THE GREEN TIME OF YEAR

Well hello there. I have spent my time working and sleeping, or, rather; lying in my bed making lists in the ceiling of all the things I should be doing but have not, and then watching You vs. Wild with Dag. It is his favourite.

But today I finally made it out into the garden! Planting those herbs I have had waiting for some time already, as well as my lazy version of growing tomatoes,  and cleaning up some dead plants after winter. I never manage - nor even try, really- to get the garden growing as much as I dream of, but doing these small is my relaxation mode. To sit outside alone and pot the plants and get some dirt on my hands. And cheeks.

We have this constant game of Eddi putting empty pots away in the old shed and me taking them out leaving them around everywhere, some filled with plants and some waiting for plants, and those then get put back in the shed again.

The shed is so messy pictures are forbidden but we can look up to the ceiling of the shed, which consists of some decades of skies.

Pot in pot in pot.

 

My lazy-man's tomatoes are grown by just sticking old wrinkly ones in soil and letting everything take care of itself. Done this a couple of years and usually gives a few plants.

And yes, this should have been done a month or two ago, but hey, it's more exciting to see if the tomatoes will make it before the first autumn frost or not.

Taking this photo myself required some skill. And one of those moments when it is on the plus side to live in the countryside with no direct visibility from the neighbours. 

(This could also have been captioned with something more poetical like the feeling of soil and earth on your hands but sometimes you have to say it for what it is. Or ruin it, whichever way you prefer.) 

My roses had become a little sad as they had to wait so long for proper potting but now they can grow happy again.

Before I went in I picked some greens for dinner. Ground elder, if you wondered.
How happy I am the the green time of year is here again!

FOUR THINGS A WHILE AGO: UNDER THE TREE

Doing my barre workout in the garden. Organising things with the help of a glass of bubbly. Reading in the hammock chair under the tree.  And the wind is warm.

GREEN TOMATOES

I've harvested my tomatoes -from the three slices of tomato I planted we got a big bunch of beautiful green tomatoes.

 

I started my whole tomato-project a little too late in spring in order for them to have the time to ripe properly and turn red, and now the couple of sudden sneaky frost nights that we had managed to kill some of them off already. So I had to harvest those that were left now.

It does not matter that they are still green, as they taste pretty awesome when fried in butter and garlic anyway (well, doesn't everything...).

THE LITTLE GARDENER

We planted Dag's cherry tree. He's very eager to take care of it and to go and check if it has grown.
(And, as you can see, still wearing his "ninja uniform"...)

He'll have to wait a few years for cherries though.

DAG'S LITTLE CHERRY TREE

 Dag got a tree for his 4th birthday by Eddi's aunt, who left it next to the door to surprise him. It's his very own cherry tree, as he loved to pick cherries from her trees.  He already has his own litte appletree that he got as a baby, but the lambs kindof munched on it a couple of years ago so it is still tinier than this one.

We haven't decided a spot to plant it in yet, and now I am already growing fond of the little tree looking pretty on our front porch...

Maybe I have to get an olive tree or so in a pot as replacement!

OUT IN THE GREEN

The other night when I couldn't sleep I did something I haven't done in almost a year I think: I browsed a couple of the blogs I used to read. I've missed reading blogs.  And both of them were just the same as they've always been, with similar photos and happenings and themes. Which made me laugh a bit at the fact that it's just the same over here as well. So now I'll do yet another post about me having a day off and thus finally get to attend things in my garden. But you know what they say, few things are as important...

We had lunch with Dag on the porch. Fresh tomato-filled pasta with herbs from my garden.
In the background you can see my tomato plants, which I planted from slices earlier this year. They've grown so well!

Here are the herbs "in action". As I suppose their action is growing.
This year I didn't grown them myself though as I was too late, so I bought them ready and planted.
Dag loves to water plants. He also loves to go on excursions and "secret discovery expeditions", which I once used to get him along on a walk and that he now wants to go out on all the time. But it can be turned into making plain things interesting: watering the plants turned into one task we had to do on our secret mission. Well, the kid actually loves to water plants. But it works well with other tasks.

 Dag equipped me with weapons, in case we ran into any bad guys.
(Also note my haute floppy pink home-wear shorts. Or un-note them. Not very picture worthy in any more vivid angles.)

 The cats serve as panthers.

The first thing we saw on our investigating excursion was that the wild strawberries are ready! THey are THE absolute taste of summer.

Noticed it will be a good cherry-year! Wohoo!
Last year we did not get any berries; I am not even sure the trees bloomed then.

And then we ended our mission by harvesting the rhubarb. Pie and jam coming up!


And I'll be bringing some (= a lot) of that pie out with me to the archipelago; heading out there for those classic three days of summer, family, food and wine (in moderate doses only folks!) tomorrow. Happy midsummer!

FOUR THINGS RIGT NOW: SUNSHINE, WARM WINDS, HAPPY CATS AND MOTHERSDAY

It's finally warm and sunny  -yes I know I said that already but it really has such a big impact on everything around here!

Dag and I had our first outdor lunch on the back porch.

 And I opened my mother's day card and gift - the bracelet on my wrist- he'd made me in playschool today already as I will be away tomorrow on the actual day.

And look! My tomato plants planted from tomato slices a month ago are growing! They seemed to do so earlier but then disappeared back into the soil and I though they'd died but here they are making their way up towards the sunshine!

SEPTEMBER

And so one day it is September and you open the door in the morning and wonder how it can be, that on the first official day of autumn it really feels like a change of season in the air; it is cold and the morning mist is heavy and grey, just like nature would have a calendar and switch mode as soon as the date change. Strange.

I have as usual been busy with work but also just spent a lot of time reading the newspapers and articles feeling even more bad than it usually makes me and thus not really feeling like blogging after that.

This morning I however had some time off.

Gave my orchids a bath; haven't been properly at home in either place to take care of my plants.

Did something of a pimp-my-hipster-porridge for breakfast - oat porridge, a nectarine, peanut butter and red wineberries plus hazelnut milk.


Opened the door and smelled autumn,  just before it started raining (and it rained all day).
And here are Dag's gathering of coloured tractors on the back yard table.


It will be chili time soon! (Btw it is always good when you water your outdoor plants just before it starts raining for some 12 hours straight. It makes you feel like you really just did something useful.)


And my coriander, in the growing box that survived the vicious lamb attack, is overgrown huuuuuge.


Then I went back inside and thought about wearing this little mint green vintage fabric piece that arrived from Etsy some time ago. (But I just ended up wearing a kitty romper instead).

BYE BYE GARDEN

This summer I haven't really had any vacation. It's been a lot about work (which I will get into here soon), but most of the time that I've had off I have spent watering plants and taking care of the garden. And anyone who has been stopping by here this summer or follows me at instagram know that  I have actually managed to grow things this year.
I had a really nice garden.
Had.


Until the lambs decided their, I don't know, three square kilometres or so of grass was not enough to roam but decided to start hanging out in our garden instead. And as they tend to do, they ate EVERYTHING. Even my palm tree from inside that I had outdoors for some sun-therapy.  And most flowers and all the berries bushes and my god damn growing boxes of kale and salad and peas and aaargh.

But I think there was a Chinese proverb saying that nothing in life is more important than to attend to your garden. And even that is not so important.

GARDEN LIFE vol.1

(flower photo alert)

As summer comes we spend pretty much all free time at the farm and we let the back door stay open to extend living out to the garden. Everyday life elsewhere, perhaps but here only for those short sweet summer months.

I stocked up on flowers and pots at the start of the season as usual.


Hello hanging strawberries-to-be!

 So beautiful, aren't they?


And things that I have planted, as well as others generations before me have, pop up one by one. So many colours, so many prety flowers.

 I had Eddi build me these growing boxes. I planted herbs, salads and other greens in them.

And the cats tried their best to sabotage it all, by hopping in and out of the boxes and making a mess.
Let's just say the order I put the seeds in are no more.


Cauliflowers waitinig to be planted outside. I hade some sunflowers coming up too. But they fried in the mini greenhouse when it got real sunny outsisde. Ooops.

 I also have a set of tomatoes and chilis sitting on a bench by a sunny wall.

 It's a goddamn water circus every day (not to forget all my indoor plants) and I dread going away as I know no one else will remember to water them. But I like having a lot of plants around there and every now and then get to enjoy a home grown tomato too.


We had Dag's three year birthday outside party in the garden as well.

This was a few weeks ago now already, when it was still cold(er), but we were lucky enough to manage the party right on the only day it was warm and sunny during those weeks.

The pram park. I actually don't have so many friends with kids so this was an unusual sight. People have been busy the past year!

Dag's favourite colour is red. Preferably everything he wears has to be red.

Evenings are for barbecue, and as usual the guys are at it with their burgers and sauces.


And come night time, my solar lit fairy lights go on.

But it is still so light they are merely there just for the fun of it. But come August with it's warm (hopefully) and dark evenings they get to shine to their full potential. I might hang up a few more still...