Nina sent me these pictures of her Peperomia happy bean which is thriving, along with it’s friend, a pepper plant that emerged spontaneously from the compost. The plants enjoy a lovely view of Amsterdam’s city lights!
Thanks Nina for the pictures!
JOYFUL GRATITUDE #15
This may be controversial, but I believe regularly eating delicious cake is part of a healthy diet. According to me, cake is perfect for any occasion and at any time, whether it’s for fueling a creative afternoon in a cosy café, celebrating a birthday or simply for dipping in my morning coffee for breakfast, and it tastes even better when it is shared with family, colleagues or friends.
Cake is also an important way of transmitting family traditions. My grand-dad’s speciality was making Biscuit de Savoie for us (which is a cake despite its confusing name). I miss watching him in his kitchen, patiently folding the beaten egg whites into the batter with a wooden spoon, turning always in the same direction to keep the cake fluffy (and obviously licking the bowl which was the best part!). We still use his recipe to make this amazing cake for every family reunion:)
The pretty cakes in these pictures were made in Ahhh Toots, a stand in the Glass Arcade in Bristol. My friend Eva and I attempted to sample as many of them as we could when we were visiting in 2015. They truly know how to make icing in the UK:)
It all started out quite innocently. I fell in love with this wonderful flat in part for its great windowsills, which I proceeded to decorate with a few plants (and Barberine the photobomber, who I was cat sitting at the time ;).
Little by little the amount of plants increased as I decided to experiment with cultivating the baby plants and cuttings in second hand pots, and selling them online.
My appartment slowly became a greenhouse (or a jungle, as Paolo would say). There were plants covering all available surfaces, including the whole coffee table, placed awkwardly in the corner where they would get the most of the sunlight.
Radical action needed to be taken, as the plants were threatening to take over our small living space;) So with the money I made selling plants, I bought a simple shelf to store the plants vertically and as you can see they are now thriving in that sunny corner:)
I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported Cultivating Joy by purchasing a plant for their home!
JOYFUL GRATITUDE #14
I am grateful for the quiet moment at the beginning of the day when I prepare coffee. It takes only a few minutes, but I relish the deliberate action of cleaning the moka, filling it with just the right amount of cold water, delicately placing the ground coffee into the filter, closing the moka tight and putting it to cook on the stove. The split second when the first coffee topples over though the column is a magical one!
At home we regularly tease my foodie sister about how she is into foodporn and how the majority of her travel pictures consist of new dishes she discovered along her journeys. However recently it’s been dawning on me that I’m obsessed with something similar, which I guess can be called plantporn.
I love close up photos of gorgeous plants with their tiny leaves, colourful petals, uncanny shapes and intriguing textures…
What made Madeira so special to me in terms of plantporn, was that succulents grow in the wild all over the place and in general there were also many unfamiliar plant species I don’t get to see every day.
I spent a great deal of time in the holidays behind my camera attempting to take decent macros of the amazing plants that caught my eye. (Thanks to Paolo for the picture above and especially for his patience when I get mesmerised by yet another plant!)
I took these last two pictures in the natural park of the São Lourenco peninsula – though to me these plants look like they really belong in the landscapes of Arrakis (Dune;)
JOYFUL GRATITUDE #13
Last weekend the sky was crisp blue and the sun was out, so on Sunday Paolo and I wrapped up in many layers of warm clothes to go for a brisk walk. There are a few nice places to wander close to our flat, and this time we ended up in De Oeverlanden park, a place we’d never explored together.
It felt great to be outdoors, and enjoy chatting while we walked along the water. It was so good to feel the sun on my face, and the reflection of the sunlight sparkling on the lake through the reeds was simply beautiful.
Recently I was asked for some tips of good places to go walking in nature near Amsterdam. Going hiking in the Netherlands may not seem quite as exciting as say exploring the Scottish highlands or climbing the volcanic peaks of Madeira… however I still believe it’s better to get outside and regularly enjoy nature close by, than waiting until the next big trip.
In the last few years with Paolo we’ve been exploring places close to Amsterdam on the weekends: just taking the train in the morning, walking a few hours and being home before night falls, whatever the season. We always take along a tasty picnic to enjoy on the way, which makes for a great low budget excursion.
Here are my favorite places to go hiking that are accessible by train and less than an hour from Amsterdam, making them perfect for a day trip.
Kennemerduinen
There are slight slopes up and down the dunes, pine trees, you can easily follow the paths and indications in the Kennemerduinen. We usually walk to the sea and back, always ending up taking slightly different paths. You will probably spot some beautiful highland cows (aka ‘hairy coos’).
Train stations: Overveen, then a 15mn walk to the visitors center at the entrance of the park (where you can enjoy a hot drink) or Santpoort-Noord
*****
Castricum
Walking through the sandy dunes of the Noordhollands Duinreservaat is very relaxing. Here also we make our way to the coast, enjoy the sea front and walk back. There are forest parts and open dune landscapes.
Train station: Castricum
You can have a coffee and cake at the very cute Hof van Kijk Uit cafe, which is in not far from the entrance of the park.
(This was a one off, but once in summer we came across a small shelf by the path where a local farmer had placed organic strawberries, a sign encouraging passers-by to buy them and a small box to collect the corresponding money. I love these types of trust-based initiatives and the strawberries were delicious!!)
*****
Waterleidingduinen
The many dunes of the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen are not only useful to filter rainwater which is then turned into drinking water for the city of Amsterdam, it’s also a magical place for a stroll. You’ll come across deer grazing peacefully all around and if you’re lucky you may even see a fox.
Also, the plants are beautiful and diverse (including many mushrooms), and even in the winter months there are surprising colours, as you can see below.
Train station: Heemsteede Aerdenhout, then about 15mn walk to the park
Day entrance is 1,50EUR. No bikes are allowed.
*****
For more ideas of walks from one train station to another on NS information – you can filter per region, length and even type of the walk (forest, dunes etc).
JOYFUL GRATITUDE #12
Blue monday has now passed and this week the ice freezing on the trees was so beautiful. So why the sun flower? I guess I just feel like seeing some warm colours – and because with my painfully freezing fingers I unfortunately didn’t manage to make a decent picture to post here of those amazing pointy icicles on the branches 😉 .
This week I’m very grateful for a fun yoga session organised by a colleague in a meeting room after work. We spent a wonderful hour stretching, keeping our muscles warm, going through the movements and practicing our balance. It was great to just take some time for myself after a busy work day in order to breathe, stretch and get out of my head.
Total height: 45 cm
Diameter of the pot: 17 cm
Care: very easy, a little water once a week
Grows for years.
For more info email me at simplycultivatingjoy [at] gmail.com
JOYFUL GRATITUDE #11
At the moment the days are so short that it’s dark when I arrive at work early in the morning, and night has already fallen by the time I get on my bike to cycle home from the office. So the only way to stock up on precious vitamine D is to go for a quick walk after eating lunch.
I’m lucky that my office is just next to the beautiful Westerdok which is very sunny in the early afternoon, so I regularly go there during my lunch break, usually with one or a few colleagues to chat with on the way.
I love looking at all the colourful houseboats and imagining what it’s like to live in them. When it’s sunny, it’s wonderful, obviously. But I try and head out even if it’s rainy because it always feels great to stretch my legs and be away from the computer, and after getting some fresh air I can focus so much better in the afternooon.
Cultivating joy 