Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag!

In the garden stands a lovely walnut tree. It's great all year round. In Spring it provides some shelter. In Summertime it gives us shade and during the Autumn, Winter and early Spring it's a 4 star restaurant for all the birds in the neighbourhood.

It's great fun to watch the birds feeding from early morning till dusk. I use my binoculars to see them up close and personal. The cats love it too, it's a kinda daytime TV for them of which they never tire.

Birds are good friends to have if you are a gardener. Many birds eat lots of insects that are harmful to your plants such as aphids, slugs and snails. By feeding the birds you lure them into your garden and hopefully they will make a habit of popping in regularly to see what's on the menu. Today's special : juicy slugs served with a side order of aphids. By getting rid of many insects they help keep the pests under control in a very eco friendly way.

And there are many kinds of birds that come to feed. There's that lovely couple of turtle doves, Sven the cheeky robin, sparrows, jays, blue tits, blackbirds, finches and many, many more.

One day I found this rather strange bird eating bread crumbs from a bowl in my garden and I caught it on camera. I have no idea what kind it is, do you? It's very pretty though with all those stripes and dots, so I'll hope it will come again..


A garden needs time, the gardener patience.
Rose-Marie Gerritsen, Onze eigen tuin. Spring 2005

We're Nuts!

Walnuts in fact! Last year we had a bumper crop of walnuts. Three big baskets full, which was trice the amount we usually harvest from just the one tree.

Last September and October the walnut tree was so full of nuts that it's branches almost touched the ground and I was worried that some branches would break under their heavy load.

We harvested nuts from October till November and were amazed how many there were.

We cracked walnuts until they came out of our ears. Made a couple of bottles of Italian walnut liqueur, baked walnut pie and walnut cake, and other walnut whatsits until we were heartily sick of them.

We also gave lots and lots of them away to friends and family but now we still have two humongous baskets full of walnuts left. What on earth shall we do with them? Any ideas? I'd really like to know because all those nuts are driving me, well, nuts!

Walnuts are good for you, very good in fact. They reduce LDL cholesterol and improve vascular health. So adding walnuts to your diet can improve cardiovascular health over and above the improvement that would be predicted from cholesterol-lowering alone. And not only that, they taste good too! So, want some nuts?

I had a little nut tree,
Nothing it would bear
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear;
The King of Spain's daughter
Came to visit me,
And all for the sake
Of my little nut tree.
nursery rhymes

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Snoozing in front of the wood burner, dreaming of Spring.
















Or should we turn on the telly? Where's the remote?



















Oh never mind, let's snuggle up and snooze the afternoon away.






Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
P.B. Shelley

Some Dutch "Harbingers of Trends"

On Garden Rant today (Welcome, Dallas Readers by Susan Harris) there's a link to an excellent article by Mariana Greene (great surname for a gardener BTW) about Amy Stewarts book Flower Confidential. In this article Mariana Greene writes: The Dutch cash-an-carry bouquets, to those in the know, are harbingers of trends in the American floral trade some months hence; to wit: (here she quotes from Amy's book) "monochrome blends of dark red gerberas, fuzzy burgundy cockscomb, wine coloured foliage and, tucked around the edges, wild blackberries still ripening on the vine in shades of green, red and blackest purple", she (Amy) writes.

"Who puts blackberries in a bouquet ....? The Dutch do, and that means that soon the rest of us will, too."

Well this morning I went shopping and I couldn't find the dark red gerberas and blackberries thingy but I did find these ones. I hope you will enjoy them.

The first picture shows a bouquet of orange flowers with all kinds of leaves and berries and even the odd twig or two. The second shows some flower arrangements, the third a bouquet of mixed flowers in various shades of pink. The 4th photo is of a bouquets with gerberas and a few very big and glossy leaves. Note that the leaves are folded origami style. The 5th photo shows a display of the famous Dutch cash-and-carry bouquets. Remember, you saw them here first. ;-)

Before I forget, the Dutch not only put blackberries in their bouquets but also twigs, all kinds of leaves, raffia, grasses (can we spell Piet Oudolf?) and many other weird and wonderful things.

I have always noticed that the more a man loves his garden, the more he delights in constantly changing the arrangements, which were, perhaps, good for a time, but which, as time goes on, must give way to others.
Canon Henry Ellacombe, In a Gloucestershire Garden, 1896

In Bloom Today Inside and Out

Flowering outside:
Hellebores orientalis x hybrid deep purple
Hellebores orientalis x hybrid white with pink freckles
Crocuses in yellow, white and purple
Winter Jasmin, yellow flowers
Bergenia, pink
Snowdrops
Winter violets, purple
Daffodils, yellow
Winter aconites, yellow
Rosemary, blue

Inside:
2 pots of Crocuses, purple
3 pots of Grape hyacinths
4 Primroses, pink, yellow and white
3 Hyacinths, pink
1 pot of Daffodils, yellow
5 Orchids, in white, pink, deep pink and purple
2 Jasminum officinale, white with a lovely scent
1 little orange tree (great scent)
2 African violets (Saintpaulia) (1 pink and white, 1 blue and white)
1 Camelia , deep pink
1 Begonia, red
2 botanical Cyclamen, 1 white, 1 pink
1 Zygocactus truncatus, pink
1 Spathiphyllum, white
1 bouquet of tulips and anemones

Making this list of all the things that are flowering now, has cheered me up tremendously. I hadn't realised how much flowers there are all around me already this early in the year. Thanks Carol of May Dreams Gardens, great idea!

Most gardening fashions start with people who do far too little gardening and far too much sitting in offices and thinking about it. Stefan Buczacki

Flower Rescue

I don't know whether I'm the only one who's batty enough to do this, but I go out and rescue flowers from wilting before their time. I rescue them from my garden where they've been damaged by the rain, the wind or both.

I rescue them when I've bought a bunch of flowers and there's a flower or two that has a stem badly damaged, usually very close to the flower head. Then I just whip out my trusty pair of very sharp scissors and boldly go on my rescue mission that I always choose to accept.

As a result I have mini bouquets dotted all over my house. A case in point is my bathroom window here. As you can see there's a very tiny glass bottle filled with 1 crocus, 1 anemone and 2 grape hyacinths.

Silly? Maybe, but this lover of flowers just can't stand to see them gasping for water and not do a thing. ThunderYo are go! (cue Thunderbirds music)

Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade:
Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.
Alexander Pope, Pastorals, 'Summer'

Be My Valentine

Love all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
John Donne


Aren't they sweet, my lovely Russian Blue Delia (on the left) and my youngest Ruskie Merlijn. He's so protective of her, isn't it adorable?

And those little turtle-doves, sitting so close together in the walnut tree. Well, it's Valentine's day so what did you expect?

It's raining today and it's rather grey and dull again. I long for spring, for all the colours it brings, the freshness of it, the new life in the garden.

After month after month after month of dull grey skies and lots of rain, we could do with some cheering up. I'm so glad I've planted lots of bulbs last autumn as they cheer me up immensely.

The snowdrops are doing fine and so are several other early flowering bulbs such as crocuses and winter aconites. To my surprise I found a few daffodils in flower as well. They are very early this year. Last year they were very late as winter showed up rather unexpectedly during March and April. In the end we had the daffodils, crocuses and tulips in flower at the same time. Very weird.

Februari is een herrieschopper.
Hij mist de kalmte van de grote winter
en draagt de prikkelingen
en ergernissen van de
in aantocht zijnde lente al in zich mee.

My translation:
February is a troublemaker.
It lacks the calm of great winter
and already brings the stimuli
and annoyances of the coming spring.
Vincenzo Cardarelli "Februari"