Tiny Whites

The round bush growing diagonally in front of our kitchen is a Common White Lilac. Which is now starting to produce clusters of lovely little white flowers because the missus hasn't pruned it this year.

lilac - lilas - sering

 

Red Jewels

The peonies have arrived next to our driveway. Dark green plants with splendid full flowers in crimson. 

peony - pivoine - pioenroos

Free Plants

I brought out the toy lawnmower and got some 20 square meters more done on the front lawn. After I'd emptied the batteries a first time, I dug up two little ferns and a young rowan tree I'd seen sprouting from the grass. A third, larger fern was growing from a compost bin and was easy to lift out of the leaves.
The little rowan got a large flower pot while the three ferns got nice spots on the bank at the back of our garden.

fern - fougère - varen
rowan - sorbier des oiseleurs - lijsterbes

Vynil

On the chaussée there's an honest to goodness record shop, no CD in sight anywhere. Open on weekends and today they had a sale outside.

I had a rummage through a crate of 45rpm singles, many without sleeves, and dug up a classic. A very nice addition for my jukebox, made even better by costing one entire euro to take it home.

Catching Up

After breakfast the missus had a look at this blog, which she hadn't seen for awhile. At this angle the screen doesn't show anything, except the reflection of a dainty hand. :)

Wet Morning

After the subtropical heat the last few days, muggy skies turned into noisy thunderclouds during the night. Drizzle continued off and on in the morning.

The garden looks nicely fresh and green; the hammock was soaking wet of course.

 As for us, we had breakfast on the balcony, keeping dry during the odd shower.

Mutual Support

The onion growing in the kitchen is curling a leaf around another, and twining two other leaves which helps in keeping them straight up. Never seen a bulb plant do this before.

Pizza of Sorts

The missus didn't fancy ready-made pizza so we went and bought some ingredients to make our own. She did the classic thing with tomato and onion and ham and gorgonzola. I left out the tomato and used creamy cheese as a base instead, with either smoked salmon and spring onions or gorgonzola on top. 

tomato - tomate - tomaat
onion - oignon - ui
ham - jambon - ham
creamy cheese - fromage frais - kwark
smoked salmon - saumon fumé - gerookte zalm
spring onions - oignons nouveaux - bosuitjes

Purple Carpet

The purple flowers at the gate have copiously multiplied to a continuous cover. They're Campanulas, as I've finally taken the time to find out.  There's bees enjoying them too.

bee - abeille - bei

 

Evening Fragrance

The honeysuckle has flowers, which give off a sweet smell in the evening and night to attract pollinators. The missus has cut a few flowers to have the scent by the bed.

honeysuckle - chèvrefeuille - kamperfoelie 

 

Sleek Visitor

One of our roses got inspected at length by a beautiful little dragonfly. Where I did think it may have been two but looking at the photos it probably was one and the same. It thankfully took its time so I could go and get the zoom lens out.

dragonfly - libellule - libelle

 

Crow Commotion

Not quite a brawl I think, but a number of crows converged on neighbouring trees for a serious shouting match and much flying about. A couple of magpies complained loudly but escaped early and didn't seem really involved this time. By the time I got the camera proceedings had largely moved into the trees but still with raucous clamours. The image above is an impression of how things started from combined shots of either reinforcements arriving or the odd one-on-one chase.

crow - corbeau - kraai
magpie - pie bavarde - ekster

 

Bright

The morning sun shines into the bathroom (where the missus has put the bird that normally stands on the counter in the window for a change). It promises to be another bright sunny day.

 

Flying Visit

Our eldest had been invited to meet his girlfriend's parents for a barbecue, down near Charleroi where they're from. She decided to come along for the rest of the weekend with him in Breda but they briefly stopped over for coffee and pie. Short but good.

New Toy

I bought this battery-driven mower online, which turned out to be a rather small little thing when it arrived. The missus uttered the word "flimsy" a dozen times or so and her describing it as a toy wasn't inappropriate due to its size. But on the plus side, it's very lightweight and maneuverable, does what it's supposed to and much less of a slog on the front garden slope. Only drawback is the batteries petering out rather quickly, so I need to see if we're charging them properly or get replacements of larger capacity. 

With me and the mower out of the way waiting for recharged batteries, the missus settled down in the shade.

Backlog

After a busy week where nobody felt like doing the dishes, these had piled up quite a bit. So avoiding the heat outside I got to work with the brush while Elmore James energetically dusted his broom at suitable volume. I had the dishes done by the time he finished his CD. 

Hot

Today is hot. "Subtropical" is how the weather man on Dutch TV classified it for the evening news. Even the missus was tempered in her usual energy and drive, sitting down for a bit throughout the day.

Inside we again do the meditarranean thing in closing down the blinds on the sunny side (where the coaltits have left their nest so no danger there any more). There's a marked difference with past years in that the roof is now insulated. The house stays cool instead of being baked by a sun on a concrete roof. That alone is worth the insulation.

Shadow Roses

At the end of the week the sun is setting. And just projecting light across some of our roses into the hallway.

Roses Return

While having lunch in the kitchen we could see new roses have appeared, peeping round on both sides of the window. 

Where the little ones still have a lot of flowers to come! 

Finds

The missus scored a lovely little strawberry strainer and a paté dish. I got her a Moroccan pillow.

Wet Interlude

The heavens opened up halfway back to the car, with people scurrying along under umbrellas and coats over their heads or finding shelter where possible. We took refuge in a corner bar and sat out the rain over hot chocolate. 

Market Day

We hadn't been to the flea market in ages, so we forayed into town today. As we usually do, we started on the Sablon, the snobbish side of the market district. Where the dealers in tents on the square admittedly have some nice stuff but with rather exorbitant prices to match.  The sculpture above had a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, seen on the stall with the "buy Congo" notice below.

Moving downhill to the rue Blaes and the flea market proper, we did our best not to be taken for tourists (plenty of foreign languages heard there).

Next we had a toasted sandwich in a side street before exploring the various little shops and emporia on our way back to the car. 

 Strange proportions above. Antique air guitar below:

The missus wants some camel cushion covers so we looked into a carpet shop. Where I wonder what they feed the tigers where this rug was made!

A nice woman from Ukraine had wonderful hand-knotted rugs, and this poignant object in the window:

More marvels seen:

Back at the Sablon we like this particular store. And the sign outside!