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
