Hops, towers and biscuits

It was Sunday the 6th of September when sunshine accompanied us on our by now familiar way to Poperinge, where our holiday cottage, Marjolein Guesthouse, was waiting for us once more. 

Including our stopover on our way to the UK back in August, this would be our third visit this year. Still, our hearts were making jumps of joy the minute we drove through our very own ornamental wrought iron gates. The view from our balcony never fails to delight us either: we were looking forward to sitting and staring across the lake and fields towards the Franco-Flemish hills for the next week.

I promise not to bore you to death waxing lyrical about the cottage which has been a true home away from home for more than 15 years, but here's the view of the compact little studio from one end to the other. The bathroom is hidden away behind the glazed door in front of the bed, and there's a breakfast nook offering an ever-enchanting view across the lake next to the kitchen block.

The weather forecast for the week ahead was for slightly cooler temperatures of just under 20°C, but thankfully no rain (ha!), but for now we were enjoying mild mid-twenties summer highs.

Having arrived shortly after 3 pm we had no further plans for the day than making ourselves at home and having a catch-up with our lovely host and friend Marino, who insisted on taking our photo.

We were one week later than usual so that I would be able to celebrate my birthday away from home. Therefore, we were fully expecting the hop field across the road to be partly harvested by now. Turned out that for once they weren't keeping to their usual schedule. As a result of the succession of heatwaves, hop picking began about a week later than usual, with the harvest estimated to be 20 per cent lower due to the flowers having been been scorched by the heat.

I hopped across the road to have a closer look at the rows of hop poles, at that time having absolutely no idea that we would be able to have an even closer look a couple of days later ...

Sunshine and clouds were playing a game of tag on Monday morning, but with the mercury still climbing to a balmy 23°C there was absolutely no reason to complain.

After a leisurely breakfast followed by the arduous task of pulling on Jos's compression socks, the first item on our agenda was stocking up on food and drink at the local supermarket.

Having dropped everything off at the cottage, we then decided on our first outing of our holiday, for which we selected Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. Although involving a drive of less than 10 minutes from the cottage, we still managed to get hopelessly lost, as our Satnav insisted on taking us to the hamlet named Lijssenthoek instead of to the cemetery. 

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and is the second largest Commonwealth cemetery in Belgium, the largest being Tyne Cot Cemetery near Zonnebeke, about 25 kilometers away.

From 1915 until 1920 the hamlet of Lijssenthoek became the venue for the biggest evacuation hospital in the Ypres Salient. During the First World War, the hamlet was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields. Close to the Front, but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish casualty clearing stations. 

The cemetery contains 9901 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 24 being unidentified. There are 883 war graves of other nationalities, mostly French and German, 11 of these unidentified.

One cannot help to be moved by those endless rows of identical headstones, bittersweet reminders of the atrocities and pointlessness of war.

In a reflective mood, we drove back to our cottage for lunch followed by forty winks (Jos) and a date with my current read.  

As I sat watching the antics of the plump of moorhens which call the lake their home, I suddenly spotted the majestic blue heron who sat patiently waiting for his next meal to swim along. It was only after I'd grabbed my camera that I saw I wasn't the only one who'd spotted him! 

Clouds started gathering in the afternoon, but although the darkening sky held a promise of rain, it would remain dry for the rest of the day. The overall gloom wasn't inviting us to leave the cozy confines of our cottage. However, I'd promised my colleague to pay a visit to a little chapel called Ons Heerens Boompje, which literally translates as Our Lord's little tree.

Although it's within walking distance from our cottage - a walk we did a couple of times over the years - we decided to drive part of the way, along a bumpy unsurfaced road, and park on the chapel's tiny car park in the middle of the fields. The eagle-eyed among you might spot our car in the far distance in the photo on the top left. On the bottom right, across the fields, one can spot the stand of poplar trees belonging to the domain surrounding our cottage.

From the car park, it's another 100 metres or so through the fields, until a narrow gravel path running along a hedge veers off to the left. At the end of this, the little chapel is waiting, sheltered by the black poplar which is the last so-called "fetish tree" in West Flanders, legend of which goes back 400 years. 

The hawthorn hedge surrounding the chapel is hung with ribbons of fabric, and indeed whole garments of any shape and size, since legend has it that this would make fever, pain and ailments go away.

My colleague asked me to hang up a pair of socks belonging to her Mum and, while we were there, we also added a handkerchief belonging to Jos, burning a votive candle for good measure.

Before retiring inside for the rest of the day, me and my assistant made some photos of my outfit, featuring my chocolate brown polka-dot maxi skirt from C&A and charity shopped zig-zag patterned t-shirt, last worn together in July.

A granite grey sky greeted us when we drew back the curtains on Tuesday. Fortunately, the clouds seemed to be holding their breaths for now, apparently not wishing to disrupt our plans for that morning.

On Monday evening, Jos's daughter An had messaged us, telling us she'd read that a new viewpoint had been opened in Poperinge that very day: a 6-metre high metal tower looking out over the hop fields belonging to hop farm Belhop.

Having holidayed here so many times, I was familiar with the name Belhop. What's more, we could actually see a corner of one of their hop fields from our balcony. In fact, if we leaned slightly over our balcony's railing, we were able to spot the tower half-hidden by some trees.

Despite it being only a hop, skip and a jump away, we took the car and parked on the premises of the farm, after which we proceeded to climb the tower for a bird's eye view of the hop field. 

And look what we spotted through one of the viewers mounted on top of the tower! It's the little chapel we visited on Monday!

Mission accomplished, we drove to Poperinge for a rummage at the local charity shop, the first drops of mizzly rain starting to fall when we stepped out of our car.

Contrary to their colleagues the weather gods, the gods of the charity shops were on their best behaviour that day and gifted me this fabulous needlecord maxi dress. I also found a retro-style blouse, which I promise to style for you soon.

We were back at our cottage for lunch when the rain started coming down in earnest. 

As according to our weather app it would rain for the rest of the afternoon, we needed to find an indoor activity. Having exhausted almost all rainy weather options over the years, it was almost a given that it would be something we'd done before. 

Our destination of choice: the Jules Destrooper Visitors Centre in Lo-Reninge, which is Belgium's smallest city but one, having gained city rights as recent as 1985.

In different rooms, the rich history of the family business and the art of biscuit making in general is laid out, followed by the serious business of biscuit tasting at the end.

We were debating whether to buy the biscuit patterned umbrella but ultimately decided against it. We soon realized the error of our ways when we stepped back outside ...

The rain clouds eventually departed elsewhere that evening, making way for some golden sunlight to end the day with.

The sun was up bright and early again on Wednesday morning, although there was a strong wind that kept the temperature firmly in check just under 20°C.

Another day, another tower to climb!

We'd driven by this tower sitting forlornly in a field for many years, wondering about its purpose. Finally, all became clear last year, although we still hadn't managed to visit.

The so-called German tower from the Second World War was restored and opened to the public in May 2025, exactly 80 years after the end of the war. 

It is one of the few remaining visible traces of the air war in Poperinge during the Second World War. The 13-metre-high tower was built by the Germans as an observation tower for Flugplatz Peselhoek, a 125-hectare airfield that was never used.

See-through metal steps - not exactly my thing as I suffer from vertigo - climb up to a viewing platform at the top. Thankfully there are stops at every floor, where rooms with solid floors offer information on the history of the tower.

In 1942, the site was converted into a vegetable garden to provide food supplies, while during the Cold War, the Belgian army used the tower as an observation post for the Air Defence Service. 

The views from the top were magnificent, even if they were accompanied by a soundtrack conducted by a stormy wind.

Our stomachs were in need of sustenance by the time we were back on solid ground, so our next stop was Poperinge's town centre, where we managed to grab a table at restaurant Goeste.

The afternoon was spent visiting the Hop Museum in Poperinge, which is housed in the former municipal hop warehouses. It is the only museum in Belgium devoted entirely to the cultivation and culture of hops, offering four floors of local hop-growing history and Belgian beer culture.

Poperinge has been the centre of Belgian hop production for centuries, and the town has been hosting a three-yearly hop festival in September, a tradition started exactly 70 years ago, in 1956. This year's edition would be the 26th, and would take place from 18 until 20 September.

Preparations were already in full swing ...

Back at the cottage, there was a very fitting end to this "hoppy" day, as much to our delight hop picking had started in the field across the road!

I hope you enjoyed tagging along with me? I promise to be back with part 2, including my birthday shenanigans, soon.

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!