When I woke up last night, I heard it raining. 

Moments later it started to rain heavily. A while later it turned into torrential rain. My thought went out to our garden, given the heavy rain, all the plants should be flat, I thought! 

This morning the damage was not too bad. All the plants had held their own. Because of the heavy rain lately, everything is growing beautifully. My hydrangeas are great, as we have sandy soil here and usually the water goes through quickly. We live here in an oasis, on the German border.

In a normal summer, we have to spray a lot to keep everything alive.

Especially this year is different, everything is growing luxuriantly! For me, it’s great. But not for many people around us. Due to the heavy rainfall, more and more floods are occurring.

About a third of the Netherlands is below sea level. A large part of our land has been reclaimed from the sea via a system of dikes. In a period of 75 years (last century) the Zuiderzee has been turned into a liveable new land (Flevoland). This is the largest “polder” as we call it, with 2000 square kilometers. Now we live with 17 million people on an area of 41,500 square kilometers. The risk of flooding is increasing. Because of the warming of the seawater, but also because of the regional reveals.

Not only in the Netherlands, but also in the countries around us. Germany, has already had several floods and landslides in recent years. I do worry about this.

The future will tell. I’m hoping for a warm summer with more sun. I wish everyone a good summer with lots of inspiration for our theme about the flowing water.