A new spring

30 m along the drive tulips from Amsterdam are coming up, unlike the tourists who all went and stayed at home.

In spite of the storms this Wallflower managed to flower as one of the first, with the few remaining daffodils (slugs ate quite a few).   A very Dutch picture for Easter ’20: Tulips and Clogs, greeting all you poor ones locked up at home.

Meditation seat now with finished backrest. When the leaves are on the trees again you’ll walk past without seeing this hidden meditation bench. From closeby, for comfy meditating or contemplating, or just resting in nature.

The potatoes are planted, the carrots sown.   Gorse is flowering, sally trees are opening their leaves. Time for a bit of meditation? The bench awaits you…

Because you’re all stuck inside, here we share some pictures of cementing the new path to the hidden meditation seat. One day, when you’re allowed out again you may come and enjoy the peace and quiet here…

This was taken through the hole in the old millstone, cemented in the backrest of the bench; the finishing touches to the path.

Digging the vegetable gardens. By hand. Pictured a few stages. Veggies to be grown organically. Carrots, beets, parsnips, onions; leeks, cabbages, a.o. to come.

Oops, these potatoes were overlooked last fall. Still yummy for tonight’s meal.

	The Echium, two of them, survived all storms and now are over 3 meters tall, coming into bloom and real bee attractors.
	Also the broom is in bloom…

Close up. Echium with butterfly and bumblebees

We love apples… and could not resist filling some spaces in the orchard. Here’s planting three new James Grieves. (You can come and taste them in the fall…)

Here’s a quiet corner where the Bluebells bloom….. Along the path up the highgrounds.

Along the drive a border with roses and, flowering now with the first yellow blooms, Helianthemum, for the bees.

 
Right, the empty meditation bench, left, the first red Rhododendron flower. It is a hybrid, so it will not spread unchecked, turning all soil too acidic for other plants, but this bush can grow big(ger) and have many flowers. Flowering since early May, this year for the first time.

Whether you are here or not, the flowers keep blooming!

On May 1st we heard the Cuckoo again for the first time this year. Yesterday it was bad, wet, stormy weather. Today it turned sunny, of and on, and we saw the Swifts (a sort of Swallows) circling overhead! Summer is coming!

Here grows (part of) my daily staple diet: broccoli. Since there’s practically no-one else I can hardly keep up and eat it all… Been growing in the poly-tunnel (hot-house) for some 4 years now. Have almost been eating from it every day. In summer it grows especially well and fast; broducing big roseclumps. Still liking it a lot, usually stirfried with several other vegetables and beans or pulses. Sometimes with nuts or melted cheese.   Everywhere now the bulldaisies are coming into flower. Margrieten in Dutch.

The poly-tunnel. On the right the grape vine; it is a lovely sweet white grape. In the back the broccoli patch. Embarrassing to show weeding is terribly overdue…

The weather is like summer, lovely days in the sun, and we have managed to pay all the bills so far -thanks to some generous donations!

Some fresh pictures of the private beach area. See how clear the water is!

On the right photo, can you make out the somewhat restored part of the old coastal footpath? (On the right)

It is summer, even the succulent is in bloom.     But these beetles are humping each other as if it still is spring… (can you see every single one is not single but on top of another?)

It really is summer now, the heather is in bloom.