Witweg: A week of flowers, gardens and castles

This time of year many people are on holiday. It is a most beautiful time, trees are blossoming, young leaves in a variety of greens sprouting from budding trees. Wild flowers beneath the trees which are not yet fully in leaf, form white and blue lacy carpets of bluebells, wild garlic, cow parsley and anemones. It is a treat to go for a walk, take in the beauty of it all and inhale the different sweet and intriguing scents. The azaleas have a pungent aroma, similar to cloves, slightly provoking, or whetting one’s appetite. Not only wild flowers are in bloom, but also the azaleas with their vivid and clashing colours, the bright yellows and oranges, the pink, purple, reds and fuchsia. Colours which are clashing in a different setting, but surprisingly pleasing in nature. They are found in parks, former estate gardens, together with rhododendrons which bloom a bit later.

Ascension Day is a public holiday in the Netherlands, and as schools are also closed on the following Friday, most people enjoy a long weekend, hopefully with nice spring weather which of course is not guaranteed in this country. But after a very wet and unusually cold spring, the past week has been dry and sunny, although not really warm yet. Ascension Day has always been a day for family outings, for conferences and special festivals organised by churches, sports clubs etc. Walks and cycle tours are also popular. As a child we might go to the Zoo with our parents, or rent a rowing boat and bring a picnic. Later I would join one of the many organised hikes, through the dunes and through the many private parks and estates just behind the dunes, which were generally closed to the public, but open for those organised walks. I would keep a logbook, and note how many pheasants and partridges I had seen in the dunes, and how many rabbits. Only rabbits have survived there, and not even many. They have been replaced by deer, which have multiplied, as they have no natural enemies here. But pheasants and partridges have unfortunately disappeared from the area. 18 kilometres was as much as I could cope with as an elementary school pupil.

Later of course things changed. Once married my husband and I would go to Italy, or we would rent a cottage in another part of this country, and cycle a lot. Having a few public holidays close together, including Whit Monday, meant I could have a longer time off without sacrificing too many free days!

Now that I am retired, the public holidays play no part in deciding when to go on holiday. Still, Ascension Day has always felt special to me. And I prefer to go on holiday at this time of year, when nature is rejuvenated, and everything looks so fresh and new. Besides the Mediterranean countries usually have a lovely spring climate and are not as hot as they are in summer. Moreover, they are quieter without the mass of tourists who have to make use of the school holidays. So during this time I almost always go on holiday. Last year it was Porto and Santiago de Compostela, the year before it was Tuscany and Venice, both times to meet with American friends. Missing that this year, I decided to make it a holiday from home, in spite of the lack of company.

To begin with I visited a Japanese garden, just a half day trip on a quiet weekday morning so that I could take pictures without people in them. During the weekend there are long queues waiting to be admitted piecemeal, but on weekdays it is often quiet.

Another visit was to Esveld, a nursery not so far away either, famous for its collection of Japanese acers, the biggest collection in all of Europe, unexpectedly started by Von Siebold. Besides acers and many other trees and shrubs, they grow rhododendrons and azaleas, which are now in bloom. Walking through their extended fields, I felt like a little child in a sweet shop, seeing all those fabulous acers, in so many different shades of green, purple and pink, with variegated leaves, often dissected like feathers. Which one to choose? Did I have any space left in my tiny garden (backyard?). The decision which of the many coloured rhododendrons or azaleas to chose was also hard. But at least I could admire them in all their glory and a possible choice did not only depend on a picture of their flowers.

A full day trip was to a castle in the East of Holland, de Wiersse, which had been on my wish list for years. It is a two hour drive to get to this castle which is sitting in a large estate, moated and surrounded by formal gardens, wild flower meadows and grasslands, partly furnished with cattle, complete with a small river. The castle is only open to the public on specific dates in spring and summer, to enable visitors to enjoy the flowers, smell the spicy aroma of the azaleas and admire the rose garden. It is privately owned and still inhabited by a young family. One of the advantages is that it can only be approached via a dirt road, so when walking there one does not hear any traffic in the distance, a rare thing in this densely populated country dissected by tarmac. Another advantage of this working estate and farm is that there is no souvenir shop and no restaurant attracting people.

On the open days volunteers sell coffee and several other beverages plus home-made cakes in the former stable block. Only nature lovers visit this place. It was a beautiful day, sunny and dry, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Seeing just a few contented cows resting far off in a field, and seeing these wild flower meadows, was a treat, the dream of everyone who craves a rural life and the serenity of an unspoilt countryside. No roses in the special garden this year, but instead of roses, a great variety of little known grains. Apparently the rose garden needed a year of rest, and cultivating cereals was a good way to restore the soil, and perhaps add some nutrients as well.

Rhubarb pot in the kitchen garden

Drinking trough in the kitchen garden

The Rose Garden, now planted with grain

After a chat with the volunteers and a coffee, I drove home via another route, more to the south. It being on my way I stopped at Ruurlo Castle, now museum MORE, walked around the gardens and had a bite in the restaurant, the former Orangerie.

Ruurlo

I crossed the river IJssel near Doesburg and drove up to the Posbank, a very unusual and hilly part of our country, with steep and winding roads, hairpin bends, woods and moorland with a view far across the river Rhine even into Germany on a clear day, which it was. The landscape is more like the Eiffel in Germany or the Ardennes in Belgium, very interesting and attractive. Of course I stopped at the top to take in the amazing views.

Gorse on the Posbank
Below, the view from the Posbank

Going down via many more steep and sharp bends, I stopped at another castle, in Roozendaal. The garden was still open, but the castle itself closed as it was early evening. The late afternoon sun bathed everything in a golden light, pure magic.