Autumn Planting

We have now prepared Skogsveien 30 to be left "rather alone during the winter". We have put way the garden furniture, taken the Buddah inside etc. However, we have also started preparing the garden for the spring, which we, of course, are already looing forward to! Below you can see same examples of the flowers I have planted and which should all come out early spring, around April and May. Can't wait to see them! I have planted lots!

Amineko Project - For my son Igor!

Let me have the pleasure to introduce to you my first Amineko, the crocheted Japanese cat! More cats hopefully to come. This is just the first project. He is cute, isn't he? He was made in honour of my son Igor, who loves Japanese cartoons, anime and all realted stuff! I have to thank Jorunn Skrede, without whom I would not have managed to complete this project :))

A different sight

I saw this picture today in a Norwegian newspaper. I found it so amazing to see the sunflower covered in snow! What a contrast!

One Lonely Sunflower

One lonely sunflower growing in the sun , wants to play
and have some fun . Then - whoosh - went the wind and
scattered all the seeds... And now there's lots of sunflowers,
playing in the breeze.

Anonymous

My real first sunflowers

It has rained for almost two complete months in Stavanger. Therefore, my sunflowers are taking longer to blossom. Anyway, they do look beautiful and I am very proud of having taken care of them since they were just tiny seeds!

Time for some news

Some time has passed since my last posting. That means much to do and little time to BLOG updating. Meanwhile, however, the sunflowers have grown taller and the strawberry plants have given us some strawberries, even if not as much as we would have expected. The work to keep tSkogsveien 30 nice, tidy and cozy continues, both outside and inside. This time with Jorunn's magic hands in control. Whereever she touches, you bet something nice pops up! Check below the new look inside the cottage (still "under construction" though. More novelties to come soon!).


Chris and Julia picking up strawberries


Not much of a crop, is it? :) But more is coming!


Julia with a "Solbær" frm the tree behing her




New curtains and new table and chairs

Beautiful and useful

Look at the beautiful image above! Click on it to see it enlarged and check the details...This is the kind of table I am desperately trying to organise in my garden. Love it!

The wisdom of Gardening...

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair...- Kahlil Gibran

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The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty ofnature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know thatthen there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever thecircumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles. - Anne Frank

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The problem with property is that it takes so much of your time.- Willem de Kooning

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When I am in the country, I wish to vegetate like the country.- William Hazlitt

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Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.- Lou Erickson

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The more help a man has in his garden,the less it belongs to him.- William M. Davies

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A weed is but an unloved flower.- Ella Wilcox, 1855 - 1919

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A weed is a plant that is not only in the wrong place, but intends to stay.- Sara Stein

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What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic, 1878.

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“It’s amazing how much time one can spend in a garden doing nothing at all. I sometimes think, in fact, that the nicest part of gardening is walking around in a daze, idly deadheadingthe odd dahlia, wondering where on earth to squeeze in yet another impulse buy, debating whether to move the recalcitrant artemisia one more time, or day dreaming about where to put the pergola.”- Jane Garmey, A Writer in the Garden

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“A fact bobbed up from my memory, that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad.I t was a mind-altering drug we took daily.”- Paul Fleischman, Seedfolks

Birds, snails and flowers - What a combination!

Today's work was mainly to prepare the area in front of the cottage to receive a firm ground. This means we have bought tiles which will be placed in front of the house, thus allowing us a nicer place to have a table and chairs for meals and coffee etc. I am looking foward to that.

For this operation we had to remove a tree which was beginning to grow in front of the cottage and replant it somewhere else. Chris had a hard time trying to reach the roots of the tree but after a lot of sweat, he managed.

I planted some daisies and took away some weeds. I have to say that although gardening in general is a very pleasant job, I told Chris today that I am looking forward to the day we can actually enjoy Skogsveien for relaxation only or at least longer relaxation periods. For the time being the work seems endless!

I also realised today that not only the snails can damage the plants. Actually, I think I have been blaming the snails for more then they deserve. I say this based on the fact that I replanted two of my dwarf sunflowers on a vase (from earth to a pot), since their leaves were being eaten up constantly. I thought this was being done by snails, poor them. However, when I got to the garden today I saw that the healthy leaves that had been left were again being eaten up. It was obvious there were no snails in the pot! It could only have been the birds! So, what now? Birds are birds and it's lovely to have them around. I even buy food for them to keep them near. This imposes a big dilemma :)

Summer and Cottage life

I came across a very interesting Blog the other day, created by a Norwegian lady with an incredibly good taste. Her Blog talks a lot about interior and exterior decoration, something I have become very interested lately. Rustic decoration has always had a great appeal on me and now that I have Skogsveien to look after, I feel more and more attracted to it. The picture below shows some of these things I am talking about. Aren't they beautiful?

Important Visitors in Skogsveien 30!

On May 21st my department in Statoil took part in a workshop organised by me at Kolonihagen's event house. It was a beautiful day and the event was a big success! After the meetings were over and before dinner time, we all went for a short tour in Kolonihagen, enjoying the beautiful flowers and the small lovely houses. We visited Monica's cottage and last, but not least, Skogsveien 30. Below is a picture that marked such an important event for me and my beautiful garden.
Don't forget to click on the picture to see it bigger!

Beautiful Clematis

The Clematis shown in the pictures below have been the beautiful site in my garden recently. I planted them soon after I bought Skogsveien 30 and now they are really showing the air of their grace. It's a an enourmous satisfaction to see the result of your work begin to blossom like this. But alas, it's such hard work to make everything look right and keep away the weeds and grass etc. Not to mention trying to keep the snails away. I have set many traps and they are catching more and more snails each day. But many of the plants still show the sign of their presence and look ugly. The weather has been rather cold and windy lately too. But many other flowers are starting to come out in my garden, flowers that I don't even recognise yet. When they start blossoming, I will take pictures of them.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Cozier and sweeter

Yes, Skogsveien 30 is becoming cozier as we add more of our personal touch to it. The pictures can give an idea. Yesterday Chris placed a green carpet on the terrace, specially for outside use. It made things more colourful, the more so in contrast with the red flowers I have the terrace at the moment. New flowers are popping out here and there in the garden, probably planted by the previous owner the year before. I have been weeding around them, so that I can see what is coming out and protect them somehow. The smails are still around, but I have set up 3 traps with beer to kill them!Apart from that, today I planted lots and lots of red sunflowers in small pots indoors. Oh, I have to succeed in making them grow healthy and transport them to Kolonihagen.The first sunflowers I planted about a month ago seem ready to be taken to the real world outside. What do you think?

Snail Awareness

I have been strugling to make my garden look nice and at least close to my neighbours' standards, but ...I must admit this is not an easy task. There are several things to consider, of course: 1. I am a total beginner in gardening. 2. I have limited time to dedicate to it. 3. The garden was passed on to us on a messy state. 4. Last, not not least, there are snails working against me! They have been eating the existing flowers and the new ones I plant. So, it is a bit frustrating and a bit discouraging...Anyway, I am trying to set some traps to get them and let's see if this will diminish their destruction.
Apart from that, I am having troubles with the sunflowers I carefully planted in Skogsveien. The biggest flowers are dying and this makes me very sad. I am waiting to see if the new buds will survive nicely though, before I take more drastic measures. I would love to hear some opinion about possible causes from experts. So, if anybody knows what the possible cause can be, I would very much appreciate to receive an email about it.
The strawberries are doing fine so far, though. They are grwoing strong and promissing.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and I spent some time weeding and preparing the flower beds to receive new commers. Pictures follow below.

Strawberries and Sunflower

Skogsveien 30 is progressing and becoming nicer. We have worked on the strawberry fields which look much more organised now (pictures to come). For the time being there are three rows planted, but we need to make at least three more, because there are still many strawberry plants spread out in the garden. Chris and Julia were active. I have been trimming the grass and preparing earth spaces to receive new flowers. The highlight of the planting, however, was the arrival of the sunflower. It's beautiful. I intend to plant many new ones. This was only the beginning. Check it out.