Are you a member of the hellebore appreciation society yet? I certainly am! They are a garden favourite because they’re one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. They brighten up the winter garden while we are all longing for some colour. They are expensive, but they give a great return on investment.
Author: Pauline@cloverhome
What I love about blogging
The lovely Bex kindly nominated me for a Liebster Award. If you haven’t heard of it before, the Liebster Award is passed around the blogging community to new or smaller bloggers. It’s simply a way of getting to know each other a little better. Because I loved reading Bex’s post, I thought I’d take up the challenge.
Bex and I met through a wonderful online photography course by Emily Quinton we took together. We learned about composition, finding the light and all the technical stuff. We shared and commented on each other’s pictures and it was so much fun! I can highly recommend it to any flower lover who wants to take better pictures.
Market days March
March seems to have been much colder, wetter and darker than February. So, no sunshine on this month’s market pictures, just grey skies, and raindrops.
DIY turquoise Easter eggs
Easter is just a week away so I decided it was time to dye some eggs. While the kids are busy with their egg holder and paintbrush I am working on my own project: dyeing eggs in different shades of turquoise.
Haven’t dyed your Easter eggs yet and looking for an easy project? These pretty turquoise eggs make an easy and inexpensive Easter decoration. All you need are eggs, a simple Easter egg kit and some patience.
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At the cutting garden
I love flowers and have always enjoyed a bouquet of fresh flowers in the house. Flowers are relatively cheap in the Netherlands and even in winter, there is an abundant choice of flowers and colours. I usually buy my flowers at the market. I love going to the historic city centre each week to buy vegetables and bread.
There is so much to see and always something to taste at the market. I enjoy the lively atmosphere in the streets and squares on market days.
Market days February: tulip fever
We live in a small but lively old city close to Amsterdam. We have it all: the canals, the canal houses, the picturesque bridges, but on a much smaller scale. You can even take a cruise through the canals. This is not a commercial canal cruise like the ones in Amsterdam, the captain and guide are senior citizens volunteering.
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Dream garden
It is still winter but there are signs of spring everywhere. The snowdrops are the first flowers to bloom in our garden. Two varieties of hellebores lighten up the back garden, they are so pretty. There are also some green hellebores in the front garden. They don’t get much sun so they probably won’t open for weeks.
Sweet pea love
I love flowers but I never grew my own flowers. Having a small garden, and four little boys who wanted to play in that garden definitely had something to do with it. But then we moved to a new house with trees in the garden for the boys to climb in. It was a dream come true.
The house used to belong to an old lady and the garden was rather neglected. With moving house for the second time in one year, and still a lot of painting to do, gardening wasn’t the first thing on my mind.
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Linzer Torte recipe for Valentine’s Day
Lots of people don’t like Valentine’s day because they consider it a commercial holiday. They don’t need a special day to show their love – they do that every day! Perhaps they just don’t like sugar-coated cards and pink hearts. But you don’t have to buy champagne, red roses or heart-shaped chocolate (you certainly can if you want to!). Try simply doing something nice. Send a friend a sweet and thoughtful card or make your husband his favourite food.
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