working harder...

The ceiling is done! More than 2 months after starting the project. It took a lot of time, mostly because there was no time to continue the work frequently. And in between we had a much needed holiday too - during which we decided not to work on our house. But now the whole ceiling in our living room has been painted white and it looks delicious. Like a white marshmallow. Even the "ugly" part of the ceiling (one part is much better looking than the other) looks great. I am very happy. I was so happy that I started painting the ceiling in the hallway too. The hallway still needs a lot of work, after we removed the lowered ceiling and the layers of paint and wallpaper on the walls. That ceiling has been damaged very badly through the years. So I started renovating it last winter. And I continued only now, with painting it. It still needs a lot of work. But it will be great, I am sure!
Next big project will be painting the walls in our living room with a nice color! :-)

painting the ceiling

Lately I've been busy painting our ceiling white. It was much needed. Maybe before us, some heavy smokers lived in our house. Compared to the white paint, the old color almost seems black, or dark brown and yellow at its best. It's quite a job, but very rewarding. I started with the most beautiful part of our ceiling, the part on the street side. I love the beautiful authentic ornaments, with flowers, leaves, horns and laces. The part on the garden side also still has its ornaments, but in a rather bad condition. But I reckon anyway painting it white will make it look much better.

started with the fireplace

before and after the white paint

incredible ornament in the middle where the gaslight used to hang

I love the beautiful details

fireplace looks pretty fresh as well

the corners

the result

For those who think we will be living in an all-white house... no such thing. After completing the work on the ceiling - which will still take some time - , we will continue with a nice color on the walls.

wildflowers

Al mijn hele leven ben ik gefascineerd door onze wilde, inheemse, planten. Als kind bracht ik hele dagen door lopend in weilanden en langs sloten, op zoek naar plantjes. En die aantrekkingskracht heeft de natuur nog steeds op mij. Lunchpauzes breng ik als het even kan wandelend door, struinend langs perkjes en parkjes. Ook verlaten terreinen zijn interessant. Daar groeit en bloeit van alles. Het viel mij dit jaar op dat de bermen niet meer worden gemaaid. Dat zou door de crisis komen, vertelde iemand mij. Wat een geluk! Veel mensen schijnen "onkruid" rommelig te vinden, maar ik vind de bermen met al zijn bloeiende bloemen schitterend. Ik raak er eigenlijk niet op uitgekeken. Want telkens bloeien er weer nieuwe planten en ze zijn zo mooi. Hoog, laag, met rode bloemen, of gele of paarse. Allerlei vormen, kleuren, geuren. De natuur is schitterend en zo zou ik mijn tuin ook wel willen. Madeliefjes in mijn gras? Ja, ik wil! Maar ik weet niet of dat zomaar met alle planten zou kunnen. En ik realiseer me dat sommige plantjes er heel mooi uit zien, maar andere planten overwoekeren, zoals winde. Maar het kijken naar de wilde planten levert mij ook inspiratie voor mijn eigen tuin op. Want voor mij is de natuur de beste tuinontwerper. De natuur is voor mij van een zo onbeschrijflijke schoonheid. Ik droom dan ook van een zo natuurlijk mogelijke tuin.

Vandaag regent het. Ik vind onze tuin ook met regenbuien prachtig. Ik geniet van de merel die vrolijk door ons gras hipt, op zoek naar snackjes: regenwormen, rupsen en andere beestjes. "I'm only happy when it rains...", lijkt hij te denken. 

Wat ik ook zo mooi vind momenteel zijn alle stokrozen die bloeien. Bij ons in de stad zie je overal stokrozen verschijnen tegen de muren van de oude huizen. In allerlei kleuren. Wij hebben ze ook voor ons huis staan en ik heb ze ook in de tuin gezet. Stokrozen zijn ook zulke makkelijke planten. En de bloemen... zo teer. Het is net of ze van crepe-papier zijn gemaakt. 

garden 07.07

We had severe thunderstorms and hail on the night from thursday to friday and the garden looked a mess afterwards. Today was the day to inspect everything and to clean and take care of the garden. Some of the plants got damaged, but most of them survived and will do fine and the garden looks serene again. Here are some pictures I made today.

garden 04.07.2012

Today is a lovely day to spend in the garden! I started mowing the grass - it always smells great. The grass is doing OK, but starts to get yellow patches here and there.

I have decided to try the "garden at first sight" or "tuin op het eerste gezicht" from Anne Tanne's Tuin. The idea is to make a picture of your garden from the same angle, at different times, so you can see the changes in the garden. I like the idea. But since our garden is a compact city garden, it may not be easy to find a good angle to show it. Still, I'll try it and might combine different angles and parts of the garden. Here's a first try.

The garden needs some work again. Busy weekends made it impossible for me to do something substantial. Hopefully today I can get some done. There are still some plants waiting to be planted in the garden, like the lupine - a regular bee-magnet-, the spirea and some alcea that I've grown myself from seeds from our alcea in our street-garden (tegeltuintje), which is actually the front of our house in the street where roses and alcea grow. I have also put some plants in pots there.

Even though we don't have a lot of space, I also added a small bird bath in the garden, where the birds can bath, -obviously- and drink water. It is being used so much by all kinds of birds and of course gives us great pleasure to watch.

 I just had an accident with our passiflora. While cleaning up the mowed grass, I incidentally cut the passiflora off its roots! It just started growing nicely and will have to start all over again now. But it might be a good occasion to replant it somewhere else. The ferns that my neighbours gave me some weeks ago seemed to do really well in the semi-shadow, until last weekend. I suddenly noticed they are drying up! Help! I might need to put them somewhere else to see if I can still rescue them. But the garden truly looks wonderful in this season and the idea that with the years it will even look more beautiful is a great thing to look forward to.

The sad news is that our neighbours decided to cut the big maple tree in their garden. Although for our garden it will probably not make a lot of difference, cutting big trees make me very sad and I already feel so sorry for the birds that come and visit and nest in that tree regularly. They don't have a clue yet but one of these days that tree will be gone. :-(
I hope I won't be home when they cut it.

june garden

It's been a while since I posted. I have been busy. Among things, with gardening. I love our garden. We enjoy it so much. We spend every free day outside. And on workdays, the evenings. I have added many more plants to the garden, but also cut a few (trees). We rearranged and replanted some plants. Neighbours gave me some plants as a gift. (I can not think of a better present than plants for our garden!) Another try on sowing grass near our terrace seems to work out fine this time. The little grass seeds have grown very well in a week, thanks to lots of rain! Things keep changing in the garden, which is what makes it so fascinating. Birds and bees love visiting our garden too. And they give us a great show when they do!

This afternoon I cut the fig tree. It was almost growing into the neighbours house...

Petunias smell great. And we have uncountable roses that flower (and smell) in abundance. 

Funny, I am always also thinking about the garden in winter. How will it look without all these flowers? Interesting too, with a charming winter look, probably.

Meijendel

This afternoon we cycled in the dunes of estate Meijendel nearby our home. The weather was wonderful and it was quiet. We enjoyed the birds singing and I noticed so many beautiful plants. I would love to take them home to put in our garden. For sure they would do very well; they are originally from here and perfectly suited to the climate and other conditions.