Yes, we are allowed here Bart's Booklet travel regularly and yes, when we do, we often seek out the sun. All true. But when someone asks me (and I notice that happens quite often these days) where I would most like to live, my answer is always: home. In Amsterdam. The most beautiful city in the world (indeed, as Van der Laan also proclaimed, and he was right). In the nicest house on earth. Not least because I love all seasons. The summer of course, when Amsterdam lives outside, but also from the gray winter and the unpredictable spring. Al beats nothing a beautiful one autumn day, when the sunlight is low and golden and the leaves turn brown and begin to swirl. When, after a summer of white beer, cold wine and rosé, the bottles of red are opened again, which in our house are invariably the quality wines of the bunch.

Hence a post about two of my favorite autumn activities: having drinks and messing around in the house: how and what to do with your plants. Don't mention it.

Taken from the beautifulwatplantendoen.nl (a top site for those who have green and not so green fingers but are looking for inspiration, and no, I don't have to say that to anyone): these truly fantastic DIY ice cream sticks! This is how you make them:

Necessary: plastic test tubes + holder, herbs such as rosemary, thyme, lavender or small, slender, photogenic stems or leaves of plants, water, a freezer and a little patience.

To do: put a branch in a tube and make sure that the top part comes out above the tube. Fill the tube with water and place it in the holder. Do this with all the tubes and place the container with the tubes in the freezer. Drink time? Carefully remove the sticks from the tubes by the protruding stem and divide them over the drinks.

That's besides the point. Moral of the story: during such a beautiful autumn day, nothing beats a drink aka a French aperitif, real. Like the Italians do, but with a French twist. From about four or five o'clock. Or three on Saturday or Sunday. I am truly a mega-suckers for such a home event. We have even set up a special corner in the kitchen, nice and close to the fire (literally). Rarely or never tidy up the house (much to the annoyance of my husband) unless there are/are going to be drinks. Rarely cook except… Right. What I do do when people come over, but also when drinks are taking place between my husband and myself: put the rubbish in the cupboard, put fresh flowers on the table and water the plants (it always looks so nice and fresh again). namely). Without that, flowers and plantsI find the house much less attractive.

What about that drink? You can read that here Barts Cookbook. Which wine to drink? Inspiration here The Cheese & Wine List, or scroll down where you will find an excellent alcohol-free tip at the bottom of this post.

An indispensable item for dressing those aperitif as far as I'm concerned: plants and flowers. The flowers I get it every week from the Noordermarkt, according to the season, and we purchased plenty of plants when we moved into our new house. After having worn out a number of houses, balconies, patios, dark rooms and sun-drenched spaces, we (yes, we, the man, to be honest, even more so than the undersigned) know better and better how and what to do with all those flowers and plants in the house. The man even got the banana tree that almost died after the holidays, which cost a fortune but is/was/will be oh so beautiful, working again (we're not quite there yet, but there are new leaves!). Kudos. Do we have any tips? Sure. Is it coming: help with plants at home: 

Color of the leaf
The color of your plant's leaves reveals the health of the plant. Yellow or brown spots on the leaves = usually too much water. So skip a few days and check whether the water can drain properly and the roots are not secretly drowning in the pot. If the leaves break and are brittle, they are 'burnt' and your plant is in too much sun. Although that won't be the case anytime soon. Once the leaf is brown, cut it off without mercy, even halfway down a leaf. Seems like a shame, but it's true: a plant is a living being that gives all its fingertips the same amount of energy. So if there's nothing left to save, it's better to cut it off. Please note: do not tear! Just find some scissors.

Every jar…
I hate this one, but hey, it does help: if your plant looks miserable, gets just enough water, isn't in the sun too much but does get enough light, then there's a good chance that the pot is too small. So repot. Horror but really, it's the only thing that helps (ergo the job boom drama). And once you do it, you will see the plant grow with the size of the pot.

Big guns
If even more love is needed, you can create a kind of greenhouse effect by covering the root (i.e. the entire pot) with plastic foil for a few days.

You can read more tips here Mooiwatbloemendoen.nl. I think this is a wonderful piece of reading: What-are-your-planting-goals-this-fall

No alcohol for a while? No problem. Because that doesn't mean we don't have an apéro anymore. Friends are having wine and this is, after last summer's homemade lemonade, my current favorite drink, once again shamelessly stolen from beautifulwatplantendoen.nl:

Alcohol-free elderflower beer
For those who, like me, don't like all sugary soft drinks and want a 'fun' drink: try this one, a drink with a vegetable base (ideal to stimulate the appetite, they say, although that doesn't take much effort). ). Oh, and it's ready in no time, which is nice too.

Necessary: 100 ml elderflower syrup, 4 bottles of non-alcoholic white beer, four sprigs of fresh herbs (whatever you like - the site recommends veeveine, but that doesn't seem to be good if you are pregnant. Are you the bob? Do it! Pregnant? Just choose something else , ginger for example). A dash of elderflower syrup brings out the floral and spicy notes of white wheat beer.

to do: Divide the elderflower syrup among four beer glasses and top up with wheat beer. Serve with a sprig of verveine in it.

Cheers!