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!

Being boring

When we woke up to a foggy and murky day on Saturday 11 January, we were glad we'd had the presence of mind to go for that spur-of-the-moment walk in park Den Brandt on Friday. Without the previous day's copious amounts of sunshine, the temperature, which remained stuck around 0°C, didn't offer any incentive to leave Dove Cottage's warm and cozy confines.

What's more, I wasn't feeling too clever, as it appeared as if a stomach bug had me in its grips. Not known for sitting still for long, though, I still managed to clean the bathroom, resew a loose button on a dress and write a blog post. As daylight was almost non-existent and the world outside wasn't my ally, we skipped making outfit photos that day. Consequently, I have no idea what I was wearing.

This, however, was what I was wearing on Sunday!

For some unfathomable reason, the forest green button-through wool blend dress my eyes alighted on that morning hadn't made it out of my wardrobe for many years. Bought from a gem of a shop called Vintage Styling, which sadly stopped trading back in 2016, it used to be one of my go-to dresses when the temperatures started dropping towards freezing point. Here I am wearing it topped with a faux fur capelet in January 2017.

I was originally wearing the tan mock croc belt in lieu of the dress's original self-fabric tie belt, but transferred it to the chunky mustard cardigan when I layered on top. The necklace is part of a set which also includes the ring I was wearing that day and which, same as the Léa Stein lookalike cat brooch, was a flea market find.

Thankfully, my alleged stomach bug had upped and left, and even the weather gods had mended their ways by raising the temperature to 4°C and surprising us with an unexpected sunny spell in the afternoon.

Too late in the day to go a bit further afield, we decided to go for a stroll in a local park which is almost literally on our doorstep.

Altena park is part of a domain which used to belong to an order of nuns, but which was acquired by the local council in the 1980s.

The big chapel on the top right, built in neo-Gothic style at the end of the 19th century, has been turned into a venue for concerts and exhibitions.

While the park itself was private property during my childhood, the adjacent large playground, opened in 1961, and run by the nuns, was a major attraction which put our otherwise sleepy village on the tourist map during the Summer months. They even had there own picture postcards!

Admittedly, some of the playground attractions - and in particular the vertiginous slide, which you can catch a glimpse of in the top right photo on the postcard  - wouldn't pass health and safety regulations nowadays. Sadly, the playground is no more as it finally closed down in 1986.

As we ventured into yet another working week, the weather continued being the same old boring grey affair. Except for Monday, that is, when after a frosty start the sun managed to warm things up to 4°C.

Technical problems which lasted all day threw a spanner in the works at the office, and I could only despair at the avalanche of emails which would almost certainly await me on Tuesday.

My lunch break brought some relief by walking to one of the Think Twice shops and indulging in a spot of bargainous vintage shopping therapy. 

Sales prices had gone down to € 6 by now and I was lucky enough to find treasure in the form of a teal cable-knit cardigan with the most delightful buttons.

Stripes a-plenty with a zig-zag striped brown jumper and a blue and yellow striped polo neck.

Both the cardigan and the zig-zaggy jumper have already had their first outing. Sadly, both were worn on weekdays, when the lack of daylight after work as well as my lack of selfie-taking skills ruled out the possibility of photographing my outfits.

There's always room for more accessories in my collection, so this green beaded necklace and painted wooden brooch, grabbed from a tray at the till, came home with me as well.

Although by Wednesday the mercury had climbed to 7°C, the sun had once again taken leave of absence. It was an utterly dismal day on which a pea-souper fog refused to budge, robbing the view of Antwerp's cathedral from our office windows. For comparison, here's the same aspect sans fog, and with the cathedral basking in early morning sunshine.

As it was Wednesday, a cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez was on the menu. Always a bright spot in the week, taking place in Think Twice's coffee shop it usually combines a caffeine hit with a rummage fix. With prices down to € 4, Inez snapped up a peasant-style dress and found me another tank top for my modest collection. 

Skipping Thursday for being the usual uneventful and dare I say boring office day, we've now arrived on Friday 17 January.  No rest for the wicked, though, as I had a hairdresser's appointment, for which Jos kindly drove me all the way to Antwerp.

The chocolate brown 1970s does 1940s frock is yet another one which seemed to have escaped my attention of a while. A search on my blog has thus far remained fruitless which obviously doesn't mean that it wasn't worn in all of the almost nine since I published my first post!

The fluffy burnt orange cardigan was very much needed on this gloomy day with highs of barely 2°C.

There's no rhyme or reason to my accessories, I just played around with them until I was satisfied with the final result. They included an agate brooch, which was a flea market find about a year ago, a charity shopped chunky wooden beaded necklace and a stretchy belt with a leopard print buckle. The latter was last Summer's high street sales bargain.

Back from Michel, who has been my hairdresser since 1995, we booked our UK holiday cottage for June. I'll have you know that we have exchanged the cow shed we have been staying in for the last couple of  years for a stable :-) Still a long way off and a couple of hurdles to jump, though.

Yet another gloomy day awaited us on Saturday, the mercury abandoning all efforts to climb above freezing point. As the weather forecast kept insisting we'd get to see some sunshine on Sunday, we ticked the downstairs cleaning off our to-do list, leaving Sunday free for any spur-of-the-moment outings.

A rummage in my wardrobe unearthed the patterned velvet maxi skirt I snapped up at Think Twice in September 2023, its companion a charity shopped Norwegian style H&M jumper.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the brooch I found at Think Twice earlier that week.

I opted for wine red for the rest of my accessories to pick up the pops of red in both the skirt and the jumper. The wooden beads were another charity find while the elasticated belt with its mock croc front panel and massive square buckle was picked up on the high street.

With the weather not being conductive for any outdoor activities, we decided that a charity shop rummage was in order. And about time too, as it would be our first one this year! Oh dear, we are really letting standards slip!

The gods of the charity shops welcomed us back with open arms and rewarded us with plenty of finds. 

These two blouses soon found their way into my basket: the floral pussy-bow one is vintage, while the shirt with its stunning blue, cream and orange Art Deco style pattern is by a French label called Emma & Ella. 

I fell head over heels for the amazing pattern on this King Louie cardigan, so that was a no-brainer. What's more, as this particular chain of charity shops no longer has a separate rail of posh labels they are selling at inflated prices, I just paid the regular price for cardigans of € 5,90. 

There's one final item which came home with me that day, but that'll be for my next post. Leaving you with a bit of a cliffhanger here, but I promise to be back soon!

Moving in circles

As I start writing this post, it's a wet and miserable November Sunday, with the rain beating incessantly against the windows. All of a sudden, Autumn has entered its nasty, soul-sapping stage, which rather takes getting used to after October's balmy, Indian Summer weather. With the mercury not showing any sign to climb out of the single figures, it's all I can do to keep warm. It's a toss-up between keeping on the move or putting the heating on, and I'm afraid I succumbed to the latter. I might be able to add an extra pair of socks and pile on the layers, but I'm drawing the line at fingerless gloves while I'm typing.

Such a difference with Sunday 23 October, when the weather gods were still lenient, treating us to temperatures effortlessly reaching 20°C.

It would have been a perfect day for a walk if it hadn't been overcast, the sky awash with angry black clouds threatening rain. As it was, the previous week's office ordeals had drained my energy levels, so we just strolled to the Museum of Folklore during a sunny spell mid-afternoon to take outfit photos in front of its rusty garden gates.

I was wearing a black, white, blue and yellow plaid skirt from Think Twice, picking up the yellow with a funky top by French retro brand Mademoiselle YéYé, which was a charity shop find in July 2019.

I matched the black in both the skirt and top with one of my stretchy chevron patterned belts and a black-based pin I'd picked up during Saturday's charity shopping trip. Finally, I paid tribute to the blue in the skirt's plaid by adding a teal-ish blue waterfall cardigan and blue flower ring.

Oh and I wore my denim blue embroidered Western style Sacha boots again. Everything including the boots was found second hand, by the way.

Our lazy Sunday enabled me to take photos of Saturday's finds, some of which I already offered a sneak peek of at the end of my last post.

But first up is a closer look at the pin I was wearing that day. It was one of a set of three creepy but cute badges, which came on a card. I couldn't find out much about La Marelle en Papier, other than that it is French, but at € 1,50 I wasn't going to leave them behind. They were on the jewellery display of the second shop we went to, which was the one near the park in Duffel.

The clothing rails of the same shop yielded this pink and green patterned wool blend vintage dress from the French Le Gaillard label, which I can't wait to wear when the weather gets really cold.

Quite unintentionally there seems to be a French theme going on here, as this dusky pink cord blazer I found in the first shop we visited is from the French mail order company 3 Suisses. Just seeing the label instantly takes me back to the 1970s, when I loved nothing better than poring over their hefty catalogues which arrived twice a year like clockwork. My mother often ordered from them, which I guess was easier than taking the bus into Antwerp and traipsing around the shops.

The company, which was initially called La Filature des 3 Suisses, and started life selling knitting wool, was established in Roubaix, France in 1932.  They launched their first Textile Catalogue in 1949. Apparently, in 1969 they caused quite a fuss by putting a photo of a woman wearing trousers on the catalogue's cover. Quite revolutionary at the time, it seems. If that surprises you  then let me tell you that as late as the early 1980s, when I was at college, I had a teacher who insisted on all girls wearing skirts during exams! Ever the rebelling feminist, I hated the guy with a vengeance.

The first shop, which is the one in Mechelen, can be very hit or miss, but this time it was a true treasure trove. Shortly after snapping up the blazer, I found this bottle green and off-white checked wool-blend skirt by Tommy Hilfiger. Both the skirt itself and its content label look pristine, so I'm guessing it was hardly worn. My camera, however, refused to properly pick up the green, which looks almost black here. I've got it earmarked for its first outing soon so I'm hoping to reveal its true colour when I'm out and about.

In spite of owning a plethora of cardigans, there's always room for one more. Particularly when it has an eye-catching zig-zag pattern in fuchsia pink and yellow on turquoise. And even more so when it comes with a matching short-sleeved jumper with a keyhole neckline. A twin-set with a twist, from the Belgian Van Hassels label.

More zig-zags and another short-sleeved jumper, in black, white and yellow this time and by the Belgian CKS label. I paid just over € 13 for the blazer, skirt, twin-set and jumper, which is a steal. This particular shop doesn't differentiate between labels. In those who do, I would have paid a lot more, as these would all be considered higher end labels.

For my final find of the day, we have to return to the second shop. This cable knit short orange poncho has its origins in Belgian high street shop Lola Liza. Perfect for supplying extra warmth when I'm churning out blog posts, or to nip out into the garden on a cold Winter's day.

Speaking of nipping out into the garden, I have a confession to make. Apart from just outside our back door, I hadn't actually been into the garden since we returned from our September getaway. With next door's building work and the upheaval caused by seemingly never-ending story of The Wall in particular, I temporarily lost the will to do any gardening. It was all I could do to look at the mess through the kitchen window, so it slowly but surely reverted to its pre-Covid jungle state. 

The Ivy - which produced yellow and green blooms for the first time in its career - conspired with Akebia quinata, also known as Chocolate Vine, in twisting and climbing towards our neighbour's garden. We will tame it eventually but for the time being we let it be and secretly hope it bothers our neighbour who is not a fan of greenery - his word, not mine.

Our Fuchsia magellanica shrub really comes into its own this time of year and, just like the Cotoneaster berries there is no need to go out into the garden to appreciate them setting the garden alight.

When I finally plucked up the courage to walk down the garden path, I was delighted to see the splashes of purplish blues supplied by Monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii 'Cloudy', top right) and some Campanula bells. The latter is growing in a pot we had to move to the back of the garden and it's doing better than ever, taking advantage of the warm weather to produce a second flush of flowers.

Pots, plant stands and ornaments, including our famous pot of marbles, are jostling for space in the grandly named courtyard at the very back of the garden. These are the former contents of the passageway, which we hope to be able to move back before too long. 

The Salvia who lives here permanently is still going strong, and keeps contrasting nicely with the yellow of the old enamel sign.

Other stalwarts which keep on providing colour are Red Valerian, Verbena rigida and the ubiquitous Nasturtiums which are the offspring of the climbing variety sown two years ago. The black berries belong to Liriope muscari, which is sharing space with the Heuchera in the window box that used to be in the passageway.

The working week which followed was only marginally less manic than the previous one, but I won't bore you with the details for now.

It remained unseasonably warm and mostly sunny. I know I should have made the most of the remaining handful of days when it was still light enough for outfit photos after work, but it took until Wednesday, which was the 26th of October, before I had enough get-up-and-go left to do so.

My dress was a € 2 Think Twice sales bargain about three years ago. I'd been stalking it in the shop until the girl whose basket it had landed in was discouraged from buying it by her friend, who declared it too granny-ish. Well, her loss, my gain!

Isn't that print, which manages to combine stripes, chevrons and diamonds in pinks and purples with the a splash of burnt orange, just fabulous?

I love purple and orange together, so I took my lead from the burnt orange diamonds and added an orange cardigan, belt, necklace and ring. The burnt orange background of my classic cameo brooch ties in with the colour scheme as well. 

Thursday was my last working day of the week. Now that my colleague is back I am able to take regular Fridays off again. 

Like Wednesday's outfit, Thursday's contained lots of orange, although I admit my cardigan, which is a very bright and deep orange, does look like more of a red in the photos. 

Whatever the case, I matched it to the orange leaves in my skirt's pattern. The skirt is a pre-blog Think Twice find, which has been in my wardrobe forever. 

The blue vintage blouse with its naive flower print came from Think Twice as well. My blog tells me I bought it in the Spring of 2019. 

The half-elasticated belt with its square buckle is a fairly recent high street find, which has been working overtime in the last couple of weeks. It appeared in one of the outfits in my previous post and I've worn it yet again since.

My necklace was charity shopped and the vintage brooch with its red berries I pinned to my blouse was a flea market find.

I was breathing more than just a sigh of relief at the thought of closing the office door behind me in just half an hour, when I got a phonecall which I would rather not have had. 

Ever since coming back from our September getaway, there's been talk of renovating our office. For this, we will have to temporarily move to other premises on the same floor. That fateful phonecall established that we would be moving on the 10th of November which - eek! - is in just two days now! I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end, but I can't say I'm looking forward to yet another round of upheaval. I'm currently surrounded by a wall of boxes at the office, which feels quite claustrophobic.

I'll back with the final weekend of October's adventures in my next post. That is, if they haven't put me in a straightjacket after Thursday's move!

Oh August

 "If you walk along the main street on an August afternoon there is nothing whatsoever to do."

When I first read this line, which is from the opening chapter of Carson McCullers' novella "The Ballad of the Sad Café", as a 15-year old in a school room, it struck a chord with me, as yes, that's exactly what it was like on the main street of the quiet backwater I was living in. 

This rang especially true in August, with half of the shops closed for their Summer holiday: the butchers and the bakers which were still plentiful back then, before they closed down, one by one, for good.

 My mum had sent me off on a treasure hunt for the last loaf of bread in the village, and as I cycled up and down the main street, finding all the shutters closed, drops of sweat trickled down my back and the oppressive heat was just as stifling as the air of boredom which hung over the village. It was, after all, the long hot Summer of 1976 and there really was nothing whatsoever to do.

Fast-forward forty-six years, and I'm still living in the same village. Or rather, I came back here after an 18-year hiatus when I was in my late thirties. The butchers and bakers have been replaced by generic chain stores and a handful of fashionable boutiques. Yet, on a hot August afternoon, the main street is as deserted as it was back then, except for the steady trickle of cars passing through. 

This year, it feels as if August has passed us by, its days a blur of indistinguishable hot and noise-filled ones. But you've put up with my moaning for long enough now, so perhaps it's time to have a look at what I've been wearing to combat the recurrent heatwaves. 

My wardrobe full of Diolen delights has hardly seen the light of day! 

My vintage cotton Madras check dress made an appearance on Tuesday the 9th of August when, after a couple of days when the mercury didn't climb higher than a moderate 25°C, we were back into the high twenties. 

I took advantage of both the white and the red in its check for my accessories. I hadn't worn the white pleated leather belt in a while and in fact, I'd completely forgotten about it until I came across a photo on my blog in which I was wearing it. 

The weather gods, intent on making us melt into puddles of sweat, sent 31°C our way on Wednesday the 10th. 

Enter this mid-century cotton cap-sleeved frock, in darkest blue patterned with red and white, a Think Twice sales bargain back in June 2019. 

I picked up the red with my ring, necklace and belt and added a vintage celluloid Scottie dos brooch to the dress's square neckline.

Tuesday's red Gabor sandals would have been perfect here, but both they and my toes had had a mishap on my way home that day. Having had to jump out of the path of an e-scooter, whose driver clearly thought the red traffic light wasn't meant for him, I cut two of my toes on some random pieces of debris lying in the gutter. Luckily the cuts were only superficial, but they bled nonetheless, resulting in some unsightly stains on my sandals, which I haven't yet had the get-up-and-go to try and remove.

It wasn't the only mishap that would befall me that week, you see. On Friday evening - we were the 12th by now - while suffering a blinding headache as a result of yet more noise from next door, I stumbled and fell while upstairs, leaving me with bruises on my upper left arm and both of my knees. In fact, my left knee was rather swollen and was rapidly turning black and blue. Fortunately, the swelling soon came down after the application of a spray given to us by our other neighbour's son.

The weekend ahead, which was an extended one as Monday the 15th was a bank holiday in Belgium, was set to become another hot one, with temperatures well over 30°C. 

As much as we would have loved to escape, it simply was too hot to do anything much. The only place where it would be reasonably bearable was the seaside, but that was a definite no-no because of the bank holiday weekend. It was later reported to have been one of the busiest weekends ever!

And then there was my poor knee which I didn't want to put too much of a strain on, even if it wasn't as painful as I'd expected it to be the next day.

We had a - fruitless - errand to run on Saturday, after which we battened the hatches at Dove Cottage and tried to keep cool.  On our way back, we stopped off at the Museum of Folklore for some local Lady of the Manor poses.

Both the palazzo trousers and the peasant-style blouse were sales bargains from the high street. I was wooed by the trousers in the Summer of 2020. They're from Mango and are easily the most comfortable trousers I've ever worn. Apart from their Paisley-esque pattern, they have pockets and huge splits at the sides allowing for the necessary ventilation on a hot day.

The blouse is from New Look and has been gracing my wardrobe for several years. It might even be my most worn item of clothing on the blog!

Flat yellow sandals, my enamelled butterfly brooch, and a charity shopped black and white necklace completed my outfit.

Sunday was the hottest day of the week, and if I remember correctly I wore a vintage playsuit all day. No photos were taken, though.

We dug up our holiday brochures for our upcoming yearly trip to Belgium's west country - if there are no further mishaps, we are leaving tomorrow! - and jotted down some ideas. I have a feeling Bess knew what we were up to, as she did her very utmost to thwart our plans!

Hallelujah, it actually rained overnight, and there were puddles! Well, there was one on the towpath next to the park in Duffel where we went for a walk on Monday, relishing the fact that the temperature had dropped to just 23°C. 

However, if the moody sky held the promise of more rain, it never materialized. In fact, by the time we'd completed our circuit of the park, the odd patch of blue was starting to appear.

Adjacent to the towpath and the park are the ruins of castle "Ter Elst", whose origins date back to the 12th century. Over the years, we have watched the decline of the ruin with more than just a hint of sadness.

Long gone are the days when events took place in its courtyard, as due to stability reasons the site had to be closed down in 2012 and the wrought iron gates giving access to the bridge have remained firmly padlocked ever since.

We once went to a flea market here, on yet another hot August day, when a brass band was playing in the castle grounds, the bandleader's well-meant but hilarious comments having us in stitches.

But there is good news at last, as the site is scheduled to receive a grant next year, so that the long-awaited renovation work can finally be tackled. In fact, a start has already been made in stabilizing the building.

The renovations will include reconnecting the walls and adding a glass roof to the Great Hall so that it can be used for events. In the courtyard, the contours of the vanished castle will be made visible with variations in the floor pattern, and it is meant to become a resting place for walkers and cyclists. To this end, a new foot and cycle bridge connecting the castle island with the towpath will be constructed.

It all sounds very promising, although I'm sure the ruin will lose some of its charm in the process as well.

Now, let's have a look at what I was wearing. This vintage cotton frock with its gathered cap sleeves was just the ticket that day. It was also long enough to hide my injured knee, although of course I am happy to oblige and show it to my faithful readers and followers :-)

That isn't real broderie anglaise, by the way, it is part of the pattern. The dress is also sparingly sprinkled with blue daisies, which obviously rules out the use of any other brooches than the one I'm wearing here.

As I am fastly running out of time, I thought I'd whizz you through some of the outfits I wore in August's penultimate week.

Here, my flower-infused cotton 1970s skirt from Think Twice went hand in hand with a charity shopped King Louie blouse, to which I'd pinned a vintage brooch picked up from a flea market. The necklace with its tiny orange tiles was charity shopped as well, but the black stretchy belt with its square buckle was a recent high street buy.

Both the skirt and the blouse in my next outfit are from the Belgian Who's That Girl label, and both were recent charity shop finds. Again, only the stretchy belt was bought brand new on the high street. 

The massive bird on a branch brooch - which neatly ties in with the birds and twigs pattern of the skirt - was a charity shop find, as was the mustard cardigan, while the necklace came from a long-gone vintage shop. 

As I was browsing Facebook one evening, I was horrified to read that there had a been a fire in the tower building in Antwerp which my office looks out on . They are currently renovating the building, which was completed in 1931 and hailed as Europe's firs skyscraper. The project will take many years to finish and has now been the source of noisy goings-on for about a year. There really is hardly any peace and quiet to be found in my life at the moment. 

This is my current view from my 5th floor office window, so why don't we have a look at something a bit more cheerful instead?

This floaty, chiffon-y dress was another Think Twice find, picked up many years ago. The dress's cerulean blue backdrop is patterned with black and white squiggles and a garland of blowsy flowers near its hemline.

More black and white was added with the chevron patterned belt with its round, black wooden buckle, and the rim around the roses in my brooch.

My bright pink cardigan and my favourite necklace from Accessorize were both retail purchases which have by now stood the test of time.

Cool cottons were once again represented in one of my favourite outfits of the last couple of weeks.

Again, both the skirt and the blouse were charity shopped. The striped skirt, which is scattered with rosebuds in various colours, was originally from H&M, and picked up in a charity shop between lockdowns in July 2020. The orange and pink patterned blouse, which is from the Belgian Mer du Nord label, was a more recent find.

Not wanting the hassle of too many accessories on this +30°C, I kept them to the bare minimum, only adding a vintage, navy and white beaded necklace and one of my contemporary cat brooches.

And speaking of cats, how about some photos of our darling little monster to end this post.

I'm sure she'll miss cuddling as much as we will while we're on our break, but we'll make up for it in just over a week!