Strawberries a plenty

I bought two strawberry plants last year from the organic farm and one of them have reproduced giving lots of daughter plants. It was growing a few long runners last september and I put the new baby plants in smaller pots just around it. I left them out and they survived winter. I spotted white flowers and am waiting now for strawberries.

The other plant was planted in my vegetable plot and it is doing well too. It has grown much bigger and there are flowers too.

Hoping these plants will give many strawberries in the next few months. 

zucchinis, tomatoes and french beans

We are back after 2 weeks of vacation and are greeted with 4 big zucchinis from the garden. As usual, we found housesitters to take care of the house and pets and they harvested these vegetables for us. We had already eaten one and gave away 2.

Mum and A2 picked french beans yesterday and we had them for lunch. The tomato plant is growing very well and have many unripe tomatoes. I wonder when they will turn red.

Mum is leaving in 2 weeks time. I hope she gets to taste the garden tomatoes. Amazing what we are get from a 120cm by 120cm piece of land.

Vegetable plot update and flowers

One strawberry plant is in the vegetable plot while the other one is in a pot. I had two strawberries half eaten by insects once they turned red. So I kept a close watch on these three strawberries. We did manage to eat them and they were real sweet.

The vegetable plot is getting crowded. The zucchini leaves are getting big and there are beautiful yellow flowers. The tomato plant is taller.

I picked the zucchini flowers and dipped them into chickpea flour and water. I fried them and Seb liked them. It is interesting to be eating flowers.

Speaking of flowers, for my birthday, I received two beautiful bouquets. One from Seb's parents and one from Seb. That's double happiness. Though these flowers can't be eaten, they are feast for the eyes.

Grass is the hair of earth

Spring is here and we spent the past weekend spring cleaning the garden. Seb was busy pulling out weeds while I trimmed the rose plants and planted flowers on the bare flower bed. The boys wanted to help and we gave them each a garden scissors to cut the grass growing along the edge of the terrace.

A2 was happily working and we overheard him saying "Les herbes, ce sont les cheveux de la terre." It means, "The grass, they are the hair of the earth".  I asked where he got that phrase from and he replied he thought of it spontaneously. What a poet!

This makes me look at grass and fields with a different view. Indeed, we are shaping earth's head. I hope it won't turn bald though it is losing its hair at an alarming speed. I hope humans will be creative and intelligent to give earth a head of shining, healthy hair.

Singapore Gardens by the Bay

A dear friend of mine gave me two tickets for the Flower Festival at Gardens by the Bay.  We visited the festival on the last day. As I was queueing for the entrance tickets for the rest of us, a lady kindly gave me another complimentary ticket. So I just paid for the boys.

We arrived right after lunch and it was crowded though we did not have to queue to get in. We visited the Flower Dome and there were many orchid plants on display. Some of them won awards and had ribbons tied to them.

There were also sculptures and wooden cravings of animals in this dome.

This olive tree looked like an old man's face. A sculpture of Alice in Wonderful was just behind the rabbit.

From far, we could see this impressive wooden dragon. We took the lift up to the second floor to have a closer look of it. It was very well done.

After our visit, we decided not to walk 15 minutes under the hot sun to the next part of the festival. We went on the Adventure trail and then the boys had fun at the splash park at the children garden.

In the late afternoon, we made our way to the Mrt station. We passed by the Flower Dome and the queue at the entrance was very long. People who had bought their tickets online were queueing to enter. I suspected that it would take them an hour or so. My friend who passed me the tickets had free tickets herself. When she arrived at around 3pm, she caught up with me at the splash park. Half an hour later when she saw the queue, she gave up and went home.

It was my first time walking through this big garden. The Supertree Grove was impressive. The Marina Bay Sands buildings were equally impressive from this view.

In the MRT train on the way home, A2 took my camera and clicked for fun. Here was a fan A1 bought from Chinatown.

The next day after our visit to the gardens, it was time to say good bye to Singapore. The 3 boys enjoyed themselves this holiday until the end. At Changi Airport, they played at the play ground.

Changi Airport lives up to its name. The garden in it is just as beautiful as the one we visited the day before.

Fruit trees

Last November, we planted an abricot tree in our garden. It was a 7 years old tree. This spring, I spotted two abricots growing from this small tree. What a delight.

 Last year, I did not get to enjoy any fruits from the garden. The birds ate up all the cherries before we had time to pick them. This year, I bought a net and Seb and I put it over the cherry tree. Good thing the cherry tree was not too big. The harvest is plenty for this young tree. I am waiting patiently for the cherries to turn bright red. This evening, I picked 7 red cherries and the boys enjoyed them. I tried one and it was sweet and firm. Delicious.

As for the apple tree, there was no apple last year. This year, there were bees working in the garden and they helped to pollinate the fruit trees. I am expecting a big harvest of apples too. However, I have to check for aphids everyday. The ants are protecting the aphids. So I have to destroy the ants and the leaves infested by aphids and its eggs.I found this website that explains the interesting relationship between the aphids and the ants.

And when I see the ladybird, I leave it alone because I know that it is my ally. Ladybirds are just as important as bees.

My first contact with aphids, ants and ladybirds did not start in the garden but on a boardgame few years back. Seb bought A1 a game when he was in USA. It was the Ladybug Game. The players choose their ladybugs and try to reach the finishing point by collecting as many aphids as possible and avoiding the praying mantis. Near the end, the players must have enough aphids to give to three lazy ants to continue the journey home. We enjoyed this game a lot as a family. But these days, it's UNO and Monopoly that we play. I would have to dig out the Ladybug game to play with the boys and then show them these real insects on the apple tree.

Keukenhof

Keukenhof, the most beautiful spring garden in Europe. I had always wanted to visit it and finally after 4 years since knowing about this place, I made it last sunday.

 

My mother is here visiting us for two months and knowing that she would enjoy this garden, I arranged for a weekend trip to Amsterdam and Keukenhof in Lisse.

 

We arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday and left on Monday. On Sunday, we spent the day in Keukenhof. There were many flowers. The garden was perfumed with the scent coming from the beds of blooming hyacinths. The tulips in the open garden were mostly still in bubs. This spring is chilling so I guess the tulips would bloom a week later.

 

There were four pavillons with different themes. Each of them were amazing. Flowers were everywhere. There are many different kind of species. Just on tulips alone, there were many different kinds like 'Barbados', 'Lambada', 'Brooklyn', 'Sensual touch', 'Wedding gift', 'Victoria secret' just to name a few.

 

There were many people from all over the world. We even met Singaporeans who took photos for us. I took tons of photos but I am such a lousy photographer. Below are some photos from Keukenhof. Though a picture tells a thousand words, it is best to visit Keukenhof in person. My mother and I truly enjoyed the garden. It was wonderful for flower lovers.