The week started cool enough with a fresh borage flower, but as the garden wilted in the heatwave, I sought refuge with my always uber cool Barbies.

The vintage Barbie used to belong to one of my elder sisters, but like their clothes, found its way to us little ones: my younger sister and me.

We both had a Skipper doll, Barbies younger sister, that we got from Sinterklaas at a party from my fathers work.

Although I spent most of this week in the garden, there are only two plants this time.

The other days I could draw upon my many small collections: Old toys and haberdashery.

June starts of with new flowers and old objects,

This week we go from a tiny pelargonium, through teapots from faraway countries, flowers from my own garden and handmade birds to the sun!

In this grey week we go from Columbine to Lily of the valley via a coffee cup and needle cases.

Week two started of with a posy picked in the polder just outside Utrecht where we live.

But as I have been making these almost daily drawings for over a year now, most plants come around for the second time by now.

So I like to put together little still lifes. I can draw on the many little collections I have accumulated 'by accident'.

Here it is potsherds (picked up wherever I am, or just broken at home) and sea glass, or mermaid's tears.

I decided to draw a bit more than plants this month, so although we start with a posy, there's also feathers, embroidery silk and a figurine this week.

The red-white-and-blue flowers on wednesday are for our Liberation Day, the figurine of the reading man was for Koos Meinderts, who recorded the Annie M.G. Schmidt lecture on friday. 

This is a lecture about children's literature, read by different authors every year.

That was April.

Some of these flowers I drew last year also, but at least two weeks earlier. April was cold this year.

But I saw the first swifts a week ago, a big group too, although I haven't seen them since.

Let's see what May brings.

From Chocolate vine (had to look it up) from the nabours to 'wild' apple blossom.

The last drawing is of the same wild apple near Fort Blauwkapel here in Utrecht.

The small allium and the rododendron were put in the garden by former inhabitants of our house. 

The rose, a very easy growing rambler, came over from the nabours, and the charlock grwe by the roadside.

But I made the little posy!