March

This was the beautiful bookshop 'Damien' recommended in 'Parenthesis' which I visited in Antwerp and where I hesitated and missed buying a book of concrete poetry. I recognised some images - big blue letters arranged as machines or cityscapes from something I had seen at The Schone Kunsten Museum on the site of Ghent's 1913 exhibition. Now I think it would have been worth learning some of the Flemish language - which is what had made me hesitate in buying the book.  

Despite language difficulties, thanks to a postcard and some research by my brother and his wife, we found the street where my grandparents lived before 1914. There was no number with the address but maybe a 'Marchand Tailleur' would have been near to the high street, and maybe they lived in something like this rather eccentric looking house. 

It impressed me as being rather showy like hats my grandmother Catherina Francesca and her friends are wearing in a postcard from the Ghent 1913 exhibition. Like the nameless book I saw in Damien, this remains in my head as inspiration until I can return and find out more.