30 April

It is 12:30, we are still watching TV.

So many wonderful moments, emotional ones also.

A life sacrificed to the nation, I am very impressed.

Orange roses  in a Delft blue vase on our breakfast table
 

Painting at the Exhibition 'Beeld van Beatrix', her morning dress today was purple

   

Traditional delicious cakes from the local bakery



My grandmother's commemorative mug on Queen Wilhelmina's anniversary  in my work room



Jugendstil motiv

 

The new generation! 

The floral arrangements are gorgeous, sorry for my blurry tv picture. 

Royal High Tea and 'Out of office'

Picture of Palace 'Het Loo' (from internet)

What fun it is to splash out on your birthday in a Royal environment!

The other day I invited a few people to visit the fabulous exhibition

'Beeld van Beatrix'

('Picture of Beatrix')

at the Palace 'Het Loo' at Apeldoorn

and to celebrate my birthday with a Royal High Tea afterwards.

We could not finish it all, it was delicious! Mind you, this picture is at the beginning of the Tea and more brought on to our table as time went on.

The visitors to the exhibition were invited to vote for the best creation. Incredibly difficult for me to choose. Forever the red white and blue (by Carla Rodenburg) at the bottom row is my favorite painting of the Queen, but the one to the left of it, made of pieces of thrift wood, and 3 dimensional, scores also very high with me. Click on the picture to have a closer look and to see how creative this is.

Every picture was so inspiring that it made me start on a painting of the Queen once back at home. I used a photograph of her last address to Parliament in September 2012, wearing a gorgeous flattering golden feather hat. The composition with the roses is so extraordinary. Once finished it will appear on here!

Beautiful floral arrangements and mirror walls reflecting the features of the Ball Room where we had High Tea. The Ball Room is a restaurant in the wing along the lawn in the top picture. A lovely secluded place and the sun shining happily that day!

Goodies on display in the Ball Room, for sale in the Museum Gift Shop. Temptations, temptations! I came home with a book on portrait paintings of Princess Juliana, a bottle of wine with a picture of the winning art creation 'Diplomacy'  and postcards. The picture of Queen Beatrix by Ellen Meuwese was sold out, alas. It is a lovely picture that in just a few paint brushes sketches her personality and  the way we know her.
We will toast to the Queen tomorrow with champagne and wil have an orange dinner, with the wine with the prize winning picture on it. A toast to the new King, of course, wishing him strength and wisdom to fulfill this extremely difficult job.
Needless to say we will be glued to the television, as we will not be going amongst the huge crowds, and not wanting to miss anything of the ceremony in Amsterdam. There are such interesting programs on television on historic moments we never heard or seen before.

Today is Queen's Beatrix last day 'in office'. Would she, like any modern being these days, fill in an 'out of office' in her computer? It is just a silly brain wave of mine.
Visiting the exhibition 'Beeld van Beatrix' (Picture of Beatrix) is impressive. The exhibition lingered on my mind until the next day, it made me really stand still and think about her life, devoted to what fate chose her for. We will miss her. I admire her greatly, as you have read on occasions in my previous posts.

A great big Thank You to Queen Beatrix and wishing her a healthy and happy time for the future! And of course a wonderful time 'out of office'!

This painting symbolizes to me the beginning of her retirement. Queen Beatrix is just a ribbon away from it: out of office, no more musts, only mays.

www.koninklijkhuis.nl

Yellow

Why is it that people do not like yellow in their garden and resist it so strongly?
There are many yellows in this garden. Every season holds its own tones of soft yellow in the spring  to vivid and bright yellow of Rudbeckia for instance in the late summer.

The Mahogany is dropping its flowers now, beautiful inkblue berries appearing in the summer. It is a spectacular plant, which gives a lot of body to where one plants it.

The greenish yellow of Alchemilla mollis, holding raindrops in its leaves in the summer, is apart from decorative in the garden so nice to mix in bouquets. The yellow rose Peau Douce has splendid huge flowers and is a true eye catcher at the side of our house. The row of Laburnum trees form a spectacular sight, and so do the yellow irisis in the pond. Yellow everywhere!
I just love all the yellows, both in flowers, herbs and weeds, but also in the leaves of many a shrub.
Last year I had a fight though with a yellow spring florishing shrub. A Kerria had started to wonder all over the place. Endless deep wandering roots were removed. I decided to deminish the Kerria complety. It is a strong plant and yes, more or less expected I discovered this week a tiny little twig peeping up. It will have to go, no chance of crawling further. The leaves of Kerria are fresh and delicate, also in a bouquet, but as a shrub I find the orange yellow a little too much.
On Friday it was a wonderful day for gardening - surprises appeared everywhere on removing the winter debris. A lot of competition going on, fox gloves have taken up a lot of space! Which plant will win?

A Dandelion seeded itself in the yellow Hosta last summer- I left it for a while as it was quite a sight in the middle of the big flower pot, it had a long stem and very long leaves because of the competition with the Hosta I guess?

No, I could not live without the radiance of it, sunshine yellow, or any yellow in my garden.

Grey skies, twelve hours daylight, and snow again

Gulls are swarming by, by the window, fighting over the old bread that was thrown out for the birds this morning at the kitchen door. Inside the dog jumps up and barks because he finds they are intruding his peace and quiet, and his territory. It is a beautiful sight - the gulls and the dog.

 

Dogs days of winter, the snow has returned. Northeasternly wind, which makes it bitterly cold. Time for indoor activities. For the very first time in my life I made pea soup this morning. The kitchen is in a mess. My food processor gave up. Although I thought I was making 2 litres of soup, I had to move it to a pan for 5 litres of soup. Once it was all done it went back to a pan for 3 litres, pushing it through a seive and the left overs in a small magimix. Splashes of soup and kitchen utensils all over the place. It will not be soon that I will do this again, how tidious. It is easier to buy it ready made, although I must admit: it tastes good!

 

Twigs I gathered along my riverwalk last week are waiting on the g,arden table, together with a huge bunch of what came off the top of one of the trees, to be made up into an Easter arrangement, similar to the one I saw at the floral shop in 's Hertogenbosch the other day.

 

I guess this afternoon. after my walk in the snow with the dog. I shall have a go at my knitting: a spring jacket that needs to be finished. Difficult because I shall have a go at circular needles which I have never learnt how to use. Any teacher out there to help me out?

 

 

 

 

The heart shaped oil lamp was a gift last year from my creative neighbour girl friends. It waits for better times and outdoor life in the garden. There is the promiss of spring though, the thick buds of the purple rhododendron, the colour of so many early spring flowers. 

  

 

  

The elm trees have lost there twigs on Monday, they look like dancers, like candalabers in a way, an Indian god with so many arms. Very forceful trees, in the summer they will be one huge 'hedge on legs' and form a very secluded garden.

On Monday we could sit out and have coffee in the sun. Well, not today - off to my knitting and a bit of home made pea soup. Don't you think it looks more like porridge?





 

On posting this I realized there is a very old cookbook around the house, possibly my greatgrandmother's? A hundred years old definitely, with very old Dutch spelling, falling apart and no front or back cover to it, well used. The Dutch alone is amusing as such, but so is the recipe. When I have a moment I shall make a less foggy picture and will give a translation. So, do come back!

 

Sunshiny Sunday

Today's surprises during a walk along the river and in the garden.

 

Such a huge difference with last Sunday!

 

I worked hard in the garden today, tomorrow our elm trees will be trimmed. The bird which built a nest in the top of one of them will not be happy ...  

The garden will turn into one huge pile of twigs, the noise of the shredder will be outrageous.

The lawn is full with crocusses and snowdrops, the longer I look the more I see. Maybe in the morning I shall put flower pots over some groups of them? It will be such a pity if they get trodden on. A good lesson, next year I must have this work done earlier, or in autumn.

My body aches of all the bending and stretching, the birds loved me for removing leaves and finding plenty to eat. Ladybirds still hiding and appearing here and there. It is not time to clean up everything yet but in autumn I let the garden go to sleep and leave it as it is. This is just a 'rough' beginning of my gardening.
The biggest surprise was the blooming chaenomeles along the river, the trees above reflecting in the water. Later on the sun lit up the very first flowers of the helleborus, which were given as little seedlings from my neigbour. It took them two years to get into flower.

 

 

With love, from Amsterdam

 

 

Delicious chocolates from van Soest Chocolatier in the Utrechtsestraat, Amsterdam.
The white chocolate rose is stuck in dark chocolates at the bottom. The box with hearts and roses was screaming from the window 'take me away'! What a lovely gift box!

 

 

 

Delicacies made byPatisserie Kuyt, Utrechtsestraat, Amsterdam.

You really have to zoom in on the heart shaped mouthwatering centerpiece surrounded by macarons! 

 

 

 Vintage Valentine Card and booklet filled with Valentine poems,

sent to my family in 1960 by LeeAnn who spent time with us on an exchange program of the American Field Service. I think it was the first time I was introduced to the phenomenon 'Valentine'. At the time I was a teenager and found it all so fascinating.

The lace is a bit torn, a little treasure and held on to!

 

Happy Valentine! 

 

 

Heart shaped leaves of our willow trees, I so love their shape, big size and colour.

This picture I use as my ID on this blog.

 

Mary, of the blog The Little Red House has a theme up for this week on 'Love'.

I am joining her with this post.

 

 



King Winter returned

 

The other day I thouht King Winter had departed, his farewell tears dropping into the pond. But he returned and this is what our garden looked like yesterday. During the night it looked so wonderful I almost got out to take pictures, there is so much fascination in the fact the whole world is white all of a sudden. The pictures are taken early in the morning and around noon. The sky turned from grey to radiant blue, gulls and geese filling the sky. In the garden the small birds find plenty to eat underneath the hedges and the dead leaves.

Don't you think our fire place is a wonderful piece of craftmanship? It is more than one meter high and made of wrought iron.

 

 

This is what I saw on the 5th, last week's surprise, the first crocusses and beautiful magnolia buds. It really makes your heart jump when you discover them.

 

Icicles like îles flottantes

The moment our waterways get frozen over something happens to the Dutch: we simply have to skate. It is like a bug, a virus, a madness – no remedy against it: just get your skates from the attic, the cellar or garage and go. We indulge in endlessly repeated stories on heroic skating tours on television and eagerly follow all the news on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is it safe to skate.

Our skating reputation caused one of my English superiors when I worked abroad to say: ‘Send Miss R in on her skates, please’. I hear him say this today, it is funny how the mind works and recalls moments like yesterday.

The river nearby is partly frozen, but is very dangerous to skate on. The water level keeps changing because of the continuous water works. There have been rare times though that the period of frost was so severe that we could skate from village to village. My old ice dancing skates were not suitable for tour skating on the river and the lakes nearby. A friend lent me a pair of old fashioned wooden skates, saying  they had just been seen to and sharpened. The disappointment of not being able to move one inch and not getting anywhere made me literally cry and so mad. It was terrible, and terrible to see how everyone was enjoying themselves. An outsider at once of all the ice fun. No compassion from anyone, busy as they were with their own skating. How stupid can you be not to be prepared for upcoming skating?! My friend told me later he discovered the skates had been sharpened the wrong way round and no wonder I was not getting anywhere.

Someone asked me then ‘Which village is this?!’, apparently in ice heaven and totally absorbed by the ice not knowing where he was going. I guess this ice madness is a bond with nature all around us, it is in our genes. The moment you can stand up and walk  like a kid you are put on skates.

Have a look at Jeroen Bosch's messenger in the side bar: on skates!

No more skating for me, I have reached the age that ulnar and hip fractures should not be sustained and being avoided. But I squint with envy when I see it all around me. Many memories on the skating rink opposite my parents house pop up like submarines, the whole family had such wonderful times on it. It was and still is a natural skating rink being maintained on a part of the wastelands of the river Rhine. There was always the excitement, first of the moment they would open up the locks and let in the wastewater of the Rhine. Then hoping and praying the temperature would go down and waiting to see the officials testing the ice.  Once the music came across and the gates were being opened we all became ‘high’ on our ice fever.

Today, as the sun was setting like a red balloon, I walked along the river with our puppy. The ice had soft shades of pink, blue and grey. Snow everywhere, also on the river. In the open parts water birds herding together, the sight and the sound of the wings of six swans taking off from the water was magnificent. I tried to take a picture of a little red robin that came close, but the puppy started to chase him. Clever guy, this red robin, he played hide and seek, not afraid or intimidated at all.

At one particular place along the river my eyes caught the sight of these icicles, like îles flottantes. The water level had gone down, but the little frozen round icicles remained attached to the reed, just on top of the water level. The pictures do not justice to what it looked like. A couple saw me taking pictures; together we stopped a while and were stunned by its phenomenon and beauty.

Click on the pictures and enjoy a better view, A fragment of one of the pictures almost looks like a Japanese painting. Jan Creemer has opened an exhibition just now on his sea paintings; maybe I should make ice paintings? Not that I can compete ...

 

 

 

Roses in the winter

King Winter has arrived!
Our roses never seem to give up florishinig, but in the end they have to bend for the icy cold.

This Pemberton rose is one of them,  I think it is 'Cornelia'. Two other 'sisters' in the border, so delicate, 'Felicia' and 'Penelope'.

 

 

Rosa 'Peau Douce' is a large strong yellow rose. It was the last one of the season and ended up in a floral setting on the garden table, now covered with snow. The frost topping is so magnificant.

 

 

 

My indoor activities are clearing out shelves, cupboards, etc. It is like a ritual, wanting to start a new uncluttered year. But why is it that I cannot part with the teacups with rose prints on them? Maybe I should organize a give away on here. If I am courageous enough to part with them you will read it!

 

 

 



 

 



Resolutions and wishful thinking

 

The abundant silk flower arrangements in huge silver buckets in the restaurant where we dined out on Boxing Day somehow set off my colour scheme for the coming days. Maybe it was because of the tulips and the blossoms? Wishing winter would not last long and longing for spring? Once the last brown leaves had fallen from the trees it became so dark. The festive lights all around made up for it, but I looked forward to Christmas and the light that it brings, the daylight increasing rapidly as from then.

 

The Rijksmuseum published a nice post on their Facebook page: 'did you stuff yourself over Christmas (and what with)'. The Rijksmuseum's website is a feast as such. I found the post highly amusing, creative, but confronting also. You can see  the picture by clicking on 'post'. Personally I do not like the verb 'stuffing yourself', although I have been told by native English speakers it is not a negative word. With all these festive moments, and a chef doing his utmost to offer us a wonderful dinner, you go home with a sigh: tomorrow I shall have to diet. Resolution number 1 (and for many others I believe on the top list) for the New Year. A waist as on show in the picture below will be out of the question, I am afraid, I am not 20 anymore.

 

 

This dress was designed by Jan Taminiau (Dutch designer) especially for the exhibition in the Centraal Museum in Urecht, Blue Jeans.
A highly interesting exhibition, well set up, informative, surprising, creative, what other superlatives can I give to it?! If around Utrecht do go and be surprised.

How about this Christmas tree in the Museum Restaurant, inspired by the exhibition and made up of blue jeans clothing, decorations peeping out of pockets and out of rolled up sleeves?!

How can you keep your mind on a diet when you pass a cheese shop like this on your way to the Museum?The nearby café offered a cheese plate with goodies from this shop, so I kept it at that and resisted going into the shop. I will be back though, for both the Museum and the wonderful delicatessenshops in the Twijnstraat. The Centraal Museum is a fascinating one, offering both medieval and contemporary art with always surprising and inviting exhibitions.

 

 

The floral shop nearby had done away with most Christmas attributes, bulbs in all shapes and sizes on show. Helleborus also with beautiful blooms. Difficult to resist of course. The small daffodils with their trumpets are such sunny messengers of Spring. In a pink pot they brightened our breakfast table this morning.

 

The pictures below are taken around here: a bucket with left over Christmas green, the first blooming hyacinth which has to be potted up in an arrangement for indoors. Snow poppies have been showing their noses since half December in the garden. Silk tulips in a blue and white Regout vase are on display all year around the house, they get moved around though and sometimes mixed with fresh flowers.



  

 

 

It has been so long ago that I was actively blogging that my first discovery today is the new way of adding pictures. A creative challenge! Now finding the time to do this all, maybe resolution number 2, creating time for writing and photography?!

 

Resolution number 3 is to try to work at least one hour a day in the garden, as from today. Mud pools, wind and rain disencouraged me, I chickened out. Now that I have written this down and shared with you I shall have to stick to all those resolutions! No chickening out!

 

I wish you a Creative New Year!