Still ill

 A week ago on Thursday I arrived home all hot and bothered and with an imperceptible tickle in my throat which for the moment I chose to ignore. 

I put it all down to the whirlwind visit from my bosses earlier that week as one of them seemed to have brought a persistent cough with him. Their visit also included a visit to IKEA to select some furniture for the soon to be finished office, part of which was supposed to be delivered on Thursday morning. 

When they still hadn't shown up by 2.30 pm, a phonecall to IKEA confirmed that they were stuck in traffic. Then, when they eventually did arrive half an hour later, they weren't able to find a proper parking spot. When your office building is landlocked in the middle of a city's main shopping area, this tends to be a problem at the best of times. To cut a long story short, they refused to put their blinkers on and quickly unload the stuff in the street at the back of our building, which is what everybody else is doing all the time. Having had to run downstairs and argue with them in the biting sub-zero cold seemed to have made matters worse so, quite unsurprisingly, I wasn't feeling exactly my best when I woke up on Friday morning.

We lingered over breakfast, after which I started feeling a bit more human and was even prompted to dress up in something stylish, warm and comfortable. We might have scrapped our usually charity shopping plans, but I still wanted to dress up and look the part, even if reclining on the sofa would be the only order of the day.

I'd bought the mustard flannel skirt brand new from Uniqlo back in October, and this was its first wearing. It's from the shop's collaboration with the French model and fashion designer Inès de La Fressange. Together with the vintage blue acrylic jumper and the white fluffy waistcoat which was a cheeky and cheap high street buy a couple of years ago, it was absolutely perfect to brave the continuing deep freeze temperatures. We were down to between -7°C to -9°C by now, which is a big deal in this part of the world.

Although I only briefly braved these bone-chilling temperatures for a handful of outfit photos in our new favourite spot ...

Then I was tempted by the sight of the iced gems in our garden to walk the length of the garden path and snap a few pictures. 

The last of the Nasturtiums, still going strong until a week or so before, had now all succumbed to frostbite, their limp orange blooms encrusted with jewels of ice.

These, together with the icing sugar coated bright red Cotoneaster berries and the clusters of dusky blue Virginia Creeper fruits provided the odd splash of colour.

Then it was back inside to hunker down for the rest of the weekend, Bess unashamedly taking advantage of the fact that we weren't gallivanting around like we usually do on a weekend.

By Saturday, I was a coughing and snuffling wreck, with brain fog and fatigue preventing me from doing anything more strenuous than reading a couple of pages here and there. Although I did manage to cobble together my previous blog post and publish it that evening.

We even had to cancel Sunday's much anticipated visit to our friends Kris and Marnix, who live just over the border in Holland. Kris used to be my colleague before he moved abroad and due to circumstances which I'm sure don't need an explanation, we hadn't seen each other since December 2019. Which made it heart-rending that we once again had to postpone our reunion ...

Not even dressing up in one of my favourite vintage frocks managed to make me feel better. After taking a couple of hurried photos we scuttled back inside where I uncharacteristically changed into jogging bottoms and a jumper for the rest of the day.

At the time of writing, I'm still in the throes of the lurgy - which luckily turned out not to be Covid! - and my brain fog and fatigue are still very much present.

Consequently, there isn't much to tell you about my final working week of the year (apart from the fact that the IKEA delivery has now been completed), and as no outfit photos have been taken either, why don't we have a proper look at last week's flea market finds instead.

I was instantly drawn to the colours of this ancient and time-battered tin, which I believe to be from the 1930s. There's no indication as to its provenance, but I loved it enough to give it a home.

The flea market yielded some odds and ends as usual. The mystery object on the top left was pure childhood nostalgia for Jos, who remembered being given this bank savings calculator when he was a schoolboy. 

The trivet on the top right was a giveaway by washing power brand Tide back in the day and depicts a well-known Bruges scene. It was a gift from friend and trader Tanja. 

The small hinged trinket box came from the stall of another favourite trader, Ilona, and has already been roped in to hold my jewellery selections for the week.

Tanja had to laugh when I made a beeline for the green cruet set, commenting that I always go for the kitschiest items on her stall. Well, what can I say? I'd already spotted it on her Facebook page the day before, so I made sure to look out for it especially, hoping that it hadn't been sold in the meantime. And that was before she told me it was English!

Back to back with Tanja's stall, is Rita's, supplier of last market's plaster lady. Her stall now contained a display of perspex rings, which all turned to be my diminutive size. Apparently, they all came from the same lady who could no longer wear them due to arthritis. 

From a box full of furry hats, Rita then conjured up the delightful muff on the bottom left, which I insisted on wearing for the rest of the market. 

Meanwhile, Jos fell for the white Bakelite pillbox size thingy bearing the logo of Belgian chocolate and biscuit factory Victoria, instantly recognizable to people of a certain age in Belgium!

When I picked up the tiny fruit basket, which is actually a brooch, for closer inspection, Rita insisted that I accept it as a gift. Isn't she - and the basket - sweet?

Finally, let's have a look at the other brooches I picked up and which, to answer Vronni's question in her comment to my previous post, have all found space in my drawers of brooches, even if it is becoming a bit of a squeeze in there! 

The celluloid deer came from the same stall as the 1930s tin, while both the fox's head with its piercing blue eyes - which might very well be my favourite - and the brown-hearted one on the bottom right came from random stalls. The latter is the only one which is marked. It's by Sarah Coventry. Founded in 1949 by Charles Stuart, Sarah Coventry's name was the combination of his granddaughter’s first name and the town of Coventry in England, where the Stuart family had emigrated from to the US. The jewellery was sold via house parties a la Tupperware and Avon.

Another regular seller, Nelly - who always gushes over my outfits - supplied the superb enamelled pansies brooch ...

... as well as the pink-rimmed plastic flower brooch (a twin of a blue-rimmed one I've had for years) and the gorgeous blue Cameo.

The tiny pair of cork slippers and the moulded rose brooch were my final finds of the day and came from another random stall.

That's all for now, my friends. I hope to be back in full health after Christmas and promise to catch up with your blogs soon.

Before I go, though, here's the other present my bosses brought me, and which was infinitely better than that nasty cough: a very fragrant Jo Malone gift set!

Have a wonderful Christmas, whichever way you celebrate it - or not!

A touch of frost

Lately, these damp and dismal January days have been leeching what's left of my energy levels. I feel like I'm just going through the motions and, left to my own devices, my non-working days would be spent reading and what my lovely blogging friend Lynn delightfully calls fiffing and faffing. Nothing wrong with that, I can almost hear you think, but I absolutely hate not being my usual energetic self.

I often wonder how I managed to blog two times a week while working full-time, but perhaps having oodles of time is just counterproductive! Now don't get me wrong: I love blogging as much as I ever did and my blog has been more than a lifeline during the past 10 months. It's just a matter of serious amounts of procrastination! 

OK, that's quite enough of the latter. If I don't get my skates on, I'll still be blogging about these January days in Spring!

My journal has now reached the end of January's first full week and that Friday was just another one of those grey and rainy days. With the temperatures hovering between 5°C and freezing point, the day's precipitation briefly turned into melting snow.

The perfect weather for one of my wool blend skirts which, however, wasn't my first choice that day. 

I was determined to wear the Nordic style H&M cardigan I'd scored at the charity shop earlier that week, which I'd hung up ready for wear after its gentle cycle in the washing machine.

I'd already picked out the brown blouse as well, as it was long overdue an outing.  With the majority its biscuit and off-white print - which always puts me in mind of bullrushes - near the hemline, it was obviously meant to be worn on top rather than tucked in. However, it looked just awful worn with the skirt I'd originally earmarked, which was quite a bit wider than I'd remembered and made the proportions all wrong.

After a bit of trial and error, this rust brown skirt with its subtle burnt orange checks turned out to be perfect for the job. I paid homage to the checks by wearing a shiny burnt orange belt at my waist and did some secret matching with my opaques as well, offering you a sneaky peek of them in the first collage.

Here's a closer look at some of my stuff. Both the enamelled butterfly brooch and the tiger eye pendant were picked up at the sorely missed monthly indoor flea market. It saddens me to realize that its last edition was in the weekend of 7 and 8 March 2020. Will we ever be able to go back, I wonder.

Flea markets might be off-limits for now - and quite unimaginable too - but we are counting ourselves lucky that we can still go for a rummage in the charity shops, offering some well-needed diversion and change of scenery when the weather isn't on its best behaviour.

That day, we decided to widen our horizons and go to our favourite shop, the one in Duffel near the park, for the first time since February. We'd been avoiding it as it tends to be quite busy and as it is laid out on three floors, requires the use of narrow staircases or a rather cramped and excruciatingly slow lift.

Before we go in, here's a look at my outerwear. You've seen my green fur-collared wool jacket, multi-coloured knit scarf and purple mohair beret before, so that they need no further introduction.

The shop turned out to be reasonably quiet, the first indication of which was that we easily found space in their parking lot rather than having to use the car park at the edge of the park.

I found a pair of pristine brown boots, which I'm already wearing in the outfit photos we made after we got home. They are replacing the pair which have been downgraded to walking boots.

My other finds were a vintage pussy bow blouse (left) and another King Louie frock (right). You'll get to see me wearing both very soon, so that I'm limiting myself to the patterns here. Oh, and there's grumpy old Phoebe too, as I needed another photo to fill up the collage :-)

Saturday morning came with a surprise! I actually gasped when we raised the kitchen shutters and looked out on a garden which looked as if a pastry chef had come along and sprinkled it with icing sugar.

It was a gorgeously sunny day so, after our fruit and yoghurt breakfast, I hurriedly got dressed,  put on my new-to-me boots, grabbed my camera and dashed outside. 

Even with the temperature flirting around freezing point, there was no time to lose, as the relative warmth of the sun would soon do away with the frosty jewels adorning our garden.

My newly acquired King Louie dress got its first outing. It's a bit shorter than I usually wear, reaching to just above the knee, but I'm alright with that if I can wear it with opaques!

When I tried it on in the charity shop, I marvelled at how fabulous it looked with the burnt orange opaques I was wearing, so they were the obvious choice.  Then I layered it with a tangerine t-shirt, while a chunky long-line orange cardigan went on top.

Finding the dress too plain without accenting my waist, I wore a fabric covered sky-blue belt, which tied in with the blue beads joining the off-white, brown, yellow and orange ones in my favourite necklace. 

The shiny coral paste brooch is one of the oldest in my collection in terms of ownership. People are usually incredulous when I tell them it's H&M, and I've actually seen it being sold as vintage at the flea market! 

Meanwhile, I kept snapping away in the garden as I couldn't get enough of its iced beauty.

How enchanting are the frosted remains of the honesty pennies! And I thought that the woolly lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina) leaves on the top right looked uncannily like winged angels.

Look at that poor ivy leaf trapped in the solidly frozen water in our bird bath. Not that I've ever seen a bird bathing in it, its main function being Phoebe's outside drinking bowl!

By noon, most of the hoarfrost had gone, only leaving tiny patches in the shadiest spots, but for a brief couple of hours we enjoyed the winter wonderland which had descended on our garden.

Sunday was another gorgeously sunny but chilly day with highs of up to 3°C. 

The perfect day for our socially distanced walk and meet-up with Inneke and Maurice. We'd agreed to meet at the so-called Artist's Entrance of the sculpture park and although I'd brought my camera, not many photographs were taken as we were far too busy chatting. After all, we hadn't seen each other since ... July! Oh Corona, so much to answer for ...

We tried to stay off the well-beaten paths as it started getting more crowded as the morning proceeded towards noon. At one point, while we were already making our way back to our cars, a police car appeared on the main path as if out of nowhere. We presumed they were checking if it wasn't too busy and whether people were keeping to the rules. 

Who could ever have imagined such strange happenings this time last year?

We drove back home after saying goodbye to our friends, vowing to make this a regular thing. Now, all we need is a date and some decent weather!

As most of my outfit was covered by my bottle green, fur-collared Winter coat - only just visible in the collage - here is what I was wearing underneath.

I was wearing double wool to combat the chill, starting with a thick knit black vintage jumper embroidered with flowers along its square neckline.

The grey, white and black plaid skirt is vintage too. It is 100% wool and lined and weighs a ton. Some more secret matching went on underneath, as I was wearing 120 denier red opaques.

Again, I felt the jumper and skirt were too plain on their own, so I added a red elasticated belt with a plastic flower buckle, which came with a dress I no longer have. I donated the dress but naughtily kept the belt!  A string of swirly turquoise beads completed my outfit. 

Again, I wore a beret to hide my hair which looks a mess if I haven't washed it for two days. I'm not holding out much hope that our hairdressers will be allowed to re-open soon, but surely one is allowed to dream!

Meanwhile, haircut or not, I keep doing my best to stay safe, sane and fabulous, and I hope that you are all doing the same!

Stamping ground

A light layer of hoarfrost had descended upon our garden on Boxing Day, sprinkling the winter-green leaves and lingering berries with a dusting of icing sugar.

I was still feeling quite sore from our walk on Christmas Day, as I'd strained my muscles and my bad knee by trying to stay upright on the sticky, muddy steps leading down into the former clay pit.

The weather was still on its best behaviour, even if the sun was slightly veiled by a thin layer of clouds, so that it would have been downright silly to let some minor aches and pains get the better of us by staying indoors.

So, out for a walk we went, but we made sure to stay on level terrain this time.

Same as on Boxing Day last year, our destination was one of Antwerp's most interesting parks, which doubles as an open air museum of sculpture, Middelheim. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while have accompanied me there quite a few times already.

Walk In Like You Mean It. With these words, American artist William Forsythe is giving a clear message to everyone who enters the park through the main gates.

I was surprised that I'd never noticed the inscription before, but then learned it was part of an exhibition called Experience Traps: 16 Artists Lead You Up The Garden Path, which ran from June to September 2018, and in which contemporary artists tried to guide our physical and mental experience. Well, that's what it said in the brochure.

The museum has an impressive collection with a mixture of pieces from different periods. There are sculptures dating back to 1900, but also a lot of contemporary pieces and installations.

The combination of art and nature is quite enchanting and ensures that there is no chance of ever getting bored. We certainly never do.

We love visiting the park in all seasons, so we were actually quite surprised that our last visit was on Boxing Day 2017. We really must do better this year!

This stainless steel structure is called Firmament III, dates from 2009 and is by UK artist Antony Gormley.

We always take a different route, and there's no forward planning involved whatsoever. We just let our feet guide us, while my camera is taking photographs of anything that tickles my fancy.

I rather loved this amorous couple of silver and gold chairs, which can be found all over the park for people to sit down and admire the artworks.

But no matter which paths we take, we always end up here, at the Braem Pavilion, designed by architect Renaat Braem (1910-2001) and completed in 1971.

Its original design, in Organic Brutalist style, dates from 1963, but when permission was finally granted in 1968, it had to be adapted as the original available area was now reduced by two-thirds.

The concrete and brick building, its flowing horizontal lines nestling between the trees, instantly appealed from the moment I first clapped eyes on it. The white colour neutralizes the textural differences of the materials used, which are only apparent up close.

I was wearing the other wool skirt which I found at the same time as the Gor-Ray skirt. This one is unlined and unlabelled, which leads me to believe that it was handmade.

I did have to wear a half-slip underneath to combat its scratchiness, but surely its orange, yellow and green plaid fabric more than made up this minor discomfort.

Casting around for a top to wear with it, I suddenly remembered this vintage one which has all the right colours plus some additional sparkle. As a nod to the holidays, I was determined to wear as many of my sparkly garments as possible!

On top went a burnt orange cardigan, to which I pinned a cat brooch with sparkly eyes, a gift from Goody. A wide tan belt and mottled brown beaded necklace were my other accessories.

All items vintage or charity shopped.

Apart from its permanent collection, the Middelheim Museum also hosts temporary exhibitions.

The Braem Pavilion is perfect for smaller sculptures and other artworks which cannot be displayed in the open.

We were intrigued by the pavilion's unusual emptiness, which was only interrupted by an installation containing a curving row of 160 stamps with 160 drawings by Belgian artist Dennis Tyfus, who currently has an exhibition of his work, called My Niece's Pierced Knees, spread all over the park.  

For € 10, an empty booklet can be bought, allowing visitors to stamp their own book, making use of the ink pads placed at regular intervals.

If we should decide to return before the exhibition ends on March 17, we might bring our own booklet and try out a few of those stamps!

Meanwhile, you will have to make do with a view of my fur-collared green jacket, which I accessorized with a green beret and yellow fake fur cowl scarf.

Near the Braem Pavilion is this mirrored pillar, offering distorted views of its surroundings. This is also a favourite, as it invites endless photo opportunities. 

We continued our wanderings, meeting all sorts of strange creatures along the way.

Sadly, there wasn't a free table at MIKA, the museum café, so that we weren't able to grab a cup of coffee before returning home.

From the bridge crossing the moat and leading to the café's premises, we could see another one of Dennis Tyfus's works in the distance (top left). 

This one is called The Pogo Never Stops, a nod to the artist's punk roots. It is a nonstop dance performance by thirteen sky tubes, which have drawings of faces and T-shirts of noise bands, its other-worldliness enhanced by the mechanical noise of the blowers driving the sky tubes.

From here, we strolled back to our car, and had that longed-for cup of coffee back at Dove Cottage.

I'll be returning with another round-up of outfits worn in the last week of 2018 soon.