December 12 - Thursday

Museum park 'Kulturen' in Lund, Skåne, Sweden

December 11 - Wednesday

Alcea Rosea - Stockros - Hollyhock

Lund, Skåne, Sweden

Good Fences

Just a garden I happened to pass by today. By putting up a fence they’d created a nice private area to sit and have their coffee or whatever. But by putting the barrow full of flowers outside the fence they also offered a nice view for passers-by.

Linking to Good Fences

Secret Gardens in Early Morning Sun

Laburnum – Golden Chain
In Swedish we call them “gullregn” = Golden Rain

 

Linking to:

FMTSO - Behind the Corner

May 29: Behind the Corner - Show us the little things in your town or home. What lies behind the corner that just makes you happy to get there?

This is a garden I pass by often; usually one of the first places where I see the first early flowers in spring. (Photo from about a month ago.)

Friday My Town – Behind the Corner
 

Old and New

As it became clear earlier in the week that my brother would not be able to come down for this weekend either, I decided on Friday that I’d better take the bus out to The House outside town for the day, to “check on things”. Besides some very small things like hepaticas in bloom (above), also some big things to do with consenting recently to let a neighbour take down some trees… (See Signs of Spring, April 17).  (The main reason is that an old road that used to run between the properties is going to be restored.)

When I was there discussing the tree-felling, I had so much to think about that unfortunately I forgot to take proper “Before” photos. I found some in my archives from last summer though. Even if they were not taken the same time of year or the exact same perspective, they will give an idea, I think.

The House, summer 2012:

The House, May 2013 (tree-felling in progress)

Garden shed and various junk, summer 2012 – pretty well hidden from the neighbours by trees and bushes:

May 2013: Ooops! Not so well hidden any more!

That huge fir tree will be taken down as well:

Contemplating the “new view”, a photo from grandma’s albums came to mind:

My grandparents at the well on the property where they were going to build their house (half the size of the present one) in 1930. The view must be very nearly the same as in the photos of the garden shed above.

“Is there anything of which one can say,
’Look! This is something new’ ?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.”
~Ecclesiastes 1:10~ *

 

Macro Monday: Pink Geranium

For Macro Monday, from the Home & Garden Fair.

Busy

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

Lots of things fluttering through my mind this week – not just butterflies! Probably won’t be able to concentrate much on blogging next week either. The funeral is on Wednesday. A bit of unexpected stress came up yesterday about other things that need attention as well. My brother arrived at the House today (he’ll be here for about a week). Tomorrow we’ll be going to dad’s service center flat where he lived the last year.

Mock orange shrub/tree (Swedish: schersmin) (left)
+ another shrub I don’t know the name of

Reminder to Self: be thankful that it’s just a small flat/room with few ‘things’ (and no papers) that needs to be emptied a.s.a.p. All the more clutter left to sort out in/at the House… but there we are more free take our time about it.

Decorative weeds

Old red currant bush still bearing a few berries on half-dead branches

All pictures above are from the garden at the House. I should point out that what you see here is only a third or so of the house, and the tidiest corner of the large and overgrown garden. It does make a difference though that we managed to hire someone to mow the front lawn during the last two summers.