Plant and seed shopping

I went to Eenrum again today, to my nursery "De Kleine Plantage". Mainly because they sell my cards and lot of them were sold out. I never leave empty handed when I go there. They have so much pretty plants and things. But no big buys today, even though it was their Roses and Clematis weekend. I want a peach coloured rose in my front garden but didn't find one that was good enough. Most of the ones that had nice flowers grew on shrubs that were too low for the place where I want it. Other roses with great flowers (gorgeous even) were ramblers. Also not what I need right now. I guess I'll have to look elsewhere or just alter my plans, go for something red instead or something.
Anyway.... I did buy some plants and some seeds. Here's what I bought:

- Agastache "Black Adder":

photo: Guy Hendrieckx 

- Foeniculum vulgare "Giant Bronze" (had it for years and love it):

Anemone 'Rosenschale':

photo: De Kleine Plantage

Lythrum salicaria 'Blush':

photo: Adam Woodruff

And these seeds:


- Eschscholzia californica 'Milky White':

photo: Annie's Annuals

Tropaeolum majus 'Salmon Gleam':

photo: Deeproot Plant Base

Tropaeolum 'Black Velvet':

photo: Busy Bee

 Lathyrus tingitanus:

photo: Florus

Cosmos Rubenza:

photo: Sericea

Papaver rhoeas 'Parelmoer':

 

Scabiosa atropurpurea 'Black Knight':

photo: Photofarmer

Sowing tomorrow with Bertus :))
 

in my garden

This week finally it started to look and feel a bit like spring. The wind is still cold but it was sunny. Today is was raining and snowing again though.... Anyway, the photos I made were taken last week and not today. At last I have some real signs of spring. My first Crocuses are blooming, the snowdrops of course, a lot of plants are making their first leaves and.... my first flowers on the Pulmonarias are here (although it looks like they are shivering in the cold wind).

Crocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant'

Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow'

Akebia quinata bud

Of course I need to clean up the garden. All the dead plants and leaves from last year are still covering the ground. But before I remove it I'll admire the beauty of last years garden.

The seeds of Anemone 'Hadspen Abudance' are now turning into cotton balls.

The seed heads of the Wild Teasel from last year are still standing in the afternoon sun....

Merry Christmas!!!

Hedera helix berries, watercolour (I'm painting again)

Don't worry... This will not be a long post. Just to wish you all a merry Christmas and to thank you for all your kindness these last couple of months. I hope next year will be a very good one for all of you. Happy holidays to all of you :-)

Tiny stuff

I have a ganglion in my right wrist. That's my drawing wrist. Normally a ganglion isn't very painful but in my wrist it is painful. Especially when I have been drawing for a while. So 1,5 years ago I went to my doctor to ask what it was and what he could do about it. He told me what it was and that I could get rid of it by hitting it against the wall or give it a big whack with a phonebook or a bible (in case I had a lot of faith in God's power). But he also said that it wouldn't be a guaranty that it would be gone for good.
My doctor is a very nice man with a great sense of humour. He knows that I draw botanical stuff and he likes my drawings. He therefore thought it would be wise to send me to a plastic surgeon in the hospital in Groningen.

The plastic surgeon (strange name isn't it?) had a look at it and told me it was unusual that it's hurting me so much. So, just to be sure, he told me to get an x-ray. There was nothing on the x-ray. So he told me to get a PET-scan. There was nothing on the PET-scan either. But still he didn’t want to cut the ganglion out of my wrist. He inserted a needle inside my ganglion and removed the glue like substance instead. He hoped it would stay away.
But a month later the ganglion was there again and still painful. So…. I returned to the surgeon. Now he wanted to see an MRI of my wrist.

Sighhhhh……

Ok, so two weeks ago I went to the hospital again to get that MRI. And last week I went to see my surgeon again. He told me that the real problem isn’t in the same spot where the ganglion lump is. But it is more inside my wrist. In the joint of my thumb. Now I have to get a surgery to get it all out. And for that he has to cut around some bones and tendons. He has to cut some tendons too.
The surgery will take place around Christmas time. Yippee! And after that I won’t be able to use my wrist for about 6 weeks.

BUT….. after that I will be able to draw again without pain. At last…..

And until then I only can draw some really tiny stuff. And that’s what I’ve been doing the last weeks. I can show you these two drawings.

One of Clematis seeds (although there are some people who rather think of it as sperm, and others look at it and think of tadpoles). They are the seeds of Clematis viticella “Little Nell” also blogged HERE.
The other little tiny thingy is the small drawing of a Hydrangea “flower” you can see at the start of this post. I want to do some more of those…. They are really very much fun to do.