pretty succulents

I'm definitely coming round to updating our garden with some gorgeous succulent plants.  Edging around the house or along the path; in big plant pots or even being completely adventurous and trying a wall display!  The colours, textures and modern feel of these plants is so attractive and of course there's the bonus that they are pretty self-sufficient (for the non-green-fingered people amongst us!).  Although around here (prone to more than a little drop of rain!) some more attention needs to be given to drainage and soil.  But nothing that a little web surfing won't advise on I'm sure.   Gorgeous aren't they.

 

All images via Pinterest (of course!).

floral pins for spring days

I just can't get away from that Pinterest these days!

Here's a selection of my recent favourites floral pins .....

    

  

 

           

If you'd like to look, my other Pins can be found here.

Please leave a link in your comments if you too are on Pinterest.

Thanks

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lemon fluff !

Saturday mornings you'll find me popping into the local farmers market to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables (this week cherries, beets, Romain lettuce, spring onions) and a beautiful bunch of cut flowers from a local flower farm.

This week's bloom discovery were 'Lemon Fluffs' (someone told me they were Mexican Sunflowers but I wasn't convinced and did a little research, and love this name!).  Amazing flowers that I have never seen before (have you?).   They look kind of like small pineapples!  A huge vase of them now sit on my kitchen worktop looking very summery and bright.

Here's wishing you a bright and sunny star to the week.

wild orchid

Whilst browsing through old photographs this weekend, I came across this gorgeous wild orchid we discovered at my sister's home in Scotland last year.  Beautiful.

yellow bloemen

One thing I do miss about living in NL is the abundance of freshly cut flowers you can buy for very little cash at all the markets.  I usually had two or three vases filled with my favourites around the house - big white lillies, tissue soft pink peonies, tulips - gorgeous colours and sweet smelling.

Its a little harder to pick up a really good bunch of flowers here, and they cost is significantly more.  But today these gorgeous mini yellow 'mums' caught my eye and two bunches jumped into the shopping kart!  They are now brightening my kitchen and set the tone for all spring things to come.  And I do love me some yellow (see here and here and here!).

Hope your day is bright and sunny.

morning walk

The third day in a row of blue skies and sunshine!  Yay!  I know its only 3 days, and not so exciting for those of you who have months of this kind of weather, but we do appreciate the smaller share of the sun we get here you know!

Days like this make you want to get out early and enjoy every minute.  Ruby and I did just that.  A walk to feed the new ducklings (so cute and fluffy, and not too afraid of Ruby pelting them with handfuls of bread!).  Me stopping to photograph the neighbourhood blossom.  And a stop at the cafe by the park for a coffee and hot chocolate.  This cafe always has lovely displays of flowers or huge bowls of fruits outside throughout the year.  And we enjoyed our drinks sitting in the sunshine before our trek (10 mins through the park!) back home.

Wishing you a great weekend ahead.  Hopefully we'll spend most of it outdoors.

flowers cycling and chocolate eggs!

Hope the sun keeps on shining on us this weekend at least.  Loving the doors and windows open, washing drying outdoors, and being out on my bike every day.  The school run, shopping, parks.  My favourite form of transport on these sunny days.

I've already eaten my own weight in those white mini-chocolate eggs that are in the stores (already for a few weeks) for Easter.  Wish they wouldn't start selling them so early!  One is never enough!

The hydrangea bushes in the garden are starting to look alive again - bright green leaves pushing out into the sunshine.  I can't wait for their flowers to start blooming in gorgeous purples and pinks.

 

 

Photographs taken summer 2010

Wishing you a great weekend, whatever you may be up to.

friday flowers

Flowers for your weekend lunch table dear blog friends. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend, be it filled with activity, family and friends, or quiet and restful.   Mine shall be a mix - delivering Luca to tennis and judo lessons and a science club.  A pilates class for me.  Homemade pizza making Saturday.  Huzz off on a trip early Sunday.  I plan on making a big apple crumble for Sunday evening when a friend will be popping over.  And thats about me done!

Enjoy!

Friday flowers

We are expecting it hot hot hot here this weekend (today it was 37º C).

I popped out to purchase fans for the bedrooms earlier as there is no breeze whatsoever.  I need to sleep tonight - with the kiddos waking between 5.15 and 6am due to the heat and snuffly noses, I'm started to wilt a bit too!!!

Huzz asked if I wanted to sit with him in the paddling pool with a cool drink and imagine I was in Hawaii !!   I have a good imagination, but that was pushing it a little.  Still, the thought was lovely.

Have fun this weekend.

perfect peonies

Now how gorgeous are these peonies?  

They do have the softest most delicate petals ever.

And these ones smell wonderful too.

Flower for the weekend

A lovely Brazilian friend stopped by recently for a coffee.  We hadn't seen each other in quite some time and it was good to catch up again.  The sun was shining and we wandered out to a new nearby wine shop called "Vinius' where my friend, being a wine expert, had a field day.  I tend to buy wine to enjoy that day - she will be keeping hers for about 6 years!  This shop Vinius makes its deliveries in a VW camper van painted black and white with its name on the side.  It looks so cool - must get a photo next time I'm there.  I'd love it to turn up at my house with a few bottles of Prosecco one day.  We then sat outside a little hotel nearby and had lunch.  What a difference the sun makes.

Anyhow, my lovely friend's mother had brought over from Brazil a gorgeous little bikini for Ruby, but it had gone missing amongst all the boxes in her recent move.  So, to make up for the missing bikini, she brought me a dozen creamy roses.  How nice is that?  Huzz took this picture.  Beautiful eh.

Sunny days and flowers

What a glorious weekend.  Looks like Spring finally found us, at least for this weekend anyhow.


We don't appear to have any dust clouds or ash hanging over us from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull that's causing so much disruption here in Europe.  We've had just a big beautiful blue sky and lots of sunshine for 2 whole days!  Sunglasses are out.  Kiddos are playing the sandpit in the garden (= sand throughout the house!).  Windows and French doors are open.  Bikes rides.  Eating lunch outside.  Long may it continue.


We have some beautiful deep pink gerbera and also deep purple hyacinths in the house.  The scent from the hyacinths hits you as you walk in the front door.  With such a blue sky, Huzz couldn't resist taking them outside for a photo shoot yesterday. Enjoy.

Friday Flowers

Wishing you all a great long weekend.   Hopefully with a little sunshine, time with families and friends and some chocolate eggs too.

See you next week.

PS - I'm not at this beach for Easter, but will be again soon!  Yay!

Happy Mothers' Day

To all you mums in the UK, hope you are being spoilt and having a super day.  We still have to wait until May for ours here in NL and also in the US.

Wishing my lovely mum a super afternoon tea with my sister at the Tigerlilly Hotel in Edinburgh.  Hope you have lovely deliciate sandwiches, scones overspilling with clotted cream and strawberry jam, delicious tea and hopefully a glass of Champagne too.

Sending love and big hugs.
V
xx

Friday Flowers

Its been a busy week, and not much time for blogging or blog surfing.

Luca free from school 2 days and sick for another 2 days!  Taking care of a friend's son for another day!   A full head with my mum beginning chemotherapy again, tax returns, selling a property, hospital visit and all the usual running around to sports clubs, visits to the local farm (Ruby is obsessed with seeing the cows, pigs, ducks and chickens - these are the first things, after mama, that she says every morning) and general domestic stuff.

Managed to have 1½ hours in town for a little retail therapy yesterday whilst Ruby slept soundly in the pram.  Lovely new boots to show for that!

This evening I plan to open the Prosecco and relax a bit I hope.  We have a few movies lined up to try and watch over the weekend - District 9, Broken English and 500 Days of Summer (last one more for me than Huzz).  Watched The Hurt Locker last weekend - highly recommend it - intense and so real.

TGIF.  Wishing you a lovely weekend, whatever you may do.

Favourite photos in our 2009 collection Nr.2

These photographs were taken by Huzz of flowers from our local market, our garden, in Sweden and the last one is of the flower arrangements at my BF's wedding earlier this year (we had it printed on canvas as a wedding gift for the happy couple). My personal favourites are the Hydrangeas (pic 5 and 6). And yours?