Another week in paradise

And so January finally comes to an end. If it whizzed by in real life, it seems to have taken forever to catch up with things here. I'm adamant that our slower pace of living, combined with the general quieting down of life in Winter time, has a lot to answer for. But here we are in the year's first month's last week. In hindsight, it was another week in paradise, before dark clouds scudding across the horizon, but how were we to know? 

The week started, as usual, with Monday's office day, which turned out to be quite hectic. I managed to work my way through everything my mailbox offered by doggedly carrying on and skipping lunch break. Anything for that Tuesday off dangling in front of me like the proverbial carrot! I'm not sure how I'll cope when eventually I'll have to return to working full-time again.

The sun, who kept winking at me through the office windows, continued to shine on Tuesday which, in spite of it only being 7°C, felt decidedly Springlike.

Trawling through my blog, I couldn't believe my eyes when it turned out I hadn't worn this dress in about four years! A Think Twice sales bargain, it lacks any sign of a label, so that it's safe to presume it was handmade. It's made from a rather odd fabric, which is quite stiff and coarse, but it is mercifully lined so that it doesn't grate the skin, and I love its groovy pattern.

I added a sepia woven belt, a brown and off-white beaded necklace, my Lena Stein lookalike cat brooch, a rust coloured beret secured with a hair clip, a pair of goldenrod opaques and my beloved burgundy boots.

Everything except for the opaques and the hair clip were either vintage or second-hand finds.

We had to run an errand, driving down to Mortsel - our nearest town of any significance - as we needed a new brush for our vacuum cleaner. Jos also took some of his family heirloom watches to the town's excellent watchmaker for repairs.

While we were there, it would have been downright silly to miss the opportunity of visiting the town's charity shop.

With my brooch collection put on hold significantly due to the absence of flea markets, I was more than happy to come across this heavy silver plated one by Sidney Carron, a contemporary Paris jeweller. Surely € 1, 50 well spent!

The plentiful clothing aisles came up trumps too, with a blue tweed skirt, and a vintage dress in a shiny blue and red patterned polyester fabric.

The rest of the day, so my journal tells me, was spent vacuuming the upstairs room - which was a doddle with the new brush - and employing Angelica to pose in my latest finds.

Then my lovely boss, Victor, called me about a minor, work-related problem, and we ended up chatting about half an hour or so. 

Wednesday was the office day from hell. When I switched on my PC, it turned out I couldn't access my emails or documents, all of which are in the cloud. Calling our IT company, they said it was not just us, but a general cloudburst (my choice of word), and that we could only wait until it was solved. They put me on the right track for accessing my emails via Office 365, but it took forever, especially as it stopped working half way through. Things were back to normal around midday, but I'd lost so much time that there was nothing for it but to go in for an extra half day on Thursday.

I was so knackered when I got home that I spent most of the afternoon on the couch not doing very much at all and consequently no outfit photos were taken. I can't even remember what I was wearing that day!

I was glad to be back to my usual energetic self when I got up on Friday morning, which was certainly helped by the temperature, a Springlike 12°C. The sun was shining, but rain was expected for later in the day.

No need for warm layers, so I wore my recently charity shopped tartan LC Waikiki skirt, picking up the burnt orange in its plaid with a bird print skirt by Steps, the brand the lovely Nancy used to work for. It was charity shopped several years ago, and I was so in love with its print that I willed it to fit in spite of the fact that it's only a size 36. It is a bit tight and slightly gapes in the chest area, but surely that's what safety pins were invented for!

I pinned a tapestry brooch (yes, really) to its frilly collar and added more birds with my green birds-in-flight brooch. The stretchy belt, with its most fabulous of buckles, was a post Lockdown 1.0 retail buy.

My lime green, purple and brown Tweed blazer was a sales bargain from a local boutique more than 10 years ago, and was just perfect for the mild weather we were having that day. I didn't really need the burnt orange vintage beret except for, you know ...  #Coronahair! 

Nothing like a bit of a rummage to soothe my slightly frayed nerve ends, so off we went, visiting the Oxfam shop in nearby Wilrijk for a change. 

By the time Jos had found parking space, I'd already put these floral textured suede Tamaris ankle boots in my trolley. I know, I'm on boots and shoe roll: this is already the 4th pair I have found in less than a month! The boots are black rather than the navy blue they appear to be here. This is the best my camera was able to deliver.

Clothing was 50% off, so I was surprised that the lady trawling the aisles and heaping up her trolley without even looking at sizes (obviously a reseller) had missed this King Louie dress and red slubbed Colours of the World jacket.

I also found this cardigan from the Italian il Duomo label for Jos, which he wore immediately after its cycle in the washing machine on Saturday.

It was a grey and utterly wet day, the rain metamorphosing into melting snow by the early afternoon. The temperature had dropped from its Springlike heights to about 7°C, which still wasn't nearly cold enough for the snow to stick. It just added to the general dampness of the day.

It's nothing short of a miracle that we were able to make outfit photos outside at all!

The groovilicious blue on off-white textured polyester dress is one of my favourite cold weather frocks. Wearing it never fails to cheer me up, especially when combined with yellow, which this time came in the form of one of my fluffy cardigans and a beret.

The brown belt is ancient and features embellishments in a multitude of colours, including blue and yellow! My necklace and cameo brooch added a 4th colour, a fresh, Springlike green. I wore bright blue opaques and the blue Western style mid calf boots I charity shopped a couple of weeks ago.

The day was spent adding more stuff to the donations bag, as we'd read on social media that our local charity shop would be doing collections on Monday. 

We folded and put away that morning's washing, hanging up things that don't go into the tumble dryer on a drying rack in the spare room. 

I then caught up with blogland, commenting and finishing a new post, after which we made Chili con Carne for dinner, following by watching the first part of The Pembrokeshire Murders we'd recorded earlier that week.

Sunday was January's final day and, in total contrast to Saturday, bright sunshine ruled the sky. It was crispy cold, though, the mercury barely climbing above freezing point.

We were raring to go out, so plans were made while having Sunday's bacon and eggs. After weighing the pros and cons of our options, we settled on a walk in the park in Duffel. 

I was delighted to find several varieties of Hellebores (Helleborus orientalis, more commonly known as Lenten rose) flowering abundantly. Their cup-shaped nodding flowers centred with crowns of contrasting creamy stamens, are of a delicate beauty. We have planted some in our garden back in Autumn, but obviously being in their first year, it is still touch and go. We can only hope they're feeling at home in Dove Cottage's little plot and will one day be as prolific as those in the park.

Having only taken you there on Christmas Day, there's no need to introduce you to the castle ruins, so I just snapped some details of its weathered wrought iron gates and peeling coat of arms.

I don't know the first thing about fungi, but find them intriguing, and I particularly loved these orange jelly ones.

Me and my twin were wearing our green fur-collared coats and bright yellow hats and scarves, courtesy of our blogging friend Monica.

Now let me show you what I was wearing underneath that coat!

My woollen skirts and jumpers have come out of hiding, and you'll get to see more of each as the temperatures dropped to freezing depths in the weeks to come.

It's always a joy reacquainting myself with this vintage Tweed A-line skirt, in green speckled with tiny red dots. My jumper is vintage and green as well, with dashes of cream, sage and burnt orange. They are such a perfect match that I'm wearing them together at least once every Winter!

The delicious Welsh wool waistcoat with its suede pockets and belt, were a gift from Vix. 

My legs were kept warm courtesy of my bottle green knit tights with their yellow and wine red plaid pattern. Back at home, I swapped my snow boots for a pair of sage green pull-on ankle boots.

The necklace, with its green centre stone, was charity shopped the other week, while the Miracle brooch was a flea market find in November 2018. I wonder how I would remember all of this if it weren't for my blog.

Once again, that's it for now. See you in a couple of days! In the meantime, stay safe, sane and sensational is still our mantra!

And life goes on

I've been hunkering down in a world hushed by snow, digesting my sadness in bite-sized chunks. And I'm doing surprisingly well, really, all things considered.  Day by day the pain is losing its jagged edges. I've just passed a whole day without shedding a single tear, although it still doesn't take much to choke me up. 

We're trying to establish new routines to replace the old ones which involved our beloved fur-baby, but we keep seeing her out of the corner of our eyes, and I can often hear her phantom-snoring behind me while I'm typing away. We find ourselves rattling around Dove Cottage's rooms, where her absence echoes and bounces off the walls.

Lagging behind with my blog means that she was still very much with us in the days I am writing about in this post and it's weird to think how blissfully unaware we were of what was to come. 

Picking up where I left off, let's start with what I was wearing on Friday the 22nd of January.

The temperature, which had climbed into the low double figures in the preceding days, had taken a bit of a dive, but at 7°C it was still slightly too warm for this vintage wool-blend dress. With its vibrant watercolour print, its abundance of pinks joined by steel blue, sage green, yellow and red, it was love at first sight at a charity shop many years ago.

It came with a self fabric belt with a transluscent pink plastic buckle but, as you're probably used to by now, I preferred wearing it with a contrasting belt from my stash, from which I picked this moss green suede one. More green appears in the turban hat my brooch lady is proudly wearing.

Shades of purple were added too, a darker hue for my necklace and a lighter, lavender one for my cardigan. To the latter, I pinned two floral hair clips in lieu of a brooch.

After our usual weekday fruit & yoghurt breakfast, Jos was off to the newsagents for our and our elderly neighbour's daily paper. Meanwhile, I repaired the ripped lining of a pocket in one of my Winter coats as well as a small snag in my Nordic style cardigan.

Then the lure of the charity shops proved once again too strong, so we drove down to the big three-floored one in Duffel, where we went our separate ways.

The clothing department had apparently just been restocked and the rails were bulging with stuff so it will not come as a surprise that I didn't leave empty handed.

One of the first things that caught my eye was the flower patterned cross-body bag, which I was delighted to discover was made from cork (top right and bottom left). 

I also found the tiny and slightly tacky souvenir brooch from Holland, containing all the usual suspects: a typical Dutch clog with a windmill design, filled with a miniature bunch of tulips!

The blouse, with its William Morris style pattern, is by Barbour, a fact I only discovered back at home. Although its label had been removed, I found the name proudly displayed on its buttons!

But that, obviously, wasn't all. The next day, Saturday, I dressed up in all the rest of Friday's finds.

The amazing pair of palazzo trousers was hiding among the skirts. In addition it was put into the rail's XL segment by mistake and it was only because of its sprinkling of flowers that I pulled it out. Further investigation determined that not only was it completely lined, it had pockets too! No brainer!

A bright green light-weight jumper was lacking in my wardrobe, so that came home as well. As did the slubbed long-line cardigan with its mix of colours, the black woven belt with its round two-tone buckle, and the chunky red necklace! 

The day's weather went from bad to worse as the day progressed. It had been grey all morning and by early afternoon it started to rain, the dampness making it feel much chillier than the 5°C indicated by the thermometer.

Dusting the treasure filled Tomado shelving unit in our bedroom, I took down the Art Nouveau style family tree photo frames, which had been standing empty ever since I found them at a flea market back in January 2017. When I showed it on the blog all of four years ago, I mentioned that it would soon be filled with old family photos. The champion of procrastination, I am!

On the very top, my great-grandmother Aloysia, whom I never met since she died in 1946. She is a bit of a mystery and we believe that she may have been at least half Dutch. 

The row below her has my maternal grandmother Bertha, whom I once honoured with a post of her own. Next to her, her husband Alphonse. They both passed away in the 1970s. 

Finally, on the bottom row, are my Mum, Alice and my Dad, another Alphonse, Fons or Fonny for short. Both are not longer with us either, as they passed away with 15 years between them, my Mum in August 2001 and my Dad in the same month in 2016. 

There, much better, isn't it? The rest of the shelving unit's contents might be the subject of a future post. A show-and-tell, so to speak, does make you look at things with fresh eyes and appreciate them all over again.

With no let-up in the rain, I settled myself on the couch and continued reading the book I'd just started. A recent charity shop find, I was enticed by the Maggie O' Farrell reference but, although it was a good read, it didn't reach Maggie's heights at all. Initially, there were traces of  Lynne Reid Banks' The L-Shaped Room too, but seeing that the latter is one of my favourite books, it once again did not quite live up to expectations.

Sunday rolled along and brought bright Winter sunshine with her. The thermometer was still stuck at 5°C but didn't feel quite as chilly with the sun's rays warming, if not our bodies, then certainly the cockles of our hearts.

My own internal thermostat, cranked on high as a result of the menopause, has lately cooled down enough for me to start wearing jumpers again.  I'd originally consigned this King Louie cardigan to the flea market boxes as I'd mistakenly washed it at too high a temperature, but I took it out again and it turned out to be fine once I'd stretched it by putting my arms through its sleeves.  It's a bit shorter than before, but I think I can live with that. 

I pinned a pearly brooch at my neck, and wore a necklace of blue and green beads, some of them wearing jumpers of their own! They tie in with the colours in the floral pattern of my vintage skirt, which was an old Think Twice find. To create a more elongated silhouette, I added a sea-green belt at my waist. 

The sun streaming in through our front door's glas panel and fanlight brought Spring vibes to Dove Cottage's dining room. I'd just put on a fresh tablecloth, a vintage one I found at Think Twice in October 2016. Just look at that happiness inducing print of Summer flowers on a deep blue background! 

I went a bit mad with my camera and snapped some odds and ends and hidden corners in Dove Cottage's dining room and hallway. The glass lampshade hanging in the latter is a family heirloom from Jos's childhood home.

The small cabinet with its glass door and side panels was a charity shop find, and the treasures residing inside also deserve a closer look in a future post.

Here's our dining room again, taken from the other side. The doorway to the right leads to our kitchen. In front of the window, which offers a view into the passageway leading beside the kitchen, you can catch a glimpse of Phoebe's scratching post. She was an avid post scratcher and demolished several of them during her lifetime. It's been relegated to the basement for the time being. 

More details, from top left: a vintage spice cabinet hanging, perhaps incongruously, in our hallway, a Christmas ornament featuring a glass deer which we keep out all year, a green glass vanity set bought at a car boot sale in Cardigan, and a doily-an-button wall hanging, a handmade gift from my lovely friend Lynn.

By the time I'd finished taking photos, all traces of sunshine had gone, leaving the usual dismal grey January day in its wake.

I spent the rest of the day reading and rummaging, starting a bag of charity shop donations. I even went through my flea market boxes, adding some non-vintage items to the bag. But as usual, those boxes proved to be a danger zone, as these two dresses went straight back into my wardrobe. Oh well, in my defence, I have already worn the one on the right in the meantime.

I'll leave you now in the usual way, urging you to stay safe, sane and fabulous! I can't believe it has been almost a years since this has become our standard way of parting ...

A cat-shaped hole in our hearts

This post was originally scheduled to be published on Saturday. In fact, it was all but written when tragedy struck. Yesterday, sadly, and very unexpectedly, we had to say goodbye to our beloved little black monster, Phoebe. We are utterly heartbroken and left with a huge cat-shaped hole in our hearts. The pain is still very raw and I'm still red-eyed from crying non-stop yesterday.

Phoebe had been acting a bit lethargic lately and since the beginning of the week she was clearly off her food. Since having been diagnosed with a bladder stone 7 years ago, she'd been on a diet, and we initially suspected she was bored with being served the same old food day after day. A similar thing happened with our previous cat, and as Phoebe was still enthusiastic about her Dreamies and gladly accepted our offers of a saucer of tuna or chicken, we called the vet who suggested switching to regular cat food for a couple of days. We did and she started eating at once. Problem solved, or so we thought.

However, she remained lethargic, and the smallest thing seemed to take her a lot of effort. Then we noticed that her belly had started bloating considerably. An appointment at the vet's was made for Saturday. She was supposed to have blood tests, but when the vet spotted Phoebe's belly, which she soon determined was full of fluids, our suspicions were confirmed that things were very wrong indeed. The fluids were either caused by a virus or by a tumour, both of which would be incurable. The decision to let her go was made with our heads while our hearts cried bitter tears.

Phoebe 2008-2021

But life goes on, so in spite of everything, I decided to leave the rest of my post as it was originally intended, even if its tone is somewhat at odds with the recent happenings.

At the end of my previous post, I left you with a garden magically transformed into a Winter wonderland.  The snow's visit was a fleeting one. It didn't even stay for dinner as it started thawing almost straight away so that by Sunday morning, the 17th of January, hardly a trace of it was left.

After a night filled with weird dreams - they'd virtually stopped but have lately started again - I was delighted to wake up to a bright day, the January sun only diffused by a light veil of innocent clouds.

I had a blog post to write in readiness for that night's publication so, after our usual Sunday breakfast of bacon and eggs, I traipsed upstairs and started typing like mad. With that task out of the way, we had a lunch of bread and cheese, during which we discussed plans for the afternoon.

Oh the suspense!

In the meantime, why don't I show you what I was wearing that day?

The starting point of my outfit was a black button-through vintage dress with a patchwork pattern in hues of rusts and browns, with a dash of white thrown in for good measure.

For contrast, I used turquoise for my accessories, which included a textured leather belt, one of my vintage beaded necklaces and a silver-tone brooch with a centre stone threaded with ochre. It almost goes without saying that my opaques were a bright turquoise as well! My wide-collared cardigan, its colour tying in with the rusts in my dress's print, was added for warmth.

The red flower in my hair is real and belongs to our still exuberantly flowering red Geranium. The poor thing almost got trampled beneath my feet. I picked it up and put in my hair where it stubbornly managed to stay put all through our outfit photo session.

Jos's weather app said it would remain dry for the rest of the day, so we dressed up warmly and drove to our neighbouring village for a walk. Our ultimate destination was Hof ter Linden, a domain surrounding a Neoclassical manor house. 

Like the sculpture park, it is somewhere I have taken you several times before, the first time in the early Autumn of 2016, shortly after my Dad passed away. The walk we did back then was in his honour, as the woodlands surrounding the manor house - known locally as the castle - were part of his playground when he was a young boy during the Second World War.

Initially, I wasn’t in the mood at all. I was cold in spite of my Princess coat, turban hat and chunky knit scarf, especially as I'd forgotten to bring gloves. Not surprisingly, this being a sunlit Sunday, it was reasonably crowded in the avenue leading up to the castle courtyard. The paths beyond it were quite muddy which made them hard to negotiate, but once we'd taken the first hurdle, the Sunday strollers had dwindled to a handful of hardy ones, which is when I started to enjoy myself.

We proceeded to circle the lake which lies at the back of the castle and which, unhindered by exuberant foliage at this time of year, offered plenty of photo opportunities.

Victims of storms past lay slain, having toppled face first into the shallow waters at the edge of the lake, adding an otherworldly presence to its perfect stillness. Clouds had gathered to add further menace.

At one point, the quiet was pierced by the shrieking of birds whose silhouettes could be seen flitting from branch to branch high up in the canopy directly above us.

Once back at the castle, the layer of clouds shifted, revealing a canvas of bright blue in which white, powder puff clouds floated, propelled along by a gentle breeze.

Brilliant sunshine warmed up body and soul in equal measure.  The resident sphinxes and lions seemed to be stretching their limbs and tilting their heads heavenwards to bask in the sun's soothing rays.

I'm so glad we made the effort, we sighed to each other once or twice. All traces of the Sunday blues had evaporated and the last of the cobwebs removed from the furthest corners of our souls.

We were ready for another week and after skipping Monday's office day - a grey and dismal affair as befits Blue Monday - we had now arrived on Tuesday.

Once again, we woke up to the rain lashing against our bedroom window. This rather solved my dilemma of whether to walk into the village to run an errand. 

Instead, after a morning's pottering, washing my hair and fiddling with collages for the blog, we went for a charity shop rummage after lunch.

My outfit of the day consisted of a bottle green faux suede midi skirt picked up in last year's Winter sale, which I combined with a recently charity shopped vintage pussy bow blouse. The blouse's bow was fastened with a vintage scarf clip. I'm sure the belt does not need any introduction as it, and its two siblings, are habitués of the blog.

We drove down to the pop-up charity shop on the outskirts of Lier again where, after negotiating the car park's muddy puddles, I spent a happy half-an-hour or so browsing for treasures.

My hunt for jumpers was rewarded with this orange one, and what are the odds of finding a matching groovilicious maxi skirt in the same shop?

Trawling the rails of tops, my eyes alighted on this vintage psychedelic polyester shirt in hues of purples and pinks, and a modern long-sleeved top with a floral print in similar hues.

I thought both looked a treat combined with my grey woollen Paisley patterned skirt, which is long overdue an outing.

And it's clear I'm on a boot roll, as yet again I was in luck and found a pair of blue Western style mid-calf boots!

After taking the hurdle of Wednesday's office day - a grey, rainy and windy day - we made it to Thursday and the start of another 4-day weekend.

The stormy weather had subsided overnight, leaving us with a dry day for a change and a moderately mild temperature of 11°C.

It had been a while - my blog says February 2020 - since I wore this green ombre effect vintage dress, with its neat row of pleats and pussy bow. 

I usually wear it with pink so my raspberry pink opaques were the obvious choice. Looking back, it turns out that this was the only similarity with last year's outfit.

Again, I secured the pussy bow with one of my scarf clips, this time opting for a floral one featuring pink roses, a pre-blog flea market find.

Instead of taking the easy way out and add more pink, I opted for a burgundy belt with a massive buckle and a plaid patterned King Louie cardigan (charity shopped, obviously) in rose red and grey. To this, I pinned a pale pink flower corsage.

After breakfast, I ran the errand I postponed on Tuesday, buying shampoo and a selection of hair clips to deal with the Corona hair. It's been three months since my last haircut - four since my last colour - and it is simply driving me nuts. 

The rest of the day was once again filled with aimless pottering. I have taken both Beate's and Vix's advice to heart and have been trying to start my non-office days with a plan. Unfortunately this all went out of the window again with Phoebe being so poorly.

So, that was it for now. I'll be lying low for a couple of days, trying to come to terms with our loss.

I'm missing our little monster more than words can say.