Going wild

While most people, and those who had taken a bridge day on Friday in particular, were rudely awoken by their alarm clocks on Monday the 22nd of May, ours remained blissfully silent that morning. 

And no, I wasn't playing hooky: as I needed to go into the office on Friday, I just took Monday off instead.

We took our time getting out of bed and lingered over breakfast, then we got cracking with the tasks we'd planned for the day. These included playing newspaper boy and shopping for groceries (Jos) and washing my hair and tackling a pile of ironing (me). By then, it was time for lunch, after which we joined forces in thoroughly vacuuming and dusting the bedroom. 

I might not have been playing hooky, but the sun definitely was. Either that, or she'd forgotten to set her alarm clock and had overslept! Whatever the case, it remained overcast until mid-afternoon, when we got a handful of sunny spells. It was quite blustery again, which seems to be the constant lately. It certainly didn't feel like the 19°C insisted by the thermometer.

Short-sleeved it may have been, the cotton knit jumper I opted for that day provided the necessary warmth. Charity shopped in the Autumn of 2021, it is from the Flair Feelgood collection, Flair being a weekly women's magazine founded in 1980. 

I don't remember where I got the floral skirt from but the safest bet is Think Twice. Both the orange wooden beads and the green ankle boots - respectively picking up the orange and green bits in the skirt - were charity shop finds. The celluloid Scottie dogs in a sailing boat brooch came from the indoor flea market, while the belt with its hexagonal faux tortoise shell buckle was found on the high street.

Following our morning of slog, we decided we needed a treat, and a rummage at the charity shop sounded just the ticket. After offering a couple of bags of shoes and books to the charity shop goddesses, it probably won't surprise you that finds were plentiful.

I'm always on the lookout for Breton striped tops, which are a holiday staple, and I couldn't resist the mustard owl printed scarf and the orange, navy, white and khaki striped one.

No more jackets, she said, but then she met this forest green cord one with heart shaped patches. No pockets though, but it fits like a dream. I promise to offer one of my other jackets to the thrifting deities instead! The jacket, by the way, is from the German Oui label.

The groovilious, slinky, cobalt blue, orange and white blouse is by Only, which is believe is Danish.

I can never resist a pair of floaty wide-legged trousers either, especially if their length is exactly right for vertically challenged yours truly. I'd already mentally packed it away for our holiday when I realized that its pattern was Autumn leaves. Surely, it would be tempting fate if I wore it in June!

Leaves and foliage feature on the swishy pleated skirt as well, but I've decided pastel blue, pink and green are far enough removed from Autumn, so it is awaiting its turn to be worn shortly.

My final find was this haori style cover-up, something I've been keeping an eye out for for well over a year. I've got one of these cover-ups in my wardrobe, charity shopped a couple of years ago, which proved to be perfect for those slightly chilly mornings preceding warm Summer days.

We were still far removed from those days in the week that followed. The mercury got stuck around 17°C, clouds often got in the way of sunny spells and a lightweight cover-up wouldn't have been up to the bone-chilling Northeast wind which kept taunting us.

But everything is coming up roses in our sheltered little garden. The Alliums 'Purple Sensation" might be on their last legs, but the Foxgloves, especially the 'Dalmatian Purple' variety we planted in the passageway border, are more than making up for this. And then there's  Dicentra formosa, a.k.a. as Fern-Leaf Bleeding Heart, proudly displaying its heart-shaped flowers elsewhere in the garden.

Meanwhile, our exuberantly flowering Geranium phaeum in front of the bench has taken over bee magnet duties from the Cotoneaster bush.

Both our hanging baskets are in their prime, and  yellow Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) and red Geum chiloense 'Mrs. Bradshaw' are popping up in the garden proper.

One of the resident wood pigeons is posing for its mug shot on the top right in the above collage. We've been diligently filling up the bird feeder on the far left, providing sustenance for the blue tits and robins, and lately had been wondering at the speed at which the thing was emptied. Turned out that the wood pigeons had found a way to get to its contents. Setting off from the slanted roof of our potting shed, they make a lunge for the feeder, which then proceeds to swing wildly, depositing part of its contents on the ground, where it is swiftly gobbled up by the mischievous couple. We had to stop filling it up as it was costing us a fortune. 

We had another long weekend to look forward to courtesy of Whit Monday, which this year fell on the 29th of May. I was able to make the weekend even longer by taking Friday afternoon off as work was rather slow. I took the tram into Mortsel, where Jos picked me up. The extra time was well spent by having our car washed and ordering our National Trust Touring Pass. At £ 84 for two weeks for the two of us, it is well worth investing in. The only snag is that there's a limited number of properties where you can have the pass issued upon presenting the confirmation email. We're lucky enough, though, to have such a much loved property, Powis Castle, near our holiday cottage.

No outfit photos were taken on Friday, but here's what I wore on Saturday instead. 

It was a gorgeously warm and sunny day, its 22°C for once not too much jeopardized by the neverending wind.  

I'd set my heart on wearing this delicious Summer skirt and giving it its first outing. A charity shop find back in November, it's by Gerry Weber, and I fell in love with its vaguely abstract flower pattern in cheerful red and green. And it's got pockets too!

The green mosaic print King Louie blouse, red shoes, and ditto belt, glass beads and butterfly brooch were all charity shopped as well.

With another sunny day forecasted for Sunday, on which the mercury would climb to 23°C, we had made plans for a walk and picnic in Blaasveldbroek. However, we didn't feel like getting our skates on that morning, preferring to take things at a leisurely pace.

Still wanting to go for a walk, but closer to home, we then hit upon the idea of visiting the nature reserve established on the former clay pits in Terhagen, just a 15-minute drive away. This is the area where Jos grew up, in a tiny hamlet called De Wildernis. There's no longer any trace of the row of  workman's cottages he and his family used to call home, its former location now well and truly living up the its wilderness moniker.

We parked our car and started making our way along a wide path leading down to the first of the now water-filled clay pits which is the haunt of a fishing club, but soon veered off on a narrow path leading into the woods. This path meandered leisurely between the trees until we reached a bridge made of wooden planks crossing a rust coloured brook.  The colour is due to the iron content of the soil here.

I was wearing one of my floaty pairs of trousers, its white and yellow Summer flower print on darkest of green much better suited to the season. To accompany it, a thin knit short-sleeved orange jumper found on the high street last year.  The yellow wooden necklace, by the Belgian Les Cordes label, was charity shopped between Lockdowns in 2020. My orange sunhat was purchased in the seaside town of De Panne in September 2021, funnily enough on a day when I was wearing the exact same pair of trousers (see here!).

There were plenty of numbered walking markers, which of course we didn't need as we have walked here many times before. 

The path eventually ends at a sandy plain, a reminder of the fact that once upon a time this was actually the bottom of the sea. Jos remembers looking for sharks' teeth here when he was a boy. We've got a whole box of these stashed away somewhere.

Following the path on the edge of the plain, this equestrian trio suddenly appeared out of nowhere, like a Far West Fata Morgana.

Time to show you the haori style cover-up I was wearing that day. And no, your eyes are not deceiving you, I did find yet another one on Saturday. Charity shop finds really are like buses sometimes!

Oh, and there's the red leather crossbody bag I charity shopped the other week!

Due to the clay based underground, the area is quite challenging after periods of rain. In fact, the uphill path on the top left is virtually impassible at times due to its rutted surface - caused by mountain bikes - harbouring treacherous patches of sticky mud. It was bone dry by now, so we decided to chance it, the first time in many years that we've walked up this path.

The incessant rain had drowned the forest to our left and the path itself was ambushed by the remains of a storm victim. 

On and on we walked, taking a right turn and then a left before finally admitting that we were lost.

Two men walking their dog eventually pointed us into the right direction but further head scratching ensued when we came face to face with a locked gate, so that we had to make a U-turn. 

Then, finally, I spotted a familiar feature: a set of roughly hewn steps climbing higgledy-piggledy upon a hill. Having walked here in the opposite direction in the past, we knew this would virtually take us to our starting point. Phew!

Well, I guess this was good practice for any walks we do attempt during our holiday. And isn't getting a little bit lost just part of the fun?

Sounds of the city

As we are counting down the days to our UK holiday - which will be less than two weeks away by the time this post is published - I am retracing my steps once more to earlier this month, halting the time machine on Thursday the 17th of May.

This wasn't the usual run of the mill office day as, courtesy of a public holiday in Belgium, I had the day off and thus we were allowed to sleep in just that little bit longer. 

With a sunny aspect and temperatures up to 16°C, it could have been a day full of endless opportunities if one of my migraines hadn't decided to throw a spanner in the works. Although my symptoms are rather mild compared to some, I wasn't up to doing much and I definitely wasn't in the mood to go out for a walk or some such thing.

Nevertheless, I still found reason to dress up, unearthing this long-sleeved vintage dress of many colours from my wardrobe. For some unfathomable reason, it hadn't seen the light of day since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

Apart from the pink belt with its green plastic stitching, which was a Mango sales bargain last Summer, my accessories were all of the green variety and either flea market or charity shop finds. The vintage  big-eyed Bambi brooch is ceramic and one of my all-time favourites. It's got leaping deer and teddy bear cousins, all with a tiny chained collar around their necks, the poor things ...

The day was spent with some lazy pottering, starting with photographing my latest specs as promised.

They are dark green on the outside and off-white on the inside, and have translucent pale pink arms. They're from the French Anne & Valentin brand, same as my previous varifocals (see here), now converted to computer glasses.

I also engaged in some holiday prep, jotting down a couple of ideas on what to do and see once we've made it over there. 

While most people were making what we call the bridge, taking Friday off as well, I needed to go into the office. It was a quiet day, so I didn't really mind doing so, as it enabled me to catch up with a couple of things. It was a totally different story when I tried to make my way home, though, as Antwerp's shopping streets were chock-a-block! At 19°C and with non-stop sunshine, I'm sure it was the perfect day for a shopping  trip, but I couldn't get away from the crowds and into the sanctuary of our garden fast enough.

Judging from the flowers in our hanging bucket of strawberries, we are in for a treat, although I've got a niggling feeling that our catsitters, Inneke and Maurice, who will also be looking after some of our plants, will get to enjoy the first harvest. Having made its entrance in Dove Cottage's garden in May 2020, it's going into its 4th season this year. All I've done with it so far, is cut back last year's wilted foliage in Spring, give it a feed and add a fresh layer of compost, which appears to be doing the trick.

Lavender-blue flower spikes almost seem to have sprung up overnight in our Catnip (Nepeta faassenii 'Walker's Low'), while our Cotoneaster bush is alive with bees mad for the nectar provided by its tiny and rather nondescript flowers, their humming providing a meditative soundtrack.

Saturday brought a mixture of sunshine and clouds, the 20°C shown on the thermometer once again toned down considerably by lots of wind. 

If Thursday's outfit had to wait three years for another outing, Saturday's two-piece had an even longer wait to make it out of my wardrobe again. Unless I'm mistaken, I last wore this on a trip to Bruges in April 2019. I know, too many clothes, too little time to wear them all on a regular basis! 

I bought the cobalt blue belt with its massive rectangular buckle at the same time as the pink one in Friday's outfit. Again, the rest of my accessories (beaded necklace, moulded flower ring and metal flower brooch) were second-hand buys, picked up from various charity shops and a flea market over the years.

My shoes are Damart by way of the popup shop but sadly they caused some rubbing to my right foot, which rules out wearing them as an alternative to my Clarks Cloudsteppers on our holiday.

Saturday's outing took us to a local garden centre, as we were on the hunt for a plant watering system to keep our patio pots from dying of thirst during our holiday. We didn't find what we were looking for that day but, on our way back, we stopped at the edge of town charity shop for a browse.  Our finds, which I'll share in a later post, included an Italian made red leather crossbody bag, which got its maiden outing on Sunday!

On Sunday morning, we picked up our friends Inneke and Maurice and drove into Antwerp for a spot of culture.

By pure coincidence, we all turned out to be wearing denim jackets! While Maurice and Jos recently bought theirs on the high street, and mine was a lucky find at Think Twice the other week, Inneke's jacket is home-grown vintage which has been gracing her wardrobe for many years. 

Also note that - again purely by chance - both Inneke and I were wearing red based dresses! Great minds, and all that!

After having left our car in the car park near my office, we walked past the cathedral and into the direction of the Grote Markt, with its row of striking Guild houses, before continuing to the 500-year old Gothic Vleeshuis (Butchers' Hall). If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember I passed this iconic building with its façade made of alternating layers of red brick and white sandstone known as bacon layers, during one of my lunch break walks back in April. 

It was a relief to see that the roadworks which had marred my view of the building at the time had finished, so that I was able to properly photograph it before stepping inside.

Although the Butchers' Hall already opened its doors as a museum in 1913, it was only as recent as 2006 that the museum was reborn as Sounds of the City, the exhibits now entirely devoted to 800 years of musical life in Antwerp and the Low Countries.

If you think music and a Butchers' Hall are a strange combination, then rest assured that it isn't as far fetched as originally thought. Music was already being played in the neighbourhood a thousand years ago. Opera, first staged in Antwerp around the corner on the Grote Markt in 1682, was subsequently performed in this very building in the 19th Century.

The streets and alleyways here were littered with cafés where both locals and sailors danced into the early hours to the music produced by dance organs, like the one two collages down on the top left. 

The exhibits include hundreds of historical instruments, ranging from a large selection of harpsichords - Antwerp became the capital of harpsichord building in the 17th century - square pianos, organs, brass instruments, church bells and carillons, as well as a glass harp, to name but a few. 

Along the way, you can find out about famous musicians, minstrels, opera singers and fanfares or brass bands, and there's a multitude of drawers containing a vast collection of historical scores. 

The list is truly endless and we'll have to come back at least once to take it all in, as well as to listen to some of the music available via the museum's app.

I'm sure Kezzie and her husband were itching to try out some of the instruments on display when they visited the museum last year! Perhaps they played the upright piano in the dancehall exhibit in the basement?

Here, one can also admire various examples of the calliope (below, bottom left), the precursor to the jukebox. The basement attendant kindly turned on the magnificent dance organ for us, which was a lot louder than we'd bargained for. 

Jos and I wouldn't have minded taking home the wooden gramophone on the bottom right. 

Other exhibits in the basement include reproductions of a bell foundry, containing original objects from the foundry of the Sergeys family which date back to the 16th Century, and a brass instrument workshop, which contains part of the old Van Engelen workshop which closed in 1970.

Apart from the four of us, there was only one other group of visitors, whom we encountered briefly on our way to the basement, so that we had the place - and the attention of the knowledgeable and talkative attendant - practically to ourselves.

We concluded our cultural outing with a drink in one of the cafés lining the Grote Markt before re-joining our car and returning home.

And here's a look at my outfit of the day! Incredible though it sounds, it was the first outing of this vintage Diolen dress I found at Think Twice last year. Judging from the crispness of the fabric and its overall pristine condition, it might just as well been the dress's first outing ever!

I replaced the dress's original self-fabric tie belt with one of the stretchy belts from my collection. 

Apart from the off-white beaded necklace, which was a charity shop find, my accessories were all bought on the high street, which in case of the ceramic heart brooch was Cardigan's, as it was purchased during our wet Welsh holiday back in 2017.

From a future holiday to a past one, we have neatly come full circle. Hope to see you again in my next post!

Back to Flora's garden

The weather gods were still up to their old tricks in the second week of May. According to my journal, which these days mainly acts as an aide-memoire for my blog, we were treated to fog, grey skies, all-day rain and a thunderstorm, with the odd sunny spell thrown in for good measure.

As a consolation price, the temperatures were on the up, reaching an unheard of 20°C by Friday. Never mind that the sun only briefly showed her face a couple of times throughout the day. 

The ever-present Northeast wind made me grab another long-sleeved blouse from my wardrobe's shelves. My fuchsia blouse with its multi-coloured stripey pattern - likened to sweeties by Lulu - is from the defunct Belgian Who's That Girl label, and was part of a haul from an outlet shop back in November.

Last time I wore the blouse, which was in January, I wore it with the same mustard suede belt. By yet another Belgian label, this one called CKS, it too entered my wardrobe by way of an outlet shop somewhere in the Autumn of 2022. 

The green and white plaid Courtelle skirt is Swedish vintage and an old Think Twice buy. Both the green butterfly brooch and the blue glass ring were bought on the high street, while the yellow, pink and green wooden beaded necklace was a charity shop find. And yes, I am wearing my gold and silver patterned Western style ankle boots from the popup shop again. They have been hardly off my feet lately, although by rights I should be in sandals by now.

Speaking of the latter (the popup shop, not the boots), my feet took me into its direction again during one of the week's lunch breaks. I'd hardly walked into its spacious premises when this long-sleeved and lined dress with its swirly red, green, yellow and white pattern caught my eye. It's got an attached tie belt, which is fine, although the ties at the sleeves were unpicked in the meantime as they were rather annoying.

The blue, foliage patterned, crepe tie-neck blouse was my second find. 

Then my heart skipped a beat upon spotting the chevron patterned knit item on the bottom left. I was just making a bee line into its direction when, out of nowhere, a woman rounded a corner, grabbed it from the rails and added it to her already overflowing basket. Damn!

I continued my browsing and was just on my way to the till when I did a double take, swiftly followed by an imaginary jump for joy. Apparently someone had had second thoughts and had put the coveted item back on the rails. No second thoughts here, though. Isn't that pale pink, mustard, black and white fringed poncho gorgeous?

Perhaps it marked the start of a run of good luck where second-hand shopping was concerned, as only two days later did I find not one, but two of my holy grails at Think Twice. I'd been on the lookout for a floaty chambray midi skirt and a new (to me, obviously) denim jacket for absolutely ages, and bingo! 

But I digress, back to Friday the 12th of May it is.

For once, no charity shopping was on the menu that day, which wasn't much of a hardship. After all, I'd already had my fill of finds during the week. Instead, we went shopping for Jos at the local branch of C&A, as he was in need of a couple of pairs of trousers. Apart from these, we also found him a denim jacket and a flat cap, both of which have been on constant rotation ever since.

We also went back to the optician's, but don't worry: all is well with the varifocals situation. The trouble was that, having had my old glasses converted to reading and computer ones, I was now without a spare pair in case of a mishap with my varifocals. Not wanting to fork out another fortune, I opted for a pair of single-vision distance glasses. They're pretty funky and I promise to show them in my next post.

Saturday was a rare sunny and dry day, the highs of 22°C slightly hampered by a strong wind.

After breakfast, I donned my gardening gear to finish potting up and planting the stuff we brought back from the garden centre the other week. The passageway border has been completed with a Dicentra spectabilis a.k.a. Bleeding Heart, while the two pots on the tiny plant table at the back now contain an Astilbe and a Ligularia.

Pink Busy Lizzies and Dwarf Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla erythropoda) are keeping each other company in the terracotta bowl on the table. 

Then I had the brainwave of putting a row of tiles at the back of the border. We bought these for the princely sum of € 6 at the first indoor flea market after restrictions were lifted in October 2021, but hadn't figured out what to do with them yet. Here's a closer look.

Elsewhere in the garden, old faithfuls and favourites are popping up one by one. Clockwise from top left: Allium 'Purple Sensation', Trollius 'Lemon Queen', Kniphofia or Red Hot Poker, and a ground covering Geranium I've forgotten the name of, but which was one of the first plants we added to Dove Cottage's garden in the Summer of 1999!

We had a late lunch, then, wanting to strike the iron while it was hot, we decided to go for a walk.

Striking one destination after another off our list of possibilities as they'd be too muddy after all the rain, we opted for Den Brandt, one of the jewels in Antwerp's crown of parks.

Obviously I changed out of my gardening gear, selecting a lavender vintage dress with pleated skirt and blowsy flower print from my wardrobe, and wearing my newly acquired denim jacket for its maiden voyage. It would be my old Summer boots' swansong though, as one of the soles had developed a big hole by the time we got home. 

You've only got to look at my hair to see I wasn't exaggerating when I mentioned there was a strong wind!

As usual, we entered the park by way of the picking garden. Whereas last time we were here, which was back in January, the herb beds were as good as barren and the soft fruit bushes were leafless skeletons, everything was now lush and green, the herbs ready for picking and the soft fruit bushes and espaliered fruit trees already showing the promise of a rich harvest.

We were making our way towards the Gautam Buddha in the far left corner, when to my delight I saw that the gate leading to the neo-Gothic style Villa La Chapelle (the turreted house at the back) was open. Reluctantly followed by Jos, as we were actually trespassing in spite of the open gate, I made my way to the back of the villa to say hello to the lovely Flora (above, top left), whom we met for the first time at the end of October. 

It wasn't so much the trespassing Jos was worried about, but rather the fear of being locked in if someone should come along and lock the gate while we were in the garden. Obviously that didn't happen :-)

 

Buddha's offerings were plentiful this time around, his lap containing a mixture of wildflowers, feathers, sea shells, a pine cone and the odd enigma. He was even sporting a necklace with a dog pendant. And yes, the plastic orange and red striped beetle and the car key from last time were still there as well!

I kept lagging behind in the picking garden, making photos, but Jos was raring to go and continue our walk, so up the steps to the park proper we went. 

Den Brandt strikes the perfect balance between semi-wilderness and city park. If it weren't for the solitary joggers and groups of people out for an afternoon stroll, we could have imagined ourselves miles from civilization in some places. Alas, this being the first Springlike day in a long time, there were plenty of people around, leaving us in no doubt of our whereabouts.

Here's a proper look at the dress, which was a charity shop find and has been in my wardrobe for many years. In order to avoid it being too twee, I added a wide stretchy rattan belt (retail), a charity shopped Les Cordes rattan and wooden beaded necklace and a faux-Lea Stein cat brooch picked up from the indoor flea market.

We took a path close to the park's perimeter until we reached the gently undulating area at the edge of the park. This is the location of a bunker village, built during World War II as the main command for the Atlantik Wall in Belgium. 

The village, comprising 11 bunkers, was built in 1943 and abandoned on 29 August 1944, only a couple of days before the liberation of Antwerp. Initially, plans were made to demolish the bunkers, but these were eventually called off, the site receiving Monument status in 2004.  

A museum has been established in three of the bunkers, which are open to the public every first weekend of the month. A visit is well worth the effort and quite the experience.

We walked along the path which runs on top of a row of bunkers until we arrived at the castle. Originally dating from the late 18th century, but renovated in late classical style in the 1870s, the romantic castle is the park's focal point.

The castle is available for events, one of which was taking place at the time of our visit, the castle's entrance, which is guarded by two playful lions, decorated with a fabulous flower display!

I'm ending this post with Sunday's outfit. Although the day didn't exactly need brightening up (we had lots of sunshine and highs of 21°C), I though a dash of orange wouldn't be amiss.

It has been quite a while since this vintage frock featuring an orange abstract print on a pale peachy background made an appearance here. In fact, it might have been as long ago as the Summer of 2020.

I just love its massive collar and pocket tabs, the latter unfortunately being fake.

I dug up an orange leather belt with double gold tone buckle from my stash of belts, and added more gold tones with my filigree leaf necklace - found still on card in a charity shop back in 2019 - and a beaded butterfly brooch, which I think was a flea market find.

We had a lazy day, doing nothing in particular so, that's it for now. See you next time!