.....Jack Frost nipping at your nose...

Just a 6 minute train ride from Baarn and you're in Hilversum! The station has improved! What a trip of discovery! First thing that caught my I was a shoe shop for large sizes! Have to stop in next time. Then to Pipoos Hobby shop for styrofoam eggs. A few different sizes will do! Wait til you see what these, combined with innertubes from bikes,will be. Wednesday is Market Day. Checked that out too! Then back to Baarn.

Days like today are also great for doing errands.

Dropped a bag of stuff off at the second hand store

and came out with these cool lights!

Will be a high of OC today and tomorrow!

I went to VaarderHoogt Garden Centre in Soest to look for one item. They didn't have it in stock but they always have a few creative things in the discout corner! An idea! First home then to Buitenzorg to make a table centre piece. The men with chainsaws were busy at Buitenzorg during the weekend so there was enough fresh green boughs on the ground to use in combination with the assortiment of green collected from other gardens.

Can't work with a leaf blower if everything is frozen!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
"They say it's not the heat but the humidity!"
No snow here, but cooler temperatures.

A quick trip to Utrecht this afternoon! I had a few things to pick up at the Toko(asian supermarket) and wanted to check out a bookstore and a few shops. The few photos today are of a long barrier between the market square and a construction zone.

The weather cleared so it was off to the allotment!
Flowers in December....

...and the Dogwood cuttings haven't blown away!

Nothing beats sitting round a campfire on a wind still evening, under a star lit sky, with a big mug of hot chocolate while an owl hoots and the wild wolves cry. The next best thing on this rainy December Saturday? I brought this "Mexican" fire pot inside, found my flickering lights and will soon have a pan of French Onion Soup on the go! Maybe, this winter, when the days are cold and crisp and the skies are clear, I'll have a real campfire and make doghboys for lunch!

This is the solution for that dish! When this holiday season is over and the chocolate cherry bonbons have all been eaten I can probably refill it with chocolate Easter eggs. I'm sure they will be available in stores as soon as the Christmas decorations are packed away!

Spent a few hours yesterday in our garden. This container has a few hostas and now the drumstick bulbs are planted in it plus a few added deterrents for the cats that pass through!

The leaves have fallen and have all been blown away. Maybe if there are not too many hibernating places for slugs and snails the nightly patrol next year will have better(fewer suspects) results!

Still a bit of green in the garden. Green grass, Yucca's and the tall decorative grasses will last through the winter. After the green container has been emptied a few times and on a dry winter weather day it will be time to remove the front hedge and replace it with a new fence and a bigger boarder with Sedums, Grasses, and other colouful plants to attract butterflies, birds and bees!

The front garden at Buitenzorg is ready for Spring!

Let the Snowdrops grow!
Autumn is a great time for pruning, removing leaves
and replanting while the ground is not frozen!

More room for more plants!

The amaryllis is now amongst the plants! Crab Apples!

Winter is on its way. The weather changed for the wetter this week! Had a few extra hours to get on with the "Things to do if it's just not to do outside" list! First of all the Hobby Rooms were sorted. Interesting reading in the IT! There is even a book on how to be a rat! Now the dining table has a few priority piles on it. Weeding.nl admin, Christmas cards and lights that need to be tested.

A nice thing to do this weekend is to be creative with house plants by making a few arrangements and find something for in the oasis!

What to do with this?

Warm days! 15C yesterday! Even the rain isn't too bad. Doesn't feel like Christmas is 33 days away! Great gardening weather though. After the last few windy days I think the leaves have all landed. Some of the gardens where I work have had their last visit from Weeding.nl for this year. A few more gardens to go then it's time to work on my own! I will be planting these bulbs amongst the Hosta's in the front garden. They are called Drumsticks, belonging to the onion family, and grow to about 60 cm in hight.
With the ground still warm, not frozen, more work has been done in the front garden at Buitenzorg. There is a new idea/plan for the parking area! The wooden planks and small poles will be replaced by sturdy round taller posts. So, weather permitting, a few new posts go in.

I like it! Gives the garden a bigger, more open feeling!

Also this weekend 200 bulbs have been planted.

May sound like a lot but with a garden

this big they soon disappear!

Another Totem pole weekend!

How will this turn out?

Watch this space!

Wind gusts, leaves blowing everywhere, rain, wind, more leaves. Autumn. Time to get a few things in house to make the evenings more cozy! Bee Movie!

I'm giving Amaryllis a try this year!

I am going to let them grow in a

glass dish with no potting soil!