Back to the wilderness

As today is a public holiday in Belgium, I've been enjoying a bonus day off, which was very welcome indeed. The weather wasn't up to scratch - it has been blowing a hoolie outside - so that we were forced to stay inside Dove Cottage's cozy confines and rest. Not an easy task to accomplish for a busy bee like me, so instead of spending the day lounging on the sofa all day, I've spent the morning making a tentative start with ticking off the holiday packing list and adding and subtracting to the longlist of my holiday wardrobe. 

I'm feeling a bit brighter, and even if my batteries are still low, at least my cold sores are clearing up. As advised by one of my commenters, I've taking daily doses of Lysine and Vitamin C, and I've stocked up on Bach Rescue cream as recommended by Beate.

But before those early May days get lost into the mists of time, let me retrace my steps and take you back to the start of the month's first full week.

The weather on Monday the 5th of May was almost a carbon copy of Sunday's: grey, windy and with a measly 13°C registered on the thermometer. As usual on a Monday, a large part of the morning was spent catching up with work and dealing with all the sh*t which had come in on Friday and which my colleagues, both in Belgium and across the ocean, had kindly left for me to deal with.

Flush with my success at Sunday's flea market, I walked to the nearest Think Twice shop during my lunch break, where the latest of their famous sales was in full swing. I fell head over heels for this flouncy Diolen dress, which was mine for € 6. I love it so much that I roped in my double act to show it to you twice!

An improvement in the weather meant that it was sunny but still windy on Tuesday, with the mercury climbing to 17°C.

After running a lunch break errand, I had some time to spare before I was due back at the office. So what was I to do? Why not have a quick browse at Think Twice, particularly as sales prices had dropped to € 5 that day?

I was about to leave empty handed when I noticed a fellow shopper hanging back this gorgeous sage green cardigan. If I hadn't already been swayed by its colour and its stunning ajour pattern, it would have been the giant cuffs that insisted I hand over my € 5 without further delay.

The sun did another disappearing act on Wednesday and although the thermometer insisted on it being 17°C, the wind, which came straight from the north, made it feel quite a bit chillier.

On the bright side, we finally got rid of Jos's hospital bed, which was collected that morning. Jos had still been sleeping in it after his surgery while his bladder was recuperating, but now that things were back to normal, we desperately wanted our dining room back.

By the time I came home from work Jos had already reassembled our dining table, which had been stored in our basement. That evening we didn't waste any time collecting our Lloyd Loom style chairs from our neighbour Karin, who had been kind enough to give them a home in her garden room for all these months.

In order to mark the occasion, I decided to treat ourselves to a new set of cushion pads. I'd seen some chunky vanilla yellow ones in a pop-up shop on Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfares a couple of weeks earlier, so I went to pick them up during my lunch break. The only snag being that this particular shop is selling nothing but Christmas stuff from August onwards and that I therefore had to lug them home on the tram in a bag emblazoned with It's All About Christmas! 

But they have been fully approved by Bess, who is clearly delighted to have her four cat beds chairs back and promptly forgot about the hospital bed which had been her playground for so many months.

I'm skipping Thursday to arrive at the start of another 3-day weekend on Friday the 9th, which was mostly sunny with highs of 19°C. 

Although still quite windy, the temperature allowed for short sleeves again. Yet another King Louie which made its way into my wardrobe via a charity shop, the red and white floral top was paired with a vintage C&A skirt, whose faux patchwork pattern charmed me at Think Twice in July 2021.

Both the shoes, which are from the Portuguese Kiarflex brand and the epitome of comfort, and the black floral necklace, were charity shop finds. I picked up the dusky pink stretchy belt from a high street shop a couple of weeks ago.

The brooch was one from my recent flea market haul. Apparently, the lady living behind the brooch's glass dome is wearing traditional Alsatian costume. She's got a sister wearing an as yet unidentified French regional costume, picked up from the indoor flea market many years ago.

In spite of the weather, the day's activities were mainly indoor ones. Now that the hospital bed was no longer blocking its access, I rearranged the big cupboard in the dining room, putting back everything l'd moved into one of the kitchen cabinets back in October.

Then I spent some time on the sofa with my then current read, Mary Webb's atmospheric novel Precious Bane, published in 1924. The story is set in rural Shropshire during the Napoleonic Wars and is narrated by the central character, Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a cleft lip. Just like her earlier novel, Gone to Earth (1917) which I read in December 2023, it was a truly captivating read.

We were blessed with a deliciously Summery day on Saturday, when the mercury made its way to highs of 22°C. 

Casting around for possible walking destinations, we decided to return to the wilderness. And no, we didn't mean Dove Cottage's garden ...

The wilderness in question is a nature reserve established on the former clay pits in Terhagen, a mere 15-minute drive away.  The village of Terhagen is where Jos grew up, living in a tiny hamlet consisting of a row of workman's cottages called De Wildernis. No prizes for guessing its meaning ...

After the brickmaking industry fell into recline during the 1970s and 1980s, the area was reclaimed by nature and is now truly living up to its wilderness moniker.

Funnily enough, I was wearing almost exactly the same outfit I wore on a previous walk here in May 2023: a floaty pairs of floral trousers paired with a thin knit short-sleeved orange jumper and layered with a haori style cover-up. Both the trousers and cover-up were worn to prevent any blood-thirsty insects lying in wait from having a nibble at my bare arms and legs.

My green rhinestone enhanced bird brooch was yet another one I picked up from the flea market on Sunday, while the necklace was a Summer sales bargain in July 2023.

And exactly like we did two years ago, we set out without a map and obstinately refused to follow the numbered markers, so that it was almost inevitable that we got lost.  It all started when we took the path straight ahead instead of turning left as indicated by the marker ...

We eventually arrived at the sandy plain which lies at the heart of the reserve, although we approached it from a different direction than we usually do, which further confused our already wobbly sense of direction. 

After a couple of false starts, we located the path we usually arrive on, instantly recognizable by the arch created by a victim of a storm.

The markers we came across were of little use, as without a map we had no idea where exactly we were or even where we were headed.  If we'd continued on the path we were on, we would end up at a different car park quite a distance from where we'd left our car. So we turned left as soon as we could, following a series of paths snaking between the trees which all virtually looked the same.

But then we came across another natural landmark we remembered from a previous walk. In fact, I sat and paused on this very same sturdy, low-hanging tree branch back in March 2021 (here) after which we were able to make our way back to civilization in the end :-)

Sure enough we arrived back at the path we started our walk on shortly afterwards. Must remember to bring a map next time, although there's no guarantee that it would prevent us from getting lost again.

There's no doubt we have been cultivating getting lost as an art form over the years.

Which reminds me of this snippet from T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding, the fourth and final poem of his Four Quartets, published in 1942:

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive at where we started

And know the place for the first time."

Summer's end

All too soon, our September getaway was nearing its end.

But let's not be too hasty!  When we woke up on Sunday morning the 11th of September, we still had two days ahead of us, and we fully intended to savour every minute of those.

What's more, the weather gods had decided to play nicely for a change and graced us with some glorious late Summer weather and temperatures climbing towards the mid-twenties.

Still, making plans for that Sunday wasn't exactly straightforward. Apart from the gorgeous weather enticing more than the average number of people out of their homes, we had to contend with the fact that it was Open Monuments Day, which ruled out quite a few places for being too crowded. 

We decided a walk would be our best option and, after some head scratching and consulting the map, we opted for Hellegatbos, a nature reserve near Westouter, in the glorious hilly countryside to the south of Poperinge called Heuvelland, and close to the French border.

This was in no way new territory for us. When we last walked here in 2020, it was on a mid-pandemic weekday, when we hardly met a soul. 

On this sunny Sunday, however, the place was inundated with walkers from both sides of the border. To make matters even worse, there seemed to be some kind of equestrian event going on, so that we had to share some of the paths with horses and carriages.

Truus, our Satnav, turned out to be in one of her funny moods as well, as she initially made us drive past the entrance to the car park. Then, when we finally got there we had to make a U-turn as the place was completely taken over by the horses and their entourage. There was no option but to park at the side of the busy road leading to the French border, by which time the morning was well advanced.

Hellegatbos (bos is the Dutch word for wood) lies on the slopes of the 129 m high Rodeberg, and the entrance nearest to where we'd parked our car gives access to some seriously up-and-down woodland paths and steps. We were mostly going down for now, but fully realized that we would have a serious climb ahead of us on our way back. 

The derelict building you can catch a glimpse of in the previous collage is situated at the edge of the car park. Dating from 1934, it was part of a popular youth hostel called Kosmos, but fell into disrepair after its demise in 2005. Apparently, there are plans afoot to turn it into a luxury hotel. 

Gently guided by one of our handy maps based on numbered markers, we just followed our noses, our main objective being getting away as far as possible from all the hustle and bustle.

As a result of our late start hunger pangs soon got the better of us, so when we emerged from the woods and spotted a bench with a view, we wasted no time in claiming it.

Most of the fields had already been turned to stubble, their barrenness contrasting greatly with the fluffy cotton wool clouds drifting across the brilliant blue sky.

In the distance, we could see the red and white striped television transmitter, which on a clear day is visible from our cottage's balcony. The transmitter is on top of the 150 meter high Catsberg, which is actually in France! A little further to its right is the abbey of Sainte-Marie du Mont, where cheese and beer is still produced by Trappist monks.

By now, our walk had taken us on a stiff climb, with a panorama across the Sulferberg - yet another nature reserve (above, top left) - awaiting us at the top. Then it was back down again and along a sandy path skirting a cornfield, until we arrived at the edge of the woods again.

Here's the point where we got a bit lost, although this time it wasn't our cartophobia which was to blame. All would have been well if those horse people hadn't blocked our way by cordoning off the car park which we needed to cross to get back to those woodland paths. Eventually we did get back on track but not before having to shuffle pas a row of whinnying horses which had been parked while their riders were enjoying a barbecue!

I will not mention our botched attempt to drive to a well-known viewpoint on the area's highest hill only to find it closed for instability reasons. Or the fact that our Satnav insisted in driving us around in circles. By then, we'd had enough so back to the cottage it was! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the ever-changing view from the cottage's balcony.

At one point we spotted Chablis, cottage host Marino's cat, sunning itself in the dinghy moored at the side of the lake.

We ended the day by going for dinner, for which I changed into my vintage maxi skirt and green spotty peplum top. The teal blazer I wore on top is an old charity shop find, and was added to my luggage at the last moment.

Dinner was in honour of my birthday, which would be on Monday. However, with lots of restaurants having their closing day on Monday, we decided to celebrate on Sunday night instead. As I was born at twenty minutes after midnight this would be closer to my actual time of birth anyway!

We hadn't made any special plans for my birthday itself,  just spending the day here, in one of our special places, was more than enough for me. That, and the 25°C gifted by the weather gods!

Wanting to make the most of the brief return of Summer, we selected one of the other walks I'd picked up at the tourist office earlier that week. The 6.6 kilometer long Brabanthoek walk had its start in the village of Oostvleteren, about 12 kilometers from the cottage, and was once again signposted by those trademark hexagonal signs.

We parked near the church, and soon found the first of the signs, which would lead us out of the village and into the open countryside. But not before having a mooch around the churchyard and being transfixed by the nostalgic old grocery shop, sadly no longer trading but kept in its original condition by its current owners. 

We soon left the village behind to walk among fields and meadows in a landscape which was once again flat as a pancake as far as the eye could see, with just the odd copse of trees to provide some shelter from the elements.

Again, the picnic fairies provided us with a shady bench just when we were starting to feel peckish.

From here, the walk continued along a charming brook, the Boezingegracht, until we reached the Brabanthoek nature reserve the walk was named after. This is one of the ecologically most valuable parts of the IJzer wetlands, with fields and meadows bordered by ditches and natural floodplains.

The intriguing structure on the top right is the remnant of an old windmill that was once used to pump up water from the nearby pool in order to reduce groundwater level.

We must have been about halfway, with the church tower already beckoning us in the distance, when we decided to break off our walk, and do the other half next year. Preferably on a slightly cooler day.

Before we returned to the village and our by now heat trap of a car, we passed one of the area's abundant little chapels - this one apparently used as a courier drop-off point - and De Zonnegloed, which is a sanctuary for wild animals.

After a little siesta at the cottage, we got back into our car for what to all purposes and intents was meant to be a short stroll through some local woods.

Again, we made use of one of the numbered maps, but as this apparently made us do quite a detour, we thought we'd be clever and do a shortcut. We should have known better, as obviously we got lost, and had to retrace our steps, so that the short stroll had soon turned into a rather longer one.

We must have passed the half-timbered cottage in its surrounding meadow several times and at one point I was tempted to throw down the offending map in despair, since it was of no help at all.

But surely getting lost is the stuff of adventures and thus much more fun. Particularly in hindsight!

Common sense and what was left of our sense of direction prevailed in the end, so that we safely made it back to where we'd started. 

Surely you'll agree this earned us some waffles and a nap on the conveniently placed sun lounger at the edge of the woods!

Birthday girl was wearing her charity shopped Zara trousers again, combined with a pussy-bow top I've had for absolutely ages. And spotty socks!

So, that's it then. It'll be business as usual, starting with a September catch-up, from my next post onwards. I hope to see you again soon!