Sweet peas from the garden

For the last couple of weeks my sweet pea plants have been blooming gloriously in the garden. I'm really pleased with how well they are doing this year and I have been picking a good sized bunch every few days to help prolong the flowering season and it means the living room is filled with their gorgeous sweet scent. Going into the garden to pick such beautiful fresh flowers is one of my favourite things to do right now.

I grew these from a packet of mixed seeds, but by chance about 90% of the flowers are white! There are a couple of pretty purple stems and just one pink and one red stem!

These are my current blooms from the garden, sweet peas and a rose!

First home grown vegetables of the season

With the wet and cold start to summer back in June, all of my vegetable plants are behind schedule this year. However now with warmer and sunnier days, things are picking up and yesterday I pulled up my first crop of potatoes I'd grown in a plant pot about 40cm wide. Because it was such a small pot I wasn't expecting much, just hoping for enough for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised! After pulling up the stems of the plants I was met with the sight of golden potatoes; I always find this part fun and exciting, it feels like panning for gold!

I ended up with just over two pounds of new potatoes, half of which I used this evening for dinner and the rest I shall use over the weekend. Now I have high hopes for the potatoes still growing in a big grow bag!

Finally some of my courgettes have been pollinated so this evening I picked two to have with dinner and it looks like there will be another one or two ready tomorrow so I will make a vegetable lasagne with those. They taste so much fresher than store bought courgettes (like all home grown produce really) and their skins are much smoother and not tough like the store ones either. And at last I have a cucumber! It was the only one growing, I'm not sure if it was inhibiting any more from growing or if the others simply didn't get pollinated, but now I've picked it hopefully it won't be long before another is ready to pick. I'm still waiting for the beans to grow and tomatoes to ripen.

There really is nothing better than picking your own vegetables and getting them straight on the plate.   The dream is to one day have a big greenhouse and lots of raised beds to grow all sorts of delights!

Tulips in Amsterdam

Every year I have promised myself that I will book a weekend away to Amsterdam to see the tulip fields in bloom and finally, after four or five years, this year I did it! I booked a two night mini break at the very end of April, as the best time to visit the fields is usually mid April to the end of the first week of May. Unfortunately this year, unseasonably warm weather meant that the tulips were flowering a week or two ahead of schedule (typical!) and were likely to be cut down a few days before my trip, but I did a little research online and found some farmers fields which were taking tours and would still have some fields in bloom, so all was not lost after all!

We took a direct Eurostar from St Pancras and arrived in Amsterdam at lunch time. After a little confusion on the trams, I got my bearings and headed out of town to the hotel. We stayed at the XO Park West hotel, which was pleasant, if a little out of the way, but the tram stopped right outside so it wasn't difficult to carry our luggage. The first thing we did on arrival was book our tour to the tulip fields the next day and then had a walk around Amsterdam, wandering through tiny streets and over bridges, admiring the canals and the pretty architecture. We found a sweet little Italian restaurant for dinner by chance, which served good food and must have been known by the locals as a table was never free for more than a few minutes and most of the time there was a queue. After dinner we stopped by the supermarket for some snacks for the hotel room and of course some Tony's chocolate and stroop waffles to take home as gifts! By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted from all the walking and travelling and had an early night.

The next morning we took the tram into Amsterdam and found a cafe for breakfast, before picking up some sandwiches from the mini mart and going to join our bus tour. The bus took us to the farmers fields first and we were told interesting facts along the way. About an hour later we arrived at a huge tulip farm, where we could see that some flowers had already been headed but there were a couple of fields still in bloom and we were taken to a sea of pinks and reds. After a brief explanation of flower bulb farming, we were able to take pictures in the fields and then were taken inside to watch a video about the history and cultivation of tulip bulbs. 

The next stop on our tour was Keukonheuf gardens, a huge garden with thousands of flowers which is only open for a few weeks a year, during which time it houses the most impressive displays. We had our picnic in the garden and walked round, taking so many photos along the way. We even went inside a windmill! When we got tired of walking, we sat down and had a cup of tea before making our way back to the bus. I think everyone must have been tired out from walking around the gardenas the bus was very quiet going back!

By the time we returned to Amsterdam we were pretty tired so we picked up a quick dinner and then decided to walk to the tram station we usually changed at, so that we could visit Anne Frank's house en route. We found the house which is now a museum and the front has been enclosed in a glass building, which I believe was to protect it from development. However the side of the house is still visible and was quite moving. The museum tickets were all sold out and even at nearly 9pm there were still queues outside, so I would recommend booking tickets in advance if you want to go inside.

We eventually got back to the hotel by around 9.30 and packed our cases before heading to bed, absolutely exhausted!

The next morning we decided to indulge in breakfast at the hotel, as our return train was not until 3pm and it had not been easy to find somewhere the previous day. The hotel breakfast was so good! It had the usual hot and cold food you'd expect plus a fresh omelette and pancake station and plenty of fruit and pastries, so we filled up and then checked out to make our way home.

We arrived at the station early and sat having a cup of tea whilst waiting for our first train, as there still aren't direct return services. Although the first train was nice it ran slow and we ended up having to run to make our connecting train in Brussels, reaching the check in just minutes before it closed. By the time we returned to St Pancras we were both exhausted but had enjoyed our mini break away. I would like to return to Amsterdam, but when the direct return train services are in place, so I don't have to worry about missing the connection!