Belgium – enclos*ure

Vintage landscape: flowers amicorum

April 25, 2016July 19, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure5 Comments

A watercolor by Margaretha Roosenboom from an album amicorum created for the writer Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint on the occasion of her 70th birthday in 1882, via Archief Alkmaar Commons on flickr.

The album (684 loose sheets in an ornamental wooden box) contained drawings, watercolors, photographs, text, and music by friends and admirers.

The contributors represented a cross section of the cultural elite in 19th century Netherlands and Belgium, including many artists who were part of the Hague School.

After Bosboom-Toussaint’s death, the album was eventually given to her hometown of Alkmaar and is now in the collection of the Regional Archief Alkmaar.

To see some flower arrangements created and shared today, please visit Cathy at the blog Rambling in the Garden. She hosts “In a Vase on Monday.”

The Sunday porch: paint and vines

September 27, 2015August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

These are not really porches, of course, but two café doorways and a storefront.

They caught my eye while we were walking around the Sainte-Catherine or Sint Katelijne neighborhood of Brussels, which is just northwest of the Grand’Place and La Bourse.

The one pictured above is on Rue de Flandre.

I believe I snapped this blue café, above, on Quai au Bois à Brûler, facing the site of the old Saint-Catherine Bassin or canal port, covered over since the 1870s.

I like the way the ivy is used as both a decorative windowbox planting and low privacy screen.

Above, a mass of vines shades a closed storefront, also along Rue de Flandre.

Rue de Flandre is a good street on which to find an interesting restaurant. We liked Viva M’Boma (old-fashioned Belgian food, emphasis on meat/offal) and Domaine de Lintillac (dishes from the southwest of France, emphasis on duck).

Click on any photo above to enlarge it.

Grassline, Brussels

September 25, 2015August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

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This week, I’m just sharing a lot of little garden walk-by sightings from our trip to Paris and Brussels earlier this month. . .

I liked the simple elegance of this roofline planting on an apartment building in the Châtelain neighborhood in Brussels. It appeared to be all one variety of fountain grass. I couldn’t tell if the plants were growing in a container along the edge or if they were at the front of a larger terrace garden.