2026/9 - Too cold/wet outside? Visit a greenhouse!

 Leiden is one of my favourite cities. Not only does it have in common that it was liberated from the Spaniards in 1574, with my own home town Brielle (we were first though: 1572). But it also has two of my favourite places to visit: the Museum voor Oudheidkunde and the Hortus Botanicus. But fìrst two photos I took today, at 6 a.m. and at 2 p.m.

The view from the ferry landing near my house. I think it is so utterly ugly that it has a beauty of its own.

My Narcisii are blooming, yay! Apart from them, all is still sodden and brown. But we are going in the right direction! Right, Leiden here we go.

This wooden casket is only one of many I saw this week.

The painted detail is simple but exquisite at the same time.

If the mummy of that woman found inside is anything near as gorgeous as this receptible, that woman must have been beautiful.

Now I do know that beautiful is not a correct word to describe mummies...but you know what I mean, right?

I'll give you some impressions of other exhibits, before reverting to plants.

Large, flat feet! But so sweet, this sculpture.

Okay, back to my not so secret pleasure! The winter garden of the Hortus Botanicus was the same as my winter garden, that is to say some bulbs and other very early plants, but mostly bare earth and withered stems.

Still, the anticipation of Spring was palpable!

The Helleborus were looking amazing already!

And this gorse bush ignored the cold drizzle. But we quickly took ourselves into the large hothouses, where there always are lots of blooms to enjoy.

Is there anything more beautiful than what nature produces? No, of course not! We try, and sometimes come near, but never completely.

Leiden is lovely, so put it on your list if you ever visit the Netherlands!

Okay. This is it for this week. I'll leave you with the good news that the 2nd part of my murder trilogy has been published. You can find it in the web shop of Trichisboeken.nl, under the name Zwaartekracht. It is in Dutch, but these days that is no problem, as the friends of my Taalcafé show me each week. They simply point their phone at the Dutch text and it gets translated into Chinese, Farsi, or whatever 😊

Trichisboeken

Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Have a great week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/8 - Mildenburgbos Magic

 On the cusp of being able to tell you all about my garden awakening, I took myself to the largest forest on Voorne: Mildenburgbos. Actually not that large, we are a small island, but worth the effort!

It is a mixed forest of predominantly Oak, Beech and Elm, with an underplanting of prickly Holly. In fact I was amazed by how much holly there was! I have been coming here for 67 years, and this was the first time that holly really sprang out at me. By the way, February is a much more interesting month to visit than, say, July.

In Summer the forest floor is a mass of nettles and other weeds, and you lose the contours of the forest. Whereas in February you can see how this area is laid out, as original parkland bordering the sand dunes. The mansion whose park it used to be, has long gone. But that Ginkgo in the photo above is an original tree from the mansion era. It is huge!

Both Oak and Beech trees are in danger from the extremely dry years we have had. Here in Willow country, those trees are precious, and I'd hate to lose them.

When I was a child these fallen down branches would have been cleared away, but thank heaven they leave them to rot now. The insects and small forest floor creatures are grateful, and so are the fungi. You can tell how wet everything is; there was an entire day of rain the day before.

The entire area is criss-crossed by waterways, for water (duh!), but also to act as anti-fire ditches.  When I stopped to take this photo there was a small woodpecker hacking away above my head, not taking any notice of me.

There are roe deer here as well, but I didn't spot them.

When you come closer to the dunes, the huge Oaks disappear, and Pines appear. But the Jays and Red Squirrels have burried a lot of nuts, and all those saplings you see in the back are young Beech trees.

When I admired this fungus I was scolded by a Red Squirrel, who clung to a Pine next to me, and did not like me stopping. They are rare, so I was happy to be called nasty names.

On one side of the forest there is a stinzen garden, a collection of early flowering bulbs and roots which grow wild on land of old mansions and castles. This garden is cared for by volunteers, so you should take the word 'wild' with a pinch of salt. They keep that holly at bay!

I love those cheerful Aconites, and they were happy with the sunshine, I could tell.

A gorgeous bed of Ferns looking their best in the sunshine.

As a child I adored this side of the forest, as it had 'hills'! Growing up amongst the flat meadows of my polder, anything higher than a molehill was amazing to me. The highest hill in Mildenburg is approx. 10 m., and I know now that they are actually ancient dunes.

Isn't this idyllic? Those ducks in the background were making a hell of a racket, splishing and splashing away.

Yes! We are on the right side of the Winter months again! Whatever the weather may yet throw at us, we will have some sunny days to enjoy.

I bought fresh soil for my balcony, so will start to prepare for the days Puck and I spend with the doors wide open. Can't wait!

Have a good weekend wherever you are, and do visit my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft where I will share the publishing date of my 2nd part of the trilogy about murder in Brielle soon. Or follow me here, on blogger, for weekly instalments about gardens. Take care!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/feb - Publicatie Zwaartekracht is een feit, yay!

                 Tromgeroffel! Slingers! Gebak!

Het is eindelijk zover, ik kan weer met grote blijdschap aankondigen dat vanaf nu mijn tweede deel van de trilogie over leven en dood in Den Briel/Brielle in de webshop van Trichisboeken, maar ook bij je eigen geliefde boekhandel te bestellen is.

Het was een zware bevalling maar, zoals meestal gebeurt bij bevallingen gelukkig, ben ik de 'pijn' alweer vergeten. 

Net zoals bij deel 1, Boerenwormkruid, heb ik de aquarel zelf geschilderd, en valt hij onder copyright.

En net zoals bij deel 1 ben ik Wibe Koopman erg erkentelijk voor zijn hulp met het digitaliseren van de cover en achterkant en voor zijn portretfoto van mij. Zijn webadres staat onderaan dit bericht.

Steekwoorden: 80-jarige Oorlog, moord, 1573/1574, 2024, vroedvrouw, religie, buitenbeentjes, vriendschap, liefde.

Het verhaal van Agnieken in 1573 draait om het zware leven in een sterk gepolariseerd Den Briel, waar na de overwinning van de Geuzen op de Spanjaarden veel veranderd is, maar het leven van de verpauperde bevolking niet verbeterde. Agnieken pakt haar werk als heler en vroedvrouw ondanks alles toch weer op en blijkt de spil waarom alles draait bij haar eigen- en gekozen familie. Helaas bevindt haar oude vijand Molenaer zich ook nog in Den Briel en is hij niet van plan haar met rust te laten. 

Het verhaal van Noor in 2024 draait om het oplossen van de moord op een stadsgenoot, waarbij ze geholpen wordt door drie jonge vrienden. Dat ze daarbij Inspecteur Jansen hinderlijk voor de voeten loopt, houdt haar niet tegen. Ze is juist blij dat ze weer wat te doen heeft en geniet van de vriendschap die ze vindt bij haar zelfverkozen 'familie'. Helaas komt ze door haar bemoeizucht zelf vreselijk in de problemen.

376 blz.

€24,95

ISBN 978-9-49342-130-1

Trichis Publicaties

Wibe Koopman fotograaf

Inlichtingen:

Renée Grashoff Schrijft

2026/7 - Tricky Times

 It is the 3rd of February today (writing and actually posting do not happen on the same day, as I'm sure you'll understand), and we are at that point when nature seems to be shaking off the winter fast.

Puck is feeling the approach of Spring as well, and wants to sniff out the balcony...just to make certain all is still as she wants it to be.

But appearances can deceive...Yes, in my neighbourhood the snowdrops are showing, and some even have buds, and just look at the buds on that plant in the photo with Puck! But experience tells me we could still have frost and snow in the weeks ahead.

And the many buds on my pretty absinthe plant could all freeze.

It's too late for my Pelargoniums, I'm afraid. In the previous very mild Winter they happily grew on, and saved me a lot of money, but this year they are as dead as doornails.

I simply have nowhere to store them at home  over Winter, and carting them all to my greenhouse is too much work and useless anyway, as it is unheated.

Oh well...it gives me the opportunity to sow some different plants for the balcony planters this year.

I do have something special though...no filter used! This is the third time I witnessed the Northern Lights this year, and this time I had the brilliant thought I'd take a photograph. The other two times I was so in awe I forgot.

Well, no need for me to fork out thousands of Euros to travel to Lapland, eh? All I need now is for a herd of elephants to appear on the abandoned football field at the end of the street, and a pod of dolphins in the Brielse Meer. 

I drove to Hunky Dory to pick up some chicory and sow some new seeds, and took a quick tour of the garden. Very quick! It was 1°, but the Eastern wind made it feel like -6°. But hey-ho, the bulbs are showing themselves!

Thanks to the rain my frog pond is full for a change, and I hope the resident salamander is fine and sleeping in the mud.

The Helleborus is waking up, no more sleeping for her. She is five years old now, and getting a bit tired. I really should get some fresh ones to keep her company.

The Tradescantia is lighting up that entire corner on the other side of the frog pond. Have you ever seen something that red? In a few weeks I'll give her some support to scramble up against. It blew over in a storm and I haven't got round to it yet.

This baby is holding its own so far. It is a Cyrtomium falcatum, and I simply cannot remember that name, so I call it 'fern', which is not too bad, as it is from the Dryopteridaceae family (niervaren in Dutch). It is a rock plant...so totally out of its comfort zone in my soil. I really should provide it with some crushed brick or something! I'd love to build it a brick folly, so it could hang down gracefully...and be the belle at the wall, so to speak. But as I garden on an allotment, that is out of the question.

My other fern, nameless, is also still alive. Totally out of place as well, but I pamper it with my leafmold and put sticks around its base, hoping that it gets tricked into thinking it is in a forest.

I bought 3 little Cyclamen this afternoon, but could not face that wind on the balcony. Tomorrow should be better, so I'll put them properly into a pot then.  They are so sweet!

Alrighty, this is it for this week. Do look me up at my website Renée Grashoff Schrijft, where I hope to have some exciting news about my second part of the trilogy about murder in Brielle soon. I cannot wait myself, and I hear from some of you that you cannot either, which is pretty cool!

Take care!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/6 - Join me on my trip to Middelburg, attractive capitol of Zeeland

 There. In your face!

We are in the bleakest part of Dutch Delta winter right now, and it is cold, and mostly grey, and sometimes wet as well.

But occasionally we are lucky, and the sun shows herself. I was extremely lucky with the weekend my daughter and I took the train to Middelburg, as it was cold but sunny.

In one of the many charming alleyways we stumbled across this magnificent Camelia.

Middelburg

Zeeland is one of our South-Western provinces, and is made up by a collection of islands. They used to be at the mercy of the sea,  but no longer, as our engineers cleverly built the Deltawerken. So now there are barriers to keep the sea out, and dams to connect the islands. Eventhough I live on such an island myself (but in Zuid-Holland), Zeeland feels distinctly 'different'! And it IS old! Viking king Harald the Young is said to have ruled here between 841 and 864.

It was quite a weird experience; my hometown Brielle is just as old, so the Middelburg buildings feel very familiar, but they are larger, grander and more numerous. Above is the Vismarkt (fish market), our view from the b&b. A lovely square, very quiet. Until we were shouted awake no less than 5 times by drunken louts in the middle of the night...some people have no manners!

The gothic town hall (1458) is overwhelming. All turrets and statues and gargoyles, very beautiful.

Compared to this, my Brielle town hall is like a shed...But then Middelburg was extremely wealthy during the 15th and 16th century, whilst Brielle fell on hard times after its brief fame of being the first town to be liberated from the Spanish in the 80 year war in 1572.

Again the town hall on the left, and the Abdijchurch (called Lange Jan) on the right. We had a wonderful meal in De Herberg, which serves a good selection of vegan food, as well as meat and fish.

Such grandeur! 

The old centre of the town is a collection of squares, mostly connected by gates. There is a huge Norbertine Abbey, dating from 1127, and it has numerous winding alleys.

It also has many churches! The Reformation meant they all converted to Protestantism in 1574, as did this one, but the outside still felt pre-reformation.

Middelburg made its wealth from VOC and WIC shipping. And that means not only spices, and luxury chinaware, but slavery as well. Funnily enough Amsterdam has 'the bad name' where slavery is concerned, but Middelburg was just as notorious.

This used to be where the ships docked, and the huge houses along what used to be quays (Prins Hendrikdok) still project wealth. When you get a wobble from the crazy business of Amsterdam, go to Middelburg! The houses are just as imposing, I promise.

The rich 'reders' (shipowners) all proudly named their houses, this one is called De Witte Swaen (the white swan). 

But, as ever, richess 'don't impress me much', to quote Shania Twain, and the ordinary houses charm me much more.

Higgeldy piggeldy...lovely! The Kuiperspoort.

It appears to be a completely deserted town, but it was minus one... All people had hidden indoors.

One of the many gates. And no cars allowed...bliss. The typical cellar doors on the left are still in situ all over the town centre.

The square of the Abbey. 

Can you spot that Camelia?

And here it is...glorious! My daughter (not familiar with camelias) was amazed that it bloomed in late January. But it stood in exactly the right spot! Protected from the wind by tall walls, and in sunshine.

I'll leave you with a typically Dutch café, again empty, as it was early on Sunday morning and all those louts were still sleeping off their hangovers I guess...Can you spot those ancient white tiles on the back wall? We call them 'witjes' and they are very old. This building must stem from the  late 14th century, and escaped the fires that swept the centre a couple of times. And those heavy beams on the right! Impressive.

A Dutch breakfast. The boiled eggs were still boiling...

Well. Hopefully you have enjoyed joining me on my weekend trip. I will revert to Hunky Dory blogs soon, so watch this space. My manuscript is at the printer's, a.s.a. I have news, I'll let you know. In the meantime you can have a look at Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Do follow this blog when you like it, won't you? And have a good week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff