forget-me-nots

Flower day with forget-me-nots today.

hello april!

A bunch of ranunculus from the market and a new 'old' vase from Lammie's shop.

faded flowers

The last garden flowers of the year, which are already faded but still pretty.

This field bouquet with nigella damascene, corn flowers and coriander flowers, I picked last week from the Villa Augustus garden. And hey, 2018 has been a lush floral year! I can not remember a year, the flowers in the garden bloomed so abundantly and flowering lasted until mid-November.

From now on we get the flowers from the auction.

I'm not only fond of flowers, I also love vases, as you may have noticed.

The painted vintage flower vase is also from Villa Augustus. I bought it in the market shop where I work 3 days a week. It's always hard to resist special items like these. I've set myself a rule, that I can never buy something impulsively. I have to wait at least one week, until I proceed to a purchase. Simply because you don't have to buy everything you like right?... And often the need is much less after a week, I know from experience. It is a great rule if you work in a nice shop like the Villa Augustus market shop, where almost daily beautiful new stuff comes in.

This unique vintage vase stared at me, and even now I kept to the 'wait a week' rule...

Well I cheated a little bit, because I put a 'reserved' sticker on it.

So the painted vase has found it's place in my new studio (under construction) and I love it, even without flowers in it, still beautiful.

summertime, and the livin' is easy

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...

in bloom

Magnolia in bloom!

The massive magnolia branch, my friend Rosa brought from the market last week, was big and beautiful! and top-heavy...
Even the largest jug in the house, couldn't handle the weight. So I decided to cut off the side branches and make a magnolia bouquet.

The flower-buds opened up one by one in the past days. Today the magnolia is in full bloom and is shining on my home-made plant stand.

poppy anemones

Poppy Anemones are my favorite 'winter flowers' and preferably this pinkish-rose color called Sylphide.

To enjoy anemones a little longer, you need to put them in a small amount of water, because otherwise the flower stems might rot. Make sure you check the vase daily, because they take up large amounts of water. A transparent vase is therefore the best choice for the poppy anemones.

Took this 'I feel like spring' picture with my iPhone this morning, while I was working at the kitchen table. I posted it on Instagram and wanted to share it overhere anyway.

a bunch of flowers, like in a child's drawing...

local saturday market

Saturday morning.

An early visit to the local market for fresh vegetables and flowers.

We chose anemones for the kitchen table.
Ingredients for tonight's tajine; carrots, fennel, sweet colored peppers, potatoes, snow peas, garlic olives, a preserved salted lemon and chicken.
Fresh figs and chocolate for dessert.

Today Dietske, owner of the coolest house in Amsterdam East, will visit us. She is a sweetheart, whom I met in May as a participant of the Green Gardens workshop in Marrakech. We obviously cook a proper moroccan meal for her. Tajine is already simmering on the stove...

blooming & botanical

The second day of our botanical discoveries we headed outside the city walls of the medina.

Early morning visit to Jardin Majorelle is obviously included in the program. In our private 'greenhouse', we worked on our herbarium while enjoying coffee, tea & kaab el ghazal, delicious Moroccan pastries.

Via a gigantic colorful botanical garden out of town, we continued the green trip with our minibus, up for lunch in an ancient olive grove.

After a blissful lunch, time for a relaxing afternoon in and around the pool and a some of us made another stroll through the beautiful gardens.

At the end of the day we enter the city walls of Marrakech with a botanical afterglow.

green gardens workshop - the premiere

The premiere of the Green Garden workshop in Marrakech was even better and greener than we imagined when we came up with the program.

All the gardens and parks in the medina were already so green and full of bloom!
Blooming pomegranate trees, the beautifully recognizable crowns of fruits already fully recognizable.

During our first morning 'gardens' tour, we all collected leaves, blossoms and seeds, to get started with our herbarium after lunch. Great fun to see how everyone used his own personal collection to make a green diary.

In the afternoon we continued our walk to the local flower market and a public park and ended on the roof at El Fenn for drinks with a view.

At the end of the day we returned to our base camp, the green oasis Chambres d'Amis. Just a bit tired of all impressions, but surely satisfied with our first green adventures.

keen on flowers and plants

This whole week I've enjoyed the spring flowers in the kitchen.
The flowers I got from my friend Rosa last Friday. Together with my daughter, she chose the spring beauties, in the flower shop where Pippa works.
They know what I like...

In an interview for Home & Garden, I once said, I'm not too keen on houseplants, but crazy about flowers. Plants and flowers get along fine together in our house nowadays. The reason I prefered flowers, was because they are gone after a week and it's time for something new.

You know by now, that I have revised my opinion about houseplants and I still get overjoyed by fresh flowers.

vase d'amour

Vase d'avril, but i call it vase d'amour for the occasion.

Last week in Paris, Henk surprised me with a very special wedding anniversary gift.
We visited the shop of Tsé & Tsé Associés in Paris and while i was looking around upstairs in the amazing shop, Henk bought my favorite vase.
It was an amazing surprise!

I've been working with the Vase d'Avril for almost ten years now, during my flowerdays at Villa Augustus.
During the years I've sold a lot of vases in the market shop and told the happy new owners it's a great investment, because you can create a tiny flowerfield with just a few flowers.
This morning I bought some tulips at the flowershop, where my daughter Pippa is working and she choose those pretty pastel pink tulips for me.

I think it looks amazing on the small table in our kitchen and I'm very happy with it. So precious!