Around Ukatani

Summer is coming to the end in the Netherlands, here are some pics around the house

The wildflowers were spectacular this spring and summer, as was the grapevine.

 The 30 year old grapevine grows on the pergola and was cloned from neighbors 100+ year old vine. Last year we pruned it heavily and had a really great crop of very sweet disease free grapes this year.
It provides a lot of shade to the east side of the house.

  Discovered that sunflowers can be pruned to increase blooms from one to 3 or more on each stalk.

M found a tingum to stick on the window outside and hung peanuts in the shell, the birds spend hours working the nuts out of the mesh bag.

 Planted sweetpeas as they reminded me of my dad's flower garden in Oz, they are still blooming and smell wonderful inside.
M sits inside in the mornings, reading the newspaper, drinking coffee, watching the birds and smelling the sweetpeas.

Nice thrift shop find.....perfect to display wildflowers from the garden.

One of M's many hobbies is puzzling. And the first thing is to discard the pic and the box.
Puzzles found in thrifts shops here.  Only does 1000 piece, this is the first one that has ever has a missing piece.

Cleaned out the Billabong after many years of no maintenance and planted some hardy water lillies. They took several months to bloom, but now are looking good.

Maarten adding outside staircase to the barn to provide full access to the loft, (5 m x 15m) which was only accessible from an inside hatch in the garage.
Planning on converting it to self contained apartment.

M found me an old cast iron, hand, pitcher water pump at a thrift shop. A wonderful birthday present.
Hope I can find some parts, refurbish it and install it on a disused old well we discovered in the yard and use the handpump for garden water.

It is a magical place and Marjo is making it better every day.