Tulip time in the garden

This post is actually a week late, but I so wanted to show you the sweet bunches of pastel coloured spring flowers last time, that I thought this one could wait. I hoped the tulips would still be in bloom today, but when I arrived at the allotment at the end of the afternoon, I saw the last petals fall to the ground... Too bad! So my title tulip time in the garden is really no longer appropriate, but I kept it anyway, as I am still showing you the flowers!

At this time of year, it's difficult to keep up with what's going on in the garden. It all goes so fast. Flowers come and go, and so are the weeds. If it hadn't been for the help of my daughters and sweet friends, my little piece of paradise wouldn't look the way it does now.

As soon as the water supply was on, my friend Wilma (thank you so very much xox) helped me clean the garden house and outdoor kitchen. Which is a horrendous task. Your always covered in dirt when finished, and you never know what you may encounter while cleaning. Fortunately no mice, or worse, rats, this year, only spiders. Lots of them! We did a good job though. Hopefully I can show you some photo's of our reinstalled and spotlessly clean outdoor kitchen next week.

Thank you too for your sweet comments on my blog. It's always a joy to read them and to now what you have been up to in your garden.

Wishing you a happy week!

Love,

Madelief x

A selection of the tulips on my blog are: Menton, Apricot beauty, Purple Prince, Flaming Flag.

Spring bunches

What a marvellous weekend we have had!  It's only May, but it feels like summer. It was on the news yesterday that temperatures in The Netherlands were the highest in Europe. I can't remember having ever experienced this before. 

The windows of our home are wide open, the summer dresses are out of the attic closet and the girls are already talking of how they miss a swimming pool at the allotment. A discussion that has been going on ever since we have the garden, which is seven years. The two youngest are twenty-four and twenty-two now, but they are adamant about their pool. I don't want a big plastic pool in my allotment garden, but on hot days, like we had this weekend, I wouldn't mind splashing around in one either. My youngest told me today, she is going to buy a baby splashing pool, so that at least we can have cool feet. Sounds perfect to me. So, when you next see it in one of my photo's, this doesn't mean we have an addition to the family!

The garden is a sea of pastel coloured flowers, and so is my home. I have been picking bunch after bunch. The sweet smell of forest hyacinths and bluebells fills the rooms.

In the greenhouse gherkins, cucumbers, watermelon, fennel, beetroot and several varieties of tomatoes were planted. My middle daughter has taken over the care of the vegetables and fruit. A task she takes quite seriously, and which saves me a lot of time. The greenhouse is her territory.  Fortunately she left me some space to grow cut flowers from seed. The first seedlings (Zinna Purple Prince and Zinnia Dream & tall Scabiosa) are already in the raised beds. Many more will follow.

Do you start seeds in your greenhouse or outdoors? What is your experience?

A Happy week ahead!

Love,

Madelief x

Walking through a carpet of bluebells

Ever since I saw Howards End, the Merchant/Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forsters novel about class relations at the turn of 20th century England, I fell in love with the bluebell woods, in which one of the scenes takes place. Years later, when watching Bright Star, a romantic, wistful film by Jane Campion, about the English poet, John Keats, I fell in love with the bluebells all over again. 

When my two youngest daughters and I decided to add another memory to life, and go to England for a week, I couldn't believe my luck when I realised that at the time of our visit, the bluebells would be in bloom. Even more so when, upon arrival, our temporary home for the week had it's own bluebell wood.

I walked through the spring carpet of  bluebells at dawn, with the soft morning light shining through the leaves. After dinner I put on my hiking boots once more, to see the sun sinking in the lake and darkness fall over the bluebells. It felt like a dream, a walk through an enchanted forest. I now understand why some people call them Fairy flowers. I don't think it is necessary to say that I, that we, loved them. I hope the photo's speak for themselves.

If you have the opportunity to go for a bluebell walk, please do. It's a magical experience.

Have a lovely week ahead!

Madelief x

Our photo's were taken in the woods near Rolvenden, at the Sissinghurst estate, at Hole Park Gardens and near Great Dixter.

The drawings were taken from the book The Country Dairy of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden.