Weekend purchase

I am so excited! I have flowers on my balcony this year!

ooh! pretties!

They go by many names. Cape Marigold. African Daisy. Rain Daisy. Spaanse Margriet. I just call them pretty!

two of these in the pot

These have white petals that are a really dark purple in the center. When the flowers are just opening (like the one to the left), the petals seem edged in silver. Just gorgeous!

one of these in the pot

This one starts off white, and then gets a purply blush to them. LOVEly!

I am loving my flowers. I keep peeking out the window through the closed blind to see them. Make sure they're ok. Ha ha! And they were so inexpensive that if my black thumbs happen to not do their best with them, then I haven't wasted much of anything. The care instructions on the pot said they'd do well in sun and also part shade, so I'm hoping they'll be okay on the balcony. I don't consider it to be "full sun" there, because it's covered, but it does get sun. There's a glass wall (a security wall, really, because we're on the ground floor), and when the sun is shining on that all day long, it gets quite hot there. Hopefully they'll be alright. I'll have to water them often, I'm sure, but I can do that!

Wish me luck!

Have a great day!!

xxx

Germany Trip: Part 2

Hello again! How have you all been doing? I hope everyone is well! We're good here. I'm enjoying another one of MY Days. Yesterday, May 13th, was a holiday here for most folks. It's called Hemelvaart here, and in English it's Ascension. And it's a national holiday here. Go figure! Since it's always on a Thursday, we (well, some of us) get the Friday after it off too. That sounds okay to me!

I've been putzing around, doing a little cleaning, a little hooking (crochet, folks! Crochet!!!),  and a little websurfing. I'm looking for yarns for my Next Big Project. I can't find exactly what I'm looking for but I'm sure whatever I do find will work well enough. All in all I'm just enjoying my MY Day. This might be the last one for a while. Work has approved me to do some more hours. Yippee! I was enjoying my free time, but I can't do that forever, right? Reality has to come around sooner or later.

Hmm...I haven't done that second post of our Germany trip pictures, have I? Well, goodness, I'm a slacker. Let's get that taken care of right now, shall we?

On the last day of our trip, we wanted to do something a little lighter than what we had done the previous days (visiting concentration camps). So we went to visit the town of Weimer. Here are some facts about the town:

• It's a very old town. Oldest records date back to 899.
• It was the capital of Germany before WWII.
• Weimer (along with Dessau) was the center of the Bauhaus movement

We walked through the city center, mainly. We saw the palace of Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. 

palace gates

Take note of the floor under the arch...

it's wood!

Bet you never woulda guessed that, huh? Me neither! From a distance, it looks like normal bricks, but up close, you can see the growth rings. I have no idea why anyone would use wood there. Can anyone enlighten me?

Behind the palace was a bridge over a little river.

you can see the palace on the left

At the end of the bridge were stairs leading down to the path beside the river. But under the bridge, in the 3rd and last arch, there was a little doorway. You can sort of see it in the above picture.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes," 

by Marcel Proust (a French novelist). 

You can see the stairs leading into the bridge. They lead into the right hand side oval cut out (seen in the picture of the whole bridge). I was feeling adventurous, so I climbed up.

the cute couple

It didn't really give me a new perspective on things (like the quote might suggest), but it did give us a cute picture. I love the view over our shoulders, the other side of the river.

Just off the palace grounds is the city park. This is where Goethe's garden house was. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was decorated to look almost the same as it was when he lived there.

early spring at Goethe's Garden House

It looks a little plain now, but I imagine in the summer when all the flowers are blooming it's a beautiful spot. Especially if some sort of climbing flower grows up all the sides of the house (as the lattice everywhere indicates).

anemone - ground cover throughout the park

It was a nice day in Weimer. And a good way to end the trip to Germany.


xxx

Happy Mother's Day!

some flowers for you!

To my mom,

Ludi's Mom

and to all the mothers of the world.


Heather & Ludi

xxx

May Day

Happy May Day everyone!

I'm going to have to look up what "May Day" actually is. In most European places, May 1st is actually Labor Day. But I don't think that's what "May Day" means. I'm thinking May Poles and things. Right?

Since Monday April 26th was my birthday (no, I'm not counting them anymore, so don't ask), we went to the best spring flower garden in the world. Keukenhof. It's a few hours drive for us (near Amsterdam), but it is SOOO worth it. It was a fanTAStic day, weatherwise. Not too cold, not too hot, no rain. Absolutely beautiful.

Without further delay, here are the photos! Hopefully this doesn't slow down the loading of the site...

Beech Lane

I LOVED the border or daffodils on the far right in this photo. Everything is so impeccably trimmed. There are about 30 gardeners on staff, and every year the replant everything. I guess that's why it looks so tidy and organized. It's a huge garden too. I can't imagine all the work they put into it!

Hyacinths, Tulips and Daffodils

You could smell hyacinths everywhere you went in the park. Sometimes it was a little overwhelming. Good thing we don't have any allergies.

Tiny Narcissus that I didn't get the name of, unfortunately

 

More tiny narcissus

 My favorite tulip: Angelique (the blue flowers are Siberica)

Water feature

This one's called Roulette!!! 

(I think they meant the casino game with a wheel though.)

Tulip fields

They had a section of the park called Inspiration Gardens. They had guest gardeners doing the displays here. It really was inspirational.
 

Flowers in wool stockings, hanging on a fence. Who would have thought of that?

I can do that, right? (on a much smaller scale...)

More tiny narcissus - this one's called Minnow.

There was also an orchid show going on at the same time. Here are a few of my favorites.

Sawadee Green Star

This is a pale green with vibrant purple center. Just gorgeous.

An orchid with a very small bloom - looking quite dramatic planted in a row. It was the palest of greens, with a subtle pinkish center.

close up - no idea of the name, unfortunately!

Like my new shoes?

It really was a fantastic trip. I wish I had a back yard (or any yard!) to do some spring flower planting in. They are just beautiful!

Can we go again next year, Ludi?

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. And I promise to post the rest of the photos from Germany soon. See you later!

Heather

xxx