End of summer

The summer holidays are over and my boys are back in school. A lot has happened since I was last here. At the beginning of summer, I lost my blogging motivation altogether. I even hardly picked up my camera anymore. My husband was having serious back problems and was in a lot of pain. After  examination in the hospital, it turned out he had a hernia and needed surgery.

I was worried.

And then there were the boys. We have four teenage boys. Even though they are smart, it turned out they had to work very hard to be promoted to the next year. To be honest, our youngest son did well in school. He is still a good little boy.

It was all hands on deck but sometimes it felt like my husband and I were the only ones motivated to study. Of course, all teenagers like to argue with their parents. I would say I am a pretty relaxed parent. Watching our kids grow up is a joy. I don’t mind the noise, the drama, the insults, the body odour. Well, actually, I do mind the body odour (insert rolling eyes emoji).

This time, I felt stressed and tired.

And then there were the terrorist attacks all over Europe. So many victims, so sad. These events always make me feel uncomfortable. You want to do something, but there is nothing you can do.

You can’t even reassure your children. We went to Normandy for our holidays. I told my children: Normandy is the countryside, nothing ever happens there. And then a priest was killed inside a church in Normandy. I have friends who stopped reading newspapers, but this doesn’t stop terrorism.

But then the sun began to shine again for us as a family. Not literally, because summer in Holland was really disappointing. We all worked hard and with results. Exercise helped my husband to cure his hernia. He has not yet fully recovered, but enough to go on holiday.

And I sold my first pictures. Wow.

I booked a holiday home in Normandy at the very last minute. We had a wonderful week. The weather was lovely, the French were polite, it was like living in paradise. I love Normandy, the beaches, the food, the countryside, everything.

It was so good to get away. We all needed the rest. We didn’t do anything special. We went to the beach and swam in the sea almost every day. We went out to dinner and tried out some new dishes. I even convinced the boys to visit a garden with me. I will write a blog post about is some other time.

I did not take a lot of photos on holiday. I don’t want to be the kind of person who is looking at life through a lens, and not living life. I want to be there, enjoying the moment, not trying to capture the moment.

I even gave the big camera to my youngest son a couple of times. He told me he was going to be the photographer of the day and that his photographs were going to be amazing! And they are. Some out of focus or crooked, but with lots of memories attached.

I apologise if this blog post isn’t what you expected. It’s not about flowers or gardening. I have been busy in my garden and have taken lots of photographs. You can see my dahlias on Instagram or Facebook if you like. Or read a blog post I wrote a year ago about my dahlia garden. The dahlias are pumping out flowers. If you live in the neighbourhood, do come by and pick up a bunch.

The flowers in this blog post are scabiosa, also known as pincushion flower. I bought them at the market. I went there with one of my boys (to carry the groceries obviously, that’s why you have children). We needed meat, bread and fruit but I couldn’t resist these beautiful scabiosa. The blue is so vivid.

It is popular as a garden flower but it is also found in the wild. I saw it growing in Normandy next to the path leading to the beach. But I didn’t take a picture.