Special requests

Yesterday I received an e-mail from my aunt Annie. She mailed me that she did like my blog, but was still hoping for some information about the garden. The garden has been our latest project and as all projects this one took an awful lot of time (and money). From the beginning everything went wrong. So I posted a lot of mails to my aunt complaining about this project, which actually hasn't finished yet. Our garden is almost complete at this moment and we are happy with the results until now, but I have forgotten to email my aunt some pictures. I will make it up with her right here, right now. She deserves it, because she is a special aunt, though I have to tell you that I only have special aunts!!

Ok aunt Annie this one is especially for you!!

(Perhaps you are wondering why my aunt doesn't pop over and see our garden herself. That's because she lives in Canada for over 50 years now. I think we haven't met each other in person more than 10 times. Though Dutch from origin, she already lived in Canada at the time I was born and we first met when I was about 9. At that time she bought me a lovely doll with auburn long hair, while she was staying with us. She called that doll Tracy. But when my aunt went back to Canada I rebaptized that doll into Isabelle (I guess it is safe to confess this now). Isabelle was my favorite doll for years. When my father died, I promised my aunt to mail her on a regular basis. We try to mail each other once a week. My aunt is a very vivid young looking woman, she is 86 now, but no one believes that, because she is very young at heart too. Unfortunately she is no blood relative, she was married to one of my fathers elder brothers. So I can only hope that I will turn older as beautiful as she does, alas no genetic connection.)



Let's start with a before picture. This is what happens when you don't like to trim your garden:

So at the beginning of 2007 we decided it was time to revamp the jungle.
Starting with a company which couldn't understand my wishes we finally ended up with another firm, which could (after listening about 3 hours to me, reading 3 pages of do's and don'ts, that is one page do's and two pages dont's and giving them my gardendesign to start with). This is what they have come up with:



The garden is divided in 'rooms', you can barely see that now, as the hedges (fagus) will have to grow (grow, grow!!).
As our garden has less ground/ is lying lower than that of our neighbours, we were always having problems caused by rain. Every time it rained ground and seeds flooded into our garden, so we had a lot of plants we didn't like: weeds (no no not that famous or infamous dutch wiet). Robin, the gardener, came up with a solution; they have builded little walls, made from lavarock, to keep the soil where it belongs.

And this is the result:



One beech (in the far left corner) still has to be removed. We couldn't do that before, as we had to ask for permission with our local government first, and that took about 10 weeks.This week the gardening company was planning to remove the beech and replant another tree, but I told them to wait another week, until after my birthday party. I wasn't hoping for cleaning up that mess while I still have to make those banners (and making a thousand other decorations in our house and garden). So I told the gardener to postpone the removal. He seriously told me that they never make a mess while removing trees. Do you believe that??? I don't and I will keep you informed about this. Should be quite unique, I think.

And now for some highlights:

I have searched for months to find this:



I'm very fond of this huge vase. I'm planning to decorate it again and again. This weekend the vase will be filled up with autumndecorations. I might post some pictures next week as well. This is how our french garden vase started its life up here filled with lavender, hebe and campanula.



I like these settees in our garden. In fact you can choose from 5 spots to sit in. By the way that's how I enjoy the garden most ...sitting in it. Everything else is not my cup of tea, sorry!



And:



Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but my favorite spot is on the balcony. As I told you our living room isn't on the ground floor, we don't have one, remember? So actually I even don't sit in the garden. I only look at it, but I'm enjoying what I see, eyecandy to me.

And now for the second request.

Some guy, named Big Al, has taken advantage of one of my remarks.
I have told you that I collect everything but base balltradingcards, cars and militaria.

So he told me that, as I told the world that I don't collect cars, I'd better give that toy Schuco car, which belonged to my father, to him. But I won't do that, not even tomorrow on his birthday. Big Al you can have my congrats and that's all!



Ladies and Gentlemen: this is not a car, this is a toy!