March 3rd, and flowers

This day, the bombing of the Bezuidenhout, a residential area of The Hague, we already commemorated in church on Sunday, but today it was also commemorated by the local council of The Hague and other officials, in front of the memorial in the heart of this area.

This is a report in the local paper of today (with thanks to Radio West):

THE HAGUE - It was a horrible mistake: the bombing in World War II of the Bezuidenhout district in The Hague. The British actually wanted to attack the dangerous German V2 rockets in the nearby Haagse Bos, but that went wrong. With more than five hundred dead and thousands wounded, this bombing became one of the deadliest air strikes in our country during the war. This Tuesday, exactly 75 years later, the bombing of Bezuidenhout is officially commemorated.

At the Juliana van Stolberg monument in Koningin Marialaan, a tribute is made to the victims with a wreath-laying. High school students and residents from the neighbourhood, along with survivors of the bombing, will remember the more than five hundred fatalities.

photo: Richard Mulder

In a different way, it was also a special day for me, but a much happier one, as at last there was a breakthrough for me, an answer to many questions. From limbo to action!

And it was a sunny day for a change, but cold. I took some pictures – again- of my hellebores in my front garden. As I used my phone and not a proper camera, it was not easy to see the beautiful hearts of the flowers, the pistils and stamen forming such a wonderful work of art. Unfortunately, they always modestly bend their flower heads to the ground.  So, I have included a few pictures which I took last year. The same plants, with fresh, new flowers. It is amazing that such seemingly delicate flowers do well on the North side of the house, where I hardly tend to the garden. It is usually 10 degrees colder than at the back, which faces south and is sheltered. Such almost translucent colours, pastels and deep purple ones, with waxy leaves. And in my garden self- seeding. I suppose the soil is just right for them. I have tried to grow then in my back garden, the much more sheltered side of the house, but they haven’t thrived at all, and I had to give up.