Back in time for the holidays

I ended my last post with a promise to show you my latest charity shop finds so, before anything else, let's have a look at the stuff that followed me home on Friday the 5th of May.

As usual, we visited two shops. This time both were from a local chain of shops called Opnieuw & Co. which, for want of a better word, translates as Afresh & Co. Established in 1995 when they opened their first shop, they celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2020 and now have a total of 5 shops in the area.

Their shop in the nearby town of Mortsel was the second one to open and the first one we ever visited, which must have been back in the early noughties.

It was the first one on our itinerary that day as well and, while Jos was having a coffee in the onsite cafeteria, I plucked two items from their well-stocked clothing aisles. 

First up, an exotically patterned and frilly butterfly sleeved Summer top from a label called Daniela Cool, which I couldn't find anything about apart from the fact that apparently it is Italian.

Even less is known about the origins of the yellow dress with its pattern of navy, green and purple flowers, as only its care label is present and correct.

Our next stop was a bit further down the road, at the current premises of the shop in Lier. It's already the third location for this shop which initially was the first to open back in 1995 in an atmospheric old cinema in the town centre. They had to move out due to safety reasons in 2007 and, after a couple of years in much smaller and rather cramped premises, a huge pop-up shop was opened in 2019 and is still going strong to this day.

Two snuggly cardigans ended up in my basket that day. The oatmeal openwork cardigan is from C&A and still got its tags, one of which proudly proclaims its 20% alpaca content. 

The caramel bobble knit cardigan is from the Belgian Rhétorique label. Established in the early 80s, the label was a big success at the time, with 18 shops of its own.

This blue and white plaid Gor-Ray skirt caught my attention and turned out to be a perfect fit. Being 100% pure new wool, it'll probably be stashed away until the Autumn, unless the weather gods keep forgetting what season it actually is.

The fuzzy snow leopard print belt was a no-brainer too.

It was when we were queueing at the till that we found Jesus! € 4 Jesus, to be exactly. He was loitering with a less handsome but somehow more expensive namesake and Our Lady of Lourdes and, in spite of not having had a wash in absolutely ages, it was obvious that he needed to come home with us!

The next day, Saturday the 6th of May, while still in my dressing gown after breakfast, I gave him a thorough clean, removing decades' worth of dust and grime. He's now taking pride of place on the dining room window sill.

The day had once again gone off to a chilly start, but with the mercury eventually expected to climb towards 20°C, I daringly opted for short sleeves! To be on the safe side, though, I wore a thin knit green vintage jumper with white accent stripes at the collar.

I was lucky enough to find the skirt, by Belgian designer Nathalie Vleeschouwer, for € 4,50 in a charity shop in March 2021. 

I'm sure my gold and silver patterned Western style ankle boots need no introduction. They've been on constant rotation since I picked them up in the big second-hand popup shop in Antwerp a couple of weeks ago.

The belt is the only retail buy here, my brooch with its delicate floral embroidery having its origins in an antiques shop in Carmarthen, Wales (part of this haul), and the enamelled necklace painted with roses being a flea market find back in October 2017.

While the world and his wife were watching the Coronation, I photographed Friday's finds, ironed a pile of fresh from their off-season suitcase Summer skirts and spent some time pottering around the garden. 

Dove Cottage's garden is at its lushest this time of year when it's on the cusp of turning into the wilderness it usually is in high Summer. We'd tamed it somewhat during Lockdown in 2020 but neglect set in again after last Summer's neighbourly building debacle. At least all that fresh greenery does its best to detract from the building materials still stacked sky-high against the garden wall in our neighbour's garden, and the far-too-heavy-to-lift bags of compost and building rubble mixture at the back of ours.

I was standing on a chair to photograph the hanging bucket of strawberries (below, top left) and the pink veined Petunias in the hanging basket (below, top right), when a hungry blue tit landed on the feeder. I was able to make a quick photo (above, bottom left) before he flew off again.

It always gladdens my heart to see my favourite flowers come up again year after year. It's impossible to count the number of flowers in our Geranium phaeum (above, bottom right) which, judging from the buzzing sound emanating from its direction, are greatly appreciated by the local population of bees.  And look, there's my beloved Aquilegia Nora Barlow too, its flowers ballerinas with frilly tutus. Not as many as in previous years, though.

After lunch, we made another trip to the garden centre, where we bought a bee hotel - to dissuade the solitary bees from using the stoppers of our roller blinds - some Busy Lizzies and Million Bells and a couple more shade-loving perennials to put in pots in the passageway, which I'm planning to turn into a green and leafy jungle to sit out in. 

By the time we got back, smoke had descended on our garden courtesy of our neighbour's impromptu  barbecue, so I thought I'd leave any planting for the next day.

Unfortunately, Sunday the 7th of May brought more rain, but with the temperature being a mild 18°C, I decided to go ahead regardless.

I started by planting the trailing geraniums we'd bought the other week in the enamelled cones recently vacated by the tête-à-tête daffs and then went on to fill the half basket between them with two different coloured Million Bells (a.k.a. Calibrachoa), in yellow and purple.

Then, with the rain becoming heavier, I quickly rescued two terracotta pots from the back of the garden to temporarily house the perennials.

With no letup in the rain until late afternoon, I finally managed to finish the wardrobe exchange, so that all my short-sleeved dresses are now within easy reach. Now all I need to do is vacuum the bags of off-season clothes for their seasonal sojourn in the linen chest, but I'd run out of steam by then. 

I also managed to put aside one bag for charity and two bags of items to sell on our flea market stall in July.

Sunday's outfit was built around this vintage short-sleeved chocolate brown dress patterned with  orange, yellow, green and light brown flowers.

A quick search of my blog revealed that I'd last worn it in May 2021 when, funnily enough, I wore the same green stretchy belt and orange tiled necklace with it. Different shoes, though. I only came across this pair of unworn chunky orange slingback shoes in a charity shop last September.

With short-sleeve season upon us, a pair of bangles came out to play. I can only wear these on non-office days, though, as I have to remove them for typing!

Other accessories were a brown plastic ring with a bit of sparkle (old retail buy) and a gold-framed ceramic brooch which was a recent flea market find.

The rest of the day was spent joining Bess on the sofa and finishing my latest read, while she was taking her afternoon nap.

With Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca being one of my all-time favourite books, I was dying to read the autobiographic Myself When Young, which I picked up in a charity shop in April.

Written when she was in her seventies and published in 1977, the book is based on the diaries she kept between 1920 and 1932, beginning with her earliest memories and her desperate ambition to succeed as a writer culminating in the publication of her first book, The Loving Spirit, in 1931. The book ends with her marriage to Major Frederick "Boy" Browning in 1932.

Loathing London life, she always dreamed of moving to Cornwall and in 1926 the Du Maurier family decided to look for a second home there. Arriving in Bodinnick, Daphne, her mother and her two sisters spotted Ferryside, the house that was to become her first foothold in Cornwall (below, top right).

It was while climbing the hill at nearby Gribbin Head in 1926 that Daphne first spotted the roof tops of Menabilly (above, bottom left) hidden in the trees. On her first attempt to reach the house itself, she found it set well back into the woods, at the end of a long and sprawling driveway lined with high banks of scarlet Rhododendrons. Sounds familiar? Well, the experience stuck in her memory and would eventually be the inspiration for Manderley in Rebecca, published in 1938.

She would later end up living at Menabilly with her husband and three children from 1943 until 1967.

In her book, she refers to Vanishing Cornwall, a non-fiction book she published in 1967. It rang a bell with me and, although I am pretty certain I own the book, I couldn't find it anywhere. Instead, I found Enchanted Cornwall (above, bottom right), which claims to be a pictorial memoir. I've got it lined up for one of my next reads.

I was also reminded of the hot August day in 1995, when Jos and I walked in Daphne's footsteps on the Gribbin Head promontory, skirting the Menabilly Estate and passing the delightful Polkerris and Polridmouth coves.

I even dug out my old photo albums for you, to share some embarrassing photos of Jos filming himself while climbing a style and me sporting a rather unflattering pair of shorts and the same hairstyle as my current one!

It had been a long hot Summer which followed a rainy Spring. I remember the weather turning on the day my sister got married in June, so perhaps there is hope for us yet.

However, the landscape is looking rather parched in my holiday snaps, and I remember there having been quite a few cliff fires, which is not what we want this Summer either.

Speaking of holidays, it simply beggars belief that in exactly three weeks to the date, we will be spending our first night in our Shropshire cowshed ... 

Hello May!

The initial forecast for the bank holiday weekend had been for gorgeous, sunny Spring weather on both Sunday and Monday, with the latter expected to be the best of the bunch. So imagine our disappointment when the weather gods changed their minds at the very last moment, scuppering our plans for Monday, the 1st of May. What's more, in a bid to annoy us even further, those pesky deities quarreled among themselves about whether to plague the poor people of Belgium with rain in the morning or in the afternoon. 

With the sky colouring a granite grey during breakfast, we decided to wait it out, until the threat of rain seemed to have passed after lunch. With the temperature making its way towards the day's highs of 17°C, it would have been a shame to spend the day inside, so off we went.

We'd decided to check out a walking destination which until a couple of days earlier had been completely unknown to us, even if it is less than 15 minutes by car from Dove Cottage

Cleydael, in the neighbouring village of Aartselaar, is a nature reserve of 26 hectares, which is historically part of the castle park of Castle Cleydael, a fairy-tale worthy moated castle whose origins go back to the Middle Ages.

The castle lies at the other side of the road from the nature reserve, so we carefully crossed the busy road to have a proper look. Although the gates leading towards it were standing invitingly open, there was a sign that prohibited us from entering and taking photographs. 

There's a golf course on the castle domain, which might explain the wide open gates. Plus, the nature reserve leaflet I'd downloaded described the castle's particulars in quite some detail, so that we felt obliged to trespass and take a cursory look!

The castle was built on a island formed by two tributaries of a brook called Struisbeek. Cleydael is derived from the words klei and dal (transl. clay and valley), a reference to the brickworks which were once prolific in the area. Until the 16th century, one could sail up the Struisbeek from the River Scheldt, which was of the utmost importance for transporting the bricks from the local factories.

The landscape has been protected since 1977, and has been owned by the Flemish Community and  managed by latter's environmental department, the Agency for Nature and Forests since 1997.

The reserve offers a large variety of different habitats, such as reed marsh, sedges, pools, hay meadow, coppice and forest stands.

There's a lot of new mixed deciduous forest here, planting of which took place in several phases in 1999, 2002 and 2005. Native species were planted together in groups.

Jos had just remarked that the paths were relatively dry here in spite of the copious amounts of rain we've had lately, when we came across this partially flooded one. After debating how to circumnavigate this, we opted to make our way to the wooded area on our right rather than squelch through the marshy underground on our left. I was thankful for the thick crepe soles of my charity shopped Mephisto boots, and the mud which clung to the boots' suede uppers cleaned off in no time once dry.

The trees here were like high-rise buildings for the area's population of snails, the ones on the top left having just moved in together!

Having successfully made it across the muddy mire, we paused for a while so that I could show you my outfit which, apart from the charity shopped King Louie cardigan and Mephisto boots, coincidentally consisted mostly of high street buys.

The skirt is fast fashion pur sang but, after having resided in my wardrobe for many years, it has definitely earned its keep by now. I'm always happy to see it after its seasonal sojourn in the linen chest.

The lilac short-sleeved knit jumper was a retail buy last year, as was the stretchy belt with its big square buckle. The flower brooch is modern, picked up in a quirky independent shop in Antwerp called Akotee (linkin' coz I love, as Sheila would say) a couple of years ago.

All too soon, the 3-day weekend drew to a close. It wasn't nearly as traumatic to start another working week, though, as it would only be a 3-day one!  In the meantime, the weather gods had upped their game and sent a string of mostly sunny days our way, even if the temperatures fluctuated wildly, with highs of 11°C one day and 20°C the next.

Wednesday brought a surprise in the form of this gorgeous wrought iron poppy we got from Inneke and Maurice as a thank you for looking after Nessie. It was made by the husband of Inneke's niece and is a truly unique piece. Of course it deserved a place in our newly created passageway border!

A foray into the garden discovered the emergence of a handful of hoop-petticoat daffs (Narcissus bulbocodium), the bulbs of which I'd planted back in December. I had given up on them making an appearance at all this year, so that was a nice surprise as well.

I'd also made several forays to various Think Twice shops during my lunch breaks. The shops had started another round of their famous sales, and I found the sleeveless green and pink shift dress in the nearest shop to the office for € 5 on Tuesday. It might look a bit baggy in the photo, but I promise you it looks a treat on me rather than on Angelica.

By Thursday, prices had gone down to € 4 a piece. As it was a warm and sunny day, I walked down to my favourite of their shops, in Antwerp's edgy Kammenstraat, where I'm the first to admit I went a bit wild.

It had been absolutely ages since I'd come away with such a haul!

First up, this gorgeous flower patterned hessian purse, which I was unable to resist in spite of owning a multitude of the things.

I picked up no less than 4 dresses as well. 

The terracotta mosaic patterned one with its Chelsea collar shows every sign of being somebody's perfectly executed handiwork.

The multicoloured Paisley patterned midi shirtwaist dress is enhanced with blend-in fuchsia buttons and white piping at the collar and sleeves.

Next up is this handmade burgundy, grey and yellow fit and flare dress. Its side zipper initially didn't budge, which didn't overly worry me. Endless patience and gently rubbing it with candle wax eventually did the trick, as I knew it would.

Finally, I fell head over heels for this black floral cotton Summer dress, which I can't wait to wear once it's warm enough, and I have sorted its minor issues. I don't really mind minor issues when I've only paid a minor price!

A mix of sunny spells and showers, and highs of 17°C were on the menu on Friday the 5th of May. 

My outfit of the day was built around this butterfly sleeved vintage dress, an old Think Twice find if my memory serves me right. It's got roses in palest pink and fresh green on a rosewood background. Its peachy pink lining makes it the perfect dress for this time of year, as it would doubtlessly be the cause of a sweat fest in high Summer!

My green cardie, necklace and ring were all charity shopped, while the Miracle brooch was a flea market find in the Autumn of 2018. I don't remember where I picked up the peach coloured flower corsage, but it might very well have been at Veritas, a well-know Belgian chain of haberdashery and accessories shops.

That's all I got for you today. I'll be back with Friday's charity shop finds and the rest of our weekend adventures in my next post. Hope to see you again then!

Goodbye April

After working a full five-day week, it was with a huge sigh of relief that I closed the office door on April's final Friday. What's more, with the 1st of May being Labour Day and thus a bank holiday in Belgium, I had a long weekend to look forward to.

Lately we tend not to make any definite plans on how to spend our weekends and to just go with the flow instead, letting our moods - and that unknown entity, the weather - be our guides. We're always living in hope of squeezing in a walk, but having had our hopes dashed more than once we've learned our lesson, so that walking has become a spur of the moment thing as well.

No rain seemed to be on the horizon on Saturday, but it was dull and overcast, the sun only making an appearance at the end of the day, when the mercury eventually climbed to 15°C.

I'd bought the funky Western style blouse from the defunct Belgian label Who's That Girl in a outlet shop back in November. It was part of a glut of finds from this and its sister label Wow To Go, the majority of which have already been worn in the meantime. First outing for this blouse though, as its lightweight fabric is better suited to mild-ish Spring temperatures than cold-ish Winter ones.

My skirt, with its navy, red, orange and tan fireworks pattern on a cream background, is vintage, a bargainous leftover from a charity shop event in October 2021.

The red pleated raffia belt was picked up in the charity shop in Poperinge on one of our September holidays. The aqua necklace, originally from H&M, was charity shopped too, while the brooch was a flea market find back in January. 

My ankle boots, recently found in a second-hand shop in Antwerp, and introduced in my previous post, echoed the Western style of the blouse.

After breakfast, Jos went to feed our friends' cat Nessie, while I did some sewing jobs, repairing the torn lining of my beloved teal coat, and fixing the fallen hems of two dresses. Then I caught up with blogland and made a start on a new post.

A visit to the garden centre was on the menu after lunch. Almost inevitably, we didn't leave empty-handed, loading our trolley with a two-some of pink trailing Geraniums to replace the Tête-à-Tête daffs in the enamel cones once they've finished flowering, some Lobelias for the passageway and a handful of plants for our hanging basket. 

After having dropped everything off at home, Jos drove off again to run an errand and give Nessie her final feed of the day. Meanwhile, I planted up the hanging basket with two varieties of Petunia (Fiesta and Purple Vein, the latter not visible in the photo), yellow and orange Bidens Eternal Flame and a gorgeous blue Nemesia named Jeans, although they do look more of a lavender to me.

We planted our Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber, below, top left) back in that fateful Spring of 2020, so it's now into its 4th year of flowering. Clematis 'Guernsey Cream', with its big saucer-like flowers, followed a year later, but only flowered for the first time in the Spring of 2022. 

Once again, there'll be gooseberries aplenty, although it will be a while yet before they get their luscious ruby-red colour indicating they are ready for picking!

The creamy-white leaves with their green edging are a bit of an enigma. Might they be Dove Cottage's variation of the variegated leaved Yellow Archangel we inherited with the garden?

Spring arrived at long last on Sunday the 30th of April with sunshine and temperatures easily reaching the forecasted 18°C and beyond.

The perfect weather for an impromptu walk to sample the season's sensory delights!  Our destination of choice: the leafy park in the nearby town of Boom (rhymes with home!), a leisurely 15-miniute drive from Dove Cottage.

We parked in our usual spot near the east entrance from which vantage point the sight of the wooden Japanese style bridge crossing the brook never fails to delight us. It always makes me think of the famous Monet painting, sans waterlilies, obviously. 

At this time of year the cornucopia of lush green grasses surrounding it and its twin - which isn't visible in the photo,but see here -  is dotted with bluebells and cow parsley.

The park, some 27 hectares, was formerly part of a large forest. From 1925 onwards, it was transformed into a triangular park situated along the banks of the Bosbeek (beek is Flemish for brook) which meanders through it

At the other end of the park is a modernist garden with a series of ornamental ponds decorated with several bronze sculptures by well-known Flemish artists such as George Minne and Rik Wouters, added as the park's crowning glory in the early 1930s. This part of the park was recently renovated and we have visited it a couple of times since it was re-opened to the public in September 2020. This time, we kept to the leafy part of the park, though.

Hailing from the area, this used to be part of Jos's playground when he was a young boy. Frowned upon by their mothers as it was quite a bicycle ride away from their homes, he and his friends nevertheless often made the trip to re-enact the adventures of their hero, Davy Crockett, the park taking on the proportions and particulars of a forest in their imagination.

And what better colour to personify Spring than green, symbolizing renewal and growth? 

Sprigs of delicate yellow and orange flowers and fresh green foliage are sprinkled liberally across a background of palest green in this vintage dress. My collection of opaques contained a pair in a matching pale green, while the crepe soled moss green ankle boots turned out to be the perfect footwear for a Spring walk. They are Mephisto and would easily have retailed for about € 190, so finding them in a charity shop for just € 6 was a stroke of good luck.

The orange plastic ring and beaded necklace were charity shopped as well, while the orange cat brooch was bought from the delightful Katshop in Antwerp, a shop catering for cats as well as their long-suffering personnel. 

I'm making it my mission to use all the wicker baskets now that they're within easy reach on the IKEA coat stand. I came across this round one at an outdoor flea market in June 2019 and it was long overdue another outing. Not very roomy it is, though, it didn't fit much more than my phone!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention my lilac Tweed jacket, which was a Think Twice find in the Autumn of 2017.

For many years, the water in the ponds and the brook leading into them was green with algae and gave off an unpleasant musty smell. We always used to pity the waterfowl who nevertheless insisted on making the park their home.

Things came to a head when, due to a blockage in the sewage system in a neighbouring village last Summer, a large amount of wastewater ended up in the brook. Made worse by the subsequent heatwave, the stench had been quite unbearable for some time. Not to mention the fact that several of the resident fish hadn't survived the ordeal and that even the ever-present gaggle of ducks refused to take to the water. 

As a consequence, the park had been out of bounds, although our walks here were sorely missed over Summer as it is one of our favourite hot weather refuges.

Any lingering smells had thankfully gone by now, replaced by the usual Springtime aromas which tickled our nostrils, some of them eliciting one or two seasonal sneezes.

The water in the brook and ponds was clearer than ever before, a fact which was enjoyed by the gaggle of ducks which had once again joined the plump of squawking moorhens. At the edge of the main pond, which was lined with clumps of cheerful yellow Marsh Marigolds, an Egyptian goose and its goslings were contemplating a swim.

One of the joys of this park are its many arched stone bridges crossing the brook and ponds so that it's easy to make one's walk circular by returning to one's starting point along the path running on the opposite side.

Here we came almost face to face with a duck which apparently thought sunbathing in the middle of the path was a bright idea. Initially it didn't seem to be all that bothered by our approach, but then it decided to join its friend in the grassy edge after all.

Back at home, we spent some quality time with our funny furry monster, Bess, who's in the habit of claiming one of our laps the moment we dare to sit down. The perfect excuse for an afternoon nap!

Would the gorgeous Spring weather stay with us for another day? All will be revealed in my next post!

In between showers

The forecast for April's penultimate weekend promised a high probability of rain on both Saturday and Sunday and, while the showers might be interspersed with a sunny spell or two, there was a strong possibility that the blanket of grey would be too thick to allow the sun a look in. In short, they - and by they, of course, I mean those dratted weather people - had no clue whatsoever, and made sure there would be no complaints by forecasting all kinds of weather bar snow and heatwave temperatures

It was therefore a welcome surprise to wake up to a modicum of sunshine on Saturday, and as we'd been promised highs of 13°C, I decided to throw caution to the wind and forego the long sleeves, opting for ... three-quarter ones instead. How very daring, no? 

First outing for this predominantly blue flower infused vintage dress I found at the vintage per kilo shop back in January. As it was missing one of its buttons, which I didn't like anyway, I replaced them with vintage black and white moulded flower ones, which turned out to be so well-suited they almost seem to be part of the pattern.

Among the blue-hued flowers are some tan-hearted daisies and leaves, which I took as my lead to add tan and burnt orange to my outfit.  At my waist, my latest stretchy belt with a tan faux-bamboo buckle, which was a naughty high street buy back in March. On top, a charity shopped diagonally striped orange and burgundy Zoë Loveborn cardigan.

The plastic flower brooch is vintage, an outdoor flea market find in the Summer of 2016, while the necklace with its multi-coloured beads followed me home from the charity shop in Poperinge during our week in Belgium's west country in September 2019.

This wasn't my initial outfit of the day though, as after breakfast that morning I donned my gardening gear. The idea was to dig over the narrow border in the passageway, remove the building rubble which had ended up here courtesy of our neighbour, and plant the shade-loving perennials we'd brought back from the garden centre the other week. 

After doing the hard graft in spite of suffering from backache, Jos left me to do the planting. I'd only just made a start when he came running back outside, telling me I would need to hurry up as rain was imminent. I'm glad to report that I made it, if only just in the nick of time, as the first drops were starting to fall while I was putting in some yellow archangel I'd dug up from elsewhere in the garden.

The yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) joined the fresh from the garden centre Vinca minor (Lesser Periwinkle),  Geranium macrorrhizum 'Czakor', Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle), Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' (Bugle) and Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Purple' (Foxglove).

Then there were the Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' and the Helleborus sternii which had been living in pots in the passageway since the Autumn, as well as some surplus self-seeded foxgloves and Welsh Poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) from the garden.

We'd lost a big chunk of the border's edging during the building work, so that the rain soon washed away some of the freshly dug over soil and turned part of the passageway into a mud-fest.

We'd looked for suitable border edging in the garden centre on our last visit but hadn't been able to find anything to our liking. As rain kept stopping play for the rest of the day, we decided to have a look in another local garden centre as I thought I'd seen something which might suit on their website. 

Before we proceed, though, here's a look at my vintage teal new wool coat found at Think Twice many years ago. Its lining has been repaired countless of times, but otherwise it's still in perfect condition and will be worn until it literally falls apart. Still wearing a beret and thin knit scarf as well. I do wish Spring would hurry up! 

Sadly, the border edging I'd seen online turned out not to be what we were looking for either, so we settled for some boring green flexible plastic edging to tide us over for the time being. We also bought a bag of wood chips to mulch the new border with.

It would have been rude not to have a look at their plants as well, although the colour coordinated displays did put me off a bit.  Choice was rather limited and there wasn't anything we couldn't have found at our regular garden centre anyway.

Before making our way back home, we went to feed Inneke and Maurice's cat, Nessie, as they'd departed on holiday to the seaside that morning. At least, we tried to feed her, but the key we'd been given didn't seem to work. A phonecall with Maurice revealed the hiding place of a spare key, but that didn't seem to be working either. Meanwhile, we could hear Nessie meowing pitifully. It was all solved in the end but it did involve Maurice having to come back from the seaside. It's a good thing Belgium is a small country ...

Back at home, I spent some time rearranging our bookshelves, as we are facing a serious lack of space. Then I hit upon the idea of doing a reshuffle of my collection of vintage sewing baskets which live on a shelf in the redundant fireplace in our bedroom, creating space for our Victorian and Edwardian themed books. When I posted this on Instagram, people oohed and aahed over the sewing baskets. 

The stuffed mouse on top of the basket on the right isn't one of Bess's toys. I bought her in a WWF shop in Antwerp in the late 80s, and she's called Gorgonzola!

Sunday once again went off to a sunny start, and as the temperature was forecasted to climb to the unheard highs of 15°C, I decided to go one step further and wear a short-sleeved dress.

Well, that's what long-sleeved t-shirts are for, aren't they? I bookended the watercolour patterned dress - another wardrobe stalwart picked up from Think Twice - with a teal t-shirt and ditto opaques. 

Accessories included an old tan leather belt, a blue plastic butterfly brooch and purple beads.

I only wore the shoes for the photos as, apart from the garden, we didn't leave Dove Cottage's confines at all that day.

Aren't they sweet?  They were charity shopped almost exactly two years ago. I've never been able to find out anything about the brand mentioned on the inside (Soulier), but their very 1970s looking block heels make me think they are definitely vintage. 

It would be raining again in the afternoon, but until it did, we made the most of the dry spell by fixing the temporary edging to the border and adding the wood chips. 

Then, Jos removed the old wood from our Fuchsia magellanica bush, while I did some random garden pottering.

I can't believe how lush the garden has become all of a sudden. All that rain must have done the trick!

The Bluebells are in their element and are taking centre stage in the garden right now, a shimmering haze of blue visible from our kitchen window, so that they can even be enjoyed when it rains.

The Cowslips (Primula veris) are doing well too. Even if they can't compete with their exuberantly flowering blue neighbours, their clusters of delicate lemon bells never fail to delight.

The tiny coral bells belong to one of the Heucheras in the window box in the passageway. It has been flowering since early April, which I'm sure is very early indeed. There's no sign of any flowers in those planted in our garden yet.

Another early bloomer, as it's supposed to flower from May to July,  is our Clematis "Guernsey Cream", whose big fat flower buds are opening one by one into gorgeous large cream with a tinge of green flowers. Admittedly, some voracious creature has been nibbling some of the buds, resulting in holey blooms ...

April's final working week had its usual ups and downs, some rain, some shine, and temperatures reaching the low double digits. It was a long one too, as I had to work on Friday as well. What a drag that was!

My lunch breaks were spent running some errands and going to my hairdresser, but on Tuesday my feet took me to the second-hand pop-up shop which opened a couple of months ago. It's a large, spacious shop, with everything neatly displayed on rows and rows of rails, and so far I haven't come across any Primark stuff or the like.

I was in luck that day, as I found a Wow To Go skirt - I used to have a dress in the same pattern - a pair of gold/silver patterned Western style ankle boots by defunct Belgian label Beoriginal, and flat blue Velcro-strap shoes by good old Damart.

I went for a walk on Thursday, the intention being that I would take you to the raised promenade along the River Scheldt, only to be thwarted in my plans as a major redevelopment of the quayside is taking place. Before I reached the quayside, however, I was halted in my tracks by this fantastic mushroom decorated façade.

As I couldn't access the promenade, I walked towards the Ferris wheel opposite Het Steen - the castle I blogged about in a previous post - along the pavement.

To my left, a row of rusty gabled hangars with decorative ironwork pediments. Dating from the late 19th century, they will get a new purpose in the redevelopment of the quayside, but at the time of writing they mostly offer parking space.

It had been a frosty start to the day, which offered the ideal opportunity to wear the short-sleeved plaid wool-blend dress I found at Think Twice back in October. 

Again, I added bookends in the form of a long-sleeved t-shirt and opaques combo. The red Western-style ankle boots were a fairly recent charity shop find.

A flea market, vintage shop and a chazza supplied my brooch, necklace and belt respectively.

As it had warmed up to 14°C during the day, I was sweating in this by the time I went home, but otherwise this was an absolute joy to wear.

Nevertheless, I am truly craving my Spring/Summer wardrobe by now!