This month’s Urban Jungle Bloggers theme: Botanical zoom. I always find cactus a very interesting plant to zoom into (not too far, because: ouch). I’m also sharing an even more personal Urban Jungle at the end of the post: the before photo’s of our renovation. Shocking…

But first, back to these two weirdo’s…

Now this old man cactus… it doesn’t grow fast, but it does grow weird. I love the fluffiness!

Bad hair day anyone?

The other cactus had a beautiful pink flower when we bought it but unfortunately hasn’t flowered (yet) since. You can still see the little dried up flower in there. Ever tried tidying up a cactus?

The closeup reveals a beautiful pattern, reminds me of Japanese fabric. You know which pattern I mean? Just search for ‘Asanoha’.

Want to know more about Urban Jungle Bloggers, see all the other contributions and find out how you can join? Visit the website: Urbanjunglebloggers.com And do visit Judith and Igor’s blogs as well: Joelix.com and HappyInteriorBlog.com.

So… were you also a little curious about my Urban Jungle revelation? Here goes:

Yep, that’s our house. All of it. It was huge (all the possibilities!), but also derelict (all the work!). The back of the house was completely overgrown with ivy. Now it may look rustic and all that, but Ivy is actually terrible on old buildings (this house was built in 1920 but some remains of the previous house from the 17th century are still visible in the ‘garden’), as you’ll see further on.

Yes, those are cracked and rotten windows. They ALL had to be replaced – along with ceilings, floors, walls, electrical, plumbing and I’m sure a few other things I’ve since tried to forget all about. And we did it all ourselves. What were we thinking? Well, obviously, we weren’t *facepalm*

See, there’s the ivy growing happily into(!) the wall, which had to be partially rebuilt.

It even grew inside. This space had been used as a garage (that’s the previous owner’s car) but we had visions of a beautiful office. Yes, really.

Some years later we actually made that dream office a reality. The new windows (modeled on the old ones) are now comfortably double-glazed and the office plant grows happily in a pot – and no longer through the window.

Hope you enjoyed that little glimpse ;)