yellow

November 8, 2025November 8, 2025

UPDATE ON MY SUNFLOWERS

As promised, here’s an update on my sunflowers.

This was the biggest and largest of the six I sowed, they all took quite a battering of heavy rain and storm winds, I don’t expect seeds this time of year but the yellow is a bright spot in the garden. I think I’ll experiment next year with a few types from the shop. But the birds won’t go hungry, we always have a bag of mixed seeds for them and peanutbutter without salt.

We still have nice weather for the time of the year, apart from the few days with high wind and lots of rain. In the past it was normal to have night frosts in November or even earlier when I was a child (a loooong time ago). So 15 to 18 C° is good !

Have a great weekend and take care !

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025

AN EXPERIMENT

Somewhere in September I decided to plant 6 sunflowerseeds (the beginning of Autumn here) As I was feeding the birds outside in the garden I saw a few sunflower seeds among the mixture of seeds. I filled 2 smal pots with potting compost and put 3 seeds in each pot. A few days later I saw the first seed had sprouted and the next few days they were all visible. I put them high up on a table as the slugs love young fresh plants . A few weeks later I planted them out in the garden , all 6 of them so now I have sunflowers in the garden. My husband called me crazy to start with sunflowers so late in the year. I have no clue what breed they are, they all have a different hights, some are in bud others in flower. So now I know I can start early with seeding sunflowers and seed some every 3 months or so, to enjoy them in Spring and Summer and Autumn. And I don’t even have to buy seeds as we always have a mixture of seed for the birds in our garden.

I think the buds are very pretty too.

I will let you know how they evolve. So far the weather is still arround 15 C° and at the moment there is no frost in sight.

I hope you all still enjoy the plants in the garden or on your balcony. 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 !

November 1, 2024

THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER

Today we remember our relatives and friends who died, it is a day people over here are free of work. We bring flowers to their graves. Not that we don’t remember them during the rest of the year but it is a custom here. My mother-in-law died a few weeks ago and she loved bold and colorful things so I bought her a plant with big bright yellow flowers to put on her grave. I know she’d love that.

It is a member of the chrysanthemum family.

And they finally started working on my new patio. Cos of all the rainy weather we had this year the work couldn’t get started but now we are getting two whole weeks without a drop (at least that’s what they promised us). Today the workers came and removed the top layer, my husband and son removed the tiles last week. This is how my patio looked this morning after the workers started.

The workers did a good job, they removed all the rubble and next week the groundlayer will be layed and that needs to dry for at least a week before they can start with the tiles.

I am already looking forward to Spring !!!!

Have a great weekend .

June 9, 2024