What's Your Record?

Mine is a paltry 3 minutes and 7 seconds. It's sad, I know, but that is all I have managed so far. This year I aim to improve my record by a whole minute. That's right, I want to better my personal best with a full sixty seconds.
You know how it is when people come to visit your garden and say stuff like: Oh, what a gorgeous garden you have, you must spent hours just sitting there enjoying the wonderful view.
Yeah, right! Just between you, me and the apple tree over there, do they really think that we gardeners actually sit down in our gardens?
Because frankly, the only ones ever sitting down and relaxing in my garden are the cats,
and Tara.
I really don't have to explain it, do I? You know how it works. You go out into your garden with a nice cuppa tea fully intending to just sit down for a while and simply soak in the view. Ha, like that is ever going to happen!
Your bum has barely touched the seat of the chair or off you go as you've just now spotted a weed that needs to be weeded. And then you see another one and another one and ......... Suddenly, 3 hours later, you return to your chair and find that your tea has gone stone cold. Off you go to brew another cuppa.
There have been times, I confess it, where I deluded myself into thinking that I could actually read a book in my garden. More fool me, because before I even have the chance to open the book I'm struck by a plant in a pot that needs to be watered, pronto! And hang on, that shrub could do with a trim, the roses need deadheading, is that another weed I just spotted and the birdbath needs a refill and, and ....
While we're having this chat you've been admiring all the different seating areas in my garden. It's ironic, isn't it, that there are so many but they are hardly ever used, at least not by me.
Personally, I could happily throttle those ignoramuses that prattle on about my being able to sit down, relax and enjoy the fruits of all the hard work that I've put in to create my own green paradise. Little do they know that having a beautiful garden is frankly not what it's cracked up to be. What is the fun of not being able to put in at least an hour daily to just sit and gloat?
Mine is a cruel fate, I may have a gorgeous garden but it's unsitdownable.

copyright 2009 Y.E.W. Heuzen

The Whistle Weed Walk

It's time for our Whistle Weed Walk, are you coming? You will see some things on our walk that are quintessentially Dutch, which is of the good. Come, Tara is waiting, chomping at the bit so to speak, so let's go. First we'll go to a field nearby where we can play with Tara for a while. Would you like to throw first? Here you are. Tara fetch!
Just look at her go!
It's fun to see her ears flopping about when she is galumphing round the field.
Here she comes again, my turn to throw the Frisbee.

It's such a fine evening for fun and games with an Ickle Puppy, but we must start our walk now before it gets dark. Tara come on, time for walkies!
It's lovely to be out and about in the beautiful Dutch countryside, especially on such a fine and balmy May evening as tonight. Do you hear the meadow lark singing high up in the sky? It's amazing, isn't it, how much sound such a small bird can produce and such lovely music it is too.
Cow Parsley is one of my favourite wild flowers. The flower heads look like they are made out of very delicate Dutch lace. The whole Dutch countryside is covered with it at the mo, such a glorious sight. Here we call it Fluitenkruid which translates roughly into Whistle Weed. Strange name? Not really.
Once upon a time people used to make whistles out of the stems, it's a kind of Pan flute thingy.
Personally I prefer picking big bunches of Fluitenkruid and just bung them in vases and buckets. But to each his/her own.
Tara is fond of Fluitenkruid too. And she is not the only Kooikerdog to admire Fluitenkruid.
Tara's breeder Margo also went for a Whistle Weed Walk with 5 of her doggies recently in a forest close to where she lives.
Simply stunning, wouldn't you say?

Back to our own walk. Take a look at this. It's called a sloot (trench, dyke, ditch) and the Dutch countryside is riddled with them. If there is one thing that's very much Dutch, it's this.
And teeming with wildlife too as you can see.
Unfortunately I can't show you all the fish that's in there as well. On your right there is a small lake and, as you can see, there are some swans there.
Ha, look what they've planted smack in the middle of the Fluitenkruid.
Yup, we're in the Netherlands, alright.
Pollarded willow trees near the waterside, another quintessential Dutch thing. Am I right, Vincent?
Yes, dear Vincent does agree. ;-)
A beautiful thatched shed that's 2 to 3 hundred years old. It's the only one left in my neighbourhood since some maniac burned down 3 of them a couple years ago.It's sad to see such beautiful buildings destroyed willy nilly.
In the distance you can just about make out the church spire in the next village. You can see for miles and miles here as everything is very pancake flat.
The evening is drawing in, Tara is getting tired, high time we headed back.
There's the spire of the Catholic church in my village already, we're getting closer to home.
Breath in deeply that gorgeous lilac parfume, how very Spring-y its scent is.
Such a beautiful May evening, are you glad we took this walk? I know I am.

copyright 2009 Y.E.W. Heuzen
photo of 5 kooikerdogs and the photo of the woods with cow parsley: copyright Margo Kleinjan
photo of whistle: copyright Johan Zandbergen

Very Berry

is what we are at Bliss. We're also berry busy, which explains why I haven't been blogging at all lately.
The Bliss potager is a frightfully berry affair at the mo with ever-bearing strawberries and
woodland strawberries that I've sown myself.
It always amazes me that from a humble packet of seeds can spring such bounty.
Woodland strawberries are my favourite strawberries as they are the strawberry-ist of all strawberries, and they are more or less evergreen too, always a bonus. The fruit may be small but the taste is great!
We also have blueberries this year, a first! I grow them in big pots as the soil (heavy clay) is not acid enough for them.
Another berry that's looking quite promising is the gooseberry; in the potager are 2 varieties, the red one and the green/yellow one.
There are 4 standard gooseberries (you can see some in the berry first pic), 2 red, 2 green and all 4 have branches groaning with the load they are carrying. That crop is going to be turned into a lot of gooseberries pies!
And we have these too, they are called berries in Dutch, but for some bizarre reason they are called currants in the English language. These are the white berries (white currants) although the red ones are more common and I grow them as standards too. That way they don't take up much space and the berries are easier to pick as well.
Another berry growing in the potager is the Japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius). I like the red stems (very prickly), and the very light green leaves. The fruits are not that big but they taste lovely. The wineberry is related to the raspberry and yes,
I have raspberries (Rubus idaeus) too, a whole arch full and they are about to flower as you can see (pic below). Both the wineberry and the raspberry are related to the black berry (Rubus fruticosus), another berry that is grown at Bliss.


In other fruit today:

The apples are coming along nicely as they've finished flowering and are setting fruit.
Recently I bought a small crab apple for the new extension to my potager ( I did mention I've been berry busy, haven't I?),
its flowers are lovely and later in the year it will brighten up autumn and winter with pretty little red fruits.
My pear tree is doing great too; it had lots of blossom,
and now it's setting fruit, and it's going pear shaped.
The grape in my Victorian greenhouse is about to burst into song, er flower soon I'm happy to say.The outside grapes are not there yet, they've just formed their first few leaves.
It is possible that you, gentle reader, do not care a fig for berries and other fruits but I most certainly do.
See?

copyright 2009 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Marx