{Michelle Obama & Print Unlimited from Horst}

When my friend Ellie and I did visit on September 13, the Museum Lace Factory; Museum de Kantfabriek in my birth place Horst, I encountered a poster from our First Lady Michelle Obama. She is wearing a silk top from designer Peter Pilotto that has been printed by Print Unlimited in Horst.

Print Unlimited about Peter Pilotto and digital textile printing. Jos Bastiaans, who used to work with Stork Prints, is now heading Print Unlimited in Horst where they do digital printing on textile for the fashion and entertainment industry.  Below is a photo with Michelle Obama in Peter Pilotto's Digital Print Silk Top . Also Vogue did publish the US First Lady Michelle Obama on November 10, 2009 in British Vogue. Michelle had purchased the top from a store in Chicago that sells Peter Pilotto designer clothes.

I took this photo from the laminated poster...

Some of the volunteers at the Lace Museum misspelled the name Pilotto...

Thought you would find this an interesting story that the US First Lady, Michelle Obama, actually is wearing something that has been digitally printed on silk in my birth place Horst in The Netherlands...

Related articles and links:

Museum de Kantfabriek Horst aan de Maas | video on Youtube

{Museum Lace Factory - Antique Lace Toer or Poffer} | previous post by me

British Vogue - Pilotto Designs
Michelle Obama in Peter Pilotto My Fashion Life, 5 November, 2009

{Dead Trees due to HOT & DRY Summer}

It has been the most DRY and HOT summer we can recall, and it also took its toll on several plants, shrubs and tall trees. Georgia is kind of sub-tropic as it is at the same latitude as Tunisia in northern Africa but with some exceptions of course. We do get snow once in a while and frost and this summer did also surprise us. When we came home from a two-week trip to Europe, we counted 22 dead Leyland Cypress trees that lined our wood garden in the back and on the side. Quite shocking and we decided that we will not even replace those as they are over 15 years old. Nature sometimes takes a different course! We will have to adapt to it and make do with what is left. It could have been worse of course, there are other natural disasters with a lot more impact. Let me show you the walking trail through our wood garden where the dead ones are. Still standing but we will have to take them down one day, in the spring probably with some help.

It was hard to see them all brown after we got home. But for over two months no rain and temperatures of 40°C-44°C (104°F-111°F) did really scorch them to death. This is the walking trail in the back of our wood garden. It goes on like this with nothing but brown, dead Leyland Cypress, a total of 22.

This was on August 6, at 10:34 AM and the thunder-storms never got to us. No rain for about two months and no running water in the creek, just mud that got over grown by weeds. Ponds in the area were all dry and ours stayed full because of an underground spring that is feeding our pond.

Not a happy sight...

In the back you still see some dead Leyland Cypress but we also got some healthy trees left.

Barty our 7 year old feline followed me all the way, he behaves more like a dog than a cat...

Let's turn around and look down towards the house... This was on November 10, before the frost and already lots of leaves on the ground due to the dry summer. The tree to the right is a beech and it has not turned yellow yet. The ladder got used a couple of weeks ago by Pieter for pruning out all the dead limbs and also cutting the lowest limbs off,  for more light and a better view.

But look, there is HOPE as I found some blooming Oxalis between the fallen leaves...

{Fall & Winter Preparations}

Because on Friday night, November 11, we did have our very first frost, the pot plants HAD to be moved inside the greenhouse. There was already over-population last winter and as things grow only bigger, it would not quite fit this time. So Pieter did build an additional greenhouse with only thick plastic, adjacent to the greenhouse with Doppelstegplatten, Insulated Polycarbonate Glazing. There will not be a heater on a thermostat, as in the greenhouse, but it gives some protection for the drying and cold wind in freezing temperatures. So let's have a look at what Pieter has build for our green children... 

This photo is taken after the first frost, with everything already inside. Where the adjacent plastic greenhouse has been built, there was still a row with tomatoes that had to be removed...

Our LAST home grown tomatoes for the year. They cannot ripen on the plant but they will also color this way.

Still in the process of building the greenhouse for those tender plants like the Angel's Trumpet Datura and others.

Pieter the worker bee and handy man...

You see still a Key Lime hanging on the tree?

It was a very pleasant day for working out doors, that helps.

The patio we had added last year, as the wood path leading to the greenhouse was rotting away...

Everything inside already and sheltered from the biting wind when freezing.

A look inside the greenhouse with its green residents. Safe again for Winter!

Do you have a greenhouse too?