Lovely Donkeys

I just love donkeys!

If we would own enough land, I would like 2-4 donkeys.

Realising they need lots of space, care and attention!

I would like to foster donkeys from an animal sanctuary.

It's a pity people forget to think about the food and veterinarian costs in advance.

And don't realise that a donkey can easily reach the age of 35-40 years.

Each year hundreds of neglected, unwanted or unloved donkeys go to an animal sanctuary.

If you're interested, find some more information at The Donkey Sanctuary.

Music

All my life music has been incredible important to me.

I don't play a musical instrument myself and I can't even sing.

But I do try when no one can hear me ;-)

The kenderman is doing way better! Just this once :-)))

I won't even start trying to tell you what I like...... it's way too much.

A really nice song I just listened to is: Our Mutual Friend from The Divine Comedy.

Too bad it's not the best recording but you can listen to a live performance here.

Artifact

Last monday we bought a new artifact for our livingroom.

Things like these balance the new and sleek design in our home :-)

I think the mix of all sorts of things creates your personal interior.

This artifact is a so called 'threshing-sledge' (in Dutch 'dorsslede') and it was used to thresh the grain.

The wholes in the wood are filled with lots of firestones. Flint was used for the manufacture of flint tools during the Stone Age as it splits into thin, sharp spinters called flakes or blades.
This sledge was pulled by an ox or mule while someone sat on top of it.

Now our hunt for the missing stones starts ;-)

Brothers and Cistus

The Cistus is flowering it's socks off !

Fern

Crozier.

This beautiful plant is a tree fern called: Cyathea cooperi 'Revolvulum' (Garrod's form).

It's look like the plant is really thirsty but it's just a "wheeping tree fern".

Bathroom

Plastic rug from Pappelina.

 Shower curtain from Ikea.

Metro tiles.

Angelica

Angelica archangelica

Geranium

Geranium renardii 'Philippe Vapelle'

Rice Porcelain

 Originally I had just 4 of these bowls.

Then I found 4 little ones in a junk shop :-)

So now there are 8 of them. 

This is called "rice (grain) porcelain" and hopefully you can see the light come through.

You can see some other examples at skôn.

Cistus

 Cistus 'Chelsea Bonnet'

This bush is bursting with flowerbuds.

This is our first flower.
Gorgeous!

Peek

Here is a peek in our PHE cabinet.

Sympathy

Angelica Archangelica (asa Garden Angelica, Holy Ghost, Wild Celery, Norwegia angelica)

One of our few really close friends has a terribly ill family member.

We really sympathize and we wish we could do something to help.
Life can be so beautiful but it can be difficult as well.

Raw Edges

This piece of porcelain is from Dutch designer Dik Scheepers.

It hides the ugly plastic plant pot pretty good.
Don't forget to check out my skôn blog

Stay Over

Last saturday a good friend came to visit us and stayed over for the night.

We had a great time together without having to worry about the time :-)

Meadow

Our meadow is in full bloom right now.

We have drifts of buttercups and ragged-robin.

Cabbage White (asa Pieris rapae, little white, klein koolwitje)

Sil

Starling

A Common Starling (asa European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris) with a beak full of red beetles.

Our meadow provides food to lots of animals.

You can see some nice Starling close-ups here.

These birds make incredible sounds, have a metallic coat and they "dance" in huge flocks. 

Sil + Robin

Sil and ragged-robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) in our meadow.

Energise

Sometimes you have to take care of your energy levels :-)

Especially after working a couple of hours in the garden.

PHE

One of my favourite designers is Piet Hein Eek.

Some people might think it's just a lot of over-priced rubbish but I love his furniture of reclaimed wood.

White Buttercup

We bought this white buttercup (Ranunculus aconitifolius) a year ago.

The flowers should be sterile so the plant won't produce viable seeds.

Luckily it came back vigorously because I like it a lot.

Blue Poppy

Yesterday the first blue poppy (Meconopsis Betonicifolia) started fowering.

I'm over the moon that they keep coming back each year.

This flower is so incredible beautiful!!!

This is how it looks today.