Tag: Spring Flowers

cedar strip canoe

Now Entering the Fabulous 55+ Club

The Cedar Journal February 6, 2021

What is the big deal? Well, most likely nothing except a few more aches and pains from my years of adventuring. I know it has been awhile since I last blogged and the reason is… you guessed it… COVID LOCKDOWN.

So when I turned the page on 50+ this last week to 55+ I had to celebrate at home, without a party, and with only the Hubby. Funny thing is, it was one of my best birthdays in recent memory.

These tulips were the first to arrive via Hubby on the bicycle.

There just is something about a card in the old snail mail that puts a smile on my face. This year I got a few from family and friends here in the Netherlands and the one from Canada showed up 4 days after it was mailed!

My youngest son, who is currently deployed with the USAF in Qatar sent me birthday greetings via text and told me to expect flowers too. What did I want he asked? Tulips! He delivered!

My Hubby took the day off of work and went out and got me two bouquets of flowers! Wow, that brighten up the house under lockdown!

But, my day of flower deliveries was not over…

My two step kids and their partners both sent me flowers and those coming from different florist turned out to be so much alike that I placed them together to make a beautiful arrangement. They know me pretty well, my favorite color is purple.

When the last delivery of the day showed up, three bouquets of flowers from one florist I almost thought maybe flowers were a bit much for turning 55, but, I didn’t turn them away as my heart swelled with all the love I was getting from these deliveries. If entering the 55+ club means I get this many flowers in the dead of winter each year, I will take it!

Update on Dutch lockdown:

The lockdown with limited contact restrictions (one person from outside your home visit, per household, per day), work from home as much as possible, restaurants closed, bars closed, all shopping closed except for online with limited scheduled pick ups or delivery. Child care is now open, elementary schools go back to in school learning this week. Curfew is still in effect for now.

They estimate that 25% of all new cases in The Netherlands are of the English variant. They started vaccination of the oldest of the population groups this last week. We will get a letter from the government when our age group is qualified for a vaccine and then it is up to us to make an appointment. We guess that won’t be until sometime in the summer.

The aviation business is hurting here, as it is everywhere. Since that is how we are able to finance our blog and our canoe trips we are unsure how that will effect our future. Hopefully we will be able to bring more content in the coming months.

Until such time we will enjoy the blizzard we are currently experiencing. Then the next week of predicted freezing temperatures.

We would love to hear how things are in your world. Comment below or drop us an email via our contact page. Stay safe.

Friday Floral

The Cedar Journal January 15, 2021

Cold, gloomy and a chance this weekend of snow makes for a ho hum sort of walk, until you see these.

These happy daffodils put a smile and sunshine into my gloomy walk.

Now, inspired, I looked for other signs of brightness in the gardens I passed.

This periwinkle is protected by the rock wall.

The shrubs in this moderate climate provide colorful eye catching berries.

Bright red berries pop color from this garden.

The First 2021 Tulips

The Cedar Journal January 13, 2021

The first greenhouse Dutch tulips of 2021!

Ahhh…yes! In all the chaos, the Dutch greenhouses continue to pump out these beautiful flowers.

Enjoy.

Historische Tuin for a Historische Thyme

The Cedar Journal May 11, 2020

I did mix Dutch and English a bit in this title. I played with the two languages and a play on the words time and thyme (a garden plant). Hopefully it didn’t confuse my readers too much.

We headed out on Friday (the Hubby took a day off, he is working from home so this time outside of the house was needed. It felt like a day off for both of us) to Aalsmeer to the Historische Tuin (Historic Garden) where I normally volunteer each summer.

As you might have guessed normal is not normal and volunteer work is also affected. The issue with gardens that depend almost solely on volunteer workers to maintain the areas is that the garden (nature) doesn’t know there is a lurking virus. The workers (volunteers) are mostly over the age of 65 and thus puts them into the high risk group. Since I have underlying conditions that could also place me in a higher risk group, I contacted the manager in early March and told him that I would not be coming to volunteer until the rules were relaxed a bit.

This is how I social distance from the Hubby

That started to happen today. All grade school children to age 12 went back to school! Could you hear the sigh of relief from parents? The Dutch ministry is going step by step on reopening the country. The biggest near future issues that need to be solved will be with public transport, the aviation industry, and large events like soccer games or music concerts.

I made an appointment to tour the garden and take some pictures for this blog. Being the only one (with the Hubby) inside the gardens was a real treat since we haven’t been out much since this all started in March. The gardens have been working with a small skeleton crew of regular volunteers since the Prime Minister shut the country down. Some activities like the yearly plant sale were cancelled. But, like I stated, the garden continues to need attention and I was ready to see how bad things were with the limited work force.

Oh NO! He found me!!!

I was surprised! It wasn’t the normal for this time of the year but it was in great shape considering the limits that were placed on this institution with the start of the virus.

Inside one of the green houses that was newly remodeled.

Here are a few of the pictures of the gardens as it looks right now. There is not a date as of right now if or when it will be opened to the public, but when it does I would like to ask each of you (if possible) to visit.

Inside another newly remodeled green house these clematis were mostly lost two winters ago do to the poor conditions in the dated greenhouses. Now they are flourishing in this new environment.

The greenhouse rose gardens are in full bloom.

A sample of the greenhouse roses.

One of the hundreds of Lilacs in full bloom

One of my favorites as it reminds me of Minnesota, Iris in full bloom.

Flowers and Thyme

As we finished with our photo tour the Hubby and I ordered “take away” coffee and scones from the Historische Tuin Restaurant which has had to find a new way to keep in business while still maintaining social distancing. We enjoyed the backdrop of the Aalsmeer windmill and watched the boats on the canal as we sat on the bench outside the Historische Tuin. It was a perfect outing for a day off of work in these strange new times.

A special thanks to Historische Tuin Garden Manager, Dick Maarsen who approved my afternoon of photojournalism at the Historische Tuin. He and his team of limited volunteers will continue to maintain the gardens until they reopen sometime in the future.

Liberation Day 2020

The Cedar Journal May 5, 2020

75 years ago today the Dutch citizens danced in the streets to welcome the Allied Forces, their liberators after more than four years under Nazi rule.

Each year flags are hung to remember that day and to celebrate freedom. This year the national day off was, well less than normal.

We took the opportunity to head out on our first canoe ride of the year. We both needed to be on the water, to flex our canoe muscles, to free ourselves of the four walls of the house. I am usually on the water for weeks by May. Either in Minnesota or here but the last two years have presented some challenges. This year I am guessing most of my readers can relate to the cabin fever syndrome.

He travelled to Hillegom, NL to a place we have paddled before in the Spring. The canals lead through the tulip fields and usually are filled with color and scents of blooms.

The Bulb Canoe Route starting in Hillegom, NL

This was the first time we have had to place Cedar on our new (to us) VW Caddy. We were worried about how we would lift her to the much higher roof of this van. In fact we talked about it most of the winter, tried to watch videos of people who lift canoes onto higher profiles vehicles (no luck on that!), and finally came up with a system that seemed to work for us.

We love the fact that the VW Caddy has so much more room for our gear.