A tiny garden bouquet from me to you to wish you all a

happy Wednesday!!

See you soon!



Beautiful nurseries in the south of the Netherlands

I had promised you some pictures of my visit to 2 beautiful nurseries in the south of the Netherlands.

Together with my mom and aunt, we first visited Marnis nursery (sorry, only in Dutch).

Iris 'superstition'; a gorgeous nightblue variety!

Papaver orientale 'Indian Chief'

Papaver orientale 'Türkenlouis'; fringed... & in real life even brighter

Rose 'Scharlachgut'

The actual reason to go to this nursery was this rose. I bought one about 9 years ago, just before we left the Netherlands to go & live abroad for a while. So I never actually saw the rose in bloom in my garden. Now that we're back, I couldn't find the rose anymore (guessed that one of the renters didn't really see the beauty of it). So I went back to Marnis & bought a new one. It's a single rose and it looks very fragile in a very, almost neon-like, pinkish red colour.

I planted it last week & all of a sudden, I saw another rose making it's appearance.. it looked a bit neglected with ugly branches. I decided to let it stay there and waiting for the buds to open before deciding to take it out or not. And guess what? When the buds opened, it was the same rose!!

I have 2 now and I don't mind at all :)

After lunch we went to another nursery,  Bastin

Bastin is well-known for its mediterranean plants like many different kinds of salvia & lavender.

I didn't take any pictures there (it started raining and I had my hands, of course,  filled with plants!!), but I'll show you some of what I bought that is in my garden now:

 

Salvia 'Hot Lips'

Cistus x purpureus 'Betty Taudevin'

Campanula La Belle

Verbascum Linda

Verbascum Chaixii Album

I hope you liked the little tour & if you're in the neighbourhood, these nurseries are well worth a visit!

Very dedicated and well-informed people, with a heart for their work!

A day on the water

Some weeks ago, a long weekend, an extra day off (Pentecost is a 2-day holiday in the Netherlands) and gorgeous weather. So we decided to spend some time on the water, on the Loosdrechtse Plassen, with a bunch of friends, food & drinks :)

Lovely houses... wouldn't mind living there!!

Lovely kids too :)



We were not the only ones... very busy 'traffic' on the lakes, but that could not spoil the day, absolutely not. It was a lovely day, should repeat it soon!

Wishing you all a great start of the week!

Take care!

When it's raining outside...

...it's baking time inside!!

Strawberry Sponge cake on the menu!

 Spongy cake

& fresh strawberries & cream

A cup of tea & a freshly baked piece of cake on a nice plate...

All you need on a rainy afternoon :)

Have a lovely day & enjoy your piece of cake!!

P.S. Should you need a fool proof recipe of another delicious cake,

then have a look here for a delicious & tasty banana-nut bread/cake!

Sunny garden

Finally, the weather has turnt bad again (after 2 amazing weeks full of warmth & sunshine), the garden definitely needs this break, me too, if only to update my blog!! Although I must admit that the rainy Sunday was already enough for me... it can stop now :)

Rainy & grey it is today, so I decided to cheer you up with some sunny pictures of our garden. What do you think? Sounds like a good idea?? Ok, here we go then:

The (very late planted bulbs of) tulips did a good job this year! 

 Lots of pink & purple in the back yard but...

 lots of blue, yellow and white in the front yard :)

An overview of our back yard
Remember what it looked like before winter? Have a look: here

 As you can see, working in the garden is a tough job...

Last week I also visited 2 beautiful nurseries in the south.

Made some pictures, but somehow, I don't manage to upload them.

Will keep on trying & write a post about them later!

And now let's keep our fingers crossed that the beautiful sunshine will return very soon!!

Have a great week!