Life goes on

 After a week's delay, Jos finally got green light for his second course of chemotherapy on Thursday the 26th of March. During the procedure, which generally takes about three hours in total, I kept him company with my current read and enjoyed a free cup of coffee in the lounge provided for patients and their families.

No chance of sitting outside in the courtyard as the sunny spell was very short-lived, the sky reverting to granite grey mere minutes after I'd taken this photo. The eagle-eyed among you may notice the wet paving stones outside, the result of the rain we'd started the day with.

As we were out of bread, I went to buy a loaf in the tiny supermarket in the lobby and, with Easter virtually on our doorstep, treated us to half a kilo of scrumptious chocolate mini eggs in the on-site Leonidas shop.

With Jos's appetite having made a temporary come-back, it didn't take very long to get to the bottom of this bowl. 

That evening, Jos declared a craving for frietjes van de frituur, meaning Belgian (not French!) fries bought from that most traditional of Belgian institutions, the frituur, as ubiquitous as the British chip shop. With one of these virtually around the corner from Dove Cottage, that was our evening meal sorted.

In the next couple of days Jos was feeling quite energetic and, just like during his first round of chemotherapy, didn't suffer from any side-effects to speak of. Apparently, this is due to the cortisone-like medicine which he is given before and after chemotherapy to prevent nausea and which has the welcome side-effect of giving some lucky people an energy boost.

We knew it wouldn't last, so we decided to make the most of it. If only the weather gods had been better behaved!

We woke up to overnight frost on Saturday and the forecast wasn't looking very promising. Spring was dragging her heels and, with a chilly wind blowing and the mercury refusing to let go of the single digit temperatures, Jos drove me to the local charity shop for a rummage in the afternoon. Meanwhile, he took the car for a spin, finishing with a non-alcoholic beer at his favourite village café.

Contrary to their colleagues of the weather department, the gods of the charity shops were on their best behaviour and finds were plentiful.

For starters, these two skirts ended up in my shopping basket. The red one with its brown and white garland pattern is handmade from a sturdy cotton, lined, and perfect in every way except, alas, for a lack of pockets. I'm actually wearing it as I type.

The red, white and blue leaves and berries patterned A-line skirt is by King Louie.

There were dresses galore, and from the armful I took into the fitting rooms these three have joined my wardrobe. The embroidered chambray knee-length dress is from C&A, the red and white striped maxi from H&M and the black floral with the odd bird maxi from Vero Moda.

Finally, I fell head over heels for these two very different blouses. 

As I am partial to a bird pattern, the green flamingo patterned one was a no brainer. Same as the black floral maxi, it's from the Danish Vera Moda label.

The blue short-sleeved blouse with its sprinkling of red, orange, green and white dots is label-less and has every indication of having been handmade.

As we are no longer in the habit of making outfit photos, we cleanly forgot to do so that day.  However, here you can catch the briefest of glimpses of my rust coloured opaques, orange socks and my stripy vintage skirt (this one!). 

But I'm sure you only have eyes for Queen Bess of Dove Cottage!

We woke up to a repeat of Saturday's weather on Sunday, although the clouds did make way for the odd patch of blue sky.

With the temperature still not having caught up with the season, I pulled this thick knit zipper front King Louie dress from my wardrobe. Charity shopped back in September, this was actually its first outing, for which it was joined by a contrasting mustard cardigan. As the latter is buttonless, I pinned a green-hearted brooch to its collar to keep it closed. Teal opaques, an old pair of tan boots, a mustard beaded necklace and chunky yellow ring completed my outfit.

As it looked set to remain dry, I persuaded Jos to go for a long-overdue walk, for which we drove to the park in one of our neighbouring villages, Duffel. However, he looked quite doubtful when I uttered the words "15-minute walk", protesting that he'd probably only make it to the first available bench.

Much to our mutual surprise, he just kept on going - that's him in the distance in the top left photo of the above collage - and insisted on continuing around the park's biggest pond.

All in all, we walked for over half an hour, sampling the sensory delights of Spring, which seemed to have arrived regardless of us being otherwise occupied. 

Surely, this host of daffodils, tiny as it is, must be Spring personified, the ultimate symbol of new beginnings. 

Additionally it's also the symbol of cancer charities in many countries ...

Thank you for reading. I hope to be back soon!

Back in time to August

Apologies to those of you who were looking forward to another installment of this year's September travelogue. Don't worry: as we were only two days in, I've obviously got another couple of travel posts up my sleeve. However, as I'm way (and I mean way!) behind with posting about my month of August, I'm treating you to a veritable barrage of Summer outfits. In fact, there are so many I haven't posted yet that I'll be needing a second post to cover the rest. 

So, without further ado, here's what I've been wearing - and doing - in the first half of the month.

The weather gods were on their best behaviour in the first week of August, starting off with a mixed menu of clouds and sunny spells accompanied with temperatures in the low twenties from Monday to Wednesday.

On Tuesday the 5th this Diolen Delight made it out of my wardrobe. My wardrobe has its fair share of Diolen, a popular 1960s/1970s polyester, its bright colours and prints vying for attention. Most of these frocks were picked up from Think Twice and other vintage shops over the years, but this particular one was a rare charity shop find back in 2023.

For my accessories I picked orange to contrast with its funky pattern of blue dots. All of these were second-hand finds, except for the cat brooch, which came from the delightful Katshop. Right opposite my hairdresser's salon, this wonderful little shop caters for cats as well as for their long-suffering servants.

By Thursday the 7th, the mercury had managed to climb to 26°C. During my lunch break, I took refuge from my hectic office by going for a cappuccino catch-up with my friend Inez. She's more like a sister than a friend, really, and we're actually calling each other big sister (that's me!) and little sister.

Anyway, I was wearing this vintage frock I'd picked up from a Shrewsbury antique centre in June 2024.

The turquoise flowers in its pattern shouted for attention, which I gave them by adding more turquoise by way of my accessories.

Suitably caffeinated, we finished by going for a rummage. Well, that's what you get when you meet up in the coffee corner of one's favourite vintage shop! 

I fell head over heels for this vintage floral maxi skirt, which you've already seen me wearing as it accompanied me on our September travels.

Friday's weather was a repeat of Thursday's. Although it was my day off, sleeping in wasn't on the menu, as I had an appointment with Michel, my hairdresser of 30 years (!), for a colour and cut. Unfortunately, Michel's retirement is on the cards in the near future. I will be devastated, as finding someone to follow in Michel's shoes will be verging on the impossible ...

The vintage dress I was wearing was another lucky charity shop find, which made it entrance into my wardrobe in the Summer of 2021. Trimmed with white bias tape at the collar and cuffs, with an abstract seascape decal and a wave-like pattern on the skirt, it was definitely love at first sight.

I always seem to go for blue as its companion, and as it works so well I didn't see any reason not to this time around. Particularly as it allowed me to wear the matching sandals I charity shopped back in June.

Friday the 8th of August was also International Cat Day, and Bess willingly posed for me for her annual state portrait. But oh dear, being a model is quite exhausting!

Saturday was yet another sunny day, with the temperature slowly but surely creeping towards the high twenties.

I kept cool by wearing a mix of millefiori patterns. My vintage button-through cotton skirt was an old Think Twice find, while the top with it eye-catching collar, which is by Belgian label Lucy Has A Secret, was charity shopped for a fraction of its undoubtedly astronomical retail price in 2019.

Unusually for me, all my accessories (belt, butterfly brooch and perspex ring) were picked up from the high street at various times.

Same weather again on Sunday the 10th when, after our usual Sunday morning chores, we drove down to the municipal park in the nearby town of Boom.

Instead of walking along the brook which runs through the park like we usually do, we took the park's perimeter path until we arrived at 't Kleibrood, a centre for environmental education. There's a herb and flower garden as well as some vegetable beds which seemed to have yielded a good crop of courgettes. We were even offered some by one of the caretakers!

From there, we ventured into the heart of the park where, unsurprisingly, we found the water levels in the brook and ponds to be very low. It had been some time since we'd had a decent amount of rain. As I'd suspected at the time, the weather gods were saving it all up for our holiday ...

We finally came across some of the park's population of waterfowl at the edge of the largest of the ponds, where I instantly took a liking to these youngsters, who were kind - and tame - enough to pose for me.

Much as I loved their black and white outfits, I opted for full-on colour and a mix of patterns. My curtain couture skirt - its moniker was earned by the fact that it was obviously, and rather rudimentary sewn from an old curtain - came out to play. The exotically patterned and frilly butterfly-sleeved top was charity shopped in the Spring of 2023.

It's been a while since I shared my reads, so here's the novel I was engrossed in at the time. Set in the US in 1960, its backdrop ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign.

We were in for a heatwave in August's second week, with temperatures effortlessly reaching highs of 30°C and more.

My hot weather wardrobe came into its own that week, starting with this combo I wore on Monday. My crisp organic cotton maxi skirt with its flower meadow print and two fuchsia pink crocheted lace strips at the hem was bought brand new from C&A three summers ago. The bright orange cotton top - by the Belgian Gigue label - was charity shopped around the same time.

The cotton shirt dress with its funky floral pattern was a Think Twice sales bargain back in June 2017.  It has been a Summer staple ever since and has featured on the blog many a time over the years. It's definitely in my top 10 of favourite Summer frocks!

The flowers in its print were echoed by my brooch - a pink straw sunflower - and the flowers adorning my ancient Clarks sandals. 

And look who wanted a piece of the action!

I'd missed my usual tram when going home, and as I wasn't keen on waiting for the next one to come around while wilting in full-on sunshine at 33°C, I crossed the street and walked into the airconditioned Veritas shop, where I was seduced by this € 3 sales bargain gecko brooch ... 

... which obviously I had to wear the next day.

Hopefully, the little fellow liked ice cream, as I pinned him to the green ice cream cone patterned Only t-shirt I charity shopped last Summer. 

The Vero Moda red and white tiered faux-patchwork maxi skirt was a recent bargainous outlet shop buy.

With the mercury stuck at 33°C, the day was yet another scorcher, from which I took refuge in the small shopping centre near my office during my lunch break. 

It was in one of the few remaining shops which hadn't yet closed down that my eyes alighted on this dream of a skirt. With a fantastic pattern like that, I'm sure you'll understand that resistance was futile ...

Part 2 of my August outfits to follow shortly. But first things first: part 3 of this year's September travelogue will be coming up next!

Hope to see you soon!

Two weeks in June

We've been back from our far-too-short substitute holiday in Belgium's west country since last Saturday and have subsequently been enjoying a week's worth of staycation here at Dove Cottage, trying to keep our heads cool during the heatwave the weather gods have cooked up for us. It's been two weeks of semi-indolence instead of our customary action-packed UK holiday, and at times it hasn't felt like a real holiday at all. We've mainly been lazy so-and-so's, sleeping much longer than we usually do and having siestas in the afternoons. I guess that this is exactly what we needed after the ordeal of the last ten months or so, but I can't help feeling a bit short-changed. 

I'll be telling you all about what we did during our holiday over the next couple of posts, but let's make a start by getting those first two weeks of June out of the way, shall we?

Actually, I've just realized that I didn't include May's final day in my previous post, so here's what I wore on Saturday the 31st. 

The day's highs of 28°C made me scramble around in my wardrobe for suitable Summer tops, unearthing this vaguely mid-century patterned one I charity shopped last year. Don't worry, I've added plenty of close-ups where you can actually see its pattern below.

It originally had some rather fiddly ribbon ties at the neck, but I snipped off the offending things and sewed the ends together, creating a kind of keyhole neckline, which I thought was much better.

Its companion was a vintage cotton button-through skirt, an old Think Twice find which has been in my wardrobe forever. I included a close-up of its print as well, making it clear that it's daisies and not polka dots it's sprinkled with. I'm sure you won't be surprised if I tell you that the three rows of white rick-rack near the hem were one of its selling points!

I picked orange as the main colour for my accessories, which included yet another one of my glass rings!

Our plans for the day were somewhat thwarted as it was too humid to go for a walk, so that we briefly nipped into the charity shop near the park instead. 

Here, a quick trawl of the aisles yielded these two skirts, one of which you'll get to see me wearing very soon!

Sunday the 1st of June brought a mix of clouds and sunny spells and a drop in temperature to 21°C.

After our usual Sunday morning chores, which included changed the bed sheets and vacuuming and mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors, I took a walk down the garden path to take stock of what was happening in the impenetrable jungle which currently constitutes our garden.

Then, after lunch, we returned to the park in Duffel as we were sorely in need of stretching our weary limbs and breathing in a couple of lungfuls of fresh air.

Gone was Saturday's cloudless blue sky, replaced with a canvas of smudged, moody greys, which now and then parted to reveal swirls of palest blue. 

If you guessed I'd be wearing the pleated green and white zig-zaggy skirt I'd scored on Saturday, you were spot on! It's from a French label called An'ge, which was born in Paris in 1985.

The grooviliously patterned top - long-sleeved this time - was another one which winged its way into my wardrobe from a charity shop last year. The green bits in its pattern matched the skirt's colour almost exactly, while I matched my accessories to the tiny bits of pink. 

Brooch: flea market

Belt picked up from the high street

Translucent beaded necklace: charity shopped 

The park's vegetation is at its lushest in June, the various shades of green still having a freshness which will soon fade in the relentless heat of the Summer sun. There were forget-me-nots a-plenty, offering a delightfully contrasting chorus line for the yellow flag Irises which were dancing  among the reeds.

We circumnavigated the biggest of the park's ponds, crossed one of the reed-choked rills and listened to the calls of the birds high up in the Jack-and-the-beanstalk trees.

But then the quiet and solitude were rudely interrupted by the arrival of a group of loud and boisterous youths, which made us cut our walk short and return to our car.

The weather gods clearly couldn't make up our minds during the working week ahead, treating us to grey skies, sunny spells, lots of wind, and heavy showers, often within the space of a couple of hours.

I needed to run an errand near Antwerp's Central Station, about 1,5 kilometers from the office, which I finally managed during an unexpectedly sunny lunch break on Wednesday. Admittedly, in order to save time, I took a tram part of the way instead of walking the length of Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfare, 

Afterwards, I hopped into the Central Station to admire its rich interior lavishly decorated with more than twenty different kinds of marble and stone. The station building was built in eclectic style between 1899 and 1905 by Louis Delacenserie, who was inspired, among other things, by the Pantheon in Rome. The highest point (75 meters) is a large dome.

Being dubbed the "Railway Cathedral", it has been voted one of the most impressive railway stations in the world on several occasions by the likes of  Newsweek, Mashable and The Telegraph. 

Let's step outside onto the square called Astridplein and have a look at its exterior, shall we?

If you are wondering what the man riding a camel is all about, the station is right next to another one of Antwerp's marvels, the Zoo, established on 21 July 19843, and one of the oldest and most famous zoos in Europe.

I actually can't remember exactly when I last visited here, but I think it must have been on a day out with my then boyfriend in the early 1990s. Obviously, I visited a couple of times with my parents and grandparents when I was growing up, most famously when, as a two-year old, I accidentally dropped my dummy in the sea lions enclosure. As apparently I was inconsolable, my parents were obliged to ask one of the zookeepers to retrieve it. I just hope it was thoroughly cleaned before it was returned to me, but I can't say I remember that part ...

As the week was trundling towards its end, it was clear that Jos's nerves were totally frayed at the thought of our upcoming trip to the UK. As this resulted in loss of appetite due to which he had to force down the merest little mouthful, we ultimately had to take the heart-breaking decision to cancel our UK holiday. 

But I already told you about this in detail in a previous post, so we'll leave well enough alone.

Instead, let me show you the results of our charity shopping trip on Friday the 6th of June.

And no, it wasn't a reflection of me feeling a bit blue that made me reach for these blue suede Italian made sandals and blue Japanese style King Louie frock!

My other, differently coloured finds, were a short-sleeved exotic print maxi dress and two funky blouses, the one on top being another King Louie and the one on the bottom being from the Danish Vero Moda label.

My saviour that final week before the holidays was this novel which had been residing in my neverending reading pile for a while. And it was one of my best reads so far this year! 

Intertwining the lives of two very different couples during World War I, this epic novel follows army soldier Riley as he fights for the love of Nadine despite a terrible injury, and his commanding officer Peter Locke, who returns home from the war a bitter and scarred man - one his wife doesn't recognize.

So, that was it from me for now. I can't wait to make a start with my mini-travelogue! Let's meet again in a couple of days.

It's a wonderful life (if you can find it)

First of all, I would like to thank you all for your concern about my back issues. Thankfully, touch wood and fingers firmly crossed, there has been no recurrence since I visited my GP. I'm still trying to be careful, though, and have been sporting my most comfortable footwear, particularly when going for a walk.

My blog has reached the week before Easter and, with the long weekend dangling like a carrot in front of me, it wasn't much of a hardship to get through my short, three-day working week. Although my office only closes on Good Friday and Easter Monday, I'd booked Thursday off to accompany Jos to his hospital appointment, so that I had a whole five days away from the grind to look forward to.

Apart from a little stiffness in my lower back when I got out of bed on Tuesday, which soon got better once I was up and moving around, things seemed to be under control.  I didn't even have to take a single painkiller that day.

The day's weather was a mix of clouds, sunny spells and the odd shower, although the latter had the decency to wait until my friend Inez and I were sitting in front of steaming cups of cappuccino at the Think Twice coffee corner during my lunch break.

A quick perusal of the rails before returning to the office yielded this cotton button-through skirt printed with a menagerie of rather weird looking wild animals.

If we were still treated to a reasonable 18°C on Tuesday, the mercury did take a dive to just 13°C on Wednesday. The sun was conspicuous in her absence, leaving behind a sky of uniform grey.

While I was running an errand during lunch break,  I stopped at the Wapper, an elongated square leading off Antwerp's main shopping thoroughfare, to admire my Dad's fountain. I can definitely see raised eyebrows there, so I guess I've got some explaining to do.

The sculpture of an eagle catching a fish was the winning submission for a fountain in Silkeborg, Denmark, in 1931 and is by the Danish sculptor Hugo Liisberg (1898 - 1958). Ours is a second copy and was purchased by the city of Antwerp in 1951. It is part of the Middelheim collection and was erected on its concrete plinth on the Wapper square in 1980. And this is where my Dad comes in, as he designed and made the cast for the plinth as part of his job as a joiner in a concrete factory.  It's been known to us as Dad's fountain ever since! 

Thursday was mostly cloudy with a couple of sunny spells, although the forecasted rain never materialized in spite of the at times brooding sky. As Jos had received the best of news at the hospital, we were both on a high and actually couldn't have cared less about the weather.

My outfit that day was an exercise in pattern mixing, involving a skirt and blouse which both had their origins at Think Twice at one time or another. Both have a brown background - in different hues, but brown nevertheless - and they have blue and hot pink flowers in common.

The blue King Louie cardigan and the tan suede and elastic belt with its massive buckle were both charity shopped, while I found the blue beaded necklace on an outdoor flea market in July 2018. My brooch was part of a haul from a Welsh antiques shop back in 2017.

Meanwhile, bees kept flocking to our little hotel. Here, you can actually see two of them making themselves at home, while at the time of writing they've filled it up almost completely. 

For the first time in many months, we woke up with our heads virtually free of worries on Good Friday. What's more, the weather gods helped us celebrate Thursday's good news by treating us to a sunny day and highs of 17°C.

Although my office closes on Good Friday, it is not an official holiday in Belgium, and shops were open same as they would be on any other Friday. And so did my hairdresser, which was where I was headed that morning. Apart from the joys of having my hair done, I was looking forward to telling Michel our good news! As you can imagine, we could have shouted it from the rooftops. It's a wonderful life indeed!

The cobalt blue dress I was wearing might very well be one of the most colourful items in my wardrobe. Its floral pattern contains about every colour under the sun, and there's the odd pagoda among them as well. I'm pretty sure I picked it up from Think Twice, and it has been in my wardrobe for at least eight years. I thought my vintage Japanese boat brooch would fit the bill perfectly, even if it got a little lost among the floral extravaganza.

Back at home, I was inspired to do a bit of gardening, pruning back some the ivy and other climbers so that at least we are now able to reach the back of the garden without being caught in the tangle.

I was happy to see that one of the saucer-like flowers belonging to Clematis "Guernsey Cream" was unfurling its petals, as well as the first of the white current clusters and bluebells, both of which seem to be thriving in our little jungle. And look, there's some yellow archangel too. These are virtually indestructible, inherited with the garden when we bought Dove Cottage 27 years ago. 

Saturday's weather was a repeat of Friday's, and thus perfect for a long overdue longer walk in the park.

We decided to sample the season's sensory delights in the leafy park in the nearby town of Boom, a leisurely 15-miniute drive from Dove Cottage.

It was such a joy to be walking its paths, feasting our eyes on the cornucopia of lush greens and enjoying the antics of a brood of Egyptian goslings under the watchful eye of their doting parents

I even caught Jos with the biggest of grins on his face!

After having been on the lookout for a (faux) leather skirt for absolutely ages, I might very well have squealed when I spotted this snake patterned faux leather midi one in a charity shop in November 2023. It's by the posh Belgian label Caroline Biss and it's even got pockets!

The groovily patterned blouse, which is by Claude Arielle - yet another Belgian label - was a charity shop find about a month later.

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted the spotty belt belonging to the oatmeal skirt I charity shopped back in March. My yellow beads were a gift from my friend Inneke and the brooch, which I fastened at the blouse's collar, was picked up from a flea market in Carmarthen about 10 years ago.

Easter Day did have some sunny spells to begin with, but were soon obscured by a layer of grey which made it quite chilly although it was supposed to be 17°C at some point during the day.

Regardless of the holiday, chores were awaiting, and as the weather wasn't very conductive to outdoor activities, the afternoon was spent doing another installment of my seasonal wardrobe exchange.

What with all that has happened in our lives since, I'd quite forgotten about the green and peachy orange Diolen dress I found at Think Twice back in September. But what an utter joy it was to wear!

I kept thing simple by opting for orange accessories: a beaded necklace, plastic ring and pearl-hearted vintage brooch.

The perfect outfit for both playing around with my wardrobe and lounging on the sofa with my latest read. 

Adam O'Riordan's The Falling Thread is one of my favourite reads so far this year, following the drama-filled lives of three siblings in Manchester, in the lead up to the first world war.

And we, we're slowly but surely picking up the thread of our lives once more! I hope you'll join me again for the next installment!

See you soon!