I sometimes think that the weather dictates the direction of shopping and with scary storms predicted for much of England and Wales already brewing as we blustered through some charity/vintage shopping on Saturday, doing a great deal of walking along the Thames, it wasn't that surprising that I came home with a great deal of black...

The good thing was that despite the bleak mood of the shopping haul, they were all glorious bargains and ripe for pairing with all things floral.  First up, a tiered leather skirt from Cancer Research Fund for £12, though I did grumble a bit like an old biddy at the rising prices of charity shops.  Then a pair of perfectly fitting (quite an achievement for me...) Plein Sud trousers, with a cool zip detailing running up the seams from Bang Bang, my favoured regular shopping haunt for £10.  Finally, bargains of all bargains, a John Richmond blazer with robot-like leather sleeves from Retromania in Victoria (a gussied up, dressed-up type of charity shop that I used to frequent quite often when I lived in those parts of the world...) for the princely sum of £2.  Yes, I thought the tag read £12 but on the rail of jackets for £2.... there it was, exactly my size, in pristine condition.  It's been a while since I've used coins to pay for a piece of clothing.

Whilst I could look like a tasteful avant garde dresser living in Belgium, all in black....nothing wrong with that of course.... better to combine it with the abundance of florals I have at the moment.  With the sun having not quite peeked out enough, and not many flowers blooming yet, the heap of black with floral prints seems like an appropriate pairing...