The final stage of the tulip bouquet

 Beautiful to the end, it is difficult to throw them out. Usually they last on the vase until the petals start dropping on the floor, 

Tulip time

The various stages of a bunch of tulips are so nice.

I like them best when they fall apart! Like ballet dancers they fnd their own way in the vase.

Finding stones in the garden

One of our dogs used to dig in the garden and make big holes. 

He would not stop until he had found what he was expecting there: a big stone.

It is more than 20 years ago that I painted these stones, inspired by a Christmas card. 

The paint has faded - a heart on the left stone, the middle ones came out as pirates, the right one is 'natural'.

These stones move around in the garden, to protect a plant and to hold water for it,

Working in the garden all kind of things come to the surface, The past, for instance - a Dinky toy of a child that once lived here, or broken pieces of antique china. Always so fascinating!

Taking home shells and stones from your holiday destination makes it even more fun when you give them faces, like artist Sylvie Selig did.

 

Psalm 103 - The life of mortals is like grass

15The life of mortals is like grass,

they flourish like a flower of the field;

16the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

In memory of my uncle Bernard, who died on the Birma Railroad. He is buried in Thailand, I wonder if my aunt was able to visit his grave ever.

A very talented man, a tropical forest engineer. My uncle and aunt were so young, he was 39 when he died and my aunt 36 at the time, a prisoner of war on Java. My aunt never remarried.
War is so useless, so pointless, so destructive.
This week I visited an elderly lady. In her kitchen she had a huge handwritten note: peace starts at home. So true!

Today we commemorate the end of World War II in Indonesia.
Born after the war I only know my uncle from stories within the family. My aunt lived nearby and was my teacher in the early days at school. 

The grass shown here was a seedling on our terrace. It grew and grew and became very wide and large. It's forms were amazing. It is tough, it is there to stay.

Recollections of a holiday

It seemed such a good idea to buy a Campsis Radicans and plant it next to the wood shed.
In time it would nicely grow over the roof of it and we would enjoy its beautiful flowers was the idea. It feels happy where it is planted. Too happy, in fact. And instead of growing over the roof  (which of course I try to guide) it makes long shoots towards the West and tries to curl around the chimney of our heating system and everywhere where it should not go.
So, there was no choice. I had to climb the roof of the adjacent building and cut it back drastically, blooms and all.

The flowers bring back memories of a holiday I spent with my parents in Switzerland and Italy in my teens. We sat out on a tiny terrace of a restaurant on a rock in Cannobio at the Lago Maggiore. The view on the lake was beautiful, the apricot juice the waiter in formal black and white brought me was in a minute bottle, and the flowers of the Campsis so abundant around us. I loved the trumpets, the colour, it looked so exotic.
The tranquility of the lake, the small sips from the concentrated apricot juice, they are such nice recollections of that holiday. Amazing how certain situations you can recall like yesterday.

The cuttings I put up in a vase in the garden, but the flowers are not meant to shine in a vase. They should trumpet from the roof! And I just have to be aware of its abundant enthousiasm to grow all over the place.

Rosa 'New Dawn'

Now, who does not have Rosa 'New Dawn' in his garden??

The garden was fresh and cool early this morning. If we listen to the weatherforecast it is going to be a sizzling day. I guess tonight we will find many dropped pink leaves ....

Rosa 'New Dawn''

'Feeling good' by Nina Simone

Birds flying high you know how I feel

Sun in the sky you know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel

(refrain:)

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me

And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea you know how I feel

River running free you know how I feel

Blossom on the tree you know how I feel

(refrain)

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know

Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean

Sleep in…

Midsummer

It was a day of cutting hedges, pulling weeds, raindrops, sunshine, talking to neighbours hanging on to my rake, watching birds, sitting on the door step waiting for my husband as I was locked out, talking to a little boy who was in search of his teacher Tatjana ( who had written in his school book she would be at nr.22 but where was nr. 22??!!) and could not find her, a day of staring at the amazing colours of the nasturtium in flower pots and following the bumble bees who seem to be so plentiful at the moment.
Beauty all around.
I took my compass out last night and checked out where  about the sun sets. It showed 300 degrees NW. Twice a year the sun comes in through our windows on the North - it is forever fascinating and it always takes me by surprise.

Time goes so fast: the blackberries are plentiful in our hedges, the roses flower abundantly, before we know it the trees will drop their leaves .... The elm trees always start in June and I blink when I see it.