Visit to Hex and a G.I.T.

It seemed to be the nicest day in June so far when we went to the event of Rare Plants in Hex. We have been so many times but it never is getting boring. The castle is of a size that one can really imagine to live there, the park is very pleasant and well maintained with a large number of ancient rare trees and the gardens around the house are practical and pretty.The exhibitors have smiling faces, the prices are correct and it is such a pleasant atmosphere as one can see how much the visitors admire the 'flair' of this place. The many different roses are out, one can wander around admiring all the details or sitting down, taking it all in and have a refreshment or small snack.The horse stables are cool inside and those doors are always decorated with different wreaths of fresh flowers. I had to take a picture of this strange tree, EG explained it is a paper mulberry and the touch of these fruits is so soft. Those greenhouses make me wanting to have one, quick!

And for sure, I was attracted by the beehives - on my must-have-list, as well. Isn't it practical to still have some old tiles for such a shelter for the bees? EG's skills were immediately of interest ;-). Hex is totally self sufficient, they grow the whole range of fruits and vegetables en masse. They sell what is grown also on local markets.

A few new plants wanted absolutely to get a new home in the Bayous like penstemons, geranium and thalictrum. Some wee ferns - and one not so wee, a Dixonia.

Let's have a small G.I.T. ? (Garden Inspection Tour)

This month of June, the vegetation is slow due to the hard and long winter and the roses just start to show up. One of the first to greet us is Souppert & Notting. The delphiniums and black iris are since more than a year in the 'Grotto border'.

Good to see that the yellow water iris develops well and shows more than one tiny stick.

All this nice green and fresh foliage!

Here are some of my favourites: The early Clematis is in its second year, the linum is so dainty and fits anywhere where it selfseeds, the rose has found a nice partner in the white Valerian and the geranium magnificum has a much better colour than my camera can show.The weather and the temperature changes almost daily, so far we had no long period of what feels like summer but it seems that the flowers enjoy it all.Here on this first picture is one of my experiments: Clematis Jan Fopma meets bamboo... So far, she copes and climbs and climbs. This is the so called 'geese border' next to the -now empty- compound. In the middle the new thalictrum "Black Stockings", a stunning appearance. The rose is Blairii No2, nearly lost in the first hard winter, recovered slowly last year without bloom ... and to get another hit this winter. But, a small shoot came up and is full with buds :-).In the front garden the new hydrangea border and EG's wild plant. Rosa Moyessii is one of the only survivor of the vole attacks. I am looking forward to taste those potatoes -all from Cheshire :-) and enjoy the colombines dancing in the sun.
EG's so called 'Parks and Gardens department' is developping well and slowly. From what was formerly a cow field, gives now a wee illusion to become a real "garden".

The highlight for the camera in the sunshine is always the pond. I cannot stop making pictures with the reflections in the water.

If all works to plan, next time the front garden will be ready to be shown with one of the ramblers flowering -Paul's Himalayan Musk in the big tree and the knot. But in the meantime there will be some more hours of effort and enjoyment.

Another Ancient Book

The weather is fantastic and today the hay will be baled and brought in. There is nothing better than the small of freshly drying hay in the air of a warm evening in June. Hay time is High Time.

First of all, here is the promised picture of grotto's steps down. But this is not what triggers my blog entry. Some bloggers participate on Alphabe-Thursday

and I wondered if the idea was born through alphabetic scrapbooks?

During my last visit to the fleamarket, that's exactly what I found: an old alphabet scrapbook in a very good condition and the pages are filled with plenty of embossed pictures and greeting cards. What is the most surprising, it must have come across from the UK and is truely Victorian. Once this book was in my bag, I continued all my tour with a silly smile on my face. Birthday, Christmas and Wedding Anniversary in once!

You might enjoy those beautiful pages as much as I do:

Il était une fois - Once Upon a Time - es war einmal

Once upon a time there was a monastery on these grounds. It is so long ago that nobody can tell about it any more. But people say that the stones and other bits are still to be found deep down in the ground. Years and years, EG imagined how it must have been then. He searched around for evidences, he let his fantasy flow. This was the start of a mystic project. The project which leads to the secret underground entry to the ancient abbey. The project which is called "the Grotto".


The abbey was certainly not as important as "l'Abbaye du Val Dieu" which is not far from here, near Aubel.

This abbey is situated in the heart of the "Pays de Herve" and the monks brewed wonderful beer and made delicious "fromage de Herve". Some years ago, the last monk has moved out of the abbey. The recipe for the 'Val Dieu' beer had been taken over by a small brewery. The big mill can still be visited and a restaurant is attached to it. Worthwhile a visit at any moment of the year! http://www.val-dieu.net/
EG's grotto project started due to the fact that we had a wee mount of soil left from digging activities -he searched hard but strangely he never found the foundations of 'our' ancient abbeye ;-). The wee hill is just left to the Grill Kota.For to better show me his grotto vision, he made me a sketch: that was more than 2 years ago. The sketch has since embellished our fridge door but the grotto would not grow...

A first start was to dig into the ground. Or it had been too wet and the soil would be so heavy to dig out or it would have been too dry and would have needed a good load of dynamite to break it up. Summer last year:
In between there were always other priorities which had to be given: mowing, pruning, emptying the pit off all the horse menure (for project number 384: the greenhouse), reparing various broken things on the farm, planting vegetables, re-designing front garden, wedding preparations, getting married, partying, more mowing and on top of that spending loads of time for paid work, sometimes in the office, some other times outside the country for longer travels.

Then, after some weeks, the gate was placed. I believe, that was the trigger. It was to enhance his vision and for to encourage progress.
This lad by then started to tapping his foot.... he had successfully applied for the job of grotto guard last year in Tournai.

Measuring out and placing the liner was the next step. The hole got wet and the soil collapsed again into it.In the meantime, whilst it was drying, old bricks from the old toilet in the shed had to be knocked down, cleaned and selected. Once the start of brick building was done, the grotto had its structure.

Then my wonderful EG was in the swing! He built and built and built.This pile of stones in the front of the winter picture on the right hand side had to be carried down to the building place.

Again tons of heavy wheelbarrows moved.

Then the old oak had to be cut - by hand. It had to be treated and oiled. It definitely takes shape here:

Tataaaaaa!!!!! Drums!!!!

Final inspection from everybody and approval. The Bayous have now a real grotto!

It has to be mentioned, that the whole feature is entirely recycled: the old iron gate came from the front, the stones from Soumagne, the concrete roof is made out of old fence posts, the metal sheet which covers the top was found in the garage, the liner is a piece of left over from the swim pond building, as is the gravel, the bricks came from the old toilet, the timber is oak from the stable roof ...

On top of that, our place is a wee bit more tidy----oh I should miss all those items which were laying around and who have now found a good home ;-)

Plenty of Perfect Days

Many many perfect days. In German there is a saying: "Nichts ist schlechter zu ertragen, als eine Reihe von guten Tagen." How wrong! Nothing better than perfect days!

A day trip on the very first splendid spring day to Alsace.

Then some great moments spent in the UK, Shropshire, Cheshire - plenty of smiling, wonderful people. We started the journey with a great meal and delicious trout which had an encounter with Dutch asparagus. Thank you, dear friends!

Then up to Cheshire for THE family event. I cannot say how thankful I am to be now part of that wonderful clan! We carried a car full of hats for EG's "do" and had much fun. The dog behaved at its best and we must do that soon again.

Then another treasure was found on our local fleamarket. You can easily guess who found it and where?

This is a well traveled book, a so called "Poesie Album". The entries start in Liège in 1899 and it belonged to a demoiselle Madeleine D. She goes then to school in Liège, afterwards in Sankt Ursula, Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) and the school which was founded by the "Ursuliner" became the first school where girls could make their "Abitur" in order to go to university afterwards. She also went to Boscombe near Bournemouth but this school, hélas, does no more exist now. It had an interesting story as well which I found here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/msboscombe/History/begin.htm

The hand written entries are from school mates and teachers in all their mother tongues and specific writing. The Germans still wrote in the old German writing which I still can read as my grandmother used to send us letters written all in old German.

I was immediately touched by this book as I "understand" it. Those are my languages and I am sorry not to know what became to this demoiselle later on. She might have been a clever girl having competed in a man's world?

I am surprised how different the writings are and wonder if there was given more discipline to French and German hand writing in that time or why the English were allowed to more individuality? My other grandmother would always critize my handwriting "als wären die Hühner drübergelaufen" (as if chicken had run over the pages).

Being a time millionaire means, one can enjoy the brocante whenever one wishes.

My latest finds are sweet little gems and never cost a lot:

China, silver - plenty of eye candies.

Even a little bear from Harrods with a Union Jack jumper would come home to join the small gang of existing bears: the doggy sleeping bear, the Steiff travel bear in its suitcase, the wedding bear in the family tartan and the Jubilee Inn bear from Cornwall. Every bear a little treasure, as well.
We are not only addicted to those collections, we are also heavily infected by the plant hunting virus. I warn you, it is so contagious and I know plenty of people who got the same bug. EG's actual bug is rare trees and I am now on hardy Geraniums. And Thalictrums. And bells. Campanula in all available forms. Or penstemons.

We enjoyed again a perfect day last weekend in Celles and came back with 3 trees, 14 geraniums, 2 Phloxes and some dill, fennel and kardoum. The sky: spotless. Not one disturbing condensation trail and such a blue sky - it was blue ribbon day!

The nice spring weather invites to dig in the garden and here is some of the progress of this year's "building activities". EG's grotto (dog wondering what this is going to become) and the pit almost empty. Best guess is some 6 t of 4 year old horse manure was shifted. Now the greenhouse man can come next Saturday to take correct measurements.

Surprisingly, one of our Cornish Camellias has even been able to flower this year. It is close to the stones of the housewall and has a very sheltered space.

Finally here is the collection of Daffodils. Some are Cornish, others are very ancient species and EG is adding every year two or three or four or five ;-) . So every spring, it is a big discovery!

I'll dedicate them to dear Twiglet. She is a sweet friend who has given me a blog award which I only found out now *blush*. Thank you so much, Twiglet, I can only return your kind compliment as I am also fond of your creativity and blog entries!

I am not sure when I will take the time again to upload photographs as the days will be spent mainly outdoors but I shall be back!