2026/39 - Allotment Maintenance - necessary work

 After months of schlepping water, water and more water, it is finally cool enough to trust the occasional rainshower to provide water for my allotment. I still water the plants in the greenhouse, obviously.

Kruisspin/ Cross spider

   And yes, it is Autumn. This   morning, whilst planning to   mow my grass, I almost   walked straight into this   cobweb. The spider was busy   repairing it, but fled to the   safety of the Buddleia it had   attached its web to.

   

   As long as spiders sit still, I   admire their beauty. As soon   as they start moving, it is   another story entirely... I was   once bitten by a big one and it really hurt, but only for a moment.

   But this one was well behaved.

In between the showers, I did some maintenance. High time too, the grass on my paths was so high that I was afraid my old fashioned hand mower would not be able to get through. But it did, just...

Here you are; it looks much better! That pink Gaura is still doing her best, very sweet. The Hedera on the right is full of flowers too, a real bee magnet.

My tiny orchard is to the right, and most of the apples are on the ground now...I noticed there were no wasps there...quite surprising, as last year there were plenty.

Koolwitje / Cabbage Butterfly Caterpillars

Plenty of these, though! Here they are on the leaves of my summer bulbs (duds! Only leaves and no flowers!). I don't mind them munching my leaves; it is better that they eat my duds, than that they devastate the cabbages of my neighbour.

My garden is filled with Asters/Michealmas Daisies, so cheerful. There are white ones as well, but they are still in bud.

And my Cotoneaster pyramid is suddenly orange. It usually stays that way until the birds get really hungry, and then they pick it clean. It used to be up against an old broad bean fence, which blew over in a gale. So now I have given it a pyramid of three apple branches, which it seems to like.

I cut off the lower branches of my silver Pine a few weeks ago, and it looks much better now that I was able to mow around my tiny Lavender and Erigeron island. I have not finished mowing though...the area next to the fence still has to be done. 

And then the next project is to prune the Elaeagnus again. I do this in Autumn, to keep up the raised canopy. The endeavour is to cloudprune it...so far the bare trunks are nice, but the cloudpruning still looks very amateur. Especially now the branches have grown out so much. Never mind, I'll keep at it.

Those daily rainshowers have had another effect: my plants in the trellis planter on the balcony have suddenly decided to give it one last effort! I have watered them daily during those five (5!!!) heatwaves, and thus kept them alive, but flower? They stopped completely. Just look at them now though.

It reminds me of how nature is very resilient. And that is hopeful. We people make such a mess of things! At least the earth will survive us, I think.

Beneath the Oaks in my street, there is an abundance of toadstools, huge ones, I have never seen them get this large. My son says they are edible, but due to the also huge number of dogs in my neighbourhood, I will not try.

Right. From Puck and me both, I wish you a great week, wherever you are!

Spread the word about me, about both this blog and my writer's website  Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Thanks!

2026/38 - Boats, boats and more boats

 And now for something completely different. I have told you before that Brielle, the historic town I call my home, is very active in Summer, right? Pageants, markets, concerts, cultural events, and on Sat. 12th an Old Working Boats Meet. We are situated on an island, the island of Voorne, and along an old river, the Brielse Maas. Which, by an unlucky decision in the last century, has been dammed off and is now a lake, Brielse Meer.

My favourite time to walk my senior dog Puck is in the early morning, when the sun comes up over the other side of the lake.

I say 'walk', but due to her age (around 12) it is more of a shuffle. I have a dodgy knee, so we shuffle and limp along...

Still, we both love this time of day!

This is the spot where the foot and bycicle ferry crosses the lake to the next island along.

Now, normally there are some old tugs moored to the left of this ferry, but they have sailed into the inner harbour for the day. Where they are joined by many more old tug boats and other working vessels. We Dutch are a seafaring nation at heart, it is in our DNA (even Napoleon acknowledged that; did you know he said 'every Dutch man is a sailor' ? I am currently writing a book about the period when the French occupied my country) 

The entrance to the two inner harbours via the canal from the lake.

Brielle used to be a herring fishing port, and for some time during the 13th century it made it a very rich and important port. Unfortunately the river silted up, making it harder to reach the harbour, and for some reason the herring stayed away as well. In 1572 the Geuzen were still able to reach the town, making it the first liberated town during the 80 year war against the Spanish oppressor. But by then the town was in decline; the huge cathedral was never finished, two arms of the ship are missing.

The merchants still built their posh brick houses though, most of them date from the mid 17th century.

Then, during the 18th century, the French invaded the country under rule by Napoleon Bonaparte, and Brielle (called Den Briel of old) again played an important part, housing the naval ships that were used to keep the English from our shores. Mind you, we preferred the English to the French by then! 

In 1813 Brielle citizens threw out the French occupancy, no doubt inspired by 1572 when they did the same with the Spanish.

There used to be guilds; this building houses two: Zakkendragers (porters) and Kaailopers (dockworkers), both guilds to do with unloading merchant ships.

The canal looking from the inner harbour towards the lake, taken from the Waterpoort (water gate).

The reality along the quays...cars and more cars. The council is trying to get them out of the inner town, but so far no plan has worked.

I hope you have liked my diversion from plants. If so, spread the word. If not, no worries, next week it'll be back to plants.

Have a great week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/37 - First Autumn Gale 2026

 You'd think that after an extreme summer, we would be prepared for an extreme autumn, but no...the first gale of the year has thrown me for six. And not just me...my balcony plants, especially the taller ones, are looking as bedraggled as they no doubt feel.

This was my lovely hanging Streptocarpus before wind speeds of 8 knocked her off the seat...

And this is her now, hiding behind the Cycas; lost almost all of her flowers, broke a lot of stems and the pot has cracked as well. Damn!

I had to quickly rescue this Exochorda Macrantha and Physocarpus as well, before they would be blown over (actually, the Exochorda did blow down from her pedestal, but she was all right).

This Clematis was up on the trellis, blew down, but seems okay, and so does the Pandora. That Pelargonium is tough as old boots!

In Hunky Dory all looks green, but is bone dry, despite the week of rainshowers we have had. It will take at least a year for the water table to rise to its normal level, as I'm told. All Teasels are brittle, as are all Fennel, and if I would put a match to my Cardoons they would burn like torches, I'm sure. 

This has been such a challenging year for us gardeners!

But the trees definitely have had it worst. In my area, they react by being laden with seeds, as if they think "right, times are tough, let's make young ones, before we become extinct!"

But the sunsets have been spectacular of late! No filter used! The sky seems to be on fire. This is our old town hall - turned historical museum, by the way. Unlike the gardens it has had its best summer ever, due to a Rembrandt etchings exhibition. So...this 2026 summer has not been all bad.

Oh, I've been written up (with my paintings) on Exhibition Renée Linq Media

This is it for this week. Have a lovely week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/36 - Crispy Leaves

 September, so the delta summer is officially (meteorologically) over. It feels over! When I walk Puck in the early morning, the air is scented with turning leaves and new brackish water, for it has finally started raining. And beneath the summer oaks along my street, toadstools have sprouted overnight.

My grape is slowly changing colour as well. It has done very well, the grapes were sweet.

My kiwi should take notice and see it as an example...it has hated the drought, has not grown an inch after April and has lost 3/4 of its leaves; they were burnt to a crisp.

But to my huge surprise, the upshot of an apple in my tiny orchard has totally ignored the summer heat, and grew very tall indeed! Longer than 3m branches, no less! It has sown itself at a very unsuitable spot, right at the corner of my greenhouse, so I cut the branches every year. Last year I used them to build a fence, this year I have stacked them in my new dead hedge. I am happy I built this, it works very well to keep the tall wild grass at the right side of the fence. As I was working there, a water vole ran at great speed out of the grass near the compost heaps, ran over my shoe and threw itself into the frog pond - I heard the splash. They are quite rare these days, so it is very welcome to make Hunky Dory its home.

I also cut the lowest branches off my silver pine. This 'dwarf' (ha! If that is a dwarf, I am a giant!) has grown so wide that it is pushing my Achilleas to tilt at a crazy angle they don't like to be tilted at. So I gave them some room.

I used the cut offs to roof my gazebo, using some of the apple branches to fix them in place. 

I know it is only a temporary solution, that roof will deteriorate, but I don't mind that, as the supply of cut offs is endless.

I can now sit in dappled shade at least, totally necessary, as even the 21°C sun is still too hot to my liking.

I also cut down some of the many teasles, that have been emptied of seeds by now.

Look what I found in the hot bed: a large grasshopper. Very well camouflaged, I really had to look before I found it.

There were quite a few cabbage butterflies around as well, but none of the more exotic ones.

The Asters / Michaelmas daisies are starting to bloom now, but they have suffered from the heat, like many of my flowers.

Such a shame, normally this time of year my garden is very colourful...

All the neighbour's figs are either eaten by the birds, or shrivelled on the trees and the blackberries the same. I don't have blackberries, but I do grow yellow raspberries, and they have produced a second crop! Very nice they tasted, too!

 

The above shrub has self-seeded, great!

Right, I'll leave you with a photo of my old Puck at one of her favourite spots on the river. She is very happy that that heat has left the country! Hottest and driest summer on record... we had bans on riverbarges as the water level simply was too low. Puck couldn't care less, she just likes staring at the waterfowl.

Do visit my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft and have a lovely week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/35 - Exhibition of my Floral and Animal Paintings

 The trouble with painting is, that you get to a point where your entire lockup is filled with canvasses. I have reached that point ages ago. But: hopefully there will be some paintings sold, soon!

49cmx40cm

From September 3rd to the end of December my paintings (well, some of them) will be exhibited in the cultural centre 't Dijckhuis of Vierpolders.

't Dijckhuis

Dijckpotingen 10

3237 AK Vierpolders

But to give you a preview, and to tell you that all are available for sale, I will show you here. Please excuse the quality of the photos, my mobile is not top of the range.

80cmx60cm

80cmx60cm

50cmx40cm

60cmx50cm

30cmx24cm

50cmx40cm

40cmx40cm

60cmx50cm

All are acrylic paint, original (only one of them), and painted by me. Not an AI in sight!

When you are interested in buying one, please send me an e-mail to dutchdeltagardener@gmail.com so that I can tell you the price in Euros.

You are very welcome to visit the exhibition, obviously, free entrance.

Have a great week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff