These jeans by the brand Denham are high up my list of favourites as they are so comfortable. Today you see me wearing my black waistcoat with a blue and white striped shirt. I bought the shirt second-hand, mainly because of the way the collar sat on my body. V-necks are good for women with an ample bosom but I don’t like to show the wrinkles in my cleavage. This shirt doesn’t reveal too much but does create a V.

The black waistcoat you saw before in this post and in this post. At first I thought it was a bad buy and I couldn’t style it. But three ways of styling isn’t too bad and I bet I can come up with more.

Photos for this post were taken by Sylvia of 40PlusStyle. She is Dutch and quite a traveller. Most of the time she is on the road. Her home base is now Portugal and she was in the Netherlands for a visit. She always contacts me to spend some time together.

Below: Sylvia was the one who encouraged me to start my blog journey and she advised me in developing my style. Her site offers a lot of help to discover your body shape and loads more. Sylvia herself has developed her style as well. Below you see her in an outfit which I would call ‘arty’. All items can work together; you can remove a layer and it still looks good, no matter what layer.

As you can see, it was a rainy day AGAIN. Had she come the day before, we could have sat on a terrace in the sunshine. The Netherlands is very fickle when it comes to weather.

We had a ‘window’ of about 15 minutes without rain to do the photo shoot. Not very eventful but it will have to do.

Below: It will be a post with stupid faces, like this one below. I call this my ‘hyena face’. I was killing myself laughing because I had just totally surprised this man, a tourist, by putting my arm through his and saying “Would you like to be in a photo with me?” He would, bless him.

 Below: He was really nice. A good sport.

Below: The terraces were empty for obvious reasons, so nobody minded me sitting there and not ordering a drink.

Below: Close-up for the details. Chunky golden chain earrings and Loewe belt. That belt was rather an investment but a good one. It panned out well.

Below: I tried some poses which weren’t ‘posed’. Better not do that again. I look like The Scream by Edvard Munch.

A few days later I took some photos of nice buildings for you. The sun had come out which makes everything so much more joyful.

Below: I photo shopped all cars and most bicycles out of the photo. Ruining my picture.

Below: I have shown this old school building before but I am sure you won’t remember or mind seeing it again. I got an amazingly good sight of the building.

Below: OK, this photo failed. Those two grebes were kissing each other but I took the photo from the car and that was too far away to get a sharp picture. Nevertheless, I wanted to share it (my husband will disagree).

What happened in my life this week

Quite a lot as it happened.

During the weekend I was so worried about Watson. He seemed to get worse instead of better. On Monday everything was all right again. Pffew. Ron is now taking him for his walks in the morning and the afternoon (YAY). I urge him every time to take my car as his 41 year old Renault 4 does not have power steering. He can drive his own car though and his arm and wrist are getting better by the day.

Marjolein came over on what was supposed to be a rainy day to go through my wardrobe together and weed. We achieved quite a lot but then the sun came out and we hurried to town to do a photo shoot.

Since a week I was hurting in a particular place, right above my left breast. Particularly, when I coughed or sneezed but I had no trouble breathing. Now, I don’t like pains and aches I cannot explain and which feel not normal. If they are not gone within a week, I will visit my doctor (all covered by the medical insurance of € 190 a month). She felt the spot and said “I know what that is, that is Tietze’s Syndrome.”

I beg your pardon? Whose syndrome?? Google it if you want, but it is nothing to worry about. It is a swelling and it will go away again. Until that time it will be painful when I sneeze or cough. Annoying but I’ll take this over any serious illness anytime.

My cat Sophie was chased by another cat, that black and white rascal from the corner, Dolfje. Sophie was running home so fast that she irreparably damaged the cat flap. Which meant we had to buy another one (expensive because electric, working on the chip between her shoulders), install it and get Sophie’s chip registered again. To my amazement Ron and I got the new one installed. Not without a bit of fierce arguing but still.
I used a good trick to get Sophie’s chip registered. I placed a dish with fish indoors in front of the cat flap while Sophie was outside. She tried to get in but I stopped the flap. As she was exactly in the right spot, the ‘registering thing’ got her chip straight away. No trouble, no stress.

On Wednesday the weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. My friend Hanka and I had lunch in town and managed to sit in the restaurant until 4 pm, talking, talking, talking. There weren’t many guests, so the staff didn’t mind.
Below: Sweet Hanka.

And on Friday I met my friend Peggy in Delft on another glorious sunny day.
Below: Peggy.

Below: I had great tulips again last week, orange ones this time. Two of them I had put in small vases but they longed for their siblings so much that they started to bend over, reaching out for the tulips on the table. Ever seen something like this? 😂

Below: Ron brought home a few bunches of daffodils. They were in a spot where the morning sun hit them. So good.

Below: Another morning the sun shone on this willow. Aren’t its branches like strands of gold?

We saw the granddaughters again and went to a playground with them.

All is fine in paradise again.

Greetje