Meanwhile in Sunny Hellevoetsluis...

SUN!
Glorious, happy, wonderful, beautiful sun!

Took Gina for a walk in the meadows this morning, and asked her to pose for me...which she refused. My dog has her moods, I tell you! Still, she enjoyed herself tremendously, she even ran a couple of times. The tiny yellow flowers are called 'speenkruid'  and are the first wild flowers to appear around our parts. They always lift my spirits.

So I took a turn around my garden, and look what I saw:

How do you like my selfie? Viggo always follows me around and watches what I watch. I'm always waiting for him to comment, he is that attentive. 

So what are the plans for today?

Well, I will get on my bike and cycle to the mall, for my daughter wants to go shopping. And being the loving Mum that I am, I will tear myself away from my gardening to do just that.

Have a great Sunday! I'll leave you with a poem I found floating around in cyberspace.

Spring! Oooohhhhhhh yes....it has sprung! Don't you love it?

Hello, are you also feeling sprightly from this sudden Spring burst?
(Before you think I have gone absolutely bonkers, let me remind you I am from The Wetlands. The low lying lands where water is the predominant feature, clouds are omnipresent and sunshine is a gift and a blessing.)

After an entire Winter of feeling like a mole, I now see the sun come up every day from the windows of the Tube, and this morning it didn't immediately hide itself behind a bank of grey, but stayed in view!

And I was so lucky, in that it was still shining when I got home from work, and I even had a little snooze in the garden, on the bench with Viggo on my lap. Bliss!

Afterwards I took a turn in our garden, removed a dog turd or two, admired the pansies and the daffs, and planned a trip to the garden centre for tomorrow.

And have you noticed that people are more friendly when the sun is shining? (Perhaps not when you are in, say, Brazil, but in The Wetlands they definitely are) I exchanged smiles with at least 5 persons within ten minutes, which is quite a lot for my hard-nosed neighbourhood.

The currants are in bloom, the swans are on their nests, all my little garden birds are very active and twittering away. 

And the shrubs are getting tiny leaves (no, not like the photo yet, but I couldn't resist that one, as I think it lovely).

What do YOU do in Springtime? Does it effect you at all? Or are you one of those "Heck, as long as I can watch Netflix I'm happy" type of person?

Perhaps I'm a bit weird, but I actually feel happy when I see my ferns unfurl...And when I spot the bumble bees checking out the potting shed. I saw a huge one this afternoon, and bid it welcome. One of our projects for this year, garden-maintenance-wise, is to build an insect hotel. And my husband wants to build a chicken coop. And a new woodshed. 

Now isn't this interesting? 

:-)

Someone pointed out to me (on FB) that my blog was utterly uninteresting to him. It took me aback for all of 3 seconds (well, at least he took the time to point it out to me) and then I thought long and hard about the bloggers-bug.

Does it really matter if 9 people read this post, or 900? I mean, does it make a difference to me?

The fact that you are reading this right now, is enough. I used to be a diary keeper. Then a reporter. Now I am a blogger. I think it is realistic to say that writing is a sort of compulsion. And even if nobody reads it, I can view it as a kind of super diary, without all the nasty bits. I'll keep the really nasty bits to myself.

Have a super Spring day tomorrow!

Sunday! How to Keep Oneself Occupied When Feeling Poorly.

Good morning, fellow-world-citizens!
It's Sunday morning over here, and gloriously sunny for a change, and-I-am-in-bed. Potjandosie!

(Potjandosie is a swearword. It's not really rude, a little cutesy, and doesn't offend any religion nor is it a terrible illness- as most Dutch swearwords do/are. So add it to your vocabulary. You never know when it may come in handy. When you do need a Dutch swearword capable of stopping all traffic, drop me a line in the comment box below.)

What better day to play the blues? My fingers are not as sore anymore...but stiff. Fifty-five-and-a-half years of age-stiff. Still, when I looked up Daddystovepipe on YouTube (great guy, he's my new best friend) there was a comment of a 70+ man who was attempting the fingerpicking blues for beginners just like myself. If he can, so can I!

What I'd really would like to do though, is go into the garden. But I ventured out onto my balcony for 3 seconds and quickly went back inside. There's the typical Wetlands freezing wind we always experience in Spring. Besides, those 3 seconds made my legs feel like jelly.

Quickly took a photograph for you though, fast as lightning I am. My heather is looking great (Erica), and so are the pansies and campanula.

And how about my primula? Good eh? And the borago is almost in bloom as well. And I've got hosts of snowdrops and golden daffodils. Spring definitely is here!

Well. Back to Daddystovepipe. Have a wonderful Sunday, you!

Happy March 1st!! - A Post for the Sick and Melancholy.

Good morning.
How are you?
I'm still ill and in bed. My head aches, my nose is running, my ears feel like someone has stuffed them with scratchy cotton wool and my throat feels swollen and parched at the same time.
Golly. I manage to bore even myself as well as everyone else...
So. Time for some uplifting and eye-pleasing photographs. I'll credit them as much as possible, but some are anonymous. Sorry if they are yours; they were floating in cyberspace.

(Photo credit Asheesh Sharma)

Frolicking horses always make me smile. (Anonymous)

I actually took this one, years ago. It's Carnival over here this week. Happy Fools!

And I made this. Desserts make me feel better. Hope you agree.

A 'Selfie' (2012) before it became the fashion of the year 2013.

Told ya, desserts, etcetera. Took this in Albufeira in 2012.

Credit Matthijs (?) Anyway, simply looking at my son makes me smile!

Rina is a friend, and takes photos in Kenya at the moment. Lucky her.

Soon!!! (Anonymous)

I love ferns. (Anonymous)

Right. Raindrops on roses, and so on.

I hope it has made you smile as well.

I'll leave you with one more,simply for the fun of it. It's one of those things...No need to make a bath resemble a bouquet of flowers, but some people do, because it makes them happy. Hurray for them!

I've been listening to the birds all day - Spring is on its way!

Hi there!
Told you I am ill, didn't I? I've been in bed all day, feeling really shitty, and too headachy to read or do anything. So I've been listening to the birds.

We have many around the house and around the large pond in the park behind our house. They are so active at the moment that I feel certain that they are heralding Spring. 

The small garden birds are twittering and tweeting, and already exploring the bird houses we have in our trees. And the waterfowl are very noisy, and having lots of fights about territory.

I once had a neighbour a couple of houses over who moved back to Rotterdam because she couldn't get used to the  bird noises in the night. She preferred the blaring police sirens and howling drunks...

I adore those bird noises. In Summer we often sit out until deep into the night, listening to the waterfowl, and to the owl next door (the neighbours keep a tame one in their shed), and keeping an ear out for the snuffling and crunching of the hedgehog who visits our garden. And for the frogs in our garden pond, of course. And my son's ears are still keen enough to hear the high pitched screams of the bats flying over.

Grumbling about the time it takes me to travel into Rotterdam to work each day is one of my things, it's true, but I wouldn't want to move back to the city even if they would give me a bag of money to go along with it.

I'm a nature girl. 

How about you? Are you a city dweller?

Right. I'll leave you with a picture. It's in the future, still, but it's on its way. Hurray!

And I wish I could let you hear one of Sarah McQuaid's songs, the one about sitting next to a stream and letting all the worries of life wash away with the sound of the water. But I cannot. Perhaps one day.

Live in the Moment

My darling cat Viggo just told me he wants food and he wants it NOW.

He has a very effective way of communicating this want: he demolishes that which has my attention at that precise moment.

So it may be my newspaper, or my box of tissues, or he bites my Mac, or - in this case - he hurtles pieces of my centre piece all across the table.

Look at him, looking innocent.

I always observe my pets with interest, as they have the ability to totally live in the moment. Mindfulness in motion. Or in immobility, as the case may be.

Take Gina. After a rainy start of the day (she was safe in her basket, no need for walkies, thank you), the sun is now out, and look...she ambles into the garden and searches out the sunniest spot.

I will have to take her walking soon though, otherwise she will demonstrate her wish for a pee in the copse by digging a hole in my flower bed.

Meanwhile, halfway through my spring break: I am still winding down from work. 

I read, I attempt to get a blues lick into my fingers (don't say anything, thanks. Taking up the guitar at age 55 is a challenge, to put it mildly), I look at the flowers, I look at the pile of washing and quickly look away, I idly wonder if my son will be satisfied with just potatoes for dinner (no!)....and the day just passes.

And it is bliss.

Are you ready for Spring? You bet I am!

The rain was beating against the windows again this afternoon when I left school, and when I came outside on the harbour cay my umbrella nearly spiraled into the water. So I put it away again and put up my hood, knowing it makes my hair (never much of it at the best of times) as flat as a bathing cap.

I cannot wait for Spring to arrive! We've had no Winter to speak of; hardly any frost, no snow at all and plenty of storm and rain to make up for it. So it feels like one long perpetual Autumn...

Still, the first courageous snowdrops have appeared in our garden, and the aconites are showing their cheerful little yellow heads as well. 

Meanwhile the news sites I watch show large parts of the UK under water. I really feel for those people over there, as I know what it's like to have to deal with flooding.

So this is for them. Let's hope they will dry out soon!