It was a cold night near freezing point and it’s now warming up slightly in the sun. Planting out, breaking up clods of earth and replanting vital parts. I carefully pull out the thick white roots of the couch grass and store the rue and white mullein seedlings to be...

I was just drinking a simple glass of wine from the Aude region of France and realize that it’s not half bad: beautiful aroma, tastes delicious, velvety moistness which doesn’t feel like a dry napkin on your tongue when you swallow it. A fine product...

In previous blogs, I already revealed my admiration for the willow family. Last year September, I extolled the merits of the Japanese Fantail Willow and I am going to do that again, but now extolling the merits of the Gothic willow, the willow with the...

It is not my intention to deliver a lesson in colour theory now like: green, red and yellow are primary colours. Green is hope and peace, and fresh, young. Red is danger and passionate love. Yellow is sunny and cheerful.

It’s a typical day in January/February where there’s almost no wind and the sun is shining on the beehive in the afternoon. This kind of nice weather, where you can simply step outside without a jacket, stands out and then I also immediately think of my...

January. The glazed frost has covered the branches like thick glass tights and reflects the greyish white overcast sky. In the afternoon, the temperature reaches just above freezing point and with the help of some wind and the movement of the branches, the elongated semicircular pieces of ice fall like razor blades (elongated beach shells) from the trees.

Today, I came across numerous species of mushroom and fungus. Beautiful visual language, which always has a roof! The stems like pillars; round, slim, restrained, robust, radiating strength, like the round nose of Cyrano as played by Gerard Depardieu,...

Dried out grass stems defying the winter, which even excelled when the sun was touching the spikes of the ice crystals. Types like Purple Moor Grass (Molinia) elegantly bending and the 70cm-high flowering spikelets of the Wood Small-reed (Calamagrostis)...

It was a cold night near freezing point and it’s now warming up slightly in the sun. Planting out, breaking up clods of earth and replanting vital parts. I carefully pull out the thick white roots of the couch grass and store the rue and white mullein seedlings to be placed between the large groups of perennials.

I have been asked by various people to start a blog on my website. This doesn’t strike me as being particularly easy. The blog needs to have an engaging beginning and keep you interested until the end. You don’t want a blog topic to become an overly...

When I take a walk in the woods, in a meadow or along the beach, I’m always struck by the feeling of being alone with the ‘elements’, and by that which I see, which is close to me at that moment. The fresh grass under my feet, the rough trunk of a tree, the water that washes ashore then recedes once again, and also the movement of the wind, the lighter spots caused by the sun and the hollow, sonorous sound of the waves. This evokes a deep sense of calm and sometimes, after about half an hour, I am distracted once again by thoughts about the things that are still on my mind.

In the winter, the trees are bare and you experience the hard lines of the houses and buildings in the street and on the square. Those hard blocks have now been softened by light-filtering trees. We have now become largely accustomed to all the leaves once...

Nature is bursting at the seams. Buds from trees and shrubs are sprouting delicately, slowly pushing or vigorously bursting open in a few hours. In the autumn, many plants disappear beneath the soil. Now, they are not able to wait and emerge out of the...