one two three.. in 10 minutes

one of the great pleasures is the waterpart that borders our garden. in winter we ice skate and right now, when it is tropical (to the Dutch standard), we enjoy the waterfront in many ways. I carry around about 30 watering-cans a day for my daily work out. and the 8 year old is on the water in his rowing boat.

today we tried the fishing-rod. we never tried it before (it was a present for my son's birthday in March) because we (mum and son) are scared for the huge fish that swim around. but today husband took the rod (he is not afraid he catches a 40 cm tall fish and even better: he knows how to get them off the hook). I was surprised the two men caught 3 (three!) little fish in 10 minutes. what an excitement.


ps. we released them all after half a minute on the hook! and we are not even sure we caught the same fish 3 times in a row!

cat in the garden

cat Saar loves this time of year where she is queen of the garden. she has so many spots were she can go ......

when it is too hot....

or a where the last sunbeams come in the evening....

and just to roll and be happy with the space and warmth of the tiles!

African temperatures

about 20 years ago I travelled in West Africa. I still remember the humidity and the hot weather. one move and pearls of sweat were on my forehead. in those three months I also bought fabrics. I couldnot choose between all the colourful paterns and brought home several prints. I never knew what to do with thoose fabrics, they all were out of place in our cold and grey country.

a few years ago I had a 'brilliant' idea and made cushion covers for the garden. we use this cushions only when it is warm and summer and suddeny the colours of the fabric didnot look out of place anymore.

sorry, aroma is not included

snuff snuff snuff.... what a lovely odour around my nose. it is hard to tell which flower smells the most. happily for me they all spread their aroma at different times of the day.

the rose smells during the day with a very delicate sweet scent.

the jasmine spreads her odour at the end of the day when the sun sets with her last sunbeam.


and the 'kamperfoelie' (english name unknown) smells late at night at the very end of the day when the night falls. sorry: I havenot found the button in my blog program to include aroma's!

Endive lovers

my son is (with his 8 years) too 'grown up' for the sand pit in our garden. last year we took out all the sand and carried 12 bags of garden soil into garden. as we don't have a back entance we had to take it all through the house (hallway, living, kitchen) to fill the pit again. we did some experiments with tomatoes, lettice and carrots. which was a great succes. this year we wanted to improve our farmer skills and we started with the home growing of seeds in little pots in front of the bedroom window. soon enough we had little sprouts of carrot, tomato, paprika and endive. it soon became quiet packed in the little sandpit. and when the neighboor (who is even more addicted to home garden vegetable growing) donated 4 potatoes we had reached our limitation. last week we shared the endive with friends and family. We had ten crops ready to be eaten at the same time. At bit too much even for endive lovers. So next year we have to practise to spread the moment of the harvest.....

the last crop is waiting for Dutch endive stampot;

here is the recipe of Dutch stampot for endive lovers: peel enough potatoes (depending on the size of the family and appetite). boil them and make mash potatoes with milk and butter. In the meantime fry small pieces of bacon crisp and slice the endive in small bits. in the end you stir the crisp bacon and the endive into the mash potatoes and leave on the stove for another 5 minutes to soften the endive. lovely with loads of apple sauce and a sausage (a recipe for Dutch apple sauce will follow another time, promise).

hide and seek

right near our 'landingstage' in between the reed we do have a poor brave mum. she is sitting on her nest for weeks now and we all are having a daily glimpse at here to see if the baby's are there yet. she never leaves her spot (or to be more precise: she is always there when we do peek around the corner). even when we had an enormous thunderstorm a week ago and the garden chairs rolled through the garden. she survived and hold to her instinct ánd her eggs. it is her second breed this season and her first sprouts have now been send away by dad to make their own living and the parents have all the time available for the new arrivals. it is a lovely hidden spot. they try to keep their spot as secret as they can. at the moment the egg shells break and screams for food can be heard the heron is not far away and for sure he will minimalise the new family! poor mum, hide and seek is not a funny game for you and the kids.... and why has nature given your babies such an ugly, prominent red fluffy head?

adolesence grass

One of the little changes I made in the little garden was taking away a not so useful path from the 'main terrace' upto the 'back terrace' at the waterfront. It was crossing our four square meters of 'lawn' and it looked so silly that finally this winter I had the energy to take this stone path away. We did a few months with just a stripe of Dutch clay in the middle of the green (cat Saar loved to take that route before entering the house taking the mud straight onto the couch), when finally it became warm enough to do the miracle with the grass seeds. After two weeks we had this little fellows saying 'hello, we're ready!' and they left me with the thought 'this will never turn out into grown up grass'.
And now in middle of summer we have a zone that looks like a green landingstripe in the middle of the garden. The new born grass is in the puberty fase and is growing much harder and greener then the middle aged green.

collectors items

my son is one of the collectors in the house. where ever he can lay his hands on he needs to take it home and store it. so we do have containers filled with his drawings (from his years in nursery upto his class right now). we do have pots filled with chestnuts, stones and other treasures. the front garden is a storage place for sticks, old bricks and dakpannen (for the hut that is needed to be build once).
as you can imagine is a trip (or even worse: a holiday) to the beach a temptation. we have been to Britanny in May holiday for four years in a row, so we had to be strict at the moment of moving back home. only the 'really beautiful' ones earned a place in the back of the car. spreading a 'lovely' sea smell during the return trip home.... (does it need more explanation; most of the trips were made with high temperatures). at home we had to find glass pots and cans to store the collection of shells, stones and other treasures. my favorites are the glass bits that became polished by the waves on the shore.


right now the shells find their way into the spots of the garden where I have no clue what can grow there ( I discover many of this spots). it is time we go to the sea again to get some more......