Moosey`s Trip

8 Feb '06 1:08 pm

Fashion when travelling, Moosey.I have to soy, you can`t do better than take Kath Day- Knight`s advice, and invest in a pair of green shallots and little fluffy kiwi earrings !
Dixie..

11 Feb '06 3:59 pm

Dear Moosey,

I am so glad I went to Hummelo to visit Mr. Oudolf's garden. We rented a little car at Schiphol (however you spell it?) airport and I drove. The only trouble we had was some road work detour on the drive back and also the highway signs were very confusing as to directions--I wound up taking the whole loop around the city of Amsterdam as the exit we should have taken was marked the exact opposite of what it really was (like, it was marked north but it went south?). Maybe I just didn't understand European interstate signage? But anyway, I loved his gardens and you can see the photos I took at my web site, http://ed-vos.tripod.com

The Europeans seemed to dress in really drab colors compared to my clothes. I remember people staring at my pink flowered pants in February. Maybe that was too wild for them? All those fancy city folks were in sober colors. But I went in June once too and people had on brighter colors then. I hope you have a lovely trip. I still want to see Ninfa in Italy!--Kim

11 Feb '06 11:05 pm

I was only recently introduced to this great Dutch gardener and garden designer by a very good friend. My Greco-franco gardening culture of the last 10 years and more did not give me a big chance to get to know him a little earlier... But never is too late...

Anyway. At the very moment this good friend introduced him to me, I found these two good sites in Google, full of information about him. Enjoy:

www.oudolf.com

www.home.tiscali.nl/origanum/mijn-fotos/Oudolf/tuinfoto-index.htm

16 Feb '06 4:43 pm

Yippee! I will definitely be visiting this garden. I will be totally far too scared to try to meet him, though. What would I say?

Dixie, lease humour my attempts to sort out a fashionable travelling wardrobe by shopping at the $2 op-shop. My latest attempt at casual city footwear was a pair of lime green sneaker things (daughter vetoed the orange shoes, since they actually belonged to her friend, who did not plan a grand world trip for them. The lime replacements were nice, but when I trialled them on a dusk walk with the kittens they got splattered in mud. Oh well, another day another $2!!!

And a huge hello to Kim! The photos of the Piet Oudolf garden are just great. Your navigation story sounds fun, too! My concept of travel clothes is simplistic. I thought that if everything was blue then by the law of multiple selecions I would have heaps of co-ordinated outfits! It's such fun planning a trip - I'd quite forgotten how much.

18 Feb '06 3:13 pm

Moosey, I would be nervous to meet Mr. Oudolf too but I saw him on television visiting with another Iowa gardener (Karen Strohbeen) and he seemed to be a very nice fellow, who loves plants just like we do and probably would be very interested in New Zealand plants, especially any that look good when dead/dormant...since he likes interesting stalks and seed heads in winter. The day we were there his wife Anja was out running the nursery (they sell plants there). She sold us the tickets to go inside their garden and look about. She also told us where the restrooms were. I should say that she told my husband this, as I was too shy to try to speak any Dutch but he had studied it. She may well have switched over to English when she heard his Dutch... Wink

It is so nice to see your garden in summer. Here it is the coldest it has been all winter, -1 degree F. and -21 degrees wind chill. My eyelids were freezing up on the walk home from work this morning. The rest of me was well-enough bundled up for a six-block walk!

Your kittens look so darling racing up the trees! I'm jealous! What a lucky gardener you are. If I could visit world gardens, I'd visit yours, and Ninfa, and everything in England once. At least. Wink

--Kim

3 Mar '06 1:22 am

On a totally different subject... (sorry for the interuption)... Where in Iowa are you? I'm in Central Iowa, about 30 miles northwest of Des Moines. I never thought I'd find a fellow-Iowian here! Very Happy

Moosey`s Trip

Moosey`s Trip

Piet Oudolf's garden

Piet Oudolf

Piet Oudolf

Hi Kim!