On such a Winter's day

"There’s a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons,

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes."

~ Emily Dickinson, #82 (1924)

Nearly a century has passed since Ms. Dickinson wrote these words, but they hit home nonetheless.

Winter afternoons, especially those of the granite grey variety, have the tendency to oppress, as if a heavy weight is holding you down, making your limbs feel leaden and a fog descend inside your head. We've been having far too many of such days lately, grey and wet affairs, but not nearly cold enough to be classified as true Winter's days.

And then you wake up one morning with the sun piercing through the layer of clouds, and it's as if a curtain opens up inside you, lifting your mood almost instantly. 

We had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of such a day on the Sunday before last, when plans were afoot for going to our monthly indoor flea market. 

Some minor, overnight frost had cooled down the temperature considerably, warranting the wearing of some long neglected Winter woollies. 

And why not wear my faithful old tweed suit? It had been quite a while since I wore it as a whole, rather than just the jacket which, as it happens, I last wore on a walk during the Christmas holidays.

When I found it on the rails at Think Twice many years ago, I didn't actually think twice and snapped it up without any hesitation. I fell in love with its classic shape, its mustard colour speckled with red and brown, its caramel buttons and, of course, its furry collar and cuffs.

The jacket's belt loops bear evidence of the fact that it was once accompanied by a belt, now long lost in the mists of time. This allows me to use one of my own choosing, and in keeping with the rest of my outfit, I opted for a purple one.

The jacket's collar was the perfect canvas for trying out the fur clip my bosses were kind enough to give me.  Copper and more purple, could it get any better than that?

At first, I wasn't sure what to wear with the skirt and I tried several blouses and jumpers, none of which looked right. I was about to give up and wear something else entirely, when I saw this purple vintage jumper winking at me from the top shelf. Initially, I thought it would be too warm, but then I remembered it can be quite chilly in the cavernous flea market venue. 

I love the diamond pattern at the yoke, each containing an embroidered flower. Admittedly, I did hide one of these with my floral brooch. 

The zebra print belt added a whimsical touch, as did the diamond patterned purple tights, which were a gift from Kezzie.

OK, I'm ready to go now!

After our initial disappointment as there seemed to be less stalls than usual, we soon got into the swing of things, especially when I found a brooch less than a minute after walking in. It was the green Merhorse on the bottom right and you will be getting a much better view of it later in this post.

Childhood nostalgia for Jos, who fell for this rectangular carton box full of magic lantern slides.

Our friend Tania's stall always yields one or two treasures, this time in the form of a vintage collapsible wirework egg basket. Here it is among the other kitchenalia in Dove Cottage's kitchen, ready to provide the eggs for one of Jos's famous English breakfasts.

At the end of the very last aisle, we spied this Kodak Brownie camera on a stall presided over by a couple who lives in our village.

It's a Kodak Brownie "Holiday Flash", a popular camera with a moulded brown and tan Bakelite body, which was produced between 1953 and 1962.

It did not come with its flash, but for the sake of this blog, we attached the flash of another Brownie camera from our collection.

There are quite a few Kodak Brownie cameras among our modest collection. The flash belongs to a 1950s Brownie Starlet camera, which Jos found, complete and still in its box, in the waste disposal unit of the block of flats we used to live in back in the 1990s.

Tania's friend Rita's stall tempted us with this stunning Art Deco style bonbonnière, which has found its rightful place on the 1930s side-table in our sitting room, where it is being kept company by our 1950s Bakelite radio.

No more handbags, I told myself, but did I listen? You bet I didn't, as how could I possibly not fall for this fabulous bottle green bag? 

Well, I was always going to allow myself the exception of out of the ordinary ones like this. It has got a quality seal inside which says that it was made in Belgium.

I've already mentioned the Merhorse brooch, but I found more. Here they are all grouped together for you to pick a favourite.

Let's have a closer look.

One of my star finds is the oval brooch on the top left, with its leaping stag. It turns out that the shimmering blue background is made from ... butterfly wings! This kind of jewellery, usually made from the South American Morpho butterfly, was popular from the Art Deco period up to the 1960s.

Apparently, butterfly wing jewellery is still being made today, using butterflies from butterfly farms. If this sounds cruel, then note that these farms are considered as a form of environmental protection of endangered rain forest, allowing more eggs to hatch than when left in the wild. The butterflies then die naturally of old age, which is around 130 days, after which their wings are used to create this amazing jewellery.

The Merhorse is made from ceramic, and is definitely one of my favourites, not in the least because of his gorgeous green colour. Isn't he fabulous? And definitely vintage, judging from his trombone clasp.

While both the butterfly brooch and the Merhorse were separate finds, all the others were picked up from the same jewellery heaped stall, one of our regular stops, for a silly total of € 12.

There was a fearsome cross between a big cat and some kind of mythical beast (top right) and a fabulously dressed and behatted lady carrying a bouquet of flowers (bottom left).

The coppery duo of delicate, slightly tarnished, pearl-hearted flowers is my particular favourite, and might very well be the oldest one of the bunch, while the heavy gold leaf and the blue enamelled floral one are both more recent.

Well, that's all I have time for now.

There will be one more January catch-up from me in February. Until then we will be off on a short break next week, so no need to send out a search party if you don't hear from me for a couple of days!

See you on the other side!

Tales of a wet weekend

By the time you are reading this, we will be in the middle of a mid week break abroad, but as I still had a couple of loose ends to tie up, I thought I'd treat you to a scheduled post.

The First of November, All Saints Day, is a public holiday here in Belgium, and as this year it was on a Friday, we had a long weekend to look forward to.

Typically, after a working week full of gloriously sunny Autumn weather, Friday was another damp and dismal day.  

I tried to keep my spirits up by wearing this vintage, mustard yellow shift dress. Its print, with its scrolls and giant flowers, always reminds me of opulent wallpaper.

I kept my accessories relatively simple with a multicoloured necklace, a turquoise chunky ring and a gold rimmed ceramic brooch displaying some oriental poppies. Well, it was that time of year again when one wears poppies, wasn't it?

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that I was wearing the bright blue ankle boots I snapped up in a charity shop the previous weekend. Did I mention they only cost € 6?

In spite of the weather playing foul again, it wasn't a totally wasted day, as I had a visit from a lady who bought lots of stuff from me at our flea market back in July. She came for a rummage through my bags full of Winter clothes, and I'm happy to say she went home with no less than five dresses, three skirts, a jumper, a blouse and a jacket, leaving me with quite a bit of pocket money!

Initially, there was some improvement in the weather on Saturday: even if it was quite windy, at least it wasn't raining, so that there was no need for an umbrella. Charity shops, here we come!

If you think you've seen this skirt before, you are absolutely right: it is a fairly recent find, which Angelica was modelling a couple of weeks ago. Now, finally, it was my turn!

There's a choice of colours in its print, but I decided on autumnal shades to keep it company.

The tweed jacket, which has both green and purple in its plaid, was bought from a local shop eons ago and after narrowly escaping the giveaway pile a couple of years ago, it has now fully earned the space it takes up in my coats wardrobe. To its lapel, I pinned my official poppy brooch bought in Ypres. My other outerwear consisted of a sage green beret and a purple crushed velvet scarf.

I struggled a bit with what to wear with the skirt, finally settling on this rose red blouse, which I bought back in 2013 from a delight of a vintage shop which has sadly stopped trading. Further accessories consisted of a pale green belt and beaded necklace. Oh, and did you notice that my opaques and ankle boots were an almost perfect match?

Our rummage in the charity shops yielded some cozy knits and a tweed skirt, but alas I forgot to photograph them. But our main find was this utterly kitsch 1950s ornament.

When I pointed it out to Jos, mentioning that € 7 was quite a fair price, he exclaimed over it, as it turned out his childhood home contained something quite similar.

There's even some photographic evidence. Here's a thirteen year old Jos, with his Dad, Mum and sister and yes, there it is on the mantelpiece!

We added some battery-operated fairy lights which makes it look quite atmospheric at night.

Now I've truly had it with the weather forecasters, as Sunday, which they had promised would be mainly dry with a possible guest appearance of the sun, turned out to be a wet day through and through.

We were off to an antiques fair in a romantic castle about half an hour from where we live, which is being held biannually, in April and November.

As the fair itself isn't huge - browsing it takes about an hour or so - we usually combine it with a walk around the estate. In all the years we've been going there, this was the first time the weather wasn't cooperating.

Still, after our visit to the fair and a car picnic - the photo in the below collage, top right, was taken through our windshield - we took our ancient umbrella from the boot and went off for a wander.

No photos of the castle itself this time, as it was almost completely covered in scaffolding, but you can catch a glimpse of it across the lake, with me doing my Mary Poppins impersonation in the foreground.

The incessant rain had formed a thin layer of mist which curled around the edges of the lake and hung indolently between the tree tops, slightly veiling their autumnal splendour.

The once crunchy carpet of leaves had become a soggy, slippery mass, so that the longed for leaf kicking was out of the question.

I did my best to match their vibrant shades by wearing pumpkin colours: a burnt orange beret and an embellished crushed velvet scarf edged in tiny pumpkins ... err ... pom poms!

It was my boots' final voyage as the years had finally taken their toll, but what a grand finale they had walking along the leaf strewn woodland paths.

And here's what I was wearing beneath my old tweed jacket. The bottle green cord midi skirt was a recent find from the vintage per kilo shop. I combined it with an aubergine spotty blouse from Think Twice and a charity shopped belt and cardigan.

And now, without further ado, here are the things I found at the fair.

First up is the odd one out. I simply couldn't resist this chestnut brown croc handbag.

It almost goes without saying that I found some brooches. In fact, I bought a total of nine brooches from different sellers.

On the top row, another micromosaic one and a behatted and furred lady's head, which both came from the Brooch Lady's archives.

My two favourites are on the bottom row: a celluloid brooch featuring two Scotties in a sailing boat and a gold-rimmed Lucite brooch containing some garden pinks.

Here are the others. Clockwise from top left: top hat and riding crop, a handmade leather Scottie dog, a waterside scene, a large, shiny gold tone flower and a pearl bodied fish.

What is your favourite?

I will be back with another set of adventures next week!

A handful of Summer outfits

Remember those days when Summers seemed to last forever? School was out and you were feeling giddy at the thought of two months' worth of freedom to be spent doing whatever you wanted.

Looking through rose-tinted glasses, it seems we had more days of proper Summer weather too. Cloudless days segued into balmy evenings, on which we begged to stay up just that little bit longer. Rainy days were few and far between and heatwave temperatures much more bearable. At least that last bit isn't far from the truth, as those crazy +40°C we've just experienced were of record-breaking height in our moderately climed little country.

But those days are long gone and nowadays the Summer months just seem to whizz by, leaving a blurry trail of indistinguishable days, most of which I spent working. But, even if nothing very much has been happening, at least in years to come I'll know what I was wearing!

In those post-heatwave days, we were blessed with some gorgeously sunny but not too warm days.

On the Tuesday (oh my, this is two weeks ago already!) I wore one of my all-time favourite dresses. This delicously swishy 1980s does 1950s dress is such a joy to wear. It came with a belt of its own, but I prefer adding an off-white vinyl one, which is another favourite. If the brooch I pinned to it, with its vase full of embroidered flowers, looks familiar, it's one of the three I found in that Shrewsbury antiques centre. The cardigan was a recent charity shop find.

It was a bit of a stressful week, work-wise, as the bosses were visiting from Miami. I'm not sure if you remember, but earlier this year, I traded in my old boss for two new ones! On the plus side, they are the nicest guys ever, but life is always a bit more hectic when my normal office routine is being disrupted.

Another plus is that they love my vintage outfits! These are some more of the outfits I wore that week. On the bottom left, a floral Diolen dress with a plastic swallow brooch pinned to it, and worn with a navy belt. And on the top right, another 1950s style dress with an abstract print and a tie collar. I wore this one with red accessories, including a plastic butterfly brooch.

When time and weather allows, we take outfit photos in the morning, with me posing in a picturesque corner of our village church. 

The church's origins are 12th century, but only the white sandstone west tower (not pictured) remains from that period. It was extended and renovated in the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, with the latest adaptations daing from 1928-29.

After leaving me at the bus stop, Jos is going for his morning coffee and croissant. It's all right for some, isn't it?

I choose green for Friday's outfit, This was actually my first wearing of this solid green and chevron print frock. Again, I replaced its plain green self-belt with one from my collection in contrasting tan with a cream lacy overlay. The lace theme was repeated in the reddish orange and cream slingbacks.

A vintage orange beaded necklace and faux mosaic butterfly brooch were my other accessories.

When I posted half of the above photograph on Instagram, Goody remarked that I looked like a garden goddess!

Speaking of Instagram, I think I am quite done with it. It was fun posting my daily outfits and reconnecting with people who are no longer blogging, but for the last week it has been giving me more trouble than it's worth, as for some reason it keeps preventing me from liking photos and making comments, giving me Action Blocked messages, as supposedly I have been doing things which are not according to their policy. Heaven knows what they are. Anyway, those of you I am following and are following me on Instagram, it's not that I don't like you anymore!

But I digress, so let's proceed with the matter at hand.

After the week I've had, I was more than happy that the weekend had arrived, even if Saturday greeted us with a blanket of grey.

Raring to get out of the house and walk off the Mid-Summer blues, we went for a stroll in the park which has the added bonus of being near one of our favourite charity shops.

I was wearing the striking midnight blue dress with a heady white and orange flower print, which followed me home from Think Twice in my first week back at work.

On top, the blue blazer with its sprinkling of orange leaves. Charity shopped last year and hardly worn for months on end, it's been making regular appearances these last few weeks. I'm really quite surprised at the number of outfits it seems to work with.

The faux wicker bag was a naughty retail buy from well before #fastfashionseason, and it has been used so many times that I'm no longer feeling guilty about its purchase. The blue flats were a sales bargain from two Summers ago, and almost rival my Cloudsteppers in comfort.

We've reversed roles here, and it seems I'm married to a natural model! The muted browns of Jos's trousers and jacket contrast beautifully with his blue floral shirt. Both the jacket and shirt were charity shop finds. And so was the belt, which he picked up in Shrewsbury!

Here's a closer look at the exotic print of my dress. I added an additional orange flower for further oomph, a tan belt at my waist and the same orange beaded necklace I wore on Friday.

The orange enamel of the ring had a little chip, which I repaired by painting it all over with orange nail polish in a slightly different shade.

I'm making a concentrated effort to wear more bangles and bracelets. During the week, this usually falls by the wayside, as when I do wear them, they have to be removed when I'm at my desk as they hinder my typing.

But as I have more than a box full of them, not wearing them is a bit of a shame, don't you think?

From the park, we ambled towards the charity shop, where pickings were slim but still included some books and a pair of Italian made shoes. And some bracelets, but you'll get to see those later.

On Sunday, the sun was out in full force again, presenting us with a glorious Summer's day. 

It was the first Sunday of August, the day a huge flea market is being held in a nearby village. It used to be a highlight of our Summer season for many years until two years ago, when we were more than just a little disappointed with the quality of the stalls.

After giving it a miss last year, we were now prepared to give it another go.

Sadly, it was another disappointment but although this became clear soon enough we stubbornly persevered, passing stall after stall selling cast-off clothing, toys and general tat under the glaring midday sun.

I was glad I was wearing a hat but forgot to bring a scarf to protect my neck, so that I was forced to buy a reasonable looking one for € 0,50.

As the market wasn't too far from Saturday's park, we decided to return and sit on a bench under some trees, while listening to the gurgling of the stone fountain, which added some additional coolness. 

Playing around with its mirror image, it seems there's a mythical figure hiding in the green!

I was wearing a gloriously cool 1970s cotton Summer frock. When we left the house that morning, one of our opposite neighbours remarked that I looked very "English". 

My accessories that day included a red belt, red and white beaded necklace, vintage metal flower brooch and a stack of bangles. Both the bracelet with its different coloured squares and the ivory coloured carved one were the ones I charity shopped on Saturday

For the longest time, my only find - apart from the scarf - was the vintage plastic brooch depicting Hansel and Gretel. And Phoebe!

Then, as we were nearly at the end of the market, I found two more brooches (top and bottom left) and a Bakelite, Art-Deco style tie pin!

Finally, there was this little vintage crochet handbag. I've used the other handbag, which has been in my collection for a couple of years, for sizing purposes. This one is regular handbag size, so that you can see how tiny the new one is. Too tiny to carry much in it, but surely too cute to be left behind?

Linking Saturday's dress to Nancy's Fancy Friday!

Hello yellow!

My wardrobe is a rainbow of colour! No need to tell you that really. There isn't a colour under the sun which isn't represented in one way or another, although some colours are more plentiful than others. Take yellow, for instance. Although I have a couple of predominantly yellow frocks and am the proud owner of a mostly yellow 1960s suit, more often than not yellow is just part of a print, often clinching the deal when I'm in doubt whether or not to buy a garment.

And I'm sure that you've seen my yellow cardigans and opaques enough times for them to incite a little yawn here and there.

There's a substantial amount of yellow jewellery ...

... and even a pair of much cherished yellow vintage 1970s shoes!

The only thing that was missing was a yellow handbag. Envious of the little handbag belonging to my Twiggy doll, I'd been looking for something similar for many a year.

Here I was strolling back to work after a visit to my hairdresser's in the week before last when, passing one of the not-so-very-exciting second hand shops lining this particular street, I detected a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye. Lo and behold, it was a yellow handbag, and exactly the model I was looking for. Its strap can be adjusted in length, so that it can be worn either as a handbag or a shoulder bag, like Twiggy's!

Sitting next to it was a shiny red vinyl bag, which the yellow bag seemed to be friends with. Not wanting to leave it orphaned, I bought them both.

I am now swiftly moving on to the Sunday before last.

It was another sun-drenched day and there was no way the cold I'd developed was going to keep me inside. There's nothing like a breath or two of fresh air to clear those blocked sinuses!

We did, however, ditch our original plans to go further afield, and drove down to De Schorre, which is only a 15 minute or so drive away.

Well known the world over because of  the legendary EDM festival Tomorrowland, people tend to forget that it is also a nature reserve, which was established on the site of a former clay pit.

As promised, I was wearing both the vintage blouse and the blazer I'd scored on Saturday, both contributing to the amount of yellow in my wardrobe.

Ah, that blouse! It's easy to fall in love with its busy floral print in pink, green, white and yellow, reminiscent of a Summer garden.

My yellow blazer was adorned with a pink and green flower brooch, a perfect match for the blouse's print.

I wore my new-to-me acquisitions with one of my wardrobe staples, an A-line skirt in light grey tweed criss-crossed with red, green, white and yellow stripes. My vintage snakeskin belt came out to play as well.

You can just catch a glimpse of my green cardigan - peeking out from under the blazer - and my jewellery consisting of green beads and a red plastic ring. More green was added by carrying my green handbag, the floral scarf I was initially wearing tied to its handles.

Yellow opaques were the obvious choice, and  my feet were happy I was wearing my old brown boots.  They are slowly but surely falling apart, but they are so comfy and just perfect for walking. Whatever shall I do when they eventually give up the ghost?

We hadn't been to De Schorre for a while, and took a different route than usual, taking a path sloping down to the deepest part of the reserve, where an old clay dredger majestically reigns over a deep  green pool, a water-filled former clay pit.

The water was reflecting the blue of the sky and the rusty red of the derelict dredger, its body almost swallowed up by the rampant reeds edging the pool.

From there, we followed a boardwalk path meandering through the domain.

Once or twice, we veered off this path and explored some of the barefoot paths which have been laid out. Not on our bare feet, obviously!

I particularly loved this path, consisting of higgledy-piggledy half-rotten planks of wood floating mere centimeters above the marshy ground. Dwarfed by giant grasses, I walked until the path ended, drowned completely by the swollen waters.

Apparently, new barefoot paths are being introduced shortly, but these were strictly forbidden until the 1st of April, when they are officially opened to the public.

After skirting the main part of the domain, we walked over the 537-metre-long One World bridge, which is actually an art installation created especially for the Tomorrowland festival.

Symbolizing the connection between people and bridging their differences, the bridge has a total of 210.000 inscriptions, based on messages left by the festival visitors, etched on its wooden floorboards, railings, and even on the benches placed at regular intervals.

What goes down must come up!

Having taken the gentle descent down into the former clay pit, we now had to climb these steps all the way up again.

Needless to say, my bad knee didn't thank me for this, but I did make it to the top in one piece.