Miscellaneous May

Oh dear, it looks as if I'm late for my next date with blogland again! 

Work has been quite relentless these last couple of weeks, which left me with little or no energy to sit in front of my PC of an evening. Add to this the usual pre-holiday prep, so that I won't be returning to utter chaos after my two-week holiday, and I'm sure it's no surprise that cobbling together collages and stringing words into cohesive sentences has been quite beyond me.

And then there's the not unimportant fact that this weekend we were obliged to cancel our longed-for UK getaway ...

Always a bundle of nerves in the weeks leading up to our holiday, Jos was now suffering from full-blown anxiety issues at the thought of having to travel all that way. As a result he once again lost his appetite, which at this moment he is yet to fully regain.

Heart-wrenching though it is to have to cancel - and particularly so this late in the day - we are certain that we've made the right decision. Telling my heart that this is so, however, is another matter altogether. 

In order to soften the blow, we decided to try and find somewhere closer to home, even if only for a couple of days. Enter our beloved September cottage in Poperinge. which by a stroke of luck was still having a six-night vacancy next week. To say that we are looking forward to sitting on its little balcony with a view  in a week's time is a bit of an understatement. 

But let's not be too hasty, as with most of the month of May still having to be written up I've got quite a bit of catching up to do.

The weather gods continued to be on their best behaviour on the day after we got lost in the wilderness. It was Sunday, the 11th of May, and the mercury was on the rise, reaching highs of 25°C. It would have been utter foolishness not to make the most of such glorious weather so, after having dealt with a couple of unavoidable household chores, we drove down to Solhof Park in the neighbouring village of Aartselaar. 

The vintage short-sleeved millefiori dress I'd selected for the occasion was a charity shop find in February 2024. From its multitude of colours I picked blue for my chunky plastic ring, flower embossed leather belt and vintage swallow brooch. There are a couple of blue beads in my necklace as well. Incidentally, the latter came from the charity shop near our west country cottage.

The Clarks Wave Walk shoes, which I'd picked up in a Ludlow charity shop as a replacement for my worn and battered Clarks Cloudsteppers last year, still needed to be broken in, so I decided to give them an outing that day. My feet have given them their thumbs up, but they're currently at the cobbler's as one of the shock-absorbing soles decided to part company with its host. 

Aartselaar's deliciously unkempt municipal park was once part of a castle's pleasure grounds laid out in Capability Brown inspired English landscape style. 

Today, the estate still covers 7.5 hectares and has been protected as a landscape since 1975. 

Its woodland complete with meandering sun-dappled paths and monumental 100 to 150 year old trees is perfect for an impromptu Sunday afternoon stroll. 

One of the park's attractions is the quirky knoll with its gazebo, which is built on top of an abandoned ice house. You can just catch sight of it in the photo on the top left. The ice house, which is claimed to be in excellent condition and one of the rare remaining examples in the area, is now a place of hibernation for a colony of bats.

The knoll can be climbed by way of a narrow, yew-hemmed and increasingly eroded path spiralling up to the top. Not much of a view at this time of year, though, just the merest of glimpses through the tops of the trees of the much modernized 19th Century mansion long ago turned into a hotel, and the last of the Manderley-esque Rhododendrons.

Bess was waiting for us when we got home, impatient for a cuddling session with Jos, who seems to be her current favourite, although I can't for the life of me understand why :-)

And so another weekend had come to an end with the start of a new working week following hot on its heels. And hot it definitely was with the mercury climbing into the high twenties.

My vintage 1970s cotton floral skirt was yet another old Think Twice find, while the green tartan blouse is King Louie by way of a charity shop. My comfortable red Kiarflex shoes were charity shopped too but both the stretchy orange belt and the orange cat brooch (from Katshop!) were retail buys. Not sure where I got the orange beaded necklace from, but it's been in my collection for what feels like an eternity.

Sales prices were down to € 2 at Think Twice on Monday and I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted this vintage watercolour print C&A skirt on the almost depleted rails! Never mind that it had a small tear which I was able to mend almost invisibly.

The gloriously summery weather continued on Tuesday, when I wore a charity shopped lobster print shirt paired with an orange and off-white tiered cotton skirt picked up in the C&A sales in the Summer of 2022. Both the cherry-shaped wooden beads and the lobster brooch were charity shop finds as well while the stretchy belt was found on the high street.

Wednesday's cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez was followed by quick round of the newly replenished Think Twice rails at the start of their new collection. This dress with its eye-confusing green and pink pattern insisted on coming home with me.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse on Friday, with temperatures down to 18°C, a dismal looking grey sky and lots of wind. 

No sleeping in or leisurely breakfast that day, as I had an appointment with my dentist in the town of Boom, about 10 kilometer away, for a check-up, cleaning and a minor filling. Not fun but needs must.

While I was in the dentist's chair, Jos went for a walk around the block and reported the existence of a brand new charity shop, which obviously we needed to check out before returning home.

Aren't those light fittings fabulous?

The shop, which was immaculately laid out, didn't disappoint, as no less than four items ended up in my basket. I fell in love with a pair of wide legged giant poppy print trousers, a pair of squishy yellow shoes, a grooviliously patterned pleated maxi skirt and a chevron striped V-neck top.

As a result of the dentist's drilling, probing, scraping and polishing (ouch!) I woke up with a full blown headache on Saturday, one which refused to budge all day.

But I felt that I'd definitely earned my stripes, so I dug out a red and white Breton top - an ancient high street find - to wear with my charity shopped vintage floral skirt.

Navy belt: charity shopped

White metal and navy hearted flower brooch: flea market

Red Kiarflex shoes and multi-coloured beaded necklace as before.

After our neighbours Wes and Michèle helped us with applying for our ETA, which we would have needed to travel to the UK (sob!), I walked into town to run a couple of errands.

On my way up, I stopped to admire and photograph the exuberance of the cottage garden in front of the museum of folklore. 

More stripes on Sunday, which was a day of utter indolence as I was still nursing the dregs of Saturday's headache and was feeling quite exhausted.

The stripes in question belonged to the jumper of many colours, originally from Monki, but picked up from a charity shop a couple of years ago. My Diolen skirt was an old Think Twice find back in the pre-blog mists of time.

Gold and silver patterned boots + stretchy chevron patterned belt: charity shopped

Wooden disk necklace: Accessorize

Blue cat brooch: Katshop

I'm leaving you now with some snapshots from the jungle junkyard which in spite of our shameful neglect keeps throwing up surprises. It must be the crumbling guardian cherub who keeps things ticking over!

The white foxglove in the passageway has been joined by a batch of purple campanula which has self-seeded between the cracks in the paving. And what a joy it is to see some double saucer-shaped red Geum flowers peeking out from the wilderness. Not to mention the dusky purple nodding flowers of one of my favourites, Geranium phaeum, particularly since it seems that its sister in the passageway has done a disappearing act!

Oh, and we've got some sweet strawberries too!

I might or might not try and fit in another post before we leave, but if not, I hope to see you on the other side! 

In sickness and in health

In spite of my best efforts, I can't seem to be able to get into my erstwhile blogging rhythm of churning out a blog post every four days. I knew I'd been letting standards slip with the odd gap of five days instead of four, but the alarm bells really started ringing at six days and - gasp! - a whole week between posts! It's not exactly my blogging mojo which has gone missing, nor can I blame it entirely on the problem with my eyesight. If I have to name a culprit, it must be the clock, whose hands seem to have been accelerating the passing of time, of which whole chunks have been disappearing into thin air lately.

It didn't exactly help that I was struck down with a virus shortly after the events of my previous post.

On the evening of Wednesday 4 October, I started feeling shivery and somewhat nauseous. Although I didn't have a temperature - which I rarely do anyway - I took some paracetamol and thought a good night's sleep would settle things. It didn't, as unfortunately I'd slept quite fitfully. Still, I decided I was well enough to go to work on Thursday.

By midday, however, I was feeling exhausted, so I called it a day and went home. In a sort of light bulb moment, I'd connected my symptoms to the previous week's Covid booster jab, but this was ruled out by a phone consultation with my GP. Apparently, I'd caught a virus which was doing the rounds, its main symptom being tiredness. In short, a couple of days of rest would see me right.

I slept well and deeply that night, and indeed felt a whole lot better, if still somewhat tired, on Friday morning. I did wake up with a blocked and buzzing left ear, though.

I spent most of the day reading and dozing on and off on the sofa but although I did get dressed, making outfit photos would have been too much of an effort.

This, therefore, was what I was wearing on Saturday. We were still enjoying Indian Summer temperatures nudging the mid twenties. This offered another chance for wearing one of those as yet unworn Summer dresses. This lightweight floral Diolen one in shades of blue and aqua with a generous dollop of white made it out of my wardrobe that day.

The sparkly teal cardigan I layered on top was charity shopped in 2019, while the aqua carved heart brooch was a holiday souvenir, picked up in Cardigan in 2017. The pale blue beads came from a long-gone vintage shop many years ago. 

On my feet, my green suede Van Dalen ankle boots. They too were a charity shop find, in February 2021 to be exactly. Still one of my best finds ever!

My throbbing left ear had much improved by now, and would continue to do so as the day progressed.

Still, I persisted in taking it easy and spending my time reading on the sofa until my eyes hurt and my head was dizzy.

My latest read, Wideacre by Philippa Gregory, was definitely engrossing, although it did take me a while to finish its 600+ pages as I kept falling asleep.

The book had been languishing in my reading pile ever since I picked it up in a Shrewsbury charity shop back in June. It made it to the top of my pile when I found out it had been mentioned by Sarah Waters as one of her favourite books.

By late morning, I declared myself well enough to do some light pottering. As part of the never-ending wardrobe changeover, I swapped sandals for ankle boots and put some of my knee-high boots within easy reach. 

I also unearthed a tub full of opaques in a rainbow of colours in readiness for the chillier days ahead.

Still on a roll, I strolled into the village to run an errand in the afternoon. However, I felt quite sweaty and exhausted by the time I was back. Clearly, I'd been too optimistic about feeling better!

Therefore, on Sunday - we were the 8th of October by now - I didn't venture from Dove Cottage's confines at all in spite of the gorgeously sunny 23°C weather.

In fact, I didn’t do much at all except for resting and reading, plus working on a new blog post, which I finished ready for publication on Monday. I always work on my posts over several days, starting with photos and collages, and then adding text whenever I've got time or inspiration strikes me.

I snapped up the vintage folksy cotton circle skirt in a charity shop in the Summer of 2020. 

Looking back at my blog, I always seem to match my top to the roses in its pattern, and this time was no exception. My short-sleeved knit jumper was a sales bargain from the Belgian Sweet Soda label earlier this year, while the posy of pale pink flowers brooch came from a quirky independent shop near my office.

The rest of my outfit - the matching pale pink beads, chevron patterned stretchy belt and dusky pink retro-style shoes - were all charity shop finds.

While the garden is an absolute mess and not worthy of being blog material, there are still quite a few things to be spied to delight the eye. 

Initially, it looked as if our lovely Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta), which used to live in the passageway, had become a victim of next door's renovation works. But then I discovered the plant in a broken terracotta pot among the bags of compost from our bin back in Spring.

The poor plant was barely alive but swiftly recovered after repotting and giving it some well-needed TLC. And look: my efforts were paid off when it finally started flowering its head off in October. Just how gorgeous are those orchid-like flowers, its white petals sprinkled with purple freckles?

The leaves of the Virginia Creeper covering the shed at the bottom of the garden are getting redder (and sparser) by the day, and the Hydrangea flower heads are blushing a delicious deep rose-pink. Our Fuchsia magellanica shrub is full of pink and purple prima ballerinas. And speaking of purple, the Salvia which survived last Winter in the rejuvenated passageway isn't showing any sign of giving up just yet!

The weather gods kept treating us to temperatures well over 20°C for the best part of the second week of October, which often felt at odds with the unmistakable signs of Autumn.

Health-wise, it was a week of ups and downs which I muddled through as best as I could.

Consequentially, there isn't much to tell, apart from the fact that I once more added to my collection of boots during one of my lunch breaks. After I fell head over heels with a pair of mock croc knee-high boots in November 2021, they soon became my most worn pair. They'd become a bit worse for wear so imagine my delight when I spotted the exact same boots for just € 20. 

Still eking out my swiftly dwindling holiday quota, I once again took Friday off that week. If the weather forecast was to be believed, it would be the last of the Summer days!

Browsing my wardrobe for the perfect partner for the sage green blouse I found at Think Twice the other week, I stumbled upon this rather neglected Basler skirt. Smitten by its lined cotton fabric and exotic fruit print, it followed me home from a charity shop in July 2018.

Apart from the enamelled orchid brooch, which was a flea market find, everything else here had its origins in a charity shop as well. And yes, that includes the burgundy Fly London ankle boots with their turquoise trim.

Speaking of charity shopping, we did indulge in one of our favourite pastimes both on Friday and Saturday. So, before I bid you goodbye, here's what I found.

First up, a floaty orange skirt sprinkled with navy squiggles by the Danish Soft Rebels label, which landed in my basket on Friday. It was joined by a retro-style hand knitted brown and white jumper with square neckline, and a hot pink vinyl belt.

Saturday's finds were a navy, white and red chevron patterned cardigan by Only, which is another Danish label, and a gorgeous green half elasticated belt with lion's head closure.

That's it for now. I hope you'll join me again for my next effort to catch up!

In between showers

The forecast for April's penultimate weekend promised a high probability of rain on both Saturday and Sunday and, while the showers might be interspersed with a sunny spell or two, there was a strong possibility that the blanket of grey would be too thick to allow the sun a look in. In short, they - and by they, of course, I mean those dratted weather people - had no clue whatsoever, and made sure there would be no complaints by forecasting all kinds of weather bar snow and heatwave temperatures

It was therefore a welcome surprise to wake up to a modicum of sunshine on Saturday, and as we'd been promised highs of 13°C, I decided to throw caution to the wind and forego the long sleeves, opting for ... three-quarter ones instead. How very daring, no? 

First outing for this predominantly blue flower infused vintage dress I found at the vintage per kilo shop back in January. As it was missing one of its buttons, which I didn't like anyway, I replaced them with vintage black and white moulded flower ones, which turned out to be so well-suited they almost seem to be part of the pattern.

Among the blue-hued flowers are some tan-hearted daisies and leaves, which I took as my lead to add tan and burnt orange to my outfit.  At my waist, my latest stretchy belt with a tan faux-bamboo buckle, which was a naughty high street buy back in March. On top, a charity shopped diagonally striped orange and burgundy Zoë Loveborn cardigan.

The plastic flower brooch is vintage, an outdoor flea market find in the Summer of 2016, while the necklace with its multi-coloured beads followed me home from the charity shop in Poperinge during our week in Belgium's west country in September 2019.

This wasn't my initial outfit of the day though, as after breakfast that morning I donned my gardening gear. The idea was to dig over the narrow border in the passageway, remove the building rubble which had ended up here courtesy of our neighbour, and plant the shade-loving perennials we'd brought back from the garden centre the other week. 

After doing the hard graft in spite of suffering from backache, Jos left me to do the planting. I'd only just made a start when he came running back outside, telling me I would need to hurry up as rain was imminent. I'm glad to report that I made it, if only just in the nick of time, as the first drops were starting to fall while I was putting in some yellow archangel I'd dug up from elsewhere in the garden.

The yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) joined the fresh from the garden centre Vinca minor (Lesser Periwinkle),  Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor', Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle), Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' (Bugle) and Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Purple' (Foxglove).

Then there were the Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' and the Helleborus sternii which had been living in pots in the passageway since the Autumn, as well as some surplus self-seeded foxgloves and Welsh Poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) from the garden.

We'd lost a big chunk of the border's edging during the building work, so that the rain soon washed away some of the freshly dug over soil and turned part of the passageway into a mud-fest.

We'd looked for suitable border edging in the garden centre on our last visit but hadn't been able to find anything to our liking. As rain kept stopping play for the rest of the day, we decided to have a look in another local garden centre as I thought I'd seen something which might suit on their website. 

Before we proceed, though, here's a look at my vintage teal new wool coat found at Think Twice many years ago. Its lining has been repaired countless of times, but otherwise it's still in perfect condition and will be worn until it literally falls apart. Still wearing a beret and thin knit scarf as well. I do wish Spring would hurry up! 

Sadly, the border edging I'd seen online turned out not to be what we were looking for either, so we settled for some boring green flexible plastic edging to tide us over for the time being. We also bought a bag of wood chips to mulch the new border with.

It would have been rude not to have a look at their plants as well, although the colour coordinated displays did put me off a bit.  Choice was rather limited and there wasn't anything we couldn't have found at our regular garden centre anyway.

Before making our way back home, we went to feed Inneke and Maurice's cat, Nessie, as they'd departed on holiday to the seaside that morning. At least, we tried to feed her, but the key we'd been given didn't seem to work. A phonecall with Maurice revealed the hiding place of a spare key, but that didn't seem to be working either. Meanwhile, we could hear Nessie meowing pitifully. It was all solved in the end but it did involve Maurice having to come back from the seaside. It's a good thing Belgium is a small country ...

Back at home, I spent some time rearranging our bookshelves, as we are facing a serious lack of space. Then I hit upon the idea of doing a reshuffle of my collection of vintage sewing baskets which live on a shelf in the redundant fireplace in our bedroom, creating space for our Victorian and Edwardian themed books. When I posted this on Instagram, people oohed and aahed over the sewing baskets. 

The stuffed mouse on top of the basket on the right isn't one of Bess's toys. I bought her in a WWF shop in Antwerp in the late 80s, and she's called Gorgonzola!

Sunday once again went off to a sunny start, and as the temperature was forecasted to climb to the unheard highs of 15°C, I decided to go one step further and wear a short-sleeved dress.

Well, that's what long-sleeved t-shirts are for, aren't they? I bookended the watercolour patterned dress - another wardrobe stalwart picked up from Think Twice - with a teal t-shirt and ditto opaques. 

Accessories included an old tan leather belt, a blue plastic butterfly brooch and purple beads.

I only wore the shoes for the photos as, apart from the garden, we didn't leave Dove Cottage's confines at all that day.

Aren't they sweet?  They were charity shopped almost exactly two years ago. I've never been able to find out anything about the brand mentioned on the inside (Soulier), but their very 1970s looking block heels make me think they are definitely vintage. 

It would be raining again in the afternoon, but until it did, we made the most of the dry spell by fixing the temporary edging to the border and adding the wood chips. 

Then, Jos removed the old wood from our Fuchsia magellanica bush, while I did some random garden pottering.

I can't believe how lush the garden has become all of a sudden. All that rain must have done the trick!

The Bluebells are in their element and are taking centre stage in the garden right now, a shimmering haze of blue visible from our kitchen window, so that they can even be enjoyed when it rains.

The Cowslips (Primula veris) are doing well too. Even if they can't compete with their exuberantly flowering blue neighbours, their clusters of delicate lemon bells never fail to delight.

The tiny coral bells belong to one of the Heucheras in the window box in the passageway. It has been flowering since early April, which I'm sure is very early indeed. There's no sign of any flowers in those planted in our garden yet.

Another early bloomer, as it's supposed to flower from May to July,  is our Clematis "Guernsey Cream", whose big fat flower buds are opening one by one into gorgeous large cream with a tinge of green flowers. Admittedly, some voracious creature has been nibbling some of the buds, resulting in holey blooms ...

April's final working week had its usual ups and downs, some rain, some shine, and temperatures reaching the low double digits. It was a long one too, as I had to work on Friday as well. What a drag that was!

My lunch breaks were spent running some errands and going to my hairdresser, but on Tuesday my feet took me to the second-hand pop-up shop which opened a couple of months ago. It's a large, spacious shop, with everything neatly displayed on rows and rows of rails, and so far I haven't come across any Primark stuff or the like.

I was in luck that day, as I found a Wow To Go skirt - I used to have a dress in the same pattern - a pair of gold/silver patterned Western style ankle boots by defunct Belgian label Beoriginal, and flat blue Velcro-strap shoes by good old Damart.

I went for a walk on Thursday, the intention being that I would take you to the raised promenade along the River Scheldt, only to be thwarted in my plans as a major redevelopment of the quayside is taking place. Before I reached the quayside, however, I was halted in my tracks by this fantastic mushroom decorated façade.

As I couldn't access the promenade, I walked towards the Ferris wheel opposite Het Steen - the castle I blogged about in a previous post - along the pavement.

To my left, a row of rusty gabled hangars with decorative ironwork pediments. Dating from the late 19th century, they will get a new purpose in the redevelopment of the quayside, but at the time of writing they mostly offer parking space.

It had been a frosty start to the day, which offered the ideal opportunity to wear the short-sleeved plaid wool-blend dress I found at Think Twice back in October. 

Again, I added bookends in the form of a long-sleeved t-shirt and opaques combo. The red Western-style ankle boots were a fairly recent charity shop find.

A flea market, vintage shop and a chazza supplied my brooch, necklace and belt respectively.

As it had warmed up to 14°C during the day, I was sweating in this by the time I went home, but otherwise this was an absolute joy to wear.

Nevertheless, I am truly craving my Spring/Summer wardrobe by now!

And still the pensive Spring returns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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