A water garden?

Ah, the challenges of having a home built right in the water...


We have no back garden. Our only 'garden' is a couple of window boxes hanging from the balcony of our French doors. I must admit with my desire to have autumn begin, I have been neglecting my flowers and they are in desperate need of dead heading. This photo is taken from our bedroom window early morning looking down so the Spanish daisies are still closed.


It is pleasant to look out and see a sea of flowers from the living room. This area is simple to clean as you can open the doors but it is not so simple to clean the windows of the dining area or the upstairs bedrooms. So how do we clean them? The answer is not often. It means Jos hanging out of the window to reach far enough. It is easier than our last home in this neighborhood. I used to clean those windows as it was before my illness was getting worse. It was a modern canal house ~ tall and narrow. I got a phone call one afternoon and found a friend on the other end of the line asking me to please go back inside. She could see my hanging on the window ledge cleaning the windows that do not open inwards on the 3rd floor (2nd floor for us in Holland). I could be seen all the way over at her house streets away. *grins*


I have wanted a fish aquarium for some time and when we moved here, Jos told me I finally got my fish. Yes, he meant the canal water behind our house. There are many fish there and he crumbles dry toast to feed them. We also have ducks and water hens. It is fun to hear them calling especially very early in the morning. I like waking to the sounds. As soon as we open a window, they come rushing to us.

It does also bring regular fights. There is more than enough to go around but try telling them that!


We have been forbidden by the city to plant anything along the water's edge or in the water. Our neighbor's did put a waterlily and some other plants regardless. It has taken years for this waterlily to start to produce any flowers but has been very pretty this year.

Our windows are going to be painted this week we hope. The painter has had to put it off as the weather is not good enough to start. He says he will start on Wednesday. My fingers are crossed. I will get a photo of the back wall in which our house was built after he has finished. This new house was modeled by the architect to be a modern version of our old walled houses in the city dating back to the Middle Ages.

I am sorry that I have not been able to make it around to visit all of you over the last few days. I will try to catch up with you soon. I have a received a couple of awards and need to acknowledge them also. I have been very busy with redoing our laundry room. We stayed home from Cranberry Cottage this weekend to finish it. I will share the results with you this week.