Gin and other tonics.

 NOT the 17th century fragment I nearly bought
[see below] but similar.

Busy time hence a rather late post. My sister Heather and her friend, Barbara, to stay and somehow, what with the talking, wandelen along canals and cobbled streets, and eating, not to mention the nightly gin-for-some on the terrace, [apparently All The Rage in Britain, especially with the fashionable Fevertree tonic], time has slid past. Friends from Germany and Holland also visited and the sun obligingly shone. We didn’t make KookEet alas but we did go to the Saturday market where chickens and tiny rabbits plus turkeys with purple heads all took the attention. I bought flowers and plants and we enjoyed the lines of plant stalls especially, Barbara being a Proper Gardener and sister Heather a Very Good Gardener and Plants-woman. I love my little terrace but do treat it as an outside room to be displayed at its best whenever possible, though many plant names escape me, so neither a proper gardener nor a plants-woman!

 

We were taken to see a lovely huge garden, formerly the little family farm, created and tended by its devoted owners. It wasn’t pretty in the conventional English way with wide herbaceous borders but featured many interesting trees, and domed and newly-shaven clumps of buxus with areas of gorgeous grasses and a stunning and huge display of enormous hortensia. This extended and sheltered estate is peaceful and danced with slanting shadows from trees under the sun the day we were there. I particularly loved a huge Italian mask set near a boundary which hid a seat on the reverse; surprising and whimsical. The whole is clearly the result of an overwhelming passion for the place but it is also a stage, shared with the extended family who do none of the creative work but who are allowed to present various family events there. Brugge never fails to surprise!

Breakfast at Blackbird, lunch at de Belegde Boterham and late lunch on Sunday at the Belgian Pigeon House all contributed to a lovely holiday feeling. The Memlings in Oud Sint Jan retained their 

 14th century cellar at the Belgian Pigeon House

 Antique Chinese games box

uniquely special, haunting quality but perhaps the greatest fun was had at the Zandfeest, so-called, though as ‘t Zand closely resembles a war zone nine months after the start of the renewal [end date is envisaged for June 2018] the Rommelmarkt was chiefly on the large area where the Beurshalle was before demolition plus the usual long stretch behind the Concertgebouw towards the station. It was crowded and some, like my German boys, take the whole flea market so seriously as to arrive at around 6.00 a.m. in search perhaps of yet more Jesus statues to add to the hundred or so already in residence in their Cologne flat! We were more sedate but nonetheless devoted to The Pursuit and I am still in mourning for the perfect little antique Chinese game [not Mah Jong] I didn’t buy for 86 euros, and the gorgeous remnant of a tiny early seventeenth century ceramic lid beautifully decorated for which I couldn't quite pay the necessary 50 euros. Oh the ache of a significant loss of nerve!


 The true devotee, Zandfeesting at 6.00 a.m.

 

 Paul's garden, freshly shaven.