birds – GWENNIESGARDENWORLD

July 2, 2025

A SHORT VACATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

Recently we had a short vacation in the Netherlands. We live at the border with the Netherlands but in Belgium. We went to the very north to a province called ; Friesland, surrounded by the sea, although The Netherlands are surrounded by the sea for the whole of the West and North part and they also have several small islands you can visit by boat, some of the islands do not allow cars,

What is typical about the Netherlands, it is very green and they have a lot of water, sea water but also streams and ponds and lakes, water everywhere you can see. Almost every family there owns a boat, or 2 or more.

The green plants you see behind the water is reed, they have lots of it and they often cover the roofs of their homes with dried reed,

This is a farm house with a roof of reed.

They have lots of horses and cows

As they had numerous huge floods in the past with many people death, they made dikes, lots of dikes, all arround the sea, they are quite high and covered in grass, and on the dikes are sheep who keep the grass short.

An old sailing boat, still in use.

More old sailing boats,

An old mill build in 1861, still in use,

The old house above was build in 1835, at first 2 families lived in this house, nowadays just one family, most of the inside still looks like in 1835.

Almost everyone in The Netherlands moves around on a bike. They have broad cycle paths away from the roads.

Evening sun.

We were lucky with the weather but there was a lot of wind, wind is normal near the sea but it was more than normal.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip to the Netherlands, a country with a King and a Queen.

October 11, 2023October 11, 2023

ZOO ZOO ZOO

Last week I went to the zoo in Antwerp, it is a small zoo as it is in the middle of the city center and very old so they can’t make it bigger than it is now. And as small gardens is what I can manage I thought this was the perfect place for a bit of enjoyment. And it was but it was too big for me, fortunately they had many resting area’s and banks all over the place so I could sit down regularly. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

Fauntains are always attractive, especially on a warm sunny day.

This plant caught my eye, I had never seen it before but thanks to wikipedia I found out what it was. It is called palm cabbage ; brassica oleracea var.palmifolia. It is also called Winter cabbage. It is bi-annual , winterhardy and edible. It is an ancient vegetable. In the zoo garden they used it between the flowers and it looked very pretty.

This is a cute South-African penguin called ; Blackfeet penguin, they love warmth and water and they are thriving in the zoo.

This big bird looked like a statue, I haven’t got a clue what it is called.

Huge marabou, ugli but impressive.

Crane bird.

Meercat, they had several but they are always on the move. It is very pleasant to observe them.

By far my favorite animals ; monkeys !!! Unfortunally you can’t interact with them as they were all behind glas to protect them from getting illnesses from the visitors.

Spider monkey

As this zoo is very old they have a lot of huge tree’s. This one is a platane.

This is a close up of the trunck of the platane.

A koala, they look so cuddly.

This plant was in the green house, I was amased by the dimention of the leafs.

Sweet love between this 2 young gorilla’s.

Reflection in the water of the penguins.

Unfortunately it was too late in the year to capture all the flowers, normally you have flowers every where.

They had art all over the zoo. This bronze baboon was made by Jaap Klaas (1898-1972).

This icebear was created by Erwin Peeters (1964)

There were lots of other animals but in the end I had to rest, I found myself a nice shady place near the spider monkeys and I told my husband he could go alone and see more animals, so he did.

Have a great day all !

April 5, 2020

A PRETTY “WEED”

Probably a gift of a wild bird, but this flower found a good spot in my garden to germinate and grow. If I find a seedling in my garden that I don’t recognise I let it grow untill I do know what it is. And this way I have had some really nice surprises in the past.

This pretty plant is rapeseed (brassica rapa), a seed that is often used to plant on big fields where they make oil from the seeds, it is a healty oil to use in the kitchen. Otherwise it is also used as birdfood, the seeds is what they are after.

We have really nice and sunny weather and I have been working in the garden for a while now. I feel so blessed to be able to go out in the garden unlike lots of people who have to stay in a tiny flat or even a room. I so hope this coronavirus will soon be gone forever !!

Take care and stay safe !

March 27, 2020March 27, 2020

TODAY IN THE GARDEN

We have such nice weather at the moment, very sunny, bright blue sky, not too cold….what more do you want. I try to enjoy it as much as I can cos colder weather is on its way.

We have a very stubborn tree, our Amelanchier (juneberry) starts blooming every year on April 1st. But as we have had a lot of sun and soft weather we were sure it would bloom earlier this year. Just one little branch has been in bloom for about a week now and the rest is still in bud.

JUST 2 SMALL FLOWER STALKS.

THE REST OF THE TREE LOOKS LIKE THIS; ALL FLOWERS STILL IN BUDD

MY SKIMMIA KEW GREEN IS BUZZING WITH BEE’S NOW THAT THE FLOWERS ARE OPEN

OUR WATERHEN (coot) STILL HASN’T FOUND A MATE YET, BUT SHE IS FEELING VERY MUCH AT HOME IN OUR GARDEN. LOOK AT HER BEAUTIFULL BEAK.

I am still very sad about my little dog who died suddenly last week, I miss her a lot.

Have a great weekend all ! Stay safe !!

March 9, 2020March 9, 2020

WE HAVE A LODGER

This water hen (coot) has been living in our garden for several weeks now. And she feels very much at home in and near our pond. It is a young female and I hope she’ll make a nest in our garden and get chicksn (hopefully she’ll find a husband soon ). We can do what we like in the garden, she isn’t bothered, nor is she bothered by the dogs we have.

As you can see our garden is a mess at the moment, we leave the cleaning up till Spring, we don’t want to do it in the Autumn as that isn”t good for wildlife. Today was a sunny day so I did some work in the garden. But for the rest of the week they are expecting rain, and lots of it.

It feels so good to be able to do something in the garden and you can see that most of the plants are comming to life except for the late starters.

I can’t wait for the Summer to start .

I hope you’ll all have a brilliant week ! Have fun !!

June 24, 2019June 28, 2019

A PRESENT FROM THE BIRDS

When I was doing my round in the garden I suddenly saw a beautiful white flower between the leafs of my fig tree, when I did some further investigation I saw the top of a carrot and from there a long stem with a white flower and buds, I never sow carrots in the garden ( I do in the greenhouse but I use ribbons with seeds on) so these beautiful flower must be a present from the birds. Thank you birds ! I am going to sow a lot of carrot seeds in the garden now to have carrotflowers!!

**ONE OF THE MANY BUDS ON A SINGLE CARROT**

Have a great week and keep cool as the temperatures are rising fast !!!

May 27, 2019

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN

Now that the weather is warming up the ticks are comming back to life and they are not picky; humans, mammals, birds, as long as it can take blood, it’s ok for a tick.

My husband breeds birds as a hobby and the other day he needed some help as he noticed one of his birds had a huge tick next to it’s eye and I am the tick destroyer in our household as I have a few dogs and grandkids and a husband of course. And as ticks can be life threatening I check for ticks every day.

I removed the tick on the bird and the bird is ok now.

Have a great week and look out for ticks !!

April 28, 2019

SILENT SUNDAY

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SWAN ON EGGS

April 27, 2019

BRUGES BELGIUM (2)

Today I want to show you more pretty sights from Bruges, world famous for it’s handmade lace and visited by people from all over the world. When you walk arround in Bruges you hear so many different languages.

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THEY HAVE LOTS OF TRUNCATED TREE’S

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A PLATAN WITH NEW LEAFS AND OLD FRUITS, IT’S FRUITS ALWAYS REMIND ME OF LITTLE MEAT BALLS

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THE BOAT TRIPS ARROUND THE CITY CENTER ARE ALWAYS VERY POPULAR AS YOU GET TO SEE BRUGES FROM ANOTHER SIDE, BECAUSE OF THIS BRUGES IS ALSO CALLED “VENICE OF THE NORTH”

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