nature – GWENNIESGARDENWORLD

October 13, 2025

A WEEKEND AWAY

Recently I went a weekend away with my sister, we both needed a bit of peace and quiet but as it was just for 3 days we wouldn’t go too far away. We decided to go to The Netherlands to a place called Vlissingen, it is a small city at the North sea. We had hoped the weather would be rather nice but a few days before we went to Vlissingen the weather forcast changed a lot. Instead of sun and between 18C° and 20C°, we got heavy wind (wind force 7) , a lot of rain and 15C°, but we enjoyed it anyway, we did a lot of reading, talking and enjoying going out for a drinks, lunches and dinners, luckily they were all close by. Nothing spectacular but it was fun. We stayed in a small hotel at the seaside, pretty and comfortable.

The following pictures were taken the last day when the sun was out for a bit, it rained most of the time so I didn’t take a lot of pictures as I don’t like my camera to get wet.

In the middle of this picture you see a tower that used to be a prison, now it is a restaurant.

This guy was the only one in the sea.

I loved this little front garden facing the sea

Here’s another view of the terrace with the cacti

This picture was taken when the storm was gone.

I hope you are all well and happy. Take care !

August 31, 2025

A WALK IN THE LOCAL HEATH AREA

My husband and I decided to go to the local heath area for a walk in late afternoon when the heat was bearable. It is a lovely and natural area where there are sheep, cows and deer but none of them showed themselves, it is quite a large area (large for my tiny country) so they could be everywhere, as I a can’t walk for long we saw only a small area but it was enjoyable and very very quiet, we only saw a few people who were also walking.

A pine tree and heather (erica), it was only the start of the heather flowering, you can also see how dry the grasses were.

More pines, weathered by the rain, wind, sun and storms.

Close-up of the heather flowering.

More trees and dry grasses.

Dried wood everywhere.

We found proof the cows had been there. The sun made rocks of these “remains”.

We’ll get an early Autumn as we had a very dry Summer.

More trees with Autumn leafs.

Remains of a fallen tree.

What I liked most was the peace and quiet and being in a natural environment. When a tree dies they don’t remove it, they let nature do what it does best. If the tree falls they let it lie, the insects and the funghi do the rest untill there is nothing left, the animals are free to go where they want, they do get a bit of help with food and water but arround the heath area is an electric wire so they can’t escape and get killed on the road. Our country is tiny so we don’t have the space of a much bigger country. Besides, the population density in my part of the country is 507/ square kilometer.

Have a great week and enjoy your garden or balcony, try to create a piece of nature, however small, it will make you happy !!

Take care !

July 9, 2025July 9, 2025

THE FLOWERS WE MET IN THE NETHERLANDS

As always I look arround for flowers, plants and trees, not only on vacation. But I found a few gems on holiday,

Evening primrose or oenothera macrocarpa in a lovely sunny color

Deer hay or hypericum with soft pink buds.

I loved this malva with the dark purple veins

A wild rose along the road

A dark leaved elderberry wit pink flowers, what a beauty !!

Orange is the national colour in the Netherlands, so you see it everywhere and in everything, even in cakes, ice cream, fountains with orange coloured water, clothes…..you name it, they got it in ORANGE

We saw lots of wild orchids, but only this soft purple one but there were many of them.

This is the pretty flower of the hogweed plant (heracleum montegazzianum) but beware, it is dangerous, if you touch it you can get painful blisters.

This is a small hogweed plant, they can really get to 2 meters high and they come in huge numbers at the same place, it is a relative of the parsley herb.

I don’t know how this plant is called but it was about 3 meters tall and we saw it in many places, against that blue sky it was a adorable !

Thanks for visiting and take care. Enjoy all the flowers and plants in your neighbourhood !

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.

May 4, 2025

SILENT SUNDAY

April 12, 2025

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

With temperatures between 15 C° and 25C° nature is fully awake now. We went to the arboretum as our garden is a mess at the moment, and I took some pictures.

MAGNOLIA

ARTICHOKE PLANT

CAMELIA

WHITE MAGNOLIA BUD

I DON’T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, IT IS A BUSH. BUT THE FLOWERS LOOK PRETTY.

AND WE SAW A LOT OF EASTER BUNNIES !!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, ENJOY YOUR GARDEN OR BALCONY AND TAKE CARE !

March 30, 2025

SPRING BLOSSOMS

Now that a lot of trees and bushes have blossoms it is really starting to look like Spring, at last !!

I don’t know what tree this is, some sort of prunus but I don’t know which one. This tree is in the garden of our local kindergarten which is right across of our house.

Same tree as above but more in close-up.

As we are having dry weather for a change the blossoms stay for a longer time.

And….. we have a patio !!!! After waiting for 16 (yes sixteen) months for it because it wasn’t dry enough to lay the tiles, if the concrete layer is wet the glue for the tiles do not stick. I’ll show a picture of it when the furniture and the plants are in place.

Have a great week and enjoy your garden or terrace !

March 16, 2025

THIS LOOKS LIKE SPRING !!!

It’s definitely looks like Spring now !!! It’s getting warmer slowly but surely.

I look forward to the rest of Spring .

Have great week, enjoy your garden or balcony and take care !

March 11, 2025

A WALK AROUND A PARK

Last week we had really lovely weather and the grandkids were free from school so we decided to go to a nearby park hoping to see signs of Spring. It was a lovely sunny day and about 18 C°. To our surprise there was still a lot of water everywhere, we had a very wet Winter but we thought the park would be dry by now. I took a few pictures so you’ll see that was not the case.

This was the only green thing we noticed, the branches of the tree above are reflected in the water.

All you can see is dry grass and water. The green trees you see are pines, they are always green.

You can see the sun is shining and the grass is dry. I quite liked this tree stump.

This is normally a dry area.

This is a marsh but it is usually a lot smaller.

There were not many waterbirds, just a few ducks and ofcourse birds in the trees, but there were a LOT of walkers and cyclists, all enjoying the sun we hadn’t seen in a long time.

Afterwards we went for a drink and something to eat across the road, it was packed with people. I think I can say we all enjoyed our day.

Today we are back to the cold again and we’ll have a few frosty nights this week , next week the temperatures will be on the up again and the sun will come back.

Still no patio …..

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your garden and take care.

February 17, 2025