August, finally

The title of this post might be a little confusing as of course, in reality, the month of August is almost drawing to its close. My blog always running behind the times, however, I am just about ready to put July to rest and take my first steps into August.

It's almost mind-boggling how time flies, whether you're having fun or not, but for some reason it feels as if it accelerates even more in the Summer months. And particularly so when the temperatures soar and one languid day seamlessly segues into the next.

July's final days saw the temperatures soar into the high 20s and peaking at 32°C on Tuesday.

Thankfully, I've got a selection of heat-proof frocks to tide me over, starting with the 1950s navy blue, red and white cap-sleeved cotton frock I wore on Monday the 29th. Looking back at my blog, I always seem to wear the same red vinyl belt with it and it's not the first time I pinned the vintage celluloid Scottie dog brooch to the dress's square neckline either. Unfortunately, it's not very visible in the quick outfit photo we snapped with my phone, but it's the same one I'm wearing here.

Tuesday's outfit was built around one of my all-time favourite hot weather cotton frocks. Just like Monday's it was found at Think Twice and has featured on the blog many a time over the years. 

I tend to accessorize it either with bright pink or orange, opting for the latter this time around by adding a charity shopped orange leather belt, a beaded necklace picked up in an antiques centre during one of our UK holidays and a cat brooch from Katty's delightful Katshop.

For Wednesday's warm and humid day, on which the mercury nevertheless took a tiny dive to 27°C, I wore a burnt orange tiered skirt patterned with off-white foliage. It was bought brand new in the C&A Summer sales back in 2022. Its crispy 100% cotton fabric couldn't have been more perfect to combat the heatwave temperatures, particularly when one has to commute on a tram with free yet unsolicited sauna facilities.

My belt and necklace came from the high street as well, and I see that I'm wearing yet another one of Katty's cat brooches pinned to my floral top, which is King Louie by way of the charity shops.

Back to vintage cottons on Thursday the 1st of August when I wore this Madras check dress trimmed with red at the collar, cuffs and (real) pockets. Adding more red with my accessories would have been far too easy, so I opted for a baby blue beaded necklace, a straw-coloured vintage hat brooch and a tan leather belt trimmed with a strip of crochet lace.

A thunderstorm followed by rain in the morning had managed to cool things down to around 24°C and was also the reason why I skipped the sandals that day.

My final office day of the week was made even better by meeting up with Inez at Think Twice's coffee corner, followed by a quick tour of the rails during which I fell head over heels with the skirt. Don't worry, you'll get to see it in a minute.

The sun had come out of hiding again by Thursday evening, so that we were able to watch the sunset cast a golden glow over the Art Deco lady living on our bedroom's mantelpiece.

We woke up to a slightly foggy morning on Friday, and although it took the sun a while to do away with the clouds, she eventually managed to break through and heat things up to around 26°C.

I was wearing the skirt I'd found at Think Twice the previous day, which found its perfect partner in a red and blue chevron t-shirt by the Belgian Who's That Girl label which I charity shopped ages ago. This, however, was its first wear. And also its last, alas, as by the end of the day the latex printed red chevrons had rubbed off onto the stretchy belt I was wearing, all but ruining it in the process, while one of the blue chevrons was scratched. Not wanting someone else to have the same experience, I refrained from putting it into the donations bag so I'm afraid it went straight into the bin!

Such a pity, though, as surely it was a match made in heaven!

As we needed a cheap and lightweight floor reading lamp to take with us to our September holiday cottage, we drove to IKEA after lunch. But although we did find what we were looking for, it was such a pain getting hold of the damn thing that I don't think we'll be visiting the Swedish superstore again anytime soon. Say no more!

Saturday turned out to be mostly cloudy but warm, at around 25°C.

I was half heartedly doing some housework while Jos was running an errand, when my eyes alighted on the cabinet which lives in the hallway and houses our vintage camera collection, and more to the point, to the layer of dust which had managed to settle upon its glass shelves.

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning the cabinet from top to bottom and giving its contents a good dusting.

The folding cameras on the top shelf are the oldest in our collection, dating from the 1910s to 1920s. In fact, it was one of these, found in an antiques shop in Bradford-on-Avon in 1996, which kick-started our collection.

The couple in the photograph are my maternal grandparents taken on their wedding day in 1934. When we were clearing the parental home, we came across the glass slide of that very same photograph - leaning against the camera second from left - which was meant for projection by magic lantern. 

Although I've forgotten the origin of most of our collection, I do remember that of one of the stars of our collection: a boxed Kodak Brownie Starlet camera, complete with flash unit and flashbulbs, dating from the late 1950s. Would you believe that Jos found it in the waste disposal area in the communal basement of the block of flats we used to live in before we moved to Dove Cottage?

The Brownie "Holiday Flash" camera, produced between 1953 and 1962, was a flea market find in January 2020, while we picked up the "Baby Brownie" from the same market two years earlier.

As a reward for all that cleaning, we were off to the charity shops in the afternoon. But not before showing you what I was wearing.

My navy blue dress with its exotic orange and white flower pattern was yet another old Think Twice find. 

Tan and burnt orange were used for my accessories, which consisted of a necklace and faux-bamboo buckle belt which were sales bargains from high street shop Veritas, and a glass ring and brooch found on various flea markets.

As for that afternoon's rummage, these two dresses came home with me. The chevron-striped one with its deep back and front V-neckline is by Who's That Girl, while the floral lightweight cotton maxi with its butterfly sleeves is from a French label called Grace & Mila. The latter would prove to be its weight in gold on the hottest day of the year a week or so later.

Hot it definitely wasn't on Sunday and nor did we see any blue skies or sunshine, as another mind-numbingly cloudy day was our lot. Nevertheless, with the thermometer insisting it was 23°C, it would have been downright silly to stay indoors, even if we had to force ourselves to go out.

The park in nearby Boom is just the ticket for a head-clearing walk, having the added advantage of not being too far from home.

Walking along the brook which eventually widens into a couple of pools, we were originally stumped by the distinct lack of waterfowl.

But then all of a sudden these youngsters appeared out of the undergrowth and started following us around. They clearly weren't afraid of humans and I bet they would have eaten out of our hands if we'd had any tasty bites to offer them!

My final outfit of the week was a vintage peasant-style C&A dress I found at Think Twice just a couple of days before our Shropshire holiday. I'd originally earmarked it for my holiday wardrobe but decided against it in the end. Whatever the case, it was an absolute joy to wear, so perhaps it'll accompany me to Belgium's west country in just over a week ...

Having finally thrown the youngsters off our scent, we made our way back to our car. The heron who was patiently awaiting his next meal wasn't that keen on humans, though, as he took flight as soon as he noticed he'd been spotted.

I'll be back with at least one round-up of August outfits and outings before we're off. Hope to see you soon!

Five years, what a surprise

If the last couple of weeks have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, they have been quite hectic as well, with this and that, and the increase of my workload at the office in particular. So much so that I'll be working an additional day a week from now on, adding Friday to my repertoire of office days. After almost one year at a two-day regime, it's a bit of a shock to the system and I'm desperately dreading the not-so-far-off day when I'll have to return to the office full time.

With my head all over the place, it almost escaped my attention that today, the 5th of March, it has been an incredible 5 years since I hesitantly published my first blog post. But while I marked my first four blogiversaries with a retrospective post, I'll refrain from doing so this year.  As we all know, it has been an extraordinary year, to put it mildly, with more than its average quota of ups and downs. A strangely distorted year which has turned our lives inside out and upside down. I just don't need a reminder of all that.

That doesn't mean that it was all bad, though. I can't stress enough how much I relished all the free time I had at my disposal, which in its turn triggered the revival of our previously much neglected little garden, and the rediscovery of my green fingers in the process. 

Apart from the gardening frenzy, I thoroughly enjoyed not having to rush in the mornings. I know I've said it more than once before, but being able to take my time to assemble outfits and accessorize them has been an absolute joy, stretching the limits of both my imagination and my wardrobe.

Meanwhile, my blog has arrived at the start of the third week of February. By Monday morning most of the snow had gone, with only the odd patch turned brown and marooned at the roadside. 

That morning, it weren't the weather conditions but roadworks and diversions which thwarted the journey into Antwerp. Work itself was super busy, so I was especially thankful for Tuesday's respite, to be enjoyed while it lasts.

The blue pleated fit and flare dress with its sprays of pink-hued flowers was a Think Twice find back in November 2017. Once again, its original boring buttons were soon replaced by more suitable ones. 

 Accessorizing this dress is a no brainer and always involves copious quantities of pink, this time in the form of my opaques and cardigan. I usually add a pink-ish belt as well, but thinking outside the box I opted for a caramel brown one instead.

My multi-coloured beaded necklace and gold tone bow brooch were both fairly recent charity shop finds, as were the calf-length blue Western style boots.

Now that the temperature had climbed to 10°C, I thought it safe to presume I wouldn't be needing my thick woollen jumpers again any time soon (although at the time of writing they are on the verge of plummeting towards freezing point once more), so they were washed on a gentle wool cycle and dried on the fold-out rack in our spare room.

Consulting my journal, it seems I washed and dried my hair, uploaded the previous week's batch of photos and did a massive blog catch up. For some unfathomable reason, I keep getting behind with replying to comments, for which I herewith apologize. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading The Savage Garden by Mark Mills, which I'd made a start on during the weekend. Set in the Tuscan hills, it is basically the story of two murders, four hundred years apart. Intriguing as this may sound, it was just a mildly enjoyable read.

After Wednesday's moderately busy office day, yet another 4-day weekend rolled along. 

Following a night full of weird and vivid dreams, I felt a bit off on Thursday morning, but that was soon repelled by a game of dress-up. 

The dress that caught my attention that day was bought during a trip to Bruges in April 2019, when by pure coincidence our itinerary took us past the city's tiny Think Twice shop where, lo and behold, they were having one of their sales.

I took the lead from the blue flowers in its pattern for my accessories, which included a textured belt, brooch, opaques and beret. My ring combines blue with green and purple, while my necklace with its multi-coloured, crochet covered beads is making yet another appearance.

The dress's bodice is finely pleated, making it slightly stretchy. My only gripe with it is that it is a bit roomy on top, so I'm still on the fence whether it is a keeper or not.

The cardigan with its Paisley-esque green, blue and grey pattern is from the high street by way of a charity shop, and I have it in a burgundy, green and grey colourway as well.

Apparently, I was quite a busy bee that day, as not only did I vacuum the upstairs rooms, we deep cleaned some of our rugs, including the new-to-us one, and I finally got around to dusting the two bottom shelves of the camera cabinet.

This camera, a Voigtlander Bessamatic, was Jos's first 35 mm camera, which he used in the first half of the 1970s. He bought the camera from a colleague, who in his turn got it from a friend, who was a professional newspaper photographer. 

Neither of us remembers where we got this boxed Kobold camera flash, but it has been in our collection for many years. So far, we haven't been able to determine its exact date, but I suspect it's from the late 1950s or perhaps the early 1960s.

This late 1950s Kodak Brownie Starlet camera isn't making its debut on the blog, but I'm gladly telling you its story again, as it is one of the stars of our modest collection.

Jos found it, complete with its box containing flash unit and flashbulbs, in the waste disposal area in the communal basement of the block of flats we used to live in before we moved to Dove Cottage. 

We've got several other Brownie cameras, two of which were found at our much missed favourite indoor flea market. Clockwise from top left are a tiny Baby Brownie, produced between 1938 and 1954, a Brownie "Holiday Flash" (1953-1962) and, finally, the second incarnation of the popular Brownie 127 camera, from 1959-63.

If Thursday had been quite miserable and grey, the day's only redemption being its temperature which climbed to 12°C, Friday saw a return of the sun. The weather was gearing up for the weekend, when Springlike temperatures had been forecasted.

This black based long-sleeved Crimplene dress, with its pussy bow, is one of my all time favourites. I'm always describing its pattern as a kind of trellis, against which an abundance of tiny, red-hearted, white flowers is growing.

For obvious reasons, I often veer towards red as its companion colour, although I have worn it with a white belt several times. Again thinking outside the box, I selected a zebra print belt - a retail sales bargain after the first lockdown - to wear at my waist.

The belt was the only second-hand item in my outfit. The striped cardigan and red perspex ring were charity shopped, my red beret came from Think Twice and the vintage celluloid brooch - also one of my favourites - was a flea market find. 

As mentioned in my previous post, Friday has become our weekly charity shopping day. Obviously, we will have to pick either Tuesday or Thursday instead now that I'm working Fridays again.

That particular Friday, the 19th of February, saw us visiting the pop-up charity shop in Lier again.

While Jos took a couple of bags of donations to the drop-off point at the back of the shop, I masked up, grabbed a compulsory trolley and went inside. Browsing the bookshelves, there were several which caught my attention - including some I'd donated myself. These three were added to my trolley.

The clothing aisles were uninspiring, and I was about to give up and join the queue at the till when a flash of bright green entered my peripheral vision. Now, you know me and green. I just had to backtrack and investigate, and couldn't believe my eyes when that flash turned out to be the most gorgeous pair of green ankle boots ever! In my size! The rest, as they say, is history.

Well, that's it for now, my friends. I'll be back soon with my first post of my sixth year of blogging. Until then, I am counting on you to stay safe, sane and fabulous!

Trouble in paradise

It's nothing short of a miracle that I actually got this post written and published - albeit with a day's delay - as its creation caused me blood, sweat and quite a lot of tears. The first week of February wasn't one I wanted to relive in a hurry. In normal circumstances - whatever they are - the week is punctuated by our wedding anniversary on the 4th. If we'd lamented the difference with last year's Silver Wedding celebrations spent roaming around Bruges, little did we know that worse was to come and that from now on the week would be forever marred by the loss of our fur-baby on the 6th.

So, what to do? I never had the intention of ignoring what happened, but at the same time, I didn't want it to be the post's main focus. After all, I already paid tribute to our girl in a previous post. Two weeks on, the pain is still there, but it's no longer heart-wrenching, scar tissue slowly but surely covering the fissures in our hearts.

In the end, I thought the best thing to do was to plunge right in, and see where that got me. 

Let's start with that Monday, which the calendar indicated was the 1st of February. 

Before driving off to the office, Jos told me he was a bit worried about Phoebe, as she hadn't eaten yet and seemed to be having a bit of an off-day. Nothing too unusual, as Her Grumpiness certainly did have her moods, so when Jos texted me mid-morning to tell me she had eaten a few morsels and had been for a foray into the garden, we put it down to one of those.

On Tuesday she seemed to be more or less back to her normal self, which was a relief, although she still wasn't eating very much, nor was she very active.

It was another damp and dismal day, at odds with the temperature which had once again crept up to about 10°C.

In order to add a bright spark to the day, my wardrobe decided that purples and pinks, with a generous dollop of orange, were on the menu.

A Think Twice € 2 sales bargain at the tail end of 2019, this pussy-bow frock won me over with its funky print, combining stripes and chevrons in various shades of purple and a dash of white with accent diamonds in pink and burnt orange. It was from the latter that I took my lead for my opaques and cardigan, to which I pinned an enamelled peacock feathers brooch.

The dress's pussy-bow was kept in check with a pink-hearted brooch. At my waist, a recently charity shopped wide purple leather belt with a gold-tone and leather buckle. My purple mohair beret and burgundy vintage boots came out to play at well, even if only to step out into the garden for the obligatory outfit photos.

Although I couldn't have told you off the top of my head, my journal insists I wasn't idle that day. Apparently, I washed a batch of face masks, dusted the upstairs rooms, cleaned Sunday’s dried mud off my snow boots and caught up with blogland. 

This still left some time to read a couple of pages in my latest book. Sarah Winman's debut novel, When God Was a Rabbit (2011) is a compelling read, beautifully written and at times quite funny. In spite of the worry of this week, I managed to laugh out loud more than once.

And then it was Thursday. Phoebe was still off her food, but as she didn't say no to tuna or treats, Jos called the vet who agreed it was a good idea to try and give her some regular cat food instead of the diet food she'd been living on for 7 years. We were relieved to see she devoured the seafood variety Jos brought back from the supermarket, polishing off most of the sachet over the course of the day.

It was a sunny day for once and as the temperature continued to be a mild-ish 10°C, I plucked this plum coloured midi dress from my wardrobe. Liberally printed with Paisley motifs and exotic blooms, it was bought brand new, snapped up in the January sales in 2019. Its fabric is a lightweight polyester blend, so it needed a three-quarter sleeve t-shirt layered underneath, as well as a cardigan worn on top.

Both the belt and the beret are old Think Twice finds, while the beaded necklace was charity shopped. The brooch was bought from the Brooch Lady at an antiques fair in the Autumn of 2017.

The Nordic style cardigan is H&M by way of a charity shop not all too long ago. It did come with a couple of issues, as I soon noticed a couple of loose stitches in its knit. And although I wasn't averse to its buttons, their dangling nature made the cardigan look all wonky when closed. This annoyed me no end, so my first job of the day was replacing them with flat ones from my stash of vintage buttons.

After lunch, we debated whether to go for a walk, but neither of us felt like it so, while Jos returned the car to the garage, I walked into the village, purchasing a couple of essentials at the drugstore.

My outerwear consisted of my green fur collared jacket and pink frilly scarf. My green wedge-heeled lace-up ankle boots made their maiden voyage. You can catch a glimpse of my bright pink ankle socks intentionally peeking out for contrast!

Back at home, I cleaned all the hairbrushes, and then proceeded to clean the two top shelves and their contents of the camera display cabinet, which lives in our hallway.

A daunting and fiddly task, so I left the two bottom shelves for another day. Due to circumstances, this day only came two weeks later ...

The folding cameras on display on the top shelves are the oldest in our collection, dating from the 1910s and 1920s. In fact, our collection was sparked by the one in the middle, which we found in an antiques shop in Bradford-on-Avon in 1996. 

The couple in the photograph are my maternal grandparents taken on their wedding day in 1934. When we were clearing the parental home, we came across the glass slide, meant for projection by magic lantern. Already having various prints of the photograph in my collection, I instantly recognized its subject matter, thus preventing it from ending up in the thrash. 

On the bottom right is a curiosity. The box reading Fanal Blitz contains sachets of "flash powder" which, when ignited, produced a bright flash that could be captured on film. Early photography wasn't without its perils!

The second shelf mainly contains so-called box cameras dating from the 1930s to the 1950s, from the very basic all-black boxes to the Kodak Brownie Model I, which was introduced in 1957 (below, left).

The "twin-lens" Brownie reflex on the right dates from the late 1940s.

That night, although she was eagerly awaiting them, Phoebe seemed to have problems eating her treats, which led us to suspect she might have an infected tooth or something similar. However, due to the fact that she was generally acting out of sorts, and that her belly seemed to be quite bloated, even if she was a bit chubby at the best of times, we had the niggling feeling that all was not well.

We called the vet first thing on Friday morning and an appointment was made for Saturday in the early afternoon. We'd both slept very badly that night, and I was in sore need of what Sheila is calling Clothing as Armour.

My recently charity shopped blue Tweed skirt was begging for an outing, and after a pleasurable rummage in my wardrobe - anything to put my mind off things - I opted for this black floral beauty of a blouse. It was yet another old Think Twice find and I have reason to suspect that it might have started life as a dress. 

I wore it on top of the skirt rather than tucked in, adding a squidgy, pale blue belt with a rectangular buckle at my waist.  A blue t-shirt was layered underneath, and I pinned a red floral fabric flower corsage among the meadow of blooms. A final accessory was added in the form of a red glass beaded necklace.

I wore a beret and opaques in different shades of blue. At my feet, the floral textured suede Tamaris ankle boots I found at Oxfam the other week.

Anything to put our minds off things so, after making sure that Phoebe was comfortable, we escaped the house for an hour or so, going for a wee rummage in our local charity shop.

The summer top is another King Louie find, while the candy striped finely knit dress is by posh Belgian label Caroline Biss. The dresses on their website retail at € 200 plus, so surely the € 6,50 I paid for it was money well spent.

My way to the till took me through the rail of coats and jackets. As I've got far too many of those already, I usually put my blinkers on, but I was nevertheless drawn to a flash of mustard yellow among all the boring neutrals.

Now, tell me, how would I have been able to withstand its double collar and sleeve cuffs? It's by Spanish brand Cortefiel and it has ... pockets!

For obvious reasons, no photos were taken on Saturday. When the time was there and we had to put Phoebe into her carrier, I just knew this was it.  Nevertheless, after Jos called me about 45 minutes later and we agreed on what had to be done, I howled like I've never done before in my life.

We just had to let the world know and we were both very touched by all the words of comfort, both from our real life and our virtual friends and acquaintances. 

It started snowing in the evening, carpeting our world with a comfort blanket of snow flakes.

We'd stayed up late on Saturday and even watched part 2 of The Pembrokeshire Murders which, surprisingly, was able to temporarily transport us away from our sorrows.

Waking up to a house which felt weirdly empty on Sunday morning was a bit of  a blow to the solar plexus, although we felt remarkably refreshed after a good night's sleep. 

Saturday's torrent of tears had dried up, leaving me sore-eyed, and phonecalls with both my sister and my friend and ex-colleague Kris did me the world of good.

It goes without saying that I got dressed up - Clothing as Armour, remember - and even managed not to look too sad in the outfit photos we made outside in the snow.

The eagle-eyed among you might recognize the dress, which I retrieved from the flea market boxes.

Admittedly, the black and white necklace I was wearing does disappear a bit among the dress's funky print. I wore cobalt blue opaques and a ditto long-line cardigan, to which I pinned a white knitted flower corsage. A burgundy woolly beret and, of course, my snow boots, completed my outfit.

And so we have come to the end of the week and it's with a sigh of relief that I'm typing these final words. So glad to have this over with!

I'll be back with a sunnier outlook in a couple of days. Do stay safe, sane and sensational!