last day of 2011

My last post in 2011, I will end the year with pictures of Frank, Chimay and Ari.

I am glad this year is almost over, it was not a good year with Eoos' death and my healthproblems. So I hope 2012 will be kinder to us.

Wishing all readers a happy and healthy 2012!

Christmas time ...

... inside

This year I took the Chistmas decorations out, the last two years I was too tired to decorate the house.

In the kitchen the dracaena is upgraded to Christmas-tree

and one of the decorations is the Christmas-Chow I got ten years back from an American friend.

In the window a poinsettia, with Ampelmännchen-lights, a souvenir from our trip to Berlin in 1998.

The red Ampelmännchen

and the green Ampelmännchen.

The big faucet in the kitchen carries glass Chrismasbells, they jingle when we get some water.

... outside

As long as it is not freezing the rose "Schneewitchen" (also known as "Iceberg") keeps blooming...

And the Prunus Subhirtella "Autumnalis Rosea" started blooming, I love to have a tree that blossoms in winter!

Another nice picture of the Prunus Subhirtella "Autumnalis Rosea".

And Ari was wondering what I was doing in the garden...
the camera should be poited at HIM!

Pekingese

Last Friday I went to Almere with Chimay & Ari. There live Marco and Jolanda with four Pekingese, two of them are related to Ari: his litter sister Sacha and a black half-sister Dunja (she has the same sire).

Marco took some wonderfull pictures:

France november 2011

I am not in the mood to write a lot, we had a great time in France for three weeks :-)
Below a selection of the pictures I took, we visited churches, monastries, cities. I found out my new camera is good at stained glass pictures (without flash).

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birthay Xin-Feng's C-litter

Today they celebrate their 7th birthday, the remaining pups of our C-litter. Congratulations Cajou, Chow, Cheina, Castro, Ginger and Chimay!

A nice picture of our birthday girl Chimay:

visiting Demi and Endo

Today we went to Klaaswaal, where Demi (Xin-Feng's Demeter) lives with Ilone and Ben.

Ari, Chimay and Demi

Chimay

Chimay and Demi

Ari and Demi

Demi is always happy to see Frank

Ari and Chimay

Then we went to Gouda to visit Guido and Endo (Xin-Feng's Endo).

Endo is happy to see us

Endo curious

video

mushrooms

It is fall now, and I love it!
In the front garden were some ink caps (Coprinus comatus) in different stages of growth.

ink cap popping up

now you see it is a kind of mushroom

deceasing ink cap

a picture of Ari

I am so happy, I got a very early birthday present :-)
A Sony compact camera, it can nearly do as much as my big camera, even a bit more in some ways. But a lot smaller, so easier take with me.
Here my first try, inside, with flash. Not bad at all.

opening of Villa Ari

Villa Ari is all finished, time to celebrate!

Together with Marijke and Frans,

Val and Ro

Frans came up with "Villa Ari" some time ago,
so he did the official opening

Villa Ari

a toast on the gardenhouse... oh no, the villa ;-)

We dined together, the women inside, it was a bit too cold outside, and the men in the villa.

And the men were having a good time with the beertender nearby!

Chimay rather stays outside.

Ari in his villa...

and by the way, I accidently took a picture of myself today ;-)

Kate

Yesterday Marcel came with his black smooth Chow Chow Whoopi and his new smooth pup Kate (Storybook Love of the Royal Club). Ari was curious....

It looks like a Chow Chow, but it is my size??? I'll sniff very carefully.

Chimay tied to ignore Kate.

Whoopi and Kate

Marcel is eating, Ari is hopfull something will drop... sadly nothing did...

Kate proves again: Chow Chow pups are the cutest!
Ari, Kate and Chimay at the kitchendoor.

And a nice picture of Whoopi.

Vale Eoos

Today it is six months ago that Eoos died.

I have been working on the memorial pages for Eoos the last weeks.
Today I finished them: a page about Eoos' life, a memorial vale Eoos and a photo album.


Farewell little girl, I wish we could have had more time together....

roses

Despite the rainy weather we have had for weeks now, the roses do very well in the garden.
Last week, when I took pictures of the gardenhouse, I took some pictures of the roses too (in the half hour we actually had a bit of sunshine).
Here the roses "Nostalgie" and "The Prince" next to eachother.

The "Nostalgie" came last year, as Frank liked it, a two-colored rose, cream-white inside and red on the outside, with a sweet fragrance: "The Prince" stood for some years in my garden in Rotterdam and I took it when we moved to Lelystad. The first years here it did not bloom much, but I adored and cherished every flower it had.
It is a David Austin rose, purple-red with a special spicey scent. It is not an easy rose to grow, it wants attention, fertilizer and a moist ground. I think that he liked the exceptional sunny months of April and May this year, I have never seen it flowering for such a long time.