Wildflower meadows

About two weeks ago Fleur, who I know through her blog In de Polder, sent me a text saying that the fields near her house looked absolutely magnificent and that I was very much welcome to come and see. Because of an extra day off work, I was able to say yes straight away. Lucky me!  It's always a joy to spend time with Fleur and she lives in one of the prettiest places  I know.

We cycled along the tow path to a nature reserve nearby called Vlietlanden, where we parked our bicycle at a marina and set off on foot through the fields. I have never seen anything like it. It looked truly spectacular. There were Gillyflowers, wild orchids, nettles, rhinantus, cottongrass and lots of cow parsley and rapeseed. I wish my photo's would do the fields and it's abudant display of wild flowers more justice.

Fleur, thank you once again for a fabulous day!

If you would like to see more photo's of Fleur's home and the surrounding countryside. Please have a look at her Instagram account. It's called indepolder. I did a post on Fleur's home last year as well. If you haven't seen it yet, you may enjoy having a look.


Wishing you a lovely week ahead!

Madelief x

* Does anyone perhaps know how to get your photo's sharp on your blog? Somehow the quality has deteriorated a lot recently.

Jugs of loveliness

Where shall I start?! When I entered my garden after a short holiday in the UK, I was lost for words....
The sheer beauty of it all. I sat down on the grass and gazed in wonder. I could not remember the garden being this far when I left. The lilacs, lupins, daisies, alliums and colombines all in bloom.......and the colours...breathtakingly beautiful. Perhaps someone with a magic wand did it overnight? I guess not ;-)

Having a garden like this is all about dreaming, planning, planting and maintaining. After six years of hard work the garden looks the way my late husband and I hoped it would look one day. It's wild, there are lots of weeds, but there are masses of flowers .....When I look around me I realise this is only the beginning. The first roses are ready to open and so are the peonies. I believe it's going to be the best spring in my garden so far. Hope it will be a good spring for your garden too!

Have a colourful week!

Love,

Madelief x

Vin'tea'guing in Ely

Hello,

Just came back from four wonderful days in Ely, a small historic town in the south of Cambridgeshire (UK). Ely is well known for it's connection with Oliver Cromwell, who once lived here and for it's famous cathedral with octagonal tower, which you can spot from miles around.

We had a lovely cottage called The coach house, which I can recommend to you. It's full of period features and vintage treasures. It has a lovely garden, where you can sit in, have a cream tea or read a book on a sunny day, like we did.

Our stay in Ely would not have been complete without a visit to Peacock's tearoom, which was recommended by several of you. We liked it so much that we visited twice and ate far too much cake :-).

We spent a long time in the antique centre near the river. Over sixty dealers are housed in an old eighteenth century building, which was used as a malt house once and even as a morgue in the second world war. The variety of antiques on offer is large: military memorabilia, household ware, porcelain, furniture etc.. I found an antique embroidered tablecloth for in my garden and an old Pears print and dressing table set for in my new bathroom. Oh...and a sweet floral teacup. I could not resist that one either :-)

Thank you once again for your kind suggestions of places to visit. Hurray to social media!  Wish we had more time. Four days is much too short to visit this beautiful county.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Love,

Madelief x


* When you have a size 8 or 10 and love vintage dresses and live near Ely, do go to the antique centre to buy the amazing green floral dress on my photo ;-). Unfortunately I did not fit into it, but it's so sweet!