Reading · Notes of a Wildflower

Welcome to my Wildflower Moments for July, in which I look back on the past month.

Last month, I wrote that I had been experiencing summer as rather busy and restless. Fortunately, July was much calmer, and that was exactly what I needed.

The highlight of July for me was a two-day walk with an overnight stay — something that had been on my wish list for quite some time. My love gave me this walk as a gift, and of course, it was also a little gift for himself 😉.

We walked the first section of the Stellingenpad. The Stellingenpad is a regional long-distance walking trail with a total length of 263 kilometres. In 2023, this route was named Walking Route of the Year.

On the first day, we walked 26 kilometres from Appelscha to Vledder, where we spent the night in a chalet. On the second day, we walked another 24 kilometres from Vledder to Steenwijk. It was a beautiful route. We walked mostly through woodland, but part of the route also followed the Wapserveensche Aa, an area where a great deal of nature restoration is taking place.

Apart from that, I spent some quiet time working in the garden, reading and writing.

Every month, I write about my Wildflower Moments, taking a moment to pause and appreciate the beauty of the past month (and season). Moments that brought me joy—and maybe might bring you joy too. The books I read, am reading, or plan to read… and sometimes a poem I wrote or a recipe I loved.

✍🏻 The Summer Writing Sanctuary by Beth Kempton. A week of summer writing inspiration from 17 to 23 August, which you can also follow later if that suits you better.

🩷 More of this, please! Ten ways to romanticise your everyday life. Luckily, I discovered that I am already doing quite a few of them 😄.

✏️ Haiku — but in comic-strip form.

A month of abundance 😄

🌸 So many beautiful flowers this month. My hydrangeas and other perennial plants are bringing lots of colour to my garden. The annual plants in the pots on my terrace are adding plenty of colour too, like this pink trailing verbena.

🚶🏻‍♀️ A multi-day walk had been on my wish list for quite some time, and my love gave it to me as a gift. Over two days, we walked 50 kilometres of the Stellingenpad, with an overnight stay in a wooden chalet. We certainly felt it afterwards, but I would happily do it again!

📷 This slug in an intimate embrace with some tufted vetch…

🍫 During a lovely day out in Groningen with my love, we had coffee and hot chocolate at a chocolate shop. We also enjoyed some delicious chocolates 😋.

📷 I think this little plum tree has been growing in my garden for about fifteen years. And I really do mean little! Until now, it had hardly produced any plums, but this year it was absolutely covered in them. I picked no less than 4.5 kilograms of plums and made jam: pure plum jam, plum and rosemary jam, and plum and cinnamon jam. Yum!

🐱 Maya is lying here, completely relaxed on the sofa… We are practising with a cat flap so that she and Milo can come and go by themselves when I am not home. So far, it has not been much of a success 😬.

Ooh, these overnight oats are soooo delicious!

Ingredients:

For the overnight oats:

6 tbsp oats
2 tbsp chia seeds
300 ml plant-based milk
6 tbsp vanilla yoghurt
6 tsp cinnamon

Tip: If you do not have vanilla yoghurt, you can use plain yoghurt with vanilla extract or some vanilla protein powder instead.

For the blueberry jam:

150 g blueberries
60 ml water
8 g cornflour
1 tbsp sugar

Tip: You can also use frozen blueberries. Or you can choose ready-made blueberry jam.

~~Method:~~

Stir together all the ingredients for the overnight oats and leave the mixture to rest for a while — or overnight.
To make the jam, place the blueberries, water and cornflour in a saucepan. Heat over a low heat until the mixture starts to thicken and resemble jam. This takes around 5–10 minutes.
Stir the sugar into the jam and allow it to cool.
Spoon the overnight oats into a bowl or jar and divide the jam over the top.
Eat straight away, or put a lid on and take it with you to enjoy later…

Enjoy, and have a beautiful summer day!

In July, I finished five books.

📖 Shinrin-yoku by Francesc Miralles and Héctor García is a very accessible and practical book about shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. Some parts overlap with Shinrin yoku by Annette Lavrijsen, which I read last month — naturally. But the authors also bring their own perspective, while remaining somewhat in the background. If you would like to learn more about shinrin-yoku quickly and simply, this is a great book to pick up!

📖 The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. Jodi Picoult often writes about the edges of humanity and what it means to be human. This book is about Trixie, who is raped at the age of fourteen by the boy she was in love with — and still loves. It is also about her father, Daniel, who will do anything to protect his daughter, even if that means returning to his own childhood. And it is about her mother, Laura, who does not always seem to make the most logical choices in life…

📖 A book that had been waiting for me for quite some time: The Atlas of Happiness by Helen Russell. Helen Russell, a writer and journalist, describes in short chapters what makes people happy in 33 different countries. Think of Jolly in England, Aloha in Hawaii and Gezelligheid in the Netherlands. Each chapter ends with a number of suggestions for adding a little more Jolly, Aloha, Gezelligheid, and so on, to your own life. Such a lovely book to read! It is also beautifully illustrated by Naomi Wilkinson, which made me happy while reading it 😄.

📖 The Love of Your Life (not available in English) by Arthur Japin takes place over the course of a single day. Tilly is terminally ill and, out of love for her husband Markus, is looking for someone to take her place when she is gone. To do this, she invites Iris to their little house on the island. However, Markus and Iris turn out to know each other already! It is a book about life and death, love, lies and betrayal. The book contains a great deal of dialogue, which did not make it a particularly relaxing read for me. I even wondered whether I wanted to continue reading. It is certainly not a bad book, but it simply was not quite the right fit for me.

📖 I had previously read Conversations with God and The New Revelations, but this time I read What God Wants by Neale Donald Walsch. It is madness, really, how many wars are fought, how many people suffer for far too long, and how frightened some people are because they believe that God wants them to be. This book challenges those ideas. The first sentence on the back cover reads: This book is dangerous. Its contents could certainly lead to intense discussions. Like his previous books, I found this one very interesting to read. Personally, I do not believe in a God as described in this book. I can imagine that you would read it very differently if you do believe in God.