2026/5 - Delta Winter Wealth

 There is nothing nicer, weatherwise, to have a week of calm, sunny weather after the misery of icy roads and sub-zero stormy winds.

Us delta dwellers take our moments of weather joy when they arrive. Personally I did a round of Hunky Dory to see how my plants were after the snow and ice, and basically they were absolutely fine, except one. My Clivia, which I had put into the greenhouse, was definitely very unhappy. Too cold!

But my veg, such as it is at the moment, was still looking good, lovely! It will not be long before I will buy some more soil for the other three beds (two more on the other side of the greenhouse) and sow some more seeds.

There is one plant that has nestled itself between the chicory, which turns out to be a Glebononis coronaria...never heard of it. It can stay, for now.

I am curious to see how it develops. Will still have to look up if it is edible.

It being such wonderful weather yesterday, a friend and I drove to the next island, Goeree-Overflakkee, to take a walk along the sea.

Well, I say the sea, but actually there is a marsh, with lots of reed beds and thus lots of wader birds. Just like at a lot of other Dutch island coastlines, the seawater comes into the marsh at high tide, and leaves again through gullies. The sun lightened up the reeds, and it was beautiful. We walked to a birdwatchers hide to see if we could spot any Spoonbills, but they were not there.

In the background you can see one of those gullies and the sea, and that light stripe right at the back is my island, Voorne.

There weren't any Spoonbills, but we did spot Mallards and Cormorants, and when we sat on a bench to rest, a Buzzard passed by overhead.

This part of the island is called de Kwaade Hoeck, meaning Terrible Corner. The sea has 'walking sands', so the shrimp fishermen from Stellendam have to have a very good working knowledge of where they can pass with their vessels to get to the harbour. There are supposed to be a lot of old shipwrecks below the surface, and during the last couple of decades those sandbanks have become larger and larger. And the Goeree fishing fleet has become smaller and smaller...I used to teach English to their young men, I wonder how many of those boys attending that fishery college have actually become fishermen...

Anyway, that was aside. Back to my garden.

It looks bleak at first sight, but looks deceive. I saw my bulbs pushing their way up, always the narcisii first, and the tulips come later. No tulips in sight yet, which is as it should be.

What I also noticed, that all of a sudden my blood red Malus apples have disappeared from the small tree. So the birds do actually know they are there, and eat them when they feel the need!

That sky! So lovely! Talking about skies, we had the Northern Lights in my country for the last couple of nights. I spotted it once, when I woke up around 3 a.m., and I saw a red pulsating light in the direction of my allotment. I thought what on earth...is there a fire? But no fire engines, all was very calm and quiet. So I watched it for 10 minutes or so, and then it disappeared.

It was only on the day after that I heard on the morning news that I was lucky enough to have witnessed A Very Rare Event. So I set the alarm for the next night, but saw nothing. Ha! That is always the way, isn't it?

Proof that the trees are anticipating spring again. But first we are in for yet another icy spell, if I can believe the weatherman. Hm, can't say I am looking forward to that...after a couple of sunny days my body craves even more good weather.

Okay. Nothing more to tell you...these are the quiet weeks before the rush to get ready for a new gardening year.

Have a good week, wherever you are.

And please share my blog address when you enjoy reading my words, or visit my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft

See you!

Renée Grashoff