New Fish

Our single goldfish has perked up considerably. The missus got two new fish to keep it company: a larger orange-red one and a smaller one featuring red and black spots on silver (visible just below the large bubble).

Son in the House

  

Our eldest came round for the weekend, breathing life into his room. 
His Mum brought him breakfast in bed this morning.

 

Mailroom

 

I'm selling off stuff online. Lots of work taking pictures and listing everything and then keeping track of bids and questions. Next is packing everything up, done in our youngest's room on my late Dad's desk.

Squirrel at Breakfast

We have a feeder full of seeds for squirrels and this morning I spotted one having a feast, disappearing inside and then gnawing at a seed while keeping an eye out.

It then went across the table to have some more seeds
in the hanging feeder for the birds.

Next it had a more thorough inspection of the table,
even disappearing into the grey lantern for a while.

Next it climbed on top of the pergola to have a go at a seed ball intended
for the various tits in the neighbourhood. It also had a look at the feeder tube
but left that alone - this time. 

squirrel - écureuil - eekhoorn

 

Still Life

Violets in White

 

The missus decreed there should be violets so she went and got a trayful.

Most went on the kitchen windowsill, and the rest in pots next to the water basin.

Wild Strawberries

 

We have quite a few strawberries growing in containers, but also the wild variety which produces very tasty little berries. The plants in this photo were rescued from the roadside where they'd sprung up somehow last year.

strawberry - fraise - aardbei

New Growth

 I need to find out what these are, appearing in this corner year after year.

Daffodils are appearing everywhere now.
These white ones complement the little flowers above.

These cute little Hepaticas grow in the shade
which is good because we're on the shady side of the hill.

And here's the first of the tulips.

daffodil - jonquille - narcis
hepatica - hépatique - leverbloempje

First Lunch Outside

Finally warm enough! Though it's cooled again since then.

Bath

Spotted a pigeon having a bath in the garden.

Lunch

Wednesdays we're both home for lunch so I make an omelette with
chopped onions, bacon blocks and crumbled Stilton.

Tea at Sundown

It's the end of a busy Saturday afternoon, so time for tea. The china cups were my late Mum's - Chelsea Wicker style by Spode (which always amuses me as "the abominable Spode" is one of Bertie Wooster's antagonists in Wodehouse's tales). The tea glass is vintage Douwe Egberts (where I'm looking for another one to replace one that broke). And the tea pot is from my vintage Teasmade. Which we'd like to use to wake up with fresh tea in the morning were it not that the alarm on it makes a godawful racket and I haven't found a suitable replacement yet.

We decided to have some cheese as well and amongst the odds and ends we had some Époisse, Stilton and Tête de Moine. The latter stuck on the scraper that produces lovely flowers of tasty cheese.

Outside the sun slid behind the horizon, turning the cloudless sky a lovely orange.

Jools

Jools Holland was back at the Depot in Louvain tonight, with a drummer, base player and two guest singers instead of the big band he brought before. A good mix of boogie, blues and jazz with his virtuoso piano play at the centre.

Finches

A trio of finches made several appearances in the garden, flitting
back and forth from the trees.

Ivy Curtains

The missus brought back some ivy plants from a garden centre in the Netherlands and planted them by the fence at the front of the upper garden.

Hopefully they'll grow fast and cover up more of the fence so we'll have less of a look-in from the street. With the ivy in place there was time to enjoy the sunshine.

ivy - lierre grimpant - klimop

Spring Advances

A couple of sunny days help Spring get underway with more flowers appearing in various spots in the garden.

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Day Away

Our youngest is a student in Maastricht and we went there for the day. Bowling, and sitting on a sunny terrace and checking out the cheese on offer at the market.

For dinner we went to Oodles of Noodles. A small place that takes no reservations so one needs to go early.

We were nicely in time for a table near the window. And had some very good noodles indeed. Recommended!

Funny thing on the way back is that the first thing seen just over the border in Belgium is a friterie! Managed to snap the bag of fries sign just in time while speeding past.

Peeping Out

Going down our hill this morning I noticed blossoms starting to come out on the Forsythia. And also on the apple bush at the bottom.