Goodbye 2020 , hello 2021.

2020 is almost over. 2021 is just around the corner. 2020 has been unlike any year I have ever lived through. 

I remember the day Belgium went into lockdown like it was yesterday. 

A few weeks before the lockdown Covid19 had appeared in Italy and a colleague sitting at the desk next to me who had been to Italy for a meeting was told to go home and quarantine herself for at least 2 weeks.

I am happy to say that during her quarantine she didn't get sick and neither did I. So we were probably not infected.

2 weeks later on Friday the 13th of March we were all told to work from home.

On Friday 13th I went to the local supermarket. It was absolutely swarming with customers. 

Inside it looked like people were expecting a war to break out any minute.

Flour and sugar had almost sold out.

Coffee , just a few brands left. 

Toilet paper : nothing left. Spaghetti and canned tomatoes and canned tomato sauces : empty shelves.

I had visions of people living on nothing but pasta and tomato sauce and coffee and sugar ( and pancakes) for the next few months and looking for places to stack their mountains of toilet rolls.

For some unfathomable reason, more than half of the champagne in cartons of six bottles had been sold (see photo below). Not the single bottles though. And the wine shelves looked as full as ever. 

I found that rather comforting. At least some people were trying to stay positive and preparing for the celebrations that would happen when the lockdown and Covid would end.   

There was still plenty of beer, wine and fresh vegetables and fruit. I stocked up on fresh veggies and fruit , cheese and meat and fish and a crate of one of my favourite beers. Just the necessary things to keep me going for the next two or three weeks.  Not having a car keeps you from overbuying stuff you don't really need.

Working from home does have a few advantages. 

I don't need to drive to work every morning and I also get to eat as much recipes with garlic as I like

during the week, because the next day I won't be bothering anyone. 

My cat of course thinks the lockdown is great! Her personal butler (me) is now available 24 / 7.

Heaven !

Because traffic is much less and there are less people on the street, the local wildlife has grown bolder and I see more of them in my garden.

I don't have a lawn and a lot of the garden near the fruit trees is pretty uncared for, except for my vegetable garden at the back. 

I dug a hole for a large pond once, somewhere in the distant past and put a plastic sheet in it to keep weeds from growing. It fills up every time it rains and every day dozens of birds come to wash and drink there.

In autumn and winter when food get scarce I hang up seeds and dried insects for the birds.

One of my regular customers is a robin who's been living nearby for a few years.

He's particularly keen on the dried insects.

One day he got into the house and I had a hard time persuading him to leave until I threatened charging him rent if he staid indoors. He was out the front door in a flash. 

 

Once I got a visit from a pheasant, which is a bit strange, because there is at least 400 metres of streets and houses between me and the nearest woods, which he has to cross to get to my garden. Maybe the birds tell each other which garden has food ?

He was looking for seeds and so close to my back window, which made it actually hard to take decent pictures. I had to sit up against the pane to get a good view and keep him from spotting me :)

I think he nearly spotted me in the photo below.

A wild garden has of course massive amounts of snails and this young hedgehog was hunting his favorite snacks (snails) right in front of my front door one evening. 

This year I have also had success with my citrus plants. Each year I transfer them to a larger pot and

now that I have potted them in larger pots (12 and 14 liter) they're big enough to produce large fruits. 

My lemon tree is now bearing full size fruit.

My two Yuzu trees. The yuzu fruits are not full size yet but very fragrant.

and finally my Satsuma tree. It has lost quite a few leaves and some branches dried out in the hottest June we ever had, but it is now big enough to have complete fruits and the fruits are OK. They have turned a nice orange by now, so I will be eating extremely fresh mikan on New Year '21, straight from the tree.  

Best wishes for the end of year and all the best for 2021.

Flowers and kimonos : Keukenhof Spring 2014 ( part 1 of 3 )

Spring has finally arrived. Last weekend I went to a meeting with people from the Kimono de Jack NL at the Keukenhof Flower Show,  near the small town of Lisse , located in the West of the  Netherlands, not far from the coast.
 
The Flower Show is held each year in spring in a very large English style garden , that dates back to the 19th century. It was originally designed to show off the flowers from local flower growers
( mostly bulb flowers like tulips, hyacinths , daffodils ) and these are still the main attraction of the Show.

Each year , nearly 100,000 people visit the Flower Show each week. Luckily  the garden is so large, it never gets really crowded.

Long rows of  hyacinths line the paths. There's hardly any wind today and their sweet smell is everywhere.

Hyacinths come in many varieties and they all smell wonderful.

A mixed border with a footpad in the middle : the garden is full of opportunities to stroll and enjoy the flowers.

Most of the flowers are outside , but there are several large indoor halls at the show where  thousands of flowers are on display.

Hundreds of varieties of tulips and other flowers are on show here.

These are only a few examples.

The tiny blue bell-flowers of Muscari ( grape hyacinth ) : one of my favourite bulb-flowers.
 

This weekend , the Flower Show has a 'Old Holland' show with people in traditional Dutch costumes from past centuries. These women's caps (headdresses) are made from white cotton or lace and adorned with golden ornaments.

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Interestingly , these traditional costumes are different depending on which town and region you live in. You could tell the difference between unmarried people and married people (not unlike furisode !) , widows and widowers and even religions and professions. Children had their own costumes.

Bio-powered go-cart, early Dutch model. You move the handle back and forward to move and steer with your feet.

Nice pose, young girl ! I love the way the artist has used bottle caps to decorate the fish.

After I met up with the other members of KDJ ,we went to look for a place to have lunch.

Sitting down at one of the ponds to enjoy our food and the sunshine.

Mei-ing and Carolien.

Mei-ing's lemon cake was irresistible.

Getting ready to take their own photos home from the event.

Maaike and Ben from Belgium.

Always in a good mood , Maaike is.

Wearing kimono in public always attracts attention : lots of people stop by for a chat.

or take pictures, especially Japanese people. They're always surprised to see their traditional dress worn abroad. We even met a few Japanese kitsuke-sensei there ( none of them wearing a kimono ^^ )

More people arriving : Stephanie, Lizemijn, Tim and in the back Youandi talking to Jordy, Jente and Maxime.

and Katarzyna , who had brought her baby along ( you can see him in the picture above).

While everybody stood around chatting and eating ,  I  took some musubi shots.

Linda is wearing a asa no ha (hemp leaf ) patterned kimono with Dutch themed musubi.

Maaike's musubi.

Mei-ing's musubi.

Carolien's musubi.

Youandi's musubi

Maxime's musubi.

Stephanie trying her hand as a waitress. Very elegant !

After lunch we all went for a walk around the garden and visit the displays in the flower-halls.

The sunny spring weather seems to give everyone extra energy : Stephanie running forward through a sudden shower of cherry petals.

Jente spins her furisode. Quite appropriate, since furisode means ' swinging sleeves' .
Furisode are traditionally only worn by unmarried women.

Posing in front of an old fishing boat , part of the 'Old Holland' exhibition.

At the Keukenhof, you HAVE to pose near the tulips.

Our Kimono de Jack signature shot : a rosette of tabi.

Tulips, a wooden clog, a windmill and everyone saying "cheese" : it cannot possibly get more Dutch than this.

Thanks to Lizemijn taking photographs , I was able to pose in this group shot too.

Water is an essential part of the Netherlands , so we set off looking for a more adventurous location to pose.

One small step for man, but a giant leap if you're in a kimono. Luckily, nobody fell in.

From left to right : Carolien, Linda, Youandi, Barbara, Maaike, Stephanie, Jordy, Maxime, Jente and Ben.

With so many photos , I've split this blog into 3 parts , so you won't have to wait too long because of all of the photos uploading.
(To look at the photos in full size, just left-click on any of them.)
(This post is in three parts, Click Here to go to part 2 , Click here to go to part 3)