Welcome to the wilderness

Although we were supposed to be in a watered down version of lockdown until 13 December, we had another government announcement on Friday, informing us that non-essential shops will be allowed to re-open on Tuesday the 1st of December. Personally, I'm not sure this was a wise decision, with Christmas (there, I've used the other C word!) very much on our doorstep.  However much precautions will be taken, I already have visions of hordes of Christmas-shopping zombies crowding the streets of Antwerp, and I'm thanking my lucky stars I only have to grin and bear them two days a week.

Christmas itself is still very much cancelled, so at least that's something to be thankful for, even if I'm not sure that everybody will be responsible enough to follow the rules as far as this is concerned. I know I may be a bit of a Scrooge, but I'm thinking of the future here. Admittedly, Covid-19 cases have been going down again for a while, but we're not anywhere near the ultimate goal so there's still every reason to remain cautious. 

But anyway! As my blog is still struggling to catch up with daily life at Dove Cottage, I'm inviting you to come along on a short trip in the time machine as I'm taking you back on two weeks ago on Saturday.

After a wishy-washy few days,  the weather gods had finally deemed to treat us to another gloriously sunny one, with innocent white clouds drifting in a bright blue sky. Too good a day, in fact, that it would have been silly not to make the most of it, so we ignored the fact that it was a Saturday and went for a walk.

Besides, we needed to experiment some more with our new phone's cameras, so that although we took along my proper Canon DSLR camera - with which most of the photos appearing in my blog are taken - we didn't actually use it.

We'll have a look at my outfit later, but first I need to mention the brown fur-collared jacket I'm wearing. It's vintage, proudly bears a Paris label, and was among my earliest Think Twice finds. For some unfathomable reason I hadn't worn it in years.

I was carrying one of my cross-body bags, featuring panels of tapestry at the back and front but, only mere minutes into our walk, the strap snapped off, leaving me with no other option than to carry it in my arms. Fortunately, Jos's shepherd style walking stick came to the rescue!

For our walk, we set the time machine's controls for Jos's childhood, as the area we visited are the former clay pits surrounding the hamlet he grew up in. There is nothing left of the hamlet nor its neighbouring ones which, together with the once flourishing clay industry, have been taken over by the mighty forces of nature.

A nature reserve has been established here with lots of meandering paths criss-crossing it. Even on this sunny Saturday, it was very quiet and we were alone for most of the time, only meeting a handful of fellow walkers in all the time we were there.

The crooked semi-bare trees with the carpet of discarded leaves beneath them were the perfect backdrop for showing you what I was wearing underneath that jacket.

My rust coloured slubbed skirt is vintage St. Michael and part of a suit, its short-sleeved belted jacket remaining largely unworn. To accompany it, I chose a chocolate brown polka dot blouse enhanced by handfuls of orange and yellow flowers. The latter colour was repeated in my cardigan and opaques, while I used olive green as an accent colour for my necklace and suede belt.

I was wearing a semi-worn out pair of boots, perfect for walking the wet paths the recent rain had left in its wake. It can be quite muddy out there!

The last time we visited here was on the 31st of July, which with its 35°C was one of last Summer's hottest days. That day, the heat of the sun was beating down relentlessly, and when we crossed the sandy plain where we took the long-shadowed selfie on the bottom right, the hot sand kept sloshing over the tops of my shoes, almost burning my feet in the process.

Now, instead of making a beeline for the shelter of the trees beyond, we kept on walking in the balmy November sunshine with the temperature a very agreeable 15°C.

We kept wandering at will, taking note of the sun's position in order not to get lost, as we hadn't brought our walking map. Not all paths are waymarked here but eventually we would come across one of the numbered markers which would have given us an indication of our whereabouts if we'd had a map.

As those of you who have been following my blog for a while might have gathered by now, we are very prone to getting lost even if we do have a map, so it's nothing short of a miracle that we found our way back to where we'd parked our car quite easily. Who needs a map anyway?

It was supposed to be very rainy and windy on Sunday, but there was still a bit of lingering sunshine to be spied when we got up. Having taken note of the shape of things to come, however, we went into the garden for outfit photos straight after our Sunday breakfast of eggs and soldiers.

Here I am amid the tangled jungle our garden usually is at this time of year, the dry and brown Hydrangea flower heads, the wilting and yellowing ferns and the jolly red Cotoneaster berries all harbingers of advanced Autumn. Peeking from the rampant ivy behind me are the first of the tiny yellow stars twinkling in our Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum).

I was wearing a pink dress with lashings of purple and off-white flowers which I picked up in a vintage per kilo shop in Antwerp last year. A vintage off-white flower brooch and a semi-transluscent lilac beaded necklace - both charity shop finds - were my accessories. Oh, and I once again wore one of my stretchy chevron patterned belts. They really go with everything!

In typical Sunday mood, I pottered around the house, ticking a couple of smaller things not worth mentioning off my to-do list.

Shortly after lunch, it started pouring and turned quite windy as forecasted, and although it had virtually stopped by the time we went to bed, we closed the bedroom window, which is usually left partly open during the night if weather permits, just to be on safe side.

Monday's office day was uneventful, not even worthy of a journal entry. Then Tuesday dawned grey and dismal but with a quite reasonable 12°C.

I still had the task of properly hibernating my Spring and Summer dresses to tick off my list. In order to save well-needed space, my out-of-season clothes are put into vacuum bags which are then put to sleep in our linen chest. The problem was that some of the bags, which had been doing their jobs for many years, turned out to be no longer airtight.

I'd bought a new set of bags just before lockdown 2 but hadn't yet been able to summon the get-up-and-go to tackle the gargantuan task of repacking the clothes into the new bags.

Now was as good a time as any, and what's more, the new bags turned out to be so much better quality. There was now more than enough space left on top of them to store my warmest woollens as well as a non-vacuumed bag of clothes which still needs sorting out.

The linen chest in question used to belong to Jos's maternal grandparents, who lived on a farm. A true family heirloom, its age spelled out by the scratched and stained surface of its heavy lid. It finally came into Jos's possession after his brother Eugene passed away in 2014.

It sits right next to my desk in the spare room, wedged into the only space we could find for it, but what a godsend it turned out to be! 

Covered with a quilted throw, it is yet again one of Phoebe's favourite snoozing places. 

Due to the eternal lack of space, I am constantly reshuffling my coats and jackets, which are jam-packed inside the wardrobe the jackets are hanging from in the linen chest collage.

A forecasted change in the weather prompted me to take out and hang up some of my warmer jackets  ready for wear. You will probably have recognized the two plaid jackets (top right and bottom left), which I've recently worn on the blog.

The teal new wool jacket (top left) and green wool jacket are both vintage and with their furry collars they usually come out to play as soon as a cold snap is on the horizon.

 

The belted brown Tweed jacket is another favourite which was worn on the blog not too long ago. Slightly moth-eaten before it even came into my possession, it has nevertheless been cherished for years.

The bottle green Tweed jacket was charity shopped in the Autumn of 2018 and my stash of buttons came up with the perfect one  to replace its boring predecessor. 

The deliciously coloured plaid jacket on the left was a sales bargain from a village shop which has since closed down, while the pale green, blue and black jigsaw print cape came from Think Twice. Tucked away at the back of the wardrobe, I always keep forgetting its existence, but I'm hoping to find the perfect occasion for wearing it very soon!

That just leaves that Tuesday's outfit! 

It actually features the skirt I couldn't get to look right, as mentioned in my previous post. I thought it deserved a second chance so I played around with my wardrobe's contents until I found the perfect top to pair it with. I was led by its blue background and the red in its confetti print, which echoed the blue and red in my skirt. 

On top, I threw on a teal waterfall cardigan which, same as the skirt and top, was a charity shop find.

As were the belt, necklace, brooch and boots, for that matter! In fact, the only new-bought items in my outfit were the blue opaques and ditto plastic ring.

I'm happy to report that I didn't feel the need to change into anything else that day and that the skirt will be a keeper after all.

And with that, I bid you goodbye for now. Until next time, please do stay safe, sane and as fabulous as possible!