Orange flowers......

Orange tulips.....

Must be Queen's Day in The Netherlands!

Every village, town and city celebrates the Queen's birthday on 30 April! One of the traditions is when the centre turns into one big giant yard sale! Families must have been collecting items and tidying their homes for months. All sidewalks, a few streets and parking lots are used for this yearly sale!Best to get there early for the good items and great to get there at the end of the afternoon to get stuff for next to nothing before it hits the big container!

Collectables and so much more to find!

It just wouldn't be Queens Day without the famous Orange Tompouce!

The tulip has been in The Netherlands for about 400 years.

In Amsterdam you can visit the Tulip Museum! When the tulips bloom in the Spring the "heads" or flowers are removed either by hand or machine. The energy then goes back into the bulb. The one bulb that was planted last fall developes two new bulbs. All the bulbs/plants are taken out of the ground.

The two new bulbs are kept and the old one is discarded. This process is repeted every year! What a beautiful sight driving through the "bollenstreek"bulb fields. The colours and names of tulips are too many to name!

Every year in The Netherlands, in April on a Saturday, there is a parade that rides through the area where bulbs are grown. The floats are all decorated with flowers and everyone has a different theme. Sunday 20 floats are parked in Haarlem!

There is a lot ot see on each float. This float was "famous books"

Ants on a log, leaves, butterflies, ladybugs....

and a few big bumble bees! This float was "small insects".

The fragrance from all the flowers can't be captured on film!

Here are a few ideas as what to do with empty cans!

April 24, 2009. Today in history: 9 years ago I moved from Canada to The Netherlands. 7 years ago we were married in Baarn, the Netherlands. So today we are going to eat cake!

This is the photo that is now on linnen, 69 x 90 cm.! Wow! What a result! The time from sending the order in via their website to openig the box here tonight was 3 days! There is always a moment of suspense when the box is opened and the photo on linnen is picture side down. Will it be what we ordered? Every computer screen is a bit different. But we are not disappointed. What a way to remember a vacation! Just have to get out the drill, drill bits, vacuum cleaner, plug and screw. No such luck here by just hammering a nail into gip rock and trying a few different places to get the right result! Measure twice, cut once. Or in this case, drill once!

Take only photo's

Leave only footprints

It's hard to capture the feeling of cold wind on film! The weather on Texel was very different from when we left home. The Netherlands, being 400 km long and about 250 wide, can have very different weather in many different places.

First we thought that these were plastic! They didn't move. They just stood and watched as someone tried to repair a kite string. But then their feathered friends came and it seemed to be one big meeting or social gathering!

Art on the beach. Created by the previous visitor then adjusted by nature.

The French Provence influence is even hanging on the walls on Texel!

What a way to round off a vacation in Italy! We were in Den Burg checking the options for dinner and came across an Italian place with a menu posted outside. Luckily they do that in most touristy places. Enough choice to please everyone! When we walked inside we were returned to Venice. The walls were all decorated with wall paintings of the top tourist attractions! The ambiance was cosy and the pizza the best so far!

See the auto in the mirror?
So many pieces of art to look at!
Sometimes you just have to
take a moment to let it all in.

The doors were open while the Italian came home!

A very colourful plate that remained on the wall!

The Hosta's are in their new homes! The good weather here last week while we were away really gave nature a boost! Time to get to work in the garden! I gathered the Hosta's from all around the front garden and split a big clump that I found by the front door when we returned. Now I'll be heading out with a flashlight every evening on slug patrol!

Just came back from a weeks vacation in Italy! We went with a tour company, flying out from Rotterdam to Rome! There were 25 in the group with a guide and an Italian bus driver. 8 days, 7 hotels, many cities, churches and lots and lots of art. Starting in Rome then seeing Assisi, Perugia, Florence, Padua, Venice, Lucca and Pisa and a few other stops along the way.

There are about 500 photo's, remaining after the first edditing, to chose from in my selection alone! Every where you look there is something to take a picture of! I won't bore you with the common photo's of the Colusseum, Vatican City, St. Peter, Trevi Fountain, Michelangelo stuff or the famous Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River!

As a vegetarian I was delighted with what I was presented with! Grilled veg, olive oil, cheeses. The Italian's have a different eating pattern than we have. We got the hang of it and really enjoyed the lunch at the vinyard. This included 4 different wines to try, there own olive oil and a 5 year old balsamic vinegar.

We had the same bus the whole week. Easy travelling out of a suitcase and having a bus as a base. We didn't have to carry anything very far. But there is a catch. We DO have to fly back from Rome to Rotterdam! So those nice big shutters, that were being thrown out across the street from our last ocean front hotel, that could be sanded, painted and rehung in my mexican- soon to have Italian influences garden, had to be left behind!

Spring is in the air! Blackbirds are singing early in the morning! They are busy building their nests and hunting for worms. The days are getting warmer and the nights are staying above freezing. There is so much to see in the gardens: Magnolia's, tulips, daffodils, helliborus, azalia's and many other spring plants and bulbs that I can't put a name to!

What was the poem? "I wandered lonely as a cloud and something in it with daffodils." Was it Yates? Wordsworth? Well anyway, Baarn is full in bloom with daffodils. Took a moment to enjoy them. We were reading on the internet and via an email from family news about Coffs Harbour and all the rain that they are experiencing!

The front garden at Buitenzorg. Just a quick tidy up today. There were no signs of hosta's so I will check again in two weeks. Now is a good time to split large hosta's into a few smaller clumps.

The Fruit Triangle at Buitenzorg.

The currant bushes have started to show signs.

Warmer days! Warmer nights and rain and there will soon be apple blossem!