Gardens of the van Buuren Musem - PART 5

Right next to the Rose Garden but separated from it by another retaining wall is the Garden of Hearts which is hidden by tall well clipped topiary which forces you to make your way between tall block-like pillars of greenery in order to enter the cobble stone garden with its heart shaped topiary.

The white gravel pathway between the Rose garden's lower retaining wall (right) and the Garden of Hearts (left)

 The last time I visited the centres of the hearts were field with blood red ....

 

View of the Garden of Hearts from between two Green Pillars that surround it.

 This year however, the Gardens have hosted an exhibition by artist ... and one of the "pieces" was a series of bright orange artificial "flowers" whose petals were made out of garden trowels.

View of the Garden of Hearts. In the foreground is one of the artificial flowers which was part of an exhibition being held in the Gardens.

View of the House/Museum from one of the lawns. The steps leading to the Rose Garden can be seen between two of the Green Pillars. To the left are box garden beds leading to the Garden of Hearts. The Greenery you can see below the house is from the vine covered terraces that flank the rose garden.

 

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs                            

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

The Gardens of the van Buuren Museum - PART 3

The gardens of the van Buuren Museum are rather large and comprise "The Picturesque Garden", "The Labyrinth", and "The Garden of the Heart" all designed by landscape architect Jules Buyssens.
There is also a Rose Garden but for some reason that is not mentioned on the official website. To me there were five distinct areas: "The Picturesque Garden", "The Labyrinth", "The Garden of the Heart", "The Rose Garden" and then a huge expanse of lawn divided into two by more plants, trees and pathways.
The Gardens cover 1.5 hectares. Although from the street you would not have any idea that a huge garden is hidden away. There are lots of large trees around the garden which along with a tall thick hedge screen it from surrounding properties and houses.

It was along the boarder separating the two lawns that I found this plant. I think it is some sort of Thistle but am not 100% sure. In any case it looks like the type of plant most people would consider a weed despite of its incredibly exquisite flowers.

The different Gardens are clearly delineated by boarders of some sort be they simple paths, hedges or as with that between the "The Picturesque Garden" and "The Rose Garden" a four foot retaining wall with stairs leading to "The Rose Garden",  the other entrance to "The Labyrinth", "The Garden of the Heart" and the Lawns beyond.

The stone wall separating this division in itself could be considered a Garden in its own right because it is planted with a number of different plants some which have flowers and other which are equally attractive due to their overall structure.

There were a few people there but I was the only one who actually stopped to examine the small plants on the retaining wall or as I will call it "The Rock Wall Garden."

Additional Information:

The van Buuren Museum Official website

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters)

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology)

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general)

The Gardens of the van Buuren Museum - PART 1

A few years ago I visited the Van Buuren Museum and Gardens but I only had a phone camera which did not take very good photos, so this year I decided to go back. This time I went with a camera but decided to forgo the Museum part since photography inside the house while it is permitted in the garden.


The van Buuren Museum and Gardens are located in the Brussels Commune (Township) of Uccle. The Museum itself is in the Art Deco house of former banker philanthropist David van Buuren and his wife Alice and includes collection of works of art from the 16th to the 20th century.

 The gardens which were laid out by landscapists Jules Buyssens and René Pechère include a labyrinth and rose garden.

Additional Information:

van Buuren Museum Website



Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Abbey de la Cambre

Abbey de la Cambre

The abbey grounds are rather large which makes sense since in those days such organisations were pretty much self sufficent. I took my time wandering around taking photos of the old buildings.

There were not as many people around as on the terraces but as with the terraces I was able to frame some decent shots excluding the visitors in most cases.

I Only just noticed the stairs going down to the pond NOW otherwise I would certainly have gone down to take some closeups and some pictures of the buildings and surroundings from different angles.

Additional details:

The Abbey of La Cambre  (French: Abbaye de La Cambre, Dutch: Abdij Ter Kameren) is a former Cistercian abbey in Ixellels, Brussels located in the Maelbeek valley between the the Forest of La Cambre and the Ixelles Ponds. It was founded in 1196 although the current buildings date from the 18^th century.

The Sonian Forest (Dutch: Zoniënwoud,French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 4,421-hectare (10,920-acre) forest that lies across the south-eastern part ofBrussels, Belgium

 

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Additional information:

Here is a list of my blogs:

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de La Cambre Part 2

French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de La Cambre Part 2

Entering the Abbey grounds from the main road.

Vista of Abbey grounds decending stairs from main road entrance

I think the pond is actually a fountain but it was not on that day. This is the centre of what I think of as the Upper Terrace.

View of the Church and some Abbey buildings from the upper terrace. There were actually quite a few people enjoying the sun on the Upper and lower terraces but I managed to frame the shots in a way that discretely excluded them. That was in part to preserve their privacy as well as for aesthetic reasons. I mean ... I was there to take pictures of the plants and buildings not of people. I suppose if they had been dressed in clothing of an appropriate period (Medieval, 18^th Century or even Late 19^th Century or early 20^th Century) I would have photographed them after asking them of course.

In this instance I made it obvious that I did NOT want them in the photo by waiting for people walking around to move out of the way. A few people noticed and kind of hurried up or smiled sheepishly to which I responded by thanking them or smiling back.

 

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Additional information:

Here is a list of my blogs:

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de La Cambre Part 3

French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de La Cambre Part 3

French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de La Cambre Part 1

French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de La Cambre  Part 1

Around spring time in July 2012 I went down to Avenue Louise because I wanted to take some photos of some statues that I have been meaning to photograph for a while. In particular this big composition at the entrance of the Cambre Forest of two men on horses.

But serendipity waylaid me on my way because as I was walking along one tree lined sidewalk looking for interesting and beautiful things (plants, flowers, buildings anything basically that caught my roving eyes). I came across some floral gems which I included in my earlier post "Flowers and trees on Avenue Louise" and literally stumbled across the French Formal Gardens of the Abbey de la Cambre by accident.

Wanting to get closer I suddenly realised that there was a park or something right there ... beckoning for me to explore.

In the meantime here are photos of my visit to the Abbey de la Cambre with some tid bits of information.

  

Flowers in beds of mixed flowers on centre strip of Avenue Louise in Brussels- Close to entrance of the Forest of La Cambre (Dutch: Ter Kamerenboos , French: Bois de la Cambre which is an urban public park on the edge of the Sonian Forest in Brussels.

 

 French Formal Gardens of the Abbey of La Cambre  (French: Abbaye de La Cambre, Dutch: Abdij Ter Kameren) is a former Cistercian abbey in Ixellels, Brussels located in the Maelbeek valley between the the Forest of La Cambre and the Ixelles Ponds. It was founded in 1196 although the current buildings date from the 18^th century.

 

PHOTO

 

Some examples of the bosquets in the Abbey of La Cambre ‘s French formal garden. A bosquet is a formal plantation of trees planted in strict regularity as to rank and file. They are traditionally paves with gravel

 

Pleached

 

PHOTO

 

 

 

Facts:

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The Sonian Forest (Dutch: Zoniënwoud,French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 4,421-hectare (10,920-acre) forest that lies across the south-eastern part ofBrussels, Belgium

Pleaching is a technique to weave the branches of trees into a hedge.

Additional details:

I will be posting the photos of the statues on another blog along with photos of historic buildings and other architecturally beautiful or interesting buildings on my other blog devoted to Architecture, Art, Sculptures, Statues, history and culture.

Abbey de la camber Part4

Abbey de la Cambre Part 4

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