Queen’s Birthday

Today we celebrate our Queen’s Birthday. It is a national holiday.

I had a orange donut.

Hubby had a Tompouce (a Dutch pastry). The Tompouce has two layers of puff pastry, topped with smooth orange icing and filled with very sweet yellow pastry cream. I’m not a fan of Tompoucen!

On the left is our Queen Beatrix and next to her are our future King & Queen.

We pottered in the backyard and during our breaks I basked in the sun . This is the first sunny day since a long time. According to the weatherman it will be also the last. More rain predicted for the coming days. When will summer arrive in the Netherlands?

As you can see the right side of the backyard is doing fine.

The left side is a little barren. The brush underneath the Magnolia tree has most likely not survived the sudden cold winter we had in February. The Platanus still needs to show its leaves and the Red Robin is doing its best.

The espaliers (leibomen) in the front as backyard are doing fine.

The hydrangeas are growing well.

A close-up of one of the flower buds

Guess this one didn’t survive the winter either. It really looks dead to me.

The Beech Hedge is doing ok.

This also applies to the re-planted beeches. 

I finally replaced all my winter clothes in the closet for summer clothes. The winter clothes have been put into large containers & will remain in the attic till October (hopefully).

I thoroughly enjoyed my long weekend. Happy that I’m having a 4-day workweek.