TORIDORI SEASONAL LETTER 05.

Vivid purple at the river bank

川べりを彩る赤紫

2025 July 10 - August 26

Hi, friends! How are you doing? 

To add a spoonful of seasonality in your tea cup, I am writing a small seasonal letter every month. 

The flower of this month is purple loosestrife (Grote kattenstaart in Dutch), the vivid purple-red flowers commonly found at the river banks and wetlands in Flanders.

In the July of 2017, I visited the nature reserve of Vorsdonkbos-Turfputten. My hometown in Japan doesn't really have wetlands. It was my first time at the summer Flemish wetland, and the contrasts of green grasses and vivid purple-red flowers were so stanning beautiful.

Since then, every time I find this flower, it brings me back to that special moment at the beautiful wetland.

Erina

Photo taken on 3/7/2025 in Mechelen, at the river bank of Dijle. Not only being beautiful, this plant is also an important indicator of healthy ecosystems at the Flemish water.