Happy Cat to you!

Oh dear....no inspiration whatsoever. It happens....

And no story in store either...

The fact of the matter is that I'm pretty zonked out. My back is troubling me, work was hectic, emotional and plain hard work today,  I have a headache and I would rather be in bed. 

So.

So, I have decided it is Cat Day today! Happy Cat to you!!!

Cat is warm. Cat is cuddly. Cat is regal. Cat is inquisitive. Cat is hungry (my cat is always hungry). Cat is imperious. Cat is Master of the Universe.

Got some of my favourite cats for you!

You either love this post, or you have skipped it, in which case I don't have to worry about it, eh?

I'll leave you with a link to happy memory of my youth.

Silly Symphonies - Cats

Honeysuckle - the perfect cover for an ugly wall.

I promised you more posts about gardening - and I'm true to my word. It is no hardship at all, as it is Spring and my garden is a riot of colour and I swear I can hear the plants grow!

This is my Betula, or my ghost birch, and the wild forest Honeysuckle that used to grow into it. Last year my dog Gina destroyed the plant one day, by gnawing through the base. Why? Beats me. But the honeysuckle didn't survive the onslaught.

And this is the honeysuckle which we have planted along the dividing fence which separates our garden from the street. It smells divine! It attracts all kinds of insects.

This is the same plant, when in full bloom. We sit out in the garden until late at night, and smell this plant, whilst listening to the frogs in our pond, and to the hooting of the tame owl our neighbours keep. You would think we are way out into the wild, as opposed to in the middle of suburbia. 

I searched out an old photograph for you, from 1997, when the old pergola was still in place. The honeysuckle, seen from the bedroom window on the first floor, is covering a makeshift little roof, made of an old sheep fence, which gave my then 4 year old son shade to play in  and my daughter used to be in her crib under this natural roof. I remember her looking up at the green cover above her head and waving her chubby little arms at it.

We have another honeysuckle as well, which is pale yellow and smells of lemons. I love it! But for some reason it has never been photographed by me. I will remedy this in the time to come! 

So why not plant yourself a honeysuckle of your own? Did you know you have 180 species to choose from? And if you are into Bach remedies: honeysuckle helps you to let go of the past. And it is a great plant for bees, who can use all the help they can get!!!

Honeysuckle Rose

A Rose would be a Rose by any other name. Roses: do you grow them?

 Here it is.

My favourite flower.

Ever since I can remember I have adored roses, in all forms and shapes (yes, even those garish orange ones that have no smell), but especially the English blowsy scented ones like the one in the photo.

My Mum used to grow pale yellow ones in borders, masses and masses of them, and red climbing ones against the (whitewashed) walls of their old house. Every year they were pruned and mulched with horse manure (we kept a  horse, so plenty of it). Our old dog used to scrape out nice comfy holes underneath them, and so did our free ranging chickens, and the roses didn't mind. They bloomed and thrived.

When we bought our present house twenty-one years ago, one of the first things we planted in our derelict wasteland of a plot outside was a climbing rose, a New Dawn.

We bought it only 30 cm. high, and within one season it grew to a stunning 2.50 m long, absolutely covered in blooms.

We've changed our garden around 100% since then (due to the extension we've built into the garden at the place where the New Dawn used to be), but I dug out an old photo for you.

There is the New Dawn right at the right of the photo, and the white climbing rose "Snow White" in the foreground on the left. This too, grew metres long within the first year of planting. It was an issue with my (then) neighbour though, as the blooms all blew into her garden and she was the one who had to sweep them all up every day. So after a year or two of putting up with her grumbles about it, we dug it up and replanted it on the other side of the garden. Here is the proof, in a little posy I made last Summer

These days I have many different kinds of roses. At the moment they are just coming into leaf, but I promise I'll take photos of them for a future blog when they are in flower.

Do you like roses? And which ones do you grow?

Into Running? Tomorrow is the Rotterdam Marathon.

Hi, all you joggers:-)
I'll let you into a secret, but don't tell anyone. Ssssshhhhht. I do not jog.

I used to, but that's 40 years ago, and jogging was not even invented then. We used to call it running, and I had to do it in school. And actually...I was pretty good at it! Long legs, long muscles, and stamina from all that cycling to and fro school I had to do every day.
Nowadays I sometimes think back to those days, when I weighed 52 kilos...sigh.

But that's not at all what I want to tell you about.
Tomorrow is the annual Rotterdam Marathon, and it draws thousands of runners and thousands of spectators and it is a festive, fun event.

And this year, 2014, it is even more fun (and rather special) for me, because my son has participated in making a promotion film about running in Rotterdam and I am bloody proud of it. The film is by wonderful Rotterdam photographer Chris Bonis. But Wibe is in the credits, hurray! I'll leave you with the link, right here.
A film about running in Rotterdam by Chris Bonis

Bye!

April the Cruelest Month? Perhaps - but not when I am in my garden.

Good (Saturday) morning, garden lovers!
This is another post for you. I promised to keep you up to date with the progress of my garden, and look at it today! I am so pleased with how it looks.

We have had amazingly mild weather this winter, so all the plants are advanced in their growth, and blooming all together instead of in the normal stages. It makes it a riot of colour.

Just look at those tulips!!!

They were supposed to be planted out in planters for the big party for my kids on April 26th, well...By that time they will have bloomed themselves to bits. I'll have to think up something else. (We could have covered the roof of the greenhouse to hold them back, but frankly we were a. too busy to do that and b. we enjoyed them too much)

This is how far the tulips in the border outside have advanced. Keeping my fingers crossed they will still be in flower on the 26th... The yellow Monarda on the right is shooting up as well.

And look at the Camellia. This is a 'rescue plant', meaning we got if for next to nothing at the plant centre because it was half dead.

My herbs and rock garden plants (the remains of which we have in pots since our rock garden has been demolished some years ago to make way for the greenhouse) are coming along nicely as well.

Most of the work is done by my husband, so kudos to him!

This is where I find my peace. 

Life can be hard at times, and sometimes even more than hard. For some (to me unfathomable) reason in this family Spring is crises time, and has been for the last 20 years.

But I look at my Betula and am reminded that I am here only temporarily, that this tree we planted 17 years ago will most probably outlive me (if some future thickhead doesn't cut it down) and that this is the way it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is it.

Have a lovely day, you!!

Juicing: Do You Take it Seriously?

Hi, everyone.
This is a post about cancer.
All my grandparents died of it, my step-Dad and Mother-in-Law died of it, my Mum has survived it 4 times so far, and the chance that I will develop it is 1 in 5, I am told.
Besides this not so very positive fact, I know so many people who either have had it, or are suffering from it, that you could say I 'already live with' cancer even though I do not have it myself.

It isn't the fact that I would get it and die from it (I mean...my entire life is geared towards dying  - it will end one way or another) that scares me, but the fact that most deaths from cancer are slow, painful, demeaning deaths. Far into my past I have taken care of dozens of people with cancer, right until their final breath and afterwards, so I certainly do know what I am talking about.

So, long story short, I read a lot about cancer and the various new developments around it. And one of the interesting viewpoints I have come across, is that a simple technique may (may!) help you prevent it, or even cure it.

I write this with great hesitation, for there are as many doctors who say this is rubbish as there are doctors who say this might be true. And I do not want to give anyone false hope!

Could it be so simple, though? It sounds too good to be true. But: and this is the great news, even if it IS rubbish, and doesn't prevent or cure cancer (or any other illness), as far as I've been able to ascertain it doesn't do you any harm either!

This simple technique is called juicing. 

And all it is, is putting raw (meaning mostly uncooked!) vegetables through a juicer, which separates the pulp from the juice. So not a blender or a kitchen machine, but a built-to-purpose juicer. And drinking this juice immediately, using the fresh energy.

Now, I have bought a juicer when I was pregnant with my daughter, 17 years ago. I was made enthusiastic by a friend and colleague of my husband, who juiced himself to the hilt. And man, this guy was fit!!! But, as such things go, after juicing for a few months, when my daughter was born I was so busy (she was a cry baby due to lactose allergy and I had my 4 year old son to take care of as well), the cleaning of the machine proved too much bother. So I moved it towards the back of the kitchen cupboard and forgot about it.

Until recently. It has yellowed a bit with age, but it works!

I have started juicing again, and contrary to 17 years ago I now use vegetables as well as fruit. And I add super foods, like hemp, wheatgrass, linseed, all kinds of berries etcetera. What I really would like to add as well is cannabis, but growing enough of it is a bit of a bother (I think 6 plants is the maximum allowed in my country, where you would need an acre if you would want to use some every day).

It's an adventure. Especially when I make 'the green stuff', as my daughter calls it. She is a wishy-washy eater (meaning she'd like to live on sweets, crisps, chips and fruit).

So. My question to you.

Do you juice?

And what is your favourite juice recipe???

3333 readers - let's celebrate!!!

See that number? Fun, eh?
It has brightened up an otherwise gloomy day (weather-wise). 
I officiated as wedding registrar this afternoon, al fresco, with a shivering bride and her brave company. As half of them were over from Northern-Ireland, they were used to chilly weather (their own admission). But I kept on my coat under my robes :-)

And afterwards I had some sad news - the choir I had joined and was enjoying so much, has been discontinued due to a lack of males. Fiddlesticks!!!

So...my positive mindset needs to be dusted off once again. Here's to this news:

Was it in The Sound of Music that someone said that when a door is closed in your face somewhere else a window is opened?

Well... bring it on!!!

I'll leave you with a virtual light in the darkness.

See you :-)