always make a beeline for the Gautam Buddha - a gift from the Ambassador of Nepal back in 2004 - who is keeping watch from the garden's far end, eager to see the offerings he has received. Finding his lap empty, I picked him a posy of wildflowers which I tied with a long blade of grass. Jos's contribution were two feathers he found in the dewy grass.

Behind the hedge which backs the Buddha is an intriguing turreted house called Villa La Chapelle. Now a conference centre, the house was originally built in neo-Gothic style between 1880 and 1885 as the gardener's residence of Castle Den Brandt, commissioned by the then lord of the castle, Emile Augustin Joseph della Faille de Waerloos (1835-1890). 

Normally a locked gate keeps one from entering the secluded garden belonging to the villa. For some reason, however, the gate was now standing invitingly open and beyond it an arrow pointed into the direction of the path leading around to the villa's back. An equally inquisitive couple was just rounding the corner when we tentatively stepped through the gate, so we confidently followed suit.

We would eventually have to turn back as there was a fence preventing us from accessing the park this way, but not before exploring the villa's small and slightly overgrown garden.

Half-hidden among the thicket of shrubs was this statue of a lady leaning pensively on a gate post, a shawl draped nonchalantly over her shoulders. She was rather sad-looking, I thought, perhaps hankering for the halcyon days of her prime. Who was she, and what was her name, I wondered. As her stony gaze gave nothing away, I named her Flora.

With one backward glance, we bade goodbye to Flora, whom we'll probably never meet again. I'm fairly certain that wide open gate was a case of negligence rather than intention.

Back in the picking garden, we climbed the steps leading into the park itself. We proceeded to walk along an avenue of majestic trees, at that particular moment in time still largely in leaf, with the faintest hint of amber dotted among their branches. 

The hapless victims of storms and high winds were lining the edge of the path, while fungi reared their heads from their beds of leaves.

The park as we now know it was first opened in 1911. It used to be the pleasure grounds of a romantic castle, originally built in 1790, but renovated in the 1870s in late classical style.

For its opening in 1911, the city had a reproduction of Michelangelo's David installed in the grounds, which they purchased at the 1910 World Fair in Brussels.  Like the famous original in Firenze, the statue is over 5 meters high. Unlike the original, however, you can admire this one, popularly known as den bloten David (colloquial for naked David) for free and without joining endless queues. 

There is also a small English cottage in the grounds, which is purely ornamental, placed in the garden as a romantic element.

Picturesque though it is, it is standing there quite forlornly in its miniature cottage garden. In fact, I think it looked just a little bit spooky, particularly on this day before Hallowe'en. I might not celebrate the latter, but I'm not averse to some tasteful seasonal spookiness.

The week which followed was a bit weird and chaotic, what with the impending office move keeping my colleague and me occupied.

On top of that, I had some catching up to do on Monday after my three-day weekend, so that by the end of the day I was more than ready for another day off. Wasn't it just fortunate that Tuesday the 1st of November was All Saints Day, which is a public holiday in Belgium!

It was mostly sunny and a more than reasonable 17°C, but a gale force wind made it feel quite unpleasant outside.  I continued with the seemingly never-ending wardrobe changeover, putting aside two bags of stuff to sort through and decide whether to donate or sell at next year's flea market.

Then, in the afternoon, we got a visit from my brother, whom I hadn't seen or heard of for well over a year. Apparently, he'd been spending time abroad, which neither me nor my sister were aware of. A close family we certainly aren't. Anyway, by the time he left, it was alas too dark for outfit photos. 

Work kept being crazy fort the rest of the week, although on Wednesday I took some time out for a visit to my hairdresser.

On Thursday, we had some outside help packing up most of the office, so that we would be obliged to spend the days counting down to the actual move surrounded by walls of boxes.

We were also given the key of the new temporary office, which is only next door to ours, its windows offering a slightly different aspect from the one I have been used to for 27 years. I snapped this moody photo of the view towards Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfare with my phone on Friday morning.

Yes, I did work on Friday again! Only a half-day, though. It was a gloomy day with a couple of showers and a drop in temperature to 13°C. Still in double figures, so I guess we couldn't complain, particularly as it had cleared up somewhat by the time Jos picked me up.

We stopped off at our local charity shop for a rummage, but let's have a look at my outfit first.

The skirt, which I bought at 70% off in the January sales, is made from a very strokable faux suede fabric and is equipped with two generous patch pockets.

Its companion for the day was this aubergine blouse liberally sprinkled with multi-coloured dots, which was a Think Twice find many moons ago. 

Both my purple belt and orange beaded necklace were charity shop finds, while the Lea Stein lookalike cat brooch with its orange eyes and ears was a gift from my lovely friend Kezzie.

Now, what did I find? 

First up is a pair of hardly worn tan leather Italian made loafers. I also found this modern tartan patterned dress, which started life at C&A.

But it was Jos who claimed the star find this time!

Another remnant from the infamous Day of the Charity Shops, the price tag on this wooden stereo camera dating from the late 1800s, early 1900s, was a bit higher than what we are used to pay, but still a fraction of what it would have cost it in an antiques shop.

Its leather-clad case had a tag mentioning "Louis Van Neck - Constructeur breveté - Klapdorp - Anvers". Some Googling brought me to the Directory of Belgian Photographers compiled by FOMU, the Museum of Photography in Antwerp. 

Apparently, Louis Van Neck (1853 - 1917) was a pharmacist who sold photographic chemicals and supplies at his premises in a street called Klapdorp in Antwerp from 1884 until 1908. He is considered one of the finest and most inventive Belgian camera manufacturers of the 19th century. 

In 1893, he patented "a new, simple stereoscopic camera, the ‘Royal Excellentis L. V. N."

Our new treasure is a dry plate camera, dry plates being pieces of glass plate coated with a gelatin emulsion which when exposed to light will capture an image. They were invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871

Included in the camera's bag were three sets of wooden dry plate holders, which offer space for two dry plates, one at each side. These holders would be inserted at the back of the camera. After exposure of the plates, a clever mechanism allowed the holders to seal them off from light.

We are still thinking how to properly exhibit this jewel in the crown of our antique camera collection, but in the meantime Jos ans his assistant have already given it the necessary TLC. 

Be my Baby ... Brownie!

Looking at my diary for March, I almost did a double take when I saw that two of my favourite events had been chalked in for the same weekend!

So, we'd hardly recovered from the Retro Day of Saturday before last, when there was our favourite flea market to go to on Sunday.

We were still having a temporary respite from the cold, so I decided to wear Saturday's swing coat again, accessorizing it with blue instead of red for a change, with a sky blue lightweight wool scarf and a beret in electric blue.

I was originally wearing a pink cardie underneath, but that was discarded only minutes after entering the flea market venue. 

My blue frock was sprinkled with bursts of pink flowers, and in spite of initial misgivings (I thought it would be too frumpy), I felt absolutely fantastic wearing it.

This was of course greatly helped by the fabulous belt, which I found lurking in one of my belt boxes, giving the dress an edgy 1980s look. I never thought I would say that about anything 1980s but the further we're getting from that decade, the more I'm appreciating the merits of its iconic looks. 

Not the ginormous shoulder pads, obviously! Nor would I want to go back there, especially not to the old house, which sometimes still haunts me in my dreams.

Oops, sorry to digress!

I added my great aunt Josephine's pink pearls, which puts the outfit back several decades, as does the oval rose brooch. The ring I'm wearing is one of my collection of plastic rings (hello, 1960s!) which I'm picking up whenever I can find them. Sadly, they seem currently to have vanished from the high street. Fashion is so fickle!

A pair of pink-ish tights (they're Falke, and the colour's called Valerian) and my blue, flat heeled boots, and I'm ready for the hunt.

Fast forward several hours and we're back at home with our treasures. Ominous rain clouds were gathering, so I quickly made a tableau on our garden table, where there's the best light for photographs this time of year.

Now, let's look at it all in more detail. 

It wouldn't be a successful flea market if there weren't any brooches. The top three ones are from the same stall, which has an alluring jumble of costume jewellery. Sadly for me, an English lady, who visited the flea market on Saturday, beat me to it, and got away with the best stuff.

The fabulous rectangular micromosaic brooch came cheaply as it had been repaired with a replacement clasp, but luckily I'm not a purist, especially if the price is right. Nobody sees the back when you're wearing it anyway.

These two unusual cameo brooches came from different stalls. They are both celluloid and I'm especially enamoured by the slightly faded lady sporting a Pompadour hairdo on the right.

This Art Deco egg cup and serving platter set by Crown Ducal Ware is missing two of its egg cups, but at € 3 it would have been silly not to take them home.

In spite of my self-imposed handbag ban, Jos persuaded me to buy this beaded evening bag. Oh, go on then!

Having had a similar toy as a young boy, Jos had a bout of nostalgia when he laid eyes on this small plastic dog. Apparently, it can walk, but although it's very tempting to try it out, he's to remain in his packing. 

Poor little mite! As if it isn't bad enough that he's green ...

I wasn't in need of another sewing box, but I loved this small blue and white plastic woven basket, for which I will no doubt find another use.

In case you are wondering about this post's title: this Kodak Baby Brownie camera was actually one of our first buys.

This small, basic Art Deco style camera was originally introduced in 1934. Made of Bakelite, it had a flip frame viewfinder, as you can see in the ad below. Apparently, the company was still called Eastman back then!

Ours, called the Baby Brownie Special, was its replacement, adding an built-in optical view finder, produced by Eastman Kodak Company from 1938 to 1954. 

In the above collage, you can see it next to one of the other Brownie cameras we have in our modest collection, for size comparison.

One of the stars of our collection is a boxed Brownie Starlet camera, complete with flash unit and flashbulbs, dating from the late 1950s.

Jos found this in the waste disposal area in the communal basement of the block of flats we used to live in before we moved to Dove Cottage. As photography has always been one of his interests, he didn't hesitate to give it a home. 

In order to recover from this mad weekend, I managed to take Monday off.

Around noon, our doorbell rang and it was the postman carrying a mysterious parcel.

In it were two gorgeous dresses, complete with their original belts. One even had a matching jacket!

They were a gift from the lovely Gisela at Miss Magpie's Musings! Wasn't it sweet of her to think of me?

They obviously had to be tried on immediately and, as the weather was still mild, it was possible to take outfit photos in the garden without freezing to death.

First up is this candy striped green and cream frock, closed asymmetrically with a row of the most unusual hexagonal mother of pearl buttons. 

The self-fabric belt is slightly too long for me, but I replaced it with a plain green one, and added a green necklace and green slingback shoes with coppery toes. I drew the line at going barelegged so I am wearing nude tights here. 

The second dress is the one with the matching jacket. It's a gorgeous royal blue colour with a subtle gold print and gold piping at the neckline.

I spent the rest of the day making space for my new acquisitions by filling a couple of bags for charity.

Now don't tell me I haven't been a good girl!