Monday, July 21, 2008

Rainy Days

Rain, rain, rain, rain , rain, rain, rain , rain (ad nausea)

Rainy day!

Rainy day!

I'm standing in the rain
Getting soaking wet
It's teeming down on me
Cats and dogs .........

To soak in (pun intended) the true atmosphere of relentless rain pouring down, click here, crank up the volume and get into the zone. Especially recommended for those of you who suffer in weather of a 100 F/ 40 C and more.

This year we're having one of those typically Dutch summers that are mainly wet, windy and chilly. It's been raining a lot lately and yesterday I caught this little birdie sheltering from the rain under my grape arbour.
Poor thing, it looks a bit miserable and small wonder with skies like this.
Today it's going to be about 15 C (59 F) at most which feels decidedly autumn-y, not of the good when it's supposed to be the height of summer.
I've been working hard on creating a new border lately and people were expressing concern about my working too hard but there is no risk of that as all that rain has turned my heavy clay into a quagmire. I can't do a thing with my new border now. There's about 3.5 meters to be planted before it will be finished but ..................
with solid mud like this I can't do a thing. I will have to wait until the earth dries out.
So what is a poor gardener to do? Well, in between the relentless showers I nipped into my greenhouse for a bit of basil which I turned into yummy pesto. It's very easy to make and you'll find the recipe here.
I then sliced some tomatoes, spooned a bit of pesto on them, some freshly milled black pepper, a little drizzle of olive oil, a few black Greek olives and then you let it rest for half an hour before eating it. It's scrumptious, very nice to have for lunch with a freshly baked baguette and a chilled glass of white wine. You can also put the slices of tomato on an open sandwich, which is very yummy too.
There is a lot of lavender growing in my garden and I had so much lavender that I didn't know what to do with it, so I made a wreath and hung it in my bathroom. It looks very nice and it smells great too. It's very easy to make and you only need some freshly cut lavender and a bit of thin metal wire and Bob's your uncle.
For the finishing touch I picked a few flowers from my garden to bring a bit of much needed sunshine inside.

copyright 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Rain, rain, go away

Come again another day
Nursery rhyme

38 comments:

Lis vom Lindenhof said...

Das ist schon ungerecht, ihr habt den Regen und wir könnten ihn dringend gebrauchen. Hier hat es schon seit Wochen so gut wie gar nichts geregnet und wir sind jeden Tag am Gießkannen schleppen. Kannst du mir nicht mal ein paar Liter runterschicken ? :-)
LG Lis

gintoino said...

I could use some of that rain here :-(. We keep on having temperatures around 40ºC and not a cloud in the horizon

Anonymous said...

Nou je maakt er wat leuks van, die regendagen!
Weet je ik vind ze niks erg, ze horen bij een Nederlandse zomer. Zoals afgelopen juni alleen maar zon, gaat me ook vervelen. Niet dat ik het niet fijn vind dat het zonnetje in de loop van de week weer komt :-)

Anonymous said...

Your pesto and tomatoes looks so good! I have always made pesto, but never fixed it with tomatoes as you did. Thank you so much for the idea!

Hopefully the rain will clear away soon and you'll have warm, sunny days so you can garden.

Tracy said...

It's been raining here in Norway too that last day...though the sun has arrived back at last this afternoon! Good food is essential to "surviving" a string of rainy days, isn't it? Your tomatoe dish looks delicous! Hope the rain & clouds are chased away soon...Shall I send you our scrap of sun? Happy week ((HUGS))

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Yolanda we need some of your rain here. It keeps threatening but that is about all.

The lavender wreath is pretty and I am sure smells good. Do you make lavender wands? They make such nice gifts.

garden girl said...

I see you're making the most of your rainy day Yolanda! Your pesto and tomatoes look so yummy.

I love the lavender wreath. I can almost smell it from here! And your lovely little bouquets look like sunshine itself.

I hope the rain goes away soon and the sun comes out and warms up your temps and lets your soil dry up so you can continue your project. In the meantime it's good to see you're making the best of things!

Anonymous said...

Thank you SO much for sharing your rain! I live in a desert environment, which I hate, so a rainy day is like a rich dessert that you just want to savor.
And I love pesto too so thanks for the great idea with tomatos...mmmmm...I can almost taste it!

Anonymous said...

Your pictures look nice in spite of all the rain, especially the sliced tomatoes - mhhhm! My youngest son is staying in Amsterdam this week. I hope, he will get a litle bit of sunshine.

marleen said...

Toch een vrolijk en smakelijk log!
Toepasselijk muziekje ook en die klei ...ja één blubberbende, maar het schijnt straks weer hard beton te worden.....zeggen ze..;-))

Entangled said...

I'll take a bit of your rain, if you can spare any.

I'd love to make that tomato salad, but my spouse doesn't like pesto. Sometimes I don't understand him at all...

Cheryl said...

Hi Yolanda....I have just visited Ladyluz and she is wilting....I visit you and you are drowning....
In Kent the weather (I hate to say) it a beautiful 75 degrees with a nice cool breeze.... and I am just about to have supper outside with a nice glass of wine....

Your tomato and basil dish looked scrummy.......

Poor little bird....he did not look happy....I am sending sun over right this minute, it will be with you tomorrow.....

Carol Michel said...

Looks like you have several people who would gladly take some of your rain. If only you could bottle it up and give it away!

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Anonymous said...

Your cut flowers are sweet and your pesto looks tasty. But I sense that what you're really hungry for are some sunny, warm days. How I wish we could trade weather for a few weeks, YE. You'd have your fill of sunny, hot, and dry in no time.

Jeanne said...

Blessings and much love
Your journal is lovely

healingmagichands said...

Mmm. We have tomatoes and basil right now. Perhaps we shall indulge in the same sort of salad over here. But first, a Thai version with roasted poblanos and cucumber is on the schedule.

When I make pesto, I have found that if I freeze it in ice cube trays and then store it in the freezer in those cubes, we can have it available even in the dead of winter, and in manageable quantities rather than a "bucket" like it comes in from the store.

Frances, said...

Hi YE, thanks for the pesto recipe and idea with the tomatoes. How are you growing tomatoes with that weather, in your greenhouse?

Libbys Blog said...

Apparently we should be having a week of warmer weather!! (we hope) I'm getting fed up of rain! The ideal world would be sunny all day, rain all night!!!

Anonymous said...

I hope that today was a lot better! xx

Aiyana said...

The pesto on the tomatoes looks delish! Also, I love those glass birds. I remember them from a previous post months ago. I've looked for them ever since.
aiyana

Jane O' said...

We're having rain too, but not quite that much. It has been a wet summer and mosquitoes are thick.

You reminded me to pick some flowers. Sometimes I get so involved in the garden that I forget to bring some indoors.

Anonymous said...

So that's how you have such gorgeous things growing in your garden - rain :-) Lovely bouquet, Yolanda.

Rusty in Miami said...

I feel your pain, we been having rain everyday for the last two weeks. That is typical summer weather for us

Naturegirl said...

Yolanda we are having much the same weather here! I have so much bog in my garden and my plants show signs of too much water!
I love gardening in the rain but we've been having too many grey sunless days this summer..sigh.
It is raining while I type..I have the window open as I like the sound of falling rain interupted with growls of thunder!
Yes (((rain go away))) little Yolanda wants to play in her garden of Bliss!

Karin said...

Is it still raining? It's hot weather here at the moment and soon I have to start watering again. :) The tomatoes and pesto look yummy and the flowers too. Have a nice week!

Kram Karin

Ewa said...

it rains here a lot too :)
I love your levender wreth - I will make similar I think :)
E.

Anonymous said...

Pesto with tomatoes is a different idea,I liked it very much.

Ruth Welter said...

Yolanda...let me say first how simply gorgeous your new border from the below post is...it is just a dream, I love it, great job!!! As soon as I saw it, my eye was drawn immediately down to that post...so so lovely.

It is raining here today too and let me tell you, we really need it. I don't mind because it gives me a break from the chore of watering...I like it when nature does the work for me. Take care, enjoy the beauty of your garden.

LadyLuz said...

Hi Yolanda. I know what you mean about not being able to work in a quagmire: it's the same here in October when the first rains come - roll on, please.

Loved the ELO clip. They came here last year and we staggered down to see them for an 11 p.m. start in the football stadium. They were as good as ever.

Anonymous said...

well , here we have 45 degrees. how about that?

planning my fiance

Anonymous said...

Inmiddels is het weer aardig opgedroogd, maarrr er komt weer een verse lading aan!
Zo langzaam aan verandert de tuin in een oerwoud en ik laat het maar zo, eigenlijk wel eens lekker ;-)

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

Now there you go! If you can't dig in the mucky clay, then stay inside and do rainy day activities involving pesto, lavender, and nosegays! I wish you could send some of that rain our way. It would help clear the air of all the wildfire smoke. Oh well... I can dream...

Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage

Kylee Baumle said...

We REALLY could use some of that rain you've been getting! I told myself I wasn't going to water things this summer as much as I did last summer when we had a drought, but I've had to relent and do some.

Your bouquets are lovely, as usual!

By the way, I really DO have an Uncle Bob. LOLOL.

Greg said...

Last week we had some pretty soppy weather--my condolences to you! I hope you get some sunny days so you can get back out to the border!

Meanwhile, what is that FANTASTIC blue flower in your header photo? I think I need one.

: )

Surya said...

I have sunny days at my garden. The sun give what my plants need.

Green thumb said...

Thanks for that little bit of multimedia there. It was decidely for me, as i suffer in humidity and considerable heat.
15C! that seems to be a joke for a peak summer; here in india nature is hell bent on giving us an open Steam Bath 24x7.
P.S- There is probably a problem on your link to my blog, it opens to indiagarden.blogspot.com, which is different from my URL which is www.indigarden.blogspot.com

Katarina said...

Rain - sounds very nice to me! It's too hot here in Sweden...we could do with some rain!
/Katarina

Gail said...

I have wondered myself how rainier climates have such beautiful gardens! But you get enough sun...I have seen your roses! The pesto looks delicious with the tomatoes.....off to dinner!

gail