2026/31 - July is a strange month

 On the one hand my town is bursting to the seams with tourists, on the other most people I know have left for other places. It makes for a strange couple of weeks. Still, visiting my garden is a recurring routine, (aren't they all 😂) and thankfully I still have water to give to my veg, despite the weeks without rain.

I've used my garden as an inspiration for my latest painting, for the upcoming exhibition in September. I wish I could say this cockerel is mine, but alas. I'd love to get me some chickens, but I will be sensible and will not. The responsibility for my senior dog is quite enough for now.

Yesterday she saw the resident beaver again, and this time realised it is quite a large animal. Eventhough the beaver immediately fled into the water of the sloot, Puck thought it very scary. All the way home she kept looking over her shoulder to make sure it didn't follow her home!

My wildflower meadow underneath the apple trees is attracting the insects, such as they are. The overcast skies of this last week has meant that I hardly see any. 

But the apples, plums and figs around my garden are doing well. It is always a race who will get the ripe figs, the birds or me. The birds always win...Unfortunately they just take one beak full and leave the rest...The plums are rock hard still.

But my friend has a plum tree which has a massive crop this year, and they are ripe, so she brought me a couple of kilos. I washed and pitted them, and then froze them.

But I had my own harvest...massive cucumbers, and the first three bland tomatoes.

I cannot eat that much cucumber, so I preserve the leftover in apple vinegar. It keeps for months.

Random pic: yesterday I had lunch on one of Rotterdam's roofs: Ted's, it is called. If ever you find yourself in the town of my birth, do search this out! It is an allotment on a roof, with a restaurant, very cool!

Okay, I'll leave you with some photos I took very early this morning, along the Brielse Maas.

Do visit my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft , translator button provided, and have a lovely week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2026/23 - Japanese Garden in Stellendam and Hunky Dory

I'll end this post with a story about a Beaver we met, but first I'll tell you about a garden I visited.

We have a garden lover's society in my country, which organises open garden days in both Spring and Autumn. Last September I visited the Japanese garden in Stellendam, and this year I decided to see what it looks like in Spring.

The gardener is an enthousiast, but no professional. Still, the garden is lovely and approaches the Japanese vibe in a pleasing way.

Being no professional myself, I understand what he is trying to do. And mostly it works!

His three ponds in particular got me very enthousiastic. I love a good pond! He's put in a huge effort to create three levels, and although the water flows from one to the other, they all have their own atmosphere. The one above is the middle one, and is home to a mass of fish. No Koi, but (to me) the equally lovely Golden Orfe. We call them Goudwinde, and I used to keep them in my own pond years ago. Like Koi they become quite tame, and recognise the person that feeds them.

The same pond, but from the top. The lower one is situated behind that Yew ball and the upper is behind me. Both are much smaller than the middle pond, which is probably the reason they are choked by vegetation.

The Japanese are masters at the concept of 'Ma', meaning the negative space between two objects, which they think is just as important. This garden is rather crowded, so the 'Ma', to me, is rather 'mwah'. 

But, again, it is a very pleasing garden. We are Dutchies, after all.

This Bulgarian Allium was showing off next to the path.

The overview from the terrace. Well worth a visit.

On the subject of Japanese-like trees, we have our own type of Acer in the delta. The leaves are not as pretty, but the way of the tree to propagate itself is the same. It is an Acer campestre, or Spaanse Aak, and the wind blows in thousands of those pretty helicopters to my Hunky Dory. I spend a lot of my time pulling the saplings out of my beds, and if I overlook one, it has grown into a sturdy sapling of 60 cm high within one year.

Another plant which obviously has the capacity to explode into growth is this Hedera hibernica. I could not believe my eyes this week! It has tripled its size within those two weeks of constant rain we've had, I am not fibbing! It is very welcome to do so, as I planted it especially to eventually hide that ugly water butt, but mostly to provide a nesting spot for the Blackbird, or any other bird that likes to take up residence.

Okay, I'll finish with our adventure of this week. The weather had turned from too cold and very wet to heatwave overnight, (and back again to very muggy and wet) so we walk even earlier in the mornings as usual. This is Puck on our way to the meadows next to the river at 5.30 a.m. She's on high alert, because we sometimes meet the Roe buck here. Puck still dreams of catching it (she is always on leash though, I take no chances).

But: guess who we met instead?

The Beaver!!!

Not the greatest photo ever, sorry. It was munching on a nice branch, and refused to turn around for the shot. What amazed me, was that both animals totally ignored eachother. Puck just stood and stared, and Mr or Mrs Beaver simply munched on, eventhough there was only a metre between us. It made my day!

Look me up on Renée Grashoff Schrijft to keep up to date with my books. I'll again post some extra photos in post 23a. Have a lovely week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff