Fuchsia 'Mrs. Popple'

Still flowering on the 10th December since 22nd June this year.

(Normally flowering until the middle of October)

Fuchsia 'Mrs. Popple in Hortus Godotii
[Photo: Hans van den Bos]

The first, Fuchsia triphylla, was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1703 by the French Minim monk and botanist, Charles Plumier. He named the new genus after the renowned German botanist Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566)

In the garden by Jan Eijkelboom

In the garden 1 In the garden I look up from my book and see the confidence of bees entering the flower of a Himalayan balsam, now and then bumping into seed-cases that, silently exploding, spread their well-aimed black seed. Insecure I start reading again. 2 I did plant a little tree when I turned sixty, hoping that it would get enough light and some air between the trees that were already there in a time before I existed. In its shadow children will not know who, with spade, manure and water briefly worked here with the soil.

Jan Eijkelboom 1926 - 2008 [photographer unknown]

Original title: In de tuin From: 'De wimpers van de dageraad' - Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam - 1987. Translation: Hans van den Bos

The Mistle Thrush

Rear Window Observations

April to May 2013

by Hans van den Bos

music:

Idylle de printemps

by:

Frederic Delius

The Gardener

The Gardener Charitable she walks around with the harp of her rake with scooping shovel She sends slugs back to their saunas chase wood lice escalator up                   escalator down into the basement- departments of their shadowy emporiums Because she's on earth for this purpose to sculpture out of light with hoe, with garden-shears, with fork flower beds, lawns, arbours museums for the wind tolerant stillnesses as if suddenly from the darkness of her pond, prince Frog plunges a sound aged with peace...very short in this poem of the gardener in Ireland, early 21st century.

Photos © Hans van den Bos, Ireland

This poem is a free translation into English, by Hans van den Bos, of Manuel Kneepken's poem 'Hovenier'. Hans van den Bos' original translation of this poem can be found on the blog 'Poetry from the Low Countries' on page 'Trompenburg'.