White wilderness

Saturday the 20th of January dawned dismal and grey until suddenly late morning the sun managed to worm her way through the layer of clouds. 

Knowing I wouldn't have time on Sunday, I fiddled around with collages for my next blog post and put together some possible outfits for the week ahead.

By then, the sun was out in full force, although she didn't manage to push the mercury beyond freezing point. So, once again, woollens to the rescue!

My chunky knit skirt with its brown, caramel and off-white chevron pattern is an old Think Twice find and tends to only come out of my closet on cold Winter days. This time, it found its perfect companion in a vintage bottle green wool jumper, its front panel higgledy-piggledy striped in off-white, sage green and burnt orange. The jumper too was picked up from Think Twice, while the white faux fur gilet I layered on top to further combat the cold was a charity shop find.

Accessories were kept to the bare minimum with an ivory coloured carved beaded necklace and a brooch consisting of a spray of cream leaves and brown berries, both of which were flea market finds.

While having lunch, we brainstormed about possible walking destinations. Obviously there was no way we would be staying inside on this rarest of commodities, a crispy cold yet sunny Winter's day.

Having exhausted the possibilities of most of the local parks, we were somewhat at a loss, and had already reluctantly settled for another visit to Antwerp's Park Den Brandt, when I suddenly had a Eureka moment.

Why not go for a long-overdue walk to the ex-clay pit based nature reserve in Terhagen? Surely, with the frost and snow of the last couple of days, it wouldn't be too muddy?

Incessant rain turning the paths into a sticky clay-based mud-fest had kept us away for many months. In fact, our last visit was on a glorious Spring day back in May, its highs of 23°C a total contrast to today's.

We parked our car in the village of Terhagen in front of the former entrance of De Beukelaer, one of the many brickmaking factories which used to provide the area's livelihood. The brick entrance gate dates back to 1939 and was beautifully restored in 2012.

Once past the gate and down a set of slippery steps, there is a choice of two paths: one leading between trees to the right and another to the left. The latter eventually takes one to an open area from where a narrow up-and-down path leads past one of the water-filled former clay pits into the heart of the reserve.

Jos claimed that we always take a right turn - which admittedly we might have done once or twice - so I indulged him and off we went. However, we had to turn back almost at once as the path became increasingly muddy. Taking the snow covered path on the left, we were momentarily confused when we arrived at the aforementioned open area, where the usually quite obvious path we needed to take insisted on a game of hide and seek in drifts of snow. Then we found it snaking between the trees on the bottom right in the De Beukelaer collage.

On the right path again, we continued our walk, crunching through solid snow, with only the odd muddy patch to negotiate.

To our left, we caught glimpses of the water-filled pit, now a wide, white expanse of ice and snow.

Everything was eerily quiet in spite of not being all too far from the inhabited world. There were hardly any fellow walkers out and about either, which was a bit mind-boggling on such a lovely Saturday afternoon.

It was only when, after a short but stiff climb, we arrived at a huge sandy plain, that we spotted the odd, far-off dog walker. The plain, reminiscent of the Sahara on a hot Summer's day, is a reminder of the fact that once upon a time this was actually the bottom of the sea. Jos remembers hunting for shark's tooth here when he lived nearby as a boy.

We circumnavigated the partially snow covered plain and were just about to return to the path we'd come on, when a woman walking her dog warned us that it was quite slippery going down and that she'd almost landed on her bum. Having a life-long trauma from slipping on ice and breaking my arm as a four year old, I wasn't very keen. Still, we decided to risk it and, taking great care and making use of our walking poles, we safely got back on track.

An alternative route would have meant making quite a detour. Not to mention the magical sight of the sinking sun illuminating the skeleton trees and the naughts and crosses pattern in the sky.

No outfits photos were taken on Sunday, as we had January's edition of the indoor flea market to go to and were running late picking up our friend Inez.

By the time we'd finished trawling the aisles of well-stocked stalls, I was too exhausted. My cold, which had thankfully taken a backseat on Friday and Saturday, was back for another round, and I simply had no energy left when we got back home.

I'd left my camera at home as well so, rather than taking you for a spin through the aisles, here's a peek at the treasures which came home with me.

Not having purchased even a single brooch in December, I now came away with no less than nine.

I didn't pay over the odds for any of them, my most expensive purchase being the agate one (above, bottom right) bought from one of the regular sellers, a very nice French speaking lady I purchased lots of lovely brooches from over the years.

Another favourite is the one on the bottom left, which I think looks like half a walnut shell. 

The large cameo came from another regular seller, an older lady who lives in the next village to ours and who presides over a table heaped with all kinds of costume jewellery. She always strikes up a conversation, mainly about her health problems. By the time I managed to extricate myself, Jos and Inez had almost reached the end of the aisle.

I fell head over heels for the wooden brooch with its hand-painted flowers. It was the first one that caught my eye and has already been worn in the meantime.

I can never resist kitschy plastic brooches, like the tiny blue cock and the olive green mouse, whose eyes turned out to be very hard to get into focus, and which I think gives the poor thing a bit of a squinty look!

Mid-century celluloid souvenir brooches are another weakness of mine. I've got quite a few of these in my collection, mainly of German origin. I suppose this is where the gnomes are from as well, but it's rather unusual to find a Belgian one, in this case a souvenir from the seaside town of Blankenberge. 

I actually gasped when I spotted the red and white knitted coat several aisles away, and instantly made a beeline towards it with Inez in tow. Once I tried it on, there was no going back, particularly after Inez declared that she would never speak to me again if I didn't buy it. It's got a hood too. And pockets!

The weather gods cranked up the weather thermostat to around 10°C in the week that followed, treating us to a melange of rain and sunshine, often in one day, and mostly accompanied by a blustery wind.

After a false start on Monday, I gradually started feeling better each day, testimony of which is that I had the energy to walk to various Think Twice shops for a rummage during my lunch breaks.

I'd completely missed their January round of sales, but was happy to browse their newest collection.

Quite by coincidence, both of my purchases that week, on two consecutive days and in two different shops, featured diamond patterns. The purple and white dress, which came with its matching belt, is vintage, while the yellow, white, brown and pink short-sleeved jumper is from UK retro label Miss Fortune.

Oh, and I was unable to resist the Paisley patterned maxi dress, which was 70% off at a high street shop.

As I couldn't possibly say goodbye without showing you a second outfit, here's what I wore on January's final Friday.

Its main components were retail buys, starting with the caramel button-through cord skirt bought at full price in October 2021 from the same shop where I got the bargainous maxi dress from. It's become a firm favourite which has more than earned its keep in my wardrobe.

The blouse is by the defunct Belgian Wow To Go label, and snapped up from an outlet shop in November 2022. Like the skirt, it has featured many a time on the blog!

My zebra striped necklace (part of a set with a ring) was last year's flea market find, while both the burgundy belt and my squishy deer brooch were charity shopped.

Was there anything exciting on the menu for January's final weekend? Find out all about it in my next post! 

Hope to see you again soon!

Stopping by the park on a snowy day

Saturday the 13th of January was a dull and grey day, on which the mercury climbed to about 3°C: a small but noticeable improvement on the negative temperatures we had been faced with during the week.

After our usual fruit & yoghurt breakfast, I caught up with Blogland, and fiddled around with collages for my next post.

Then it was time to step outside for outfit photos!

The dress I was wearing is an old favourite, which made its debut on the blog when I first started out in March 2016 (see here for a trip down memory lane).

It's one of my dresses from the Finnish "Karelia" label and its heavyweight textured polyester fabric makes it perfect for days like these.

I picked up the green(ish) bits in its pattern with my accessories, all of which were either flea market or charity shop finds. The chunky caramel cardigan is by Esprit and was charity shopped last Spring.

The afternoon saw us driving down to the two-floored charity shop in Mechelen, where we'd last been back in November. 

Among the rails of mediocre offerings, I spotted the red Norwegian style jumper, which is by H&M, and a close cousin of my green one, which by pure coincidence was also found here. The multicoloured striped faux-wrap jumper is by C&A's Clockhouse label.

By then my lurgy, which had reared its head a couple of days earlier but until now had been reasonably well behaved, had decided to up the ante. I felt bone tired all of a sudden and was glad to be able to crash on the sofa once we got home.

Sunday treated us to temperatures barely above freezing point, grey skies and some snow – which thankfully didn’t stick – in the late morning and early afternoon.

My wool knit skirt with its gorgeous jacquard pattern was picked up for a pittance from Think Twice in November 2019. It's by Hess Natur, a German label which has been promoting sustainable fashion since 1976.

I combined it with a blue polo neck jumper I've had for absolutely ages, with a charity shopped cropped faux fur gilet layered on top. The hot pink belt was recently found on the high street. 

It was that cold that even the beads on my necklace were wearing crochet jackets! However, by the time we were ready for outfit photos, it had stopped snowing.

As more of the same had been forecasted for later that week, I dug out my stash of warm woollens and,  after searching high and low for them, was finally able to locate my snow boots, which are vintage and were a pre-blog Think Twice find.

As it turned out I'd already spent the day's energy quota by then, the rest of it was spent on the sofa, riding out the waves of my cold. 

Lack of remaining daylight after work still prevents us from taking outfit photos during the week, but here are some flat lays I did later.

The plaid skirt is Gor-Ray and was charity shopped in December 2018. I wore it with a striped jumper of many colours - an old sales bargain from New Look - one day, and with my new H&M jumper the next. To the latter I'd pinned a vintage poodle brooch found at the indoor flea market.

I didn't venture outside much during my lunch breaks that week, but still managed to snaffle a wide orange suede belt at half price from haberdashery and accessories shop Veritas.

The sky on Wednesday - we were the 17th by now - was granite grey with the promise of snow, but it turned out we were spared the worst. Unlike in other parts of Belgium, there was only a dusting of snow at home and none at all in Antwerp. 

Thursday wasn't a good day, health-wise, as it was filled with lots of coughing and generally feeling unwell. The weather was a mixture of grey skies and sunny spells, with some flurries of snow, and temperatures still flirting with the freezing point.

The sun was out in full force while I was waiting for the tram to take me home. As you can see, I was in luck, there'd be one in just 4 minutes!

Friday dawned sunny and blue-skied with the temperature still stuck around zero degrees.

I'd taken the day off which allowed me to take my time standing in front of my wardrobe(s) and selecting my outfit.

I picked another dress which has been with me forever. Yet another old Think Twice find, I fell head over heels for its colourful Paisley-esque pattern. With its fabric's generous wool content, it's a firm Winter favourite.

The shaggy orange cardigan I wore on top was charity shopped in the Autumn, and the eagle-eyed among you might spot that I'm wearing the orange suede belt which joined my collection only a couple of days earlier. My necklace and brooch were found in a charity shop and on the indoor flea market respectively.

The weather was simply too glorious to hunker inside nursing my cold. In fact, it was the perfect weather to clear those clogged up sinuses and my congested chest.

Casting around for a walking destination, we decided to drive down to the charity shop in Duffel, leave our car behind on its car park and try and cross the road to the park. I said try as due to extensive road works we hadn't been able to get there for nearly a year. Last time we looked, we were faced with a muddy mire and turned heel. That day, however, we were not only able to cross the road, we could even park our car in a side street leading up to one of the park's entrances.

The sight that met us when we entered the park was truly enchanting. Apparently, even if it is only a mere 8 kilometers from where we live, it had snowed here much more intensively than it had back at home. And although some of the snow had already melted by now, there was still enough of the white stuff left to satisfyingly crunch through with my snow boots! 

Layered up against the cold, I was wearing my beloved Princess coat, a chunky knit and fringed sage green scarf and a turban-style knitted hat to which I'd pinned one of my flower corsages.

Happy to be back there after such a long absence, we walked to our heart's content, circumnavigating the various ponds, which were still frozen solid.

A pair of Egyptian geese was ice skating on one of them, while a heron sat scratching its head wondering where all the fish had gone. No happy meal for him or her that day!

Powdery snow had come to rest on one of the park's benches, daring us to sit down and stare at the wintry scene, the cloudless sky dyeing the snow with a blue rinse and the sun making the ice crystals sparkle.

There was a small stretch of open water near the bridge, where all the park's waterfowl seemed to have gathered for a swim, bickering among themselves for the best spots.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian geese were still stoically practising their ice skating routine. Joining the hoi polloi ducks and lesser geese was obviously beneath them.

We passed the Brutalist fountain, only recently relieved of its crippling layer of moss and weeds.

Hibernating in the middle of its frozen pond, it was looking deceptively insignificant now that it had been temporarily silenced.

Just gone mid-afternoon, and the sun was already sinking towards the horizon, a  blinding orb caught in the branches of the trees, when we made our way back to where we'd parked our car. 

Time to call it a day and answer the call of the sofa.

So, it's goodbye from me, and goodbye from Her Royal Highness. 

I'll be back with more Winter walks and rummaging adventures soon!

Blue and grey

This photo was taken from the office window on Blue Monday, the 16th of January.

Do not be fooled, though: it would have been a completely different story if I'd happened to look out of the window just a handful of minutes later - or earlier for that matter - as it was just a brief intermezzo in an otherwise total washout of a day.  In fact, the band of dark blue sky at the bottom was courtesy of an encroaching army of angry rainclouds.

The mercury, which had still been flirting with double figures the week before, had taken a tumble to just 5°C and would drop even further as the week progressed. However, we were blessed with a brief reprieve from the eternal rain with a string of dry and - heaven forbid - sunny days. Wonders never cease! 

On Monday and Tuesday, the handyman and his helper continued assembling the IKEA furniture at the office, most notably the kitchenette, which was still very much a work in progress in the photo on the top left. Needless to say, this came accompanied by the necessary hammering and drilling, with the additional soundtrack of aimless whistling, which is bound to drive me mad at the best of times. Thank goodness I'd had the forethought of bringing my headphones!

 The ordeal was also slightly redeemed by my new office chair, which not only looks the part but is the epitome of comfort as well.

Other highlights that week included the news that a huge Think Twice shop - the 5th one in Antwerp - would be opening around the corner from my office at the end of the week. Obviously, I went to have a sneak peek during one lunch break, when they were still busy putting the finishing touches to the shop's interior (top right).

Then, on Wednesday night, we finally put an end to our dithering and booked a couple of nights away at our favourite B&B near Bruges in February. Admittedly, we did have a little push in the back, details of which will be revealed soon. Yes, I know, I do like to keep you in suspense!

The rain returned with a practice shower during our commute home on Thursday, which ended with a fiery sunset just as we were taking our exit from te motorway. 

During lunch break that day, I'd wandered to the soon to be losing its status as nearest Think Twice shop to see what their new collection, which always follows one of their sales periods, had in store. I actually gasped when I spotted this fabulous Diolen frock, which I couldn't grab from the rails fast enough.

We woke up to this on Friday morning, thanking our lucky stars that we didn't have to brave the commute into Antwerp that day.  But although it didn't last, and thaw soon set in, the snow would be replaced by sleet for most of the day.

In fact, we ditched our plans to go on our usual Friday charity shopping trip, as it was an utterly wet and miserable day, with the temperature barely above freezing point. 

On one of the rare moments when the rainclouds were refuelling we stepped outside for outfit photos. I'd quickly thrown over my fluffy white gilet - last seen worn by Angelica - to which I'd pinned a teal flower corsage. Both items were picked up from a bargain shop in the village many years ago.

Then I took a deep breath, bracing myself against the cold, and removed my gilet to properly show you the dress I was wearing underneath. The things one does for blogging!

Vintage C&A, this wool and acrylic blend dress was a Think Twice find almost exactly a year ago. Although its body is lined, the sleeves aren't, so that I have to layer a long-sleeved tee-shirt - in a matching colour, obviously - underneath to combat itchiness. Definitely not a hardship in these temperatures! 

I pinned the ruffled and slightly pesky collar down with a brooch of multi-coloured stones found pre-blog on a flea market in Carmarthen, Wales and added another flower corsage, in white felted wool. The latter tied in with the black and white necklace, last seen in my previous post, and the chunky white plastic ring. At my waist, a wide, unstructured burgundy belt with  a translucent round plastic buckle.

The snow, which had briefly turned our garden into a miniature Winter Wonderland first thing, had all but gone by now. but I managed to take a snap of its last vestiges. Shortly afterwards, the heavens opened again and drove me back inside for the rest of the day.

Much to our relief, it was clear and sunny when we got up on Saturday morning. With forecasted highs of just 1°C, and plans to make the most of the dry weather to go for a walk, it was imperative that I dressed warmly once more.

I was determined to wear the Finnish Arola skirt I bagged in the Think Twice sales earlier this month. Although there is no purple in its slubby stripes, I instantly had this colour in mind to accompany it on its first outing. So, out came a thin knit purple polo neck jumper, a high street buy I've had for so long that I would have forgotten its providence if unaided by its label. Matching purple opaques, and we're done. 

Or not quite, as accessories maketh the outfit! 

I started with the moss green suede belt - an old charity shop find - which ties in with some of the skirt's stripes. There is a modicum of green among the grey and white stripes, even if the camera seems to have a problem picking it up.

More green was added with my ring and Miracle brooch, while I picked up the orange of the skirt by wearing an orange wooden beaded necklace.

Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, I was wearing a pair of forest green calf length suede boots, which were a cheeky retail buy last Autumn. Too delicate for the undoubtedly muddy walk we had in mind, for which I changed into the old pair of chocolate brown ones I usually wear for the purpose.

The sun was shining brightly in a Winter blue sky when we set off to our chosen walking destination, Den Brandt, one of the pearls in Antwerp's crown of parks. It's part of a cluster of parks which lies to the south of the city centre, and which goes under the collective name of Nachtegalenpark (Nightingale Park). The sculpture museum, Middelheim, is also part of this cluster.

As usual, we entered the park via the picking garden in front of the neo-Gothic Villa La Chapelle, built in the late 19th century. The Gautam Buddha at the back of the garden has been here since 2004. At the time of our visit, his offerings included a handful of sea-shells, a plastic orange and red striped beetle, a mini Buddha and, most intriguingly, a car key!  Additionally, some kind soul had adorned his hairdo with a beaded bracelet.

The gate leading into the garden of the villa was firmly closed this time, so that sadly there was no chance of a repeat visit to the lovely Flora. Still, we called out her name so that she knew we remembered her. 

After climbing the flight of steps into the park proper, we continued along an uphill path lined by majestic trees. All of a sudden, the sun disappeared behind a layer of clouds and the landscape was cloaked in a thin layer of mist.

Emerging from the trees, a beautiful reed-edged marshy expanse opens up and, with half-closed eyes, it isn't hard to imagine one in the depths of a wilderness instead of in a popular city park.

Here and there, there were remnants of Friday's flurry of snow. The carpet of leaves was sugar-coated with rime, while a miniature snowman was slowly but surely melting away on a fallen log. One of the park's gently giants was no more, passed away in 2022.

We usually skirt the heart of the domain, which is dominated by its romantic castle and the sweeping lawns at its back, as this is many people's preferred sunbathing, picnicking and exercising spot. On this day with its less than perfect weather, it was completely devoid of people, which obviously created the ideal photo opportunity.

The wooden hump-backed bridge was treacherously slippery, so that we had to hold on to its railing while crossing it.

Originally built in 1790, the castle was renovated in the 1870s in late-classical style. Nowadays, like most of its ilk, it is a venue for events and parties. 

The fountain sculpture in the castle's French garden is by German sculptor Walter Schott. It is officially called the "Three Graces", although I do prefer its alternative name of  "Dancing Nymphs". It was purchased by the city of Antwerp at the 1910 World Fair in Brussels and placed in the garden for the park's opening to the public in 1911.

Just at that moment, the sun decided to have another go at piercing through the layer of clouds. Only half-succeeding, it cast an eerie glow over the tirelessly dancing nymphs. They must have been feeling the cold in their flimsy dresses but seem to be eternally grinning and bearing it.

From the castle terrace, there was a view of the ornamental gingerbread cottage in the distance, shrouded in mist and mystery.

So, even if we were aware of the fact that it looks quite disappointing up close, when its neglect cannot be ignored, we made our way towards it. Still, it managed to look suitably enchanting, its roof garlanded with  icicles. 

With one backward glance to the mist-swirled lake, we walked back to our car where, no sooner had we rejoined it, the clouds parted and made way for blue skies and sunshine once more. I bet the weather gods were laughing behind our backs!

Joining Nancy's Fancy Friday link-up party!

Just what the doctor ordered

Birthday celebrations aren't everybody's cup of tea. Some people go all out year after year, having parties or at least a get-together with loved ones involving cake, perhaps, and oodles of presents, while others ... don't. Personally, I am in the latter category, preferring to treat it as just another day, especially when it falls on a weekday and I have to work, at most doing something with just the two of us.

Now, milestone birthdays are something else entirely. But what if they occur in pandemic times? And I'm not talking about my own birthday which, although a milestone one, will only be in September. 

No, this birthday in question belongs to my lovely blogging friend, Kezzie, who is celebrating her 40th birthday end of this month. And as her options are quite limited, she has asked us for assistance in organizing an online fancy dress party based on the characters of Dr. Who. She is a great fan of the series and engages in cosplay based on the iconic TV series on a weekly basis, published as TARDIS Tuesday on her blog.

Not knowing the first thing about Dr. Who, apart from the fact that it involves a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS, a lot of head-scratching ensued from my side.  Turning to Kezzie's blog was therefore the obvious starting point and, as she often cosplays Clara Oswald, who was a companion of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, I thought I might as well have a look at her outfits. Thus Dr. Google was consulted and when my eye was caught by Clara wearing a tartan dress, I knew I could do something similar. It's from an episode called The Name of the Doctor.

Source

Now my dress, which is vintage and has been in my wardrobe forever, isn't quite the same as Clara's. The colours of the tartan are different, it has a bow at its neckline, and it has long sleeves rather than short. Initially, it had a collar and cuffs which at one point must have been white but had slightly yellowed with age. When I removed them (one of the cuffs had a rather unsightly and persistent stain), I discovered that they weren't original to the dress anyway.

Like Clara, I wore the dress with a pair of black opaques and I added a chain necklace from my collection. Seeing Clara's rather covetable shoes, I racked my brain until I remembered this posh pair of Italian made vintage loafers, which were a lucky charity shop find back in October 2017.

Obviously, I'm not Clara's younger self, but a future Clara she meets on her travels with the doctor to a strange time when the world is in the grip of a pandemic, the virus having wiped out all hairdressers. Pure Science Fiction!

Happy Birthday, Kezzie!

Phew, I'm pretty exhausted by all that time travelling, so I think I'll stay here for a while, at the end of February's second week. 

We had reached Friday, the 12th of February by now, and we were still in the throws of our cold wave, the sub-zero temperatures now joined by a fierce and icy wind, with the brightly shining sun our only salvation. 

I had shunned my few remaining polo necks for many years, as the mere thought of wearing them made menopausal me break out in a sweat. But when I spied this green one in the bag of cold weather clothes living inside our linen chest, I decided to give it another go. 

The grey and pink floral velvet skirt was a charity shop find from the other week which apparently I forgot to tell you about. This was such a joy to wear!

I wore a pink tie-neck cardigan on top, accented my waist with one of my favourite zig-zag belts, and accessorized the polo neck with a pink seascape brooch and a 1960s style silver tone necklace.

Friday has replaced our pre-Covid Saturday charity shopping day, and that day, we visited not one but two shops, which yielded quite a few finds.

Pickings were meagre but still more than worthwhile in the first shop, where I found a scrap tote bag with bamboo covered handles, a pair of blush pink retro style shoes and a heavy carved bangle which is possibly Bakelite.

The two cardigans came from the second shop, the floral one being yet another King Louie one.

This is one of the smaller shops - but still bigger than the average UK charity shop by comparison - and can be a bit hit or miss. I can list lots of fabulous things found here over the year (the shoes I wore to cosplay Clara, and the Astrakhan jacket I'm wearing later in this post, are prime examples), but we often come away from the shop empty handed as well.

Their jewellery cabinet has more than once been the source of some lovely additions to my brooch collection. In fact, the majority of my charity shopped brooches were picked up here, so it's always worth having a look. This time, there were no less than four which tickled my fancy.

Isn't that green pearly fan adorable? I suspect that the tiny Queen's Guard wearing his bearskin hat must be a London souvenir brooch. Vintage souvenir brooches are a particular weakness of mine.

Our final find of the day was this gorgeous rug. We were on the lookout for one, never expecting to find something suitable so soon in our search. 

Initially it was meant for our spare room where, due to Phoebe's bladder problem about 7 years ago, our vet advised us to install a second litter box. With space at a premium, we managed to wedge it in a rather awkward space just beyond Jos's wardrobe. Now that we got rid of the box, we thought it would be nice to have a rug in front of the wardrobe. 

We had a change of plan when we got it home, however, replacing the rug in the dining area of our kitchen with this one and putting the old kitchen rag rug upstairs.

After a particularly frosty night, it was still -6°C when we were having our final fruit and yoghurt breakfast of the week on Saturday morning.

The sun was still out in full force, so we’d planned a walk for the afternoon.

The continued deep freeze temperatures prompted the wearing of yet another jumper, this time a blue vintage one which has three rows of ajour flowers caught between two rows of tiny red hearted daisies.

As I was planning to wear my butterscotch Astrakhan jacket for our walk, keeping my bottom half warm and toasty as well was a priority. So, out came this wool knit skirt with its gorgeous blue and green jacquard pattern, found at Think Twice back in November 2019.

Touches of burgundy were added in the form of my belt, necklace and beret. I was wearing 120 den bottle green opaques, on top of which I put on a pair of thick grey knee socks when we got ready for our walk.

At that time, I also replaced my furry waistcoat with a chunky knit cardigan and my ankle boots (with which I'm joining Beate's and Vix's sisterhood of the fake snakeskin ankle boots) with my hard-working snow boots.

Trying to avoid crowded places as much as possible, it isn't often that we go for a ramble during the weekends, as walking seems to have become a favourite national pastime during the pandemic.

However, as this would be our last chance of trampling through snow, we thought long and hard and decided to go to Jos's old stamping ground, the nature reserve established on the clay pit which was still very much a hive of activity when he was growing up.

Muddy and quite impassable after weeks of rain, the sticky mud was now blanketed with a generous layer of snow and most of the treacherous puddles were frozen solid. Still, toppled trees and half-sunken creek crossings did our best  - but did not succeed - to waylay us.

Again, we initially only met a handful of people, and were in fact quite surprised there were hardly any children adventurous enough to make use of the reserve's sledge-worthy inclines.

It was only on our way back that we met several small groups of people approaching us from the opposite direction. They were generally well behaved, even if it was yet again mostly up to us to step aside until they'd passed. 

The sun was a bright orb in an almost cloudless blue sky, casting a sparkling glow upon the carpet of rock solid snow.

Thaw set in, slowly but surely, on Sunday, when the mercury climbed to +5°C by mid-afternoon. Decidedly balmy after a week's worth of sub-zero temperatures, I was able to go out into the garden in just my dress without freezing to death.

My 1960s red and grey floral shift dress is lightweight and unlined, and thus required a full slip worn underneath.  I combined it with a pair of 120 den slate grey opaques, the grey echoed in my chunky wooden necklace. My oval floral brooch acted as a cameo pinned at my dress's collar.

The low-heeled tall red boots were a flea market find in October 2018.

That afternoon, we were in the mood for a spot of baking. Nothing to elaborate though, but a tried and tested recipe for what the booklet is calling a scone cake.

The original recipe features apples, orange zest and blackberries, although we replaced the latter by blueberries this time. In fact, you can use any soft fruit you fancy.

We were a bit lazy, so instead of making the dough by hand, we used the food processor we inherited from my Dad. In fact, it was only the second time we used it since we brought it home back in 2018, so the poor thing must have felt a bit neglected, and kept looking at us reproachfully from its perch at the end of our kitchen table cum worktop.

I'm not even sure my Dad ever made use of it, even though he had made quite a bit of an effort to get hold of one.

 After having had a newspaper subscription for many years, he was outraged by an ad in said paper offering the food processor to new subscribers for next to nothing. Dismayed, he phoned the newspaper and stated his case. He must have been very convincing, as they agreed to let him to make use of the offer. He was quite a character, my Dad!

We couldn't wait for the cake to cool down, and had a piece each almost straight from the oven!

We would be moving from harsh Winter conditions to temperatures reminiscent of early Summer in just a matter of days. But that, my dears, will be for a next post.

One thing is for sure, Spring is well and truly on its way. Do stay safe, sane and sensational!