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 

2025/46 - Heemtuin Rucphen, for herbalists and greenies

 Some weeks ago, I promised you another visit to a garden. And here it is. It is just a taste of the wonderful things you can see in this garden, which is situated in Noord-Brabant.

Noord-Brabant is one of the three provinces of the Netherlands 'below the main rivers', meaning in the South. Compared to my part of the West (built-up industrial) it is green, wooded and quiet. It is also where for six Saturdays in October/November I take a herbalist course with a friend. We go to the Heemtuin (arboretum, but in this case a facility where trees, shrubs and herbs are cultivated for exhibition) Rucphen for this. This garden is built for plants and insects first, and humans second.

The course is very involved, and I don't get a lot of time to take photos, but these ones will give you an idea.

The Heemtuin gives day jobs to challenged people from Roosendaal and surroundings, and is open most days.

I have always been interested in herbal remedies, probably because my body reacts very unpredictably to pharmaceutical ones by giving me either massive headaches or nausea. Besides that, my granny was old enough to remember remedies like onion skins in a warm scarf around your throat, or green cabbage leaves to soothe swollen milk glands.

In the Heemtuin I learn about the use of herbs found in Dutch soil. And it is fascinating! Our teacher very cleverly not only 'sends', a lot, but also gives us a feel, a smell and a taste of the herbs. For instance today she made a soup of narrow leaved Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), and it was absolutely wonderful! To our surprise it tasted of mushrooms.

For homework, we are to make a tincture. I wanted to make a Rosemary one, but my Rosemary at home is not in bloom yet (the one in the Heemtuin is), so I switched to Ginkgo. It takes at least three weeks to get infused enough, but I'll let you know at a later stage if it passed muster.

On our visit to the herbal garden, I took some photos of the wood walls they use in the garden. This one is very bird and hedgehog friendly. But there are numerous walls for insects as well.

I loved this one.

And the heemtuin being in a wood, there are ferns everywhere. I really like ferns, they appeal to the Neanderthal part of me. We call this a Tongvaren (Asplenium scolopendrium), and it used to be rare. But now it spreads more and more, especially near water, on old walls, waterwells, locks, and underneath dripping pipes. And in woody, shady areas.

On top of that wall, I spotted this pretty flower, happily doing its thing.

And against a tree stump a family of toadstools were having a good time.

The trees were really turning now! As there are many Oaks, Beeches and Birches in that part of the country, it was gorgeous.

The Medlar was laden with fruit. To eat they are not so much to my taste, but some people love them. I do think it is a very attractive tree though.

And what do you think of this?! It is the rosette of a plant we call Gele Ratelaar (yellow rattler). The flowers were spent, but this is so cool!

Mistletoe! Very susceptible to air pollution. This looked very healthy though. Not a lover in sight...oh well.

So, you have an idea of the goodies this garden can offer you. I hope to visit it for much longer, and take many more photos, but that will have to wait for another time.

I'll leave you with a moody photo of one of the gates to my town. I am very lucky to live in a pretty part of the island, where all that reminds you of the heavy petrochemical industry just across the river, are the constant noise and sometimes the smell. But when I drive back from Noord-Brabant, the thought creeps up on me that I live in the wrong part of the country. Still, I am too old to move yet again.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are. Do look me up on my website: Renée Grashoff Schrijft *

* there is no point to leave me comments like 'nigeria' on my contact page. I only reply to serious questions. Requests for money are totally useless as well; I am permanently skint. If your English is not up to that word, it means I suffer from a permanent lack of funds. Nothing to get from this old lady, folks!

Bye,

Renée Grashoff