July never seemed so strange

While I've still got a couple of installments of this year's Shropshire travelogue up my sleeve. I felt it was time for another break and a catch-up on what the month of July had in store. After all, we've almost reached the end of the month by now, and I've got a backlog of photos reaching all the way back to its first week. It's been a strange month for me, to say the least, filled with lots of work - some of which involved the pleasurable yet exhausting task of preparing for and participating in this year's flea market - and little play. 

Apart from that, the weekends have been either too hot or too wet to go for any walks, so that unfortunately I can't share any adventures in that direction with you!

Luckily, I've been wearing clothes, and we've even made the effort to photograph some of my lovingly created outfits. For a start, there are no less than five of them for you to enjoy in this post ...

Initially, grey skies, a blustery wind and the odd shower were our lot in the first week of July, with the mercury not climbing higher than the low 20s. Thursday promised to be another one of those days, but eventually 24°C was reached, which made it a tiny bit too warm for the vintage Diolen dress I'd selected from my wardrobe that morning. The nylons I'd started the day with were therefore soon removed to prevent overheating!

The dress was an old Think Twice find, of course. I just love its cheerful blue and yellow pattern, its notched collar and its neat tie bow! 

The belt used to be my Mum's, while both the white early plastic moulded flower brooch and the yellow perspex ring were flea market finds. My yellow beaded necklace came from Belgian haberdashery and accessories chain Veritas.

Speaking of the latter, I'd been swooning over the orange necklace on the top left for months but, cheapskate that I am, I simply couldn't justify its € 24,99 price tag. As the week marked the start of the Summer sales here in Belgium, I thought I'd nip into the shop to see if it had been reduced. I'd told myself I'd be happy with 50% off, so when I saw its sales price of € 4 I couldn't be happier. What's more, I bought the necklace on the bottom right, the bangles and the suede belts with a hefty reduction as well. 

By Friday, the temperature was on its way to 30°C. I counted my lucky stars that I was able to take the day off before my colleague's three-week holiday would put a temporary stop to all that.

In spite of the high temperatures, I was determined to tick a couple of domestic tasks off the list so, helped by Jos, I made a start with deep cleaning the bathroom and kitchen and chasing away the colony of dust bunnies who had taken up residence there during our holiday.

Afterwards, I changed into this breezy skirt and top combo. The eagle-eyed might notice that I was already wearing one of my sales bargain necklaces!

The tiered cotton skirt was a sales bargain too, picked up in C&A last Summer. The top is charity shopped King Louie. In fact, apart from the stretchy belt - a naughty retail buy - the rest of my accessories, and even my red and orange sandals, were charity shopped as well.

The garden, meanwhile, is well on its way to becoming an impenetrable jungle, but at least the Hydrangeas were still looking as fresh as the proverbial daisy that weekend.

The low 30s were easily reached on Saturday, the perfect weather for something sleeveless and breezy.

My vintage cotton piqué dress with its moulded flower buttons was a € 2 flea market find back in April 2018. Sadly, it turned out to be a bit roomy for me, so it was gathering dust until, many months later, I had the brainwave of using my limited sewing skills and move the already asymmetrically closing buttons a bit.

When Jos saw my outfit, he thought the belt belonged to the dress, but it doesn't: it just happens to be a perfect match. The pink butterfly brooch and plastic ring were both found on the high street, while the beaded necklace came from a long-gone vintage shop. The black sandals were € 4 Clarks from a charity shop many years ago. 

The moth must have been wooing my butterfly brooch, as it kept looking in through the kitchen window, where it obligingly posed for me.

Most of the day was taken up with dragging boxes full of clothes from the back of the built-in cupboard in our bedroom, going through them with a fine comb and selecting items to sell at my flea market stall. After giving some of the lucky few a quick once-over with the iron, here's my carefully curated rail of dresses, skirts and blouses. 

These, by the way, were all snapped up at charity shops or in the Think Twice sales and the majority has spent at least some time in my wardrobe before falling out of favour.

There was a slight drop in temperature on Sunday, but in spite of the sun's absence, it was still warm and humid at 27°C, which culminated in a thunderstorm in the afternoon.

Again, cotton to the rescue with this button through polka dot skirt and patterned sleeveless top, both of which were charity shop finds. The top with its black ribbon trim followed me home from Shrewsbury in 2019.

Apart from my turquoise chunky plastic ring, everything was found second-hand. The brooch was part of a haul from a Carmarthen antiques shop in 2017.

My journal insists that I did some more flea market prep, washed my hair and finished writing a blog post. I also finished by latest read, Lucinda Riley's The Angel Tree which, to be honest, I wasn't completely enamoured with.

That reminds me that I haven't shared the books I've been reading in a long time, so here's a little round-up. 

Although no easy reads, both William Boyd's Sweet Caress and John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies were pretty memorable.

Jonathan Coe's Middle England was my holiday read. 

I'd just finished the John Boyne and was looking at some likely candidates to take with me. As I was idly paging through the book, the names of the Shropshire towns of Bridgnorth, Much Wenlock and Shrewsbury leapt out at me, which instantly cinched the deal. 

It's the third novel in a trilogy, following The Rotters' Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004), both of which I have read and loved. Published in 2018, it has been heralded as a "Brexit comedy": the novel explores the experiences of the characters from the earlier novels against the backdrop of the major events taking place before, during and after the Brexit referendum. An interesting read but definitely not his best in my opinion. That said, I wasn't too keen of its predecessor, Number 11 (2015) either.

Moving swiftly into the month's second week now, which started with a continuation of the weekend's high temperatures.

My colleague was on holiday now, so that I was once again on my own. On top of that, Jos and I had decided that, although he would still be driving me into Antwerp in the morning, I would be taking the tram part of the way home. Well, what can I say but that we'd picked the wrong moment and that the tram to my particular destination wasn't running on Monday. As a result, I arrived home late and terribly sweaty in spite of my sleeveless cotton frock.

The cotton shirt dress with its funky floral pattern was a Think Twice sales bargain back in June 2017. Apart from its obvious attraction, there was a label announcing the fact that its previous owner was an Ann(e) too, so of course it had to come home with me!

It's one of my favourite Summer frocks and, looking back at its previous outings, it seems I always wear it with the same orange and pink accessories. 

In order not to bore you to death, I'll be sharing more of that week's outfits with you in a later post.

However, I couldn't possible not show you my latest lunch break finds. The green squiggly striped Rayon one and the white Diolen one with its mixed floral and geometrical pattern were found at two different Think Twice shops on two consecutive days.

Melting Pot, a vintage-per-kilo shop, is always worth a visit even if I often come away empty-handed. No such thing that day, as I instantly pounced on the groovy floral maxi dress by the French Virginie label. You'll be seeing me wear this one very soon!

But for now, it's goodbye from me ... and goodbye from her! After six months, Bess has discovered the little hidey-hole at the bottom of her beloved scratch post. Just look at that cheeky face!

On the move

January's second week brought a string of wet and miserable days, culminating in a stormy Thursday,  when the rain lashed against the office windows all day and the wind tugged at my umbrella on my way to and from work, trying its best to blow it inside out. I'd come prepared though, having had the presence of mind to carry my storm umbrella, but it was still a bit of a struggle not to be carried up and away, Mary Poppins-style.

The week, with the run-up to the office move on Friday, continued to be full of hurdles. The electrician only finished his job on Thursday afternoon. At that moment, there was still no sign of the handyman we'd engaged to assemble the IKEA furniture and who was supposed to come on Wednesday. Then it transpired that our bosses had forgotten to contact the IT guys, who were meant to work their magic once the equipment had been moved on Friday. The latter only came to light on Wednesday, when we asked at what time we could expect them.  As by then they were fully booked for Friday, they were only be able to come on Monday, as a result of which we'd be losing another half day of work.

I always had my suspicions that moving on Friday the 13th wasn't the brightest idea!

Anyway, I'm backtracking to Wednesday the 11th, when the weather gods had apparently overslept and forgot to turn on the rain machine in the morning. As it was still dry, with the odd sunny spell, by lunch time, I fled the chaos of the office for a spot of second-hand shopping.

My first port of call was the vintage per kilo shop, where I was seduced into purchasing two frocks. The first of these, a blue floral hand-made affair, was missing one of its buttons. As those which were still present were of the boring variety, I didn't really mind, as I knew my stash of vintage buttons would be able to come to the rescue. I think these black and white moulded flower ones couldn't have been better suited.

I was instantly transported back to the 1980s when I plucked the second dress from the rails, falling in love with its red and blue pattern on a speckled grey background, its row of asymmetrically placed blue buttons and its gathered sleeves ending in deep cuffs fastening with a row of three buttons.

From the vintage per kilo shop I walked to the nearest Think Twice one, where sales prices had dropped to € 4, and I found this wide blue, burgundy, green and yellow tartan skirt. Unfortunately, my camera and the ongoing dark and dismal weather conspired against showing its colours to full effect. 

On Friday, moving day had come at last and it was every bit as chaotic as I'd feared. The handyman arrived just before the moving guys did and, while the latter were bringing over the curated contents of the temporary office next door, the former managed to assemble one IKEA desk and two office chairs before rushing off to another job elsewhere in the building, promising to come back on Monday. They were all gone by midday, leaving our desks adrift in an ocean of boxes. After eating the sandwiches Jos had lovingly made for me that morning, unpacking the contents of my desk and putting everything in its right place, I decided to call it a day and go home. 

The rain, which had held off until mid-afternoon on Friday, returned with a vengeance and presented us with yet another rainy and windy day on Saturday the 14th. Not even the fairly reasonable 12°C shown on the thermometer could redeem the utter miserableness of the day. 

Having finally finished the book I'd been struggling with since the Christmas break, I started book # 1 of 2023, The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory, which had me hooked from page 1. I somehow lost my reading mojo last year, but I'm determined to do better. If only I didn't fall asleep after half a page while reading in bed!

By now, even Bess was getting fed up with the continuous rain, as it kept the birds from visiting the feeder hanging from the awning just outside our back door. She is, by the way, one of those rare cats who doesn't make that typical "ekekek" sound when spotting birds or other wildlife. She just watches them raptly, eyes big as saucers, from the kitchen window.

When the rainclouds finally took a little breather after lunch, we quickly put on our coats, grabbed an umbrella and walked to the garage to pick up our car. 

Then, before dashing off to the charity shops for a rummage, we made use of the communal garage's white painted brick wall to show you what I was wearing that day.

You've already caught a glimpse of my skirt, an old favourite from Think Twice in a grey wool-blend fabric criss-crossed with red, green, white and yellow stripes.

My multicoloured striped jumper, originally from New Look, was charity shopped, as was the mustard long-line cardi and the black and white beaded necklace. The black stretchy belt with its square buckle was last year's high street buy, while the delightful grey cat brooch with its orange ears and eyes, was a gift from Kezzie when we met up in Antwerp in February last year.

I mentioned charity shops, but we actually only visited one. I left Jos in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee and and a book while I happily browsed the clothing aisles. The two long-sleeves blouses on the left are all that remained in my basket after a trying on session, as I sadly had to leave behind a gorgeous blue tweed skirt, which was slightly too snug, and a Morris & Co. x H&M tunic/dress, which turned out to be bit on the roomy side.

After joining Jos, I made one more foray, into the bookshelves this time, where I happened upon another Philippa Gregory.

On our way home, we stopped at the pet shop for cat food. At the same time, we checked out their display of scratching and climbing posts, as it was clear that Bess was missing the excitement provided by the Christmas tree. She started investigating the post we brought home as soon as we put it down next to her old one and is now happily using a combination of both. What's more, we got it for a bargainous price as it was the last one in stock, plus, being an ex-display model, we didn't even have to assemble it! 

We woke up to sunny spells on Sunday, but it was quite stormy, which made it feel much colder than the 8°C it actually was.

I picked this charity shopped vintage dress because of its generous wool content but ditched its self-fabric belt complete with Bakelite buckle in favour of this olive green leather one. More olive green was added with the vintage beaded necklace, which was another charity shop find. The burgundy ceramic leaping deer brooch was a flea market find, its colour tying in with the dress's pattern, as did my chunky ring.

You'll have to take my word for it, but I was wearing olive green opaques as well. 

Layered on top was a greyish green "hairy" cardigan from Belgian label Thelma & Louise, which yet again was charity shopped.

Blue skies still reigned when we set off to our chosen destination, Middelheim, late morning. The icy wind chill factor made us do a detour to Dove cottage after making outfit photos at the garage, so that I could exchange the coat and scarf I was initially wearing for significantly warmer ones. Consequently, it was almost 11.30 before we parked our car near Middelheim's main entrance.

With the art park currently in the process of a reshuffle, which is expected to be finished by the end of the year, more and more empty plinths appear with each visit and it is rather disconcerting to find some of our favourites missing, even if only temporarily.

The guy on the bottom right was still in his usual place, part of a row of busts you meet when walking along the main avenue into the park. Admittedly, he seemed to be quite confused by the appearance of what is looking like a work-in-progress (top left) and the strange object (top right) suspended from the trees nearby.

The metal scrolls on the bottom left have been living in the park for an eternity, and as far as I know they are still in the same position. Unfortunately I cannot tell you their name or creator, as I forgot to take note and I wasn't able to access the online collection.

The strange elongated creatures on the bottom left are an enigma as well, but the peep-hole sculpture (top left and bottom right) is called O Indio e a Suassuaparà. Dating from 1951, it is by the Italian-Brazilian sculptor Victor Brecheret (1894-1955).

Nobody was home at No. 3 of this make-believe street, which obviously is another work of art. Its name is Surroundings (1972-73) and its creator is the Italian artist Alik Cavaliere (1926-1998).

My camera must have snapped hundreds of photos of the Braem Pavillion over the years. Designed in 1963 in Organic Brutalist style by Renaat Braem, who is considered one of the most important representatives of post-war architecture in Belgium, it was inaugurated in 1971. 

The sun was doing her usual disappearance act by the time we finished our walk, and the wind was getting wilder by the minute, so that, just like the girl called April (1959) by by Belgian sculptor Mark Macken (1913-1977), I had to hold on to my hat!