Picking the first okras

The Prince of Ylliriel picks the first okras, and speaks of his homeland, of Mount-Lebanon, also known as "the Switzerland of the Middle East".

The Prince also speaks of his terrible experience in the motherland of the Faerie Princess (Annelies Broeders), and of how traumatizing for him it was to feel so much unwelcome, so much judged, and so unfairly, without getting a chance to ever speak.

The Prince also posted a new writing called "Falling into a canal" you can read here: https://justiceinylliriel.wordpress.com/2024/06/30/falling-into-a-canal/ 

And that is the family swimming pool by the sea, as the summer season officially started. The pictures are taken by the Wiseman of the sea. 

The fruits (litchi, passion fruits...) come from other gardens belonging to the family, that aren't under the direct care of the Prince.

Picking pomarrosas

 Today the Prince speaks from underneath a pomarrosa tree...

And those are the pomarrosas the Prince picked today, as their harvest starts. The Prince picks them in small quantity to match the household consumption.

And those are fruits and vegetables bought yesterday from the local market. The following fruits and vegetables do not come from the Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel. Their aim is only to show to Red-Oak, Green-Rose and Little-Flute the variety of things that grow in Mount Lebanon...

Speaking about fertilizers

The Prince explains how he uses natural fertilizers (kitchen wastes) to enrich the soil of the Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel... 

And this is a new hibiscus flower that bloomed, to add to the collection!

Carbon sinks

The Prince speaks about the carbon sinks he created in the Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel, explaining how it is possible to mitigate global warming at an individual scale...

And this is part of the daily harvest: small peaches and pomarrosas from the garden. A bountiful salad, some peppers, green beans, pumpkin flowers, other strawberries, etc. later came to complement this harvest. 

Speaking in French while watering

The Prince speaks in French (and not only!) while watering. The list of the things he has proved to the entourage of the Faerie Princess is getting longer. The Prince hopes that they will listen to these videos to the end, because he says many things that he believes to be valuable.

The daily salad, a couple of strawberries and some ginger and curcuma green leaves the Prince harvested.

And the first pomarrosas. This little exotic fruit derives its name from the subtle taste of rose it has.

In the evening

 The Prince speaks from the garden, in front of the barnhouse, in the evening...

The Prince harvests many products from the garden on a daily basis. Every day he also picks a handful of strawberries. The Prince planted from scratch the 200 plants of strawberries he currently has. Strawberries are delicate plants that require daily care. For four years in a row, the Prince has given these strawberries daily care, allowing their numbers to grow in such a way.

And everything is organic, entirely natural.

It is true the Prince is an engineer. It is what he learnt at university, and the title he has, and what his professional experience was about. Yet in the last years, the Prince has become a constructors of ecosystems. That is perhaps not a well-recognized and well-paid profession for now, yet it is extremely valuable, and because of climate change, global warming, increasing air and soil pollution, it will be a skill that will be much researched in the future.

The Prince speaks in Italian

Today, the Prince recorded a video while picking basil for a pesto in the garden by the sea.

Then, following the latest posts of the Faerie Princess, the Prince decided to prove his mastering of Italian, by speaking in part in Italian in his second and third videos. Speaking several languages is a sign of culture, of education, of open-mindedness. The Prince speaks fluently four languages. He learnt Italian at home, thanks to the dedication of Dreamy-painter (as the Faerie Princess calls her).

Today the Prince harvested a large salad, a couple of still unripe passion fruits (the season hasn't started yet), basil for a pesto and capers (you can see the capers in the picture below).

N'était-elle pas belle?

"N'était-elle pas belle?" is the first spontaneous poem I wrote in my life. I wrote it during the first week of November 2006, after dreaming, in very vivid terms, of my twin soul, exactly eight years before meeting her. I was fifteen years old at the time. I never forgot this so vivid dream of her, that seemed to me like a real life experience. I remembered the face of the mysterious and so perfect girl I had seen in my dream for years and years, and when I met my twin soul I recognized her face, I recognized the same mysterious girl I had seen in my dream.

I fell in love with my twin soul before meeting her, probably on Sunday 5th of November 2006 (I looked at a calendar to find the exact date, as I remember that I had dreamt of her on a Sunday morning, waking up delighted by this dream that seemed so real and truthful).

When I met my twin soul in real life, I felt exactly the same emotions as I describe in this poem, that was only based on this dream of her. 

After the unfairness I was victim from, because of my immense inner pain, I lost for some time this perfect knowledge of her I had within me. Only now, slowly, along this path of healing, am I retrieving this initial vision of perfection. 

In order to heal entirely, however, oh my Fair Angel, I need to see you here, right in front of me. Only then will I retrieve the real feeling, the real emotion, behind this poem I wrote so many years ago for you.

N'était-elle pas belle?
Elle resplendissait dans sa robe de princesse, elle
Semblait être entourée par une constellation
Tellement elle brillait.
Mes yeux se fermaient délicieusement,
Eblouis par la lumière de ce soleil.
J'aurais tellement désiré
Que le monde s'arrête,
Que comme figés, glacés,
Nous restions éternellement l'un en face de l'autre!
Les reflets de sa chevelure dorée
Fascinaient mon âme charmée par cette fée,
Le parfum qui allégeait dans l'air,
Etait semblable à celui provoqué
Par une mer de roses.
Tous mes sens étaient tendus,
Scrutant l'horizon de ce bonheur sans fin.
Jamais encore,
Je n'avais éprouvé pareil sentiment
Dans un rêve!
N'était-il pas fantastique?

Annelies Broeders, you are the fae I dreamt about, and wrote about. I believe nobody could see and appreciate your inner beauty. I think I did, however, and this is the reason for which you felt moved so deeply in my presence. 

Underneath a banana tree

The Prince speaks from the garden by the sea, underneath a banana tree he planted four years ago...

The daily salad the Prince picked, and some lemons, two of these lemons in particular were very large, the heaviest almost 500 grams, 1 kg in total.

The pictures do not capture the real size of these lemons! Compare them with the pebbles of the stone path underneath.

Those are small pumpkins the Prince harvested today.

And this is the banana flower starting to yield bananas!

Below, a while laurel the Prince planted some years ago.  

On the rooftop of the barnhouse

 The Prince speaks from the rooftop of the barnhouse showing a top view on the garden!

Those are the first little peaches of the season, picked by the Prince, from the peach tree he planted ten years ago. When the quantity of fruit that is gathered is too great, part of them is prepared in jam.

A sweet pepper, a small eggplant and a few hot peppers from the garden.

The growth of grape. This grape vine yields red grapes with a seed, that can either be eaten as a fruit, or prepared in vinegar as it is slightly sour. The Prince prepared homemade vinegar in the past years. You can notice the diversity of fruits that grow in the Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel.

And the growth of pomegranate fruits... they will reach their maturity in September.

Some herbs gathered for the omelette that we usually prepare every Friday. The typical menu of Fridays is lentils, and eggs (often an omelette), as historically it was a day without meat, in the Maronite Christian heritage. Lentils are a very popular dish in Mount Lebanon.

And the afternoon sky today, seen from the rooftop of the barnhouse.

Showing the growth of Okras

 The Prince shows the growth of okras from the rooftop of the house...

Not all the fruits we consume come from the garden. Nearly every single fruit you can think of sprouts in Mount Lebanon: mango, avocado, litchi, passion fruit, pomarrosa, cinnamon-apple, goyava, banana // but also peach, apricot, fig, plum, olives, mulberries, almonds, walnuts, strawberries // but also, apples, pears, quinces, cherries, chestnuts, gooseberries..... and the list is long.

The reason of this incredible diversity is simple. The mountains rise to 3100 meters, close to the coast. Therefore when it is 25 degrees on the coast, on the highest peaks the temperatures are in between 10 and 0 degrees.

In the winter, when the temperatures drop to 5 degrees on the coast, on the highest peaks the temperatures reach -10 or -15 degrees. This means that just in a few dozens of kilometers we move from a Mediterranean climate that allows tropical trees and plants to thrive, to a nearly alpine climate. Therefore, the local fruit and vegetable markets are quite a sight, exposing a great diversity of local fruits.

Those are fruits we got from a local market today. The cherries come from the mountains above 800 meters of altitude, while the apricots, peaches and plums come from the hills (in between the sea and 600 meters of altitude).

Apples and cherries are cultivated in between 800 meters of altitude and 1400 meters of altitude. Cedars grow above 1500 meters of altitude. Cedar seeds need to have at least 2 months of snow above them in order to sprout. So only places that receive meters of snowfall allow Cedars to grow. The ski stations are located at altitudes around 2000 meters height. There, on rainy and snowy winters, there can be meters and meters of snow, that will last from November/December to March/April. 

In the summer, for those who appreciate freshness, the mountain is ideal. Many families here have a house on the coast, and a house in the mountains. They can spend the winter on the coast where the climate is milder, and spend the summer in the mountains, where the temperatures remain fresh even during the two warmest months of the years.

Also, the shepherds who have goats and sheep move their herds to the coast during the winter, when the mountains are covered by snow, and during the summer, they return to the mountains as there is more grass that sprouts up there.

"La Rosée de l'Espoir"

 

La Rosée de l’Espoir

Fine et fraiche, elle hydrate chaque matin,
Avant le lever du soleil, les plantes du jardin.
Semblable à des perles, les gouttelettes glissaient,
Sur les feuillages verdoyants, qui s’en retrouvaient tout reluisant.

Mon âme était sensible à cette beauté fugitive et éphémère,
Dans la fraicheur du matin, mes frissons,
Etaient entrecoupés par des accès d’espoir,
Que la chaleur du soleil levant me communiquait.
Mon cœur s’en retrouvait réchauffé et le sang chaud,
Qui giclait dans mes veines, décrispa mes membres.

Au printemps, les arbres se couvrent de feuilles et de fleurs,
La végétation renait de ses cendres en retrouvant sa magnificence d’entant,
Semblable à une passion, qui après s’être diluée et étouffée,
Recommence à bruler plus intensément que jamais.

La beauté de la nature touche le cœur de chacun,
En transformant l’anxiété en espoir et courage,
Entretenus et ravivés par l’air pur et frais du matin.
La lassitude accumulée s’estompait et je me sentais
Un nouvel être plus sain, à qui il ne restait qu’un seul désir :
« Partager ces moments de félicité avec son âme jumelle. »

"La Rosée de l'Espoir" is one of the first poems I ever wrote. I wrote it when I was 15 or 16 years old.

Already back then, I dreamt of meeting my twin soul. I had never heard about such a concept, yet I intuitively knew that somewhere in the world, the girl who understood me entirely, saw me entirely, and loved me entirely, lived and existed. I could feel her presence in my heart. I had no doubt about her.

Years afterwards, I found her. I found her, but she was wounded. Despite her wound, despite her fears, I could see and appreciate all her beauty, all her inner and outer beauty.

I think that I now need to retrieve all the faith and the trust I had in her during my childhood. She needs all this faith and this trust, because it will deliver her from the burdens she carries.

The name of my twin soul is Annelies Broeders. She was born in Dordrecht on the 8th of September 1994. She is the only girl, the only person, I ever fell in love with. She is the girl I love since ever I can remember. She is the girl I will always love.

To me, my dear Annelies, you are the most beautiful, poetic, sensitive and fair girl in the entire world. My heart melts when I see you.

We were together, in Gruyères, when I took this picture of you, Faerie Princess.

Picking some basil

The Prince of Ylliriel shows the progress of the pumpkin vines he planted, and then he also shows how he picks basil to prepare some pesto, explaining the philosophy behind the way he plants the garden.

And this is the basil the Prince harvested at the end.

And this is the waterlily that the Prince planted for the Faerie Princess, which is starting to flower.

New ideas

 The Prince of Ylliriel speaks of his new ideas... 

And this is the progression of one of the raised beds the Prince has filmed after building it a few weeks ago. You can see the papaya tree that almost doubled in size, and the sweet potato vines started spreading.

The Prince has built recently four raised beds of this kind.

Almonds

The Prince, during his studies, was the President of the environmental club, and he was very active into associations that helped the community. His dream is to create an association together with the Faerie Princess (Annelies Broeders) that teaches children and adults how to plant, and to teach them to love plants and nature. That dream will turn true when the entourage of the Faerie Princess understands the Prince has been the victim of an unfairness, and that the Princess has a childhood trauma she cannot heal without their help and their compassion.

On a side note, in addition to all the salads, fruits and vegetables that sprout in the Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel, the season of green almonds has started. Every day the Prince picks some green almonds that he breaks with the black pebble you can see on the picture. The garden also provides walnuts and peanuts, but the season of walnuts and peanuts starts during the fall. The nearby gardens also produce macadam nuts.

It is the Prince and Dreamy-Painter (that is a nickname the Faerie Princess found!) who planted those almond trees around ten or fifteen years ago, from an almond. 

Moschata squash

The Prince gets into more technical explanations, exposing the differences between Maxima Squashes and Moschata Squashes, and why Moschata squashes are more adapted to the local climate on the coast of the Mounts of Ylliriel. 

The Prince also shows the techniques he uses to make the pumpkin (squash) vines more productive, stimulating them to produce more roots...

The daily 300 grams of salad the Prince picks, providing his entire family with fresh, organic greeneries.

Studies conducted in France (and in the rest of European nations) show how the already washed salads bought from the supermarket in plastic bags that are already sealed are filled with pesticides. Even the brands that claim to be organic failed the test that was conducted on those salads. 

The Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel, thanks to the hard work of the Prince, provides the entire household with bountiful salads 365 days a year.

The sea today, with a bougainvillea tree in flowers, from the garden by the sea.

The first banana tree this year has started yielding some bananas. You can notice the agroforestry context around, with many trees of various species.

Those are vegetables the Prince harvested today. A pumpkin, a green apple and a strawberry, among many others. 

The Prince wishes to congratulate all his Dutch friends for the victory of their first soccer game in the Euro tournament. 

I will support the Netherlands, along with Italy, in this tournament, for the sake of Red-Oak! Perhaps a victory of the Netherlands can give him some enthusiasm, and the strength to do what is right!

The progression of the passion fruits' vines

 The Prince of Ylliriel speaks from the garden by the sea...

There are litterally hundreds of passion fruits that have formed, but are still green. In a few weeks, they will turn red, violet or pink, and become ready to be picked. It is the Prince who planted those passion fruit vines from seeds four years ago, in raised beds of his invention.

Nearby the passion fruit vines, the Prince also planted sweet potatoes, from slips. The sweet potatoes are doing very well, and every day or every two days the Prince unearthes around 1 kg of sweet potatoes for family consumption. The Prince also picks variegated salads composed in part from sweet potato leaves on a daily basis. 

When the sweet potatoes are unearthed, the Prince does it delicately not to damage the plant - as you can see on the image above, the sweet potato vine is still alive, despite having dug all around to find the potatoes underneath the ground.

Underneath you can see pictures of capers and sea fennels. It is right now the season of both. The Prince harvests every week capers that he keeps in vinegar and salt, and sea fennels salads, that are excellent to accompany fish, or potatoes. Sea fennel is naturally salty as it grows close to the sea. The Prince has favored the growth of these wild plants, protecting them, in order to make them domestic to the garden. 

Yesterday the Prince photographed a clear, yellow sunset from the rooftop of the barnhouse (to which he built a stairway). Depending on the cloud cover, and on the season, the sunset changes colors entirely! The Mounts of Ylliriel are known to be perfectly oriented: the sun rises behind the mountains and it sets in the sea directly, or behind its horizon line.

Can you see the passing bird?