flame lily

Happy Birthday My Darling

For my darling Patrick

Happy Birthday

My love as always

Flame Lily xx

Sunshine after the Rain

This week the weather has been truly awful.  We've had torrential rain and terrible thunder storms.  The storms were so bad that I had to bring Lulu and Pupu (our geese) down from the top of the garden to the back door so that I could talk to them and keep them calm.

Today come rain or shine, I was determined to get on 'film' my latest knitting project, Girasole.

The pattern is designed to be either knitted in a lace weight yarn for a shawl or a heavy weight for a blanket.  I've used an aran weight which has made a really warm but light blanket.  Although having experimented, it can also be worn as a lovely shawl. 

  

Design: Girasole Shawl or Blanket

Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed

Yarn: Aran weight fleece, 80% wool/20% silk, shade Primrose

635 gm

Colourmart

Needles: Chart A and following 6 rows, 5 mm double pointed

Charts B-G, 5.5 mm circular

Edging, 5 mm double pointed

Size: 60" Circle

Notes: I-Cord circular cast-on.

If you're wondering about my gorgeous mannequin.  It was made by the lovely Lucy of Corset Laced Mannequins.

Lucy has used a beautiful vintage slightly textured barkcloth.

I'm not sure which is better.  The front which beautifully shows off the fabric.

Or the corset laced back......

Such attention to beautiful detail......

With love

Flame Lily

Beervelde Garden Days

At the weekend we visited the Garden Days in Beervelde, Lochristi . It is held twice a year on the second weekend of May and October.  

This year the fairs celebrate 20 years and the reopening of the small Beervelde train station on the edge of the grounds. The intercity trains stopping exceptionally on the days of the show.

The advertising poster for the fair, a water-colour by the French painter Michel Charrier depicts two ladies leaving the station and walking over the bridge towards the entrance of the Garden Days.

The Park is the 50 acre private estate of the Count de Kerchove de Denterghem and has been in the family for 135 years.  Sadly in 1947 the castle was demolished and a villa built in its place. 

The grounds are in the style of an English landscape.  That is according to the French and Belgians!

You enter the fair along a very beautiful tree lined avenue.  In these cool and shady conditions you find the spectacular hydrangeas on the stand from Pieters.  

Not to be outdone out in the sunshine the rhododendron growers put on a wonderful display.

 

Box is very common in Belgium.  This topiary heart is a typical example.

There was also the not so common.  This dead looking plant in a beautiful cast iron urn sitting on a plastic crate really caught my eye.  When you looked closely there were tiny tiny bright green leaves which contrasted beautifully with the grey branches.  

Almost the only place to buy seeds at the fair is at De Nieuwe Tuin stand.  They specialise in everything that is edible, from flowers to vegetables.

 

 

Inside their tent, they always put on a spectacular display of the 'food' grown from their seeds.  These pictures are from October last year.

 

Beervelde is situated in one of the most important horticultural areas of Belgium.  The Garden Days pride themselves on being at the forefront of garden innovation.  

This is one of the many roof gardens that was created last October.  In the foreground is a display of the 'heavies' in the plant world.  These plants not only look good, attract lots of 'good' insects but more importantly they act as a weed barrier.

The Mortier stand is always a must for us.  They build traditional garden buildings using old techniques.

This year they introduced the Aermotor Windmill from the USA.  Although primarily used to pump water, it is also possible to convert it to generate electricity.

 

As with any garden show, it's not just about flora and fauna.  Garden decorations were in abundance.

In all shapes and forms!

Fun things for the gardener to wear too!

  

When it gets all too much for you and you need a helping hand with your hundreds of purchases.  You can leave them at the Plant Crèche where magically they are transported to the main entrance where you can collect them at you leisure.

 

Having done that, you can treat youself to coffee and a pancake at the lovely café situated on the banks of the lake.

When you've regained your strength you can take a leisurely stroll back to your car.  Stopping one last time at the De Bock stand.   Each show they produce one of the finest displays of shrubs and trees.  This spring, wisteria and lilac stole the show.

 

The standard wisteria were out of this world.

 

I would dearly have loved one of those for my garden, but no matter how hard I tried and I tried, I just couldn't persuade my wonderful darling husband to buy me one.  Maybe the €369 price tag put him off! 

With love

Flame Lily

Soft as Silk

A few weeks ago we visited  Lingerie, zo zacht als zij  at the Museum voor Industriele Archeologie en Textiel (MIAT) in Gent.  The exhibition was about 100 years of lingerie in Belgium.

Sadly I was only able to take a few photographs. but fortunately they are of exhibits from my favourite period.

This sweet little bra is made from a lovely blue floral cotton and dates to the 1930s.

This very delicate and flimsy bra is from the 1930s and made from imitation crochet.

 

It seemed a little strange to find an advertising board for knitting yarn in the middle of a lingerie exhibiton but there is a connection.  The Eskimo company produces the cotton interlock fabric used for under garments.

These were the only home-made garments I spotted.  The knitted camisole is from the period 1930s.  It must have been well used.  At some point the right shoulder strap appears to have been completely re-knitted. The tension and yarn are slightly different to the rest of the garment.

The bra is also from the 1930s.  The cups have been crocheted using an English treble with the under-band knitted in an extremely fine yarn.  The straps are made from ribbon.

The book is open at the pages showing a pattern for knitted ladies knickers!

For me, the most charming and fascinating parts of the exhibition were the table of mannequins and the wall of corsets.

The Velba mannequin was about a metre tall with very long legs!

The corsets are from the period 1930-1940.  Can you spot the corset for the pregnant lady?  

It's this one!

The exhibition has now closed, but the two books which accompanied the exhibition, Lingerie, zo zacht als zij Deel 1 and Deel 2 by Sabrine De Groote are still available from the museum shop.  They are only available in Dutch but there are plenty of wonderful photographs.

with love

Flame Lily

It's Tulip Time!

Each year we take a trip across the border to The Netherlands to see the tulip fields.  Each year we get the timing wrong and see fields like this.  

So we always end up going to Keukenhof and see things like this.  Beautiful but not quite fields of tulips!

 

 

This year was different, very different.  We got our act together and went earlier.  The optimum time, mid April.  We followed the well trodden Bollenstreek route.

Our timing was perfect.  Fields......

And fields.......

And fields of tulips.

Even the fields that were still in bud were just as beautiful.......

We even managed to see Keukenhof too!  The route skirts the gardens  and all you can see is their famous windmill.

We saw more windmills too.  This time 'for sale'.  We bought the pink one!

 

More fields of tulips.  Even the graffiti on the building didn't appear out of place.

Some of the combinations were stunning.  In particular this field of red and white tulips.

The colours echoed this wonderful vintage treasure.  An old Citroën H Van converted into a camper.

Check out the gorgeous red and white check curtains!

This wasn't the only Citroën old timer on the road.  Amongst the many was this 2CV.  It looked fabulous against the back drop of the red and orange tulips.  The two young men seemed to be having a lot of fun witnessing tulip mania.

Or maybe they were just taking in the marvellous scenery......

In particular these wonderful red and yellow tulips.  

We saw every mode of transport possible.  From pony and trap to Army platoon marching their way through the fields!

 

One of the best ways to complete the route is on two wheels.  Human or motor powered.  There is now a special Bollenstreek route for cyclists.  Bikes and motor scooters in all shapes and forms can be hired along the route.

 

If you have to travel by motor vehicle, then undoubtedly the best way is by an open top car.  The route is so popular that you can even download it for TomTom.

Driving through the hyacinth fields, the scent literally takes your breath away!

We were in our VW camper so we just opened the windows and enjoyed the delights.

And delights......

And delights......

As did these young ladies taking photographs on a mound of straw that they use to lay between each row of bulbs.

The route not only takes you inland but also along the coast through the seaside towns of Katwijk and Noordwijk.

Here Lily was able to stretch her legs and have a well earned romp along the beach while we had fish and chips!

 

Even the cleared fields take on a beauty of their own.

As do the crates used to store the bulbs. 

 

Test beds were dotted everywhere and easily recognisable by the mixture of colours.

During the growing process the bulbs are de-headed.  The heads are just left on the ground....

We were even in time for the narcissus fields.

Fields and fields......

And fields.

It was a very special weekend.  The atmosphere was wonderful.  The weather was glorious.   Everybody seemed to be having a really wonderful time taking in the once a year spectacle.

For the photographer, amateur or professional, it was a dream.  Whether it was photographs of  loved ones.

A single flower.......

A tulip field......

Or a Jet Black Lily sitting in a field of tulips.

with love

Flame Lily

Welcome

A little posy of Lily of the Valley to celebrate and welcome you all to my new blog.

with love

Flame Lily