Flowers in the garden

Tags

Family, Flowers, Gardening, Husband, Love

My husband rarely buys me flowers. Now, I’m not about to complain about my husband not being romantic enough. Au contraire, I’d rather like to point out the love he puts into the work he does in and around the house. You see, he doesn’t often buy me flowers, but he has been spending a few hours working in the garden during the past year. And instead of a bouquet of red roses, that I would have to cut, vase and throw out after a week’s time, I am now greeted by these beauties every time I enter the house.

There are plenty of them. About one metre tall (3ft) and they really do stand out from the surroundings. The leaves on the nearby trees are changing their colours and the days are getting cold. There are few really strong and bright colours left. But these flowers decided to bloom surprisingly late this year and stand strong through wind and rain.

I hope they stick around a little longer. Every day they are reminders of everything Husband does for me, our son, our home, and for himself. The small things in life are what builds our foundations, and lucky for me, those small things are being represented by beautiful flowers in the garden. I prefer these beauties to flowers in a vase any day!

Garden design

Tags

Cracow, Gardening, Interior design blogs, Lions, Poland

Interior design is popular these days, that much I have noticed. And especially in this area, the dominating style seems to be shabby chic, French country style, or something similar to a palette of white and pastels having exploded in a room, together with loads of lace and linen.

Now, I don’t mind the style, it’s just that too much of it makes me barf. I assume there’s absolutely no reason to, but I pity the kids I see dressed in pastels in order to match their parents’ (read: mother’s) interior design. I thought of doing the same to Son. Dressing him up in white, pale blue and light shades of grey. Shoot many photos, before taking him out in the forrest to pick blueberries. Now, that would be a sight!

I have posted about my kitchen earlier, and I probably will again soon (if Ikea will do as they’ve promised). And I have mentioned my bedroom, which I will probably also do again. But except for a few things every now and again, I promise I won’t turn this blog into an interior design blog. And especially lace will be a rare sight! However, there are a few things I would love for my garden. I have spotted a few things while out travelling, and I just have to share them. So instead of going all interior blog on you, I’ll go exterior blog on you! Because I think this would look brilliant in my garden:

Now, this isn’t all that unusual, and doesn’t really stand out (well, it would in my garden as it would cover the entire front lawn). But take a look at this peaceful lion’s wee brother:

Now, that would make a statement! Don’t you think?

This is to be found btw in the city centre of Cracow, Poland

Cheating…

Tags

Basil, Chives, Gardening, Herbs, Indian Cress, Oregano, Thyme

My poor thyme that I mentioned here did not survive the hardship of my inattentive tending. I kindly planted the herbs outside, but after a period of draught in my kitchen window, a period of immense rain and drowning of the plants did not improve their quality (the drowning was involuntary on my part, as the weather gods of our city didn’t eitherapprove of me leaving the area, and thus wanted the rest of the inhabitants to pay for this, and then also my poor herbs).

I have now cheated and bought lemon balm and basil from the supermarket. As you can see though, the rest of my herbs are thriving (except the indian cress which, although vibrant and alive won’t come up with any flowers…). I should cut them down now and make them ready for winter. But summer doesn’t really seem to have started here yet, so I’ll give them another month or so before I look at them again. They are left to the forces of nature, survival of the fittest will be their motto, and only those with good survival instincts will survive. Wish them luck.

 

Nails – my new style

Tags

Gardening, Nail polish, Nails, Nationail Photographic

Gorgeous nails from Karoline at Nationail Photographic

I have a friend, Karoline, who has the most awesome nail-blog I’ve ever come across. (now, I haven’t really been out looking for nail-blogs to contradict my statement, but, I mean, look at it!) She has a collection of polishes that exceeds her shoe collection – and that is something!

Karoline fixed my nails for my graduation, and did a wonderful job. I had a pretty pink colour as base, and a flourish stamp on top in a paler pink. Something similar to this:

As fascinated as I am over her skills and devotion to her interest, I am far from a nail person myself. Which apparently became obvious to Karoline as she did my nails: I was the first ‘customer’ not to be transfixed with her technique as she added one layer of polish after the other onto my nails.

I loved having my nails done. The nails looked gorgeous, but as I said I’m not much of a nail person. There’s the smell, both of the polish itself and the polish remover, and the smell lingers, which actually made me feel slightly intoxicated during my first night with polished nails. My fingers feel different with the polish on, which I know is just something you get used to, but I didn’t dare touch anything for the first couple of days. After a few days though I couldn’t do it anymore, and I forgot everything Karoline had said about wearing gloves while doing the dishes, and similar good advice to make the polish last. I am sorry to say that the beautiful pink colour was flaking pretty soon.

Anyhow, as I was working in my herb garden here the other day, I thought of Karoline. I don’t like wearing gloves unless I need to to prevent cold from biting of my fingertips, or heat from blistering my palms. While working in the garden, washing, doing dishes, or similar activities I can’t stand wearing gloves. I have running, hot water at several locations in my house, at these locations you are also likely to come across soap of some sort. There’s no need for gloves.

I took a picture, Karoline-style, to show off my new colour. I’d like to call it ‘dirt brown’. Notice how it doesn’t only cover my nails, but it’s also to be found underneath my nails and stretching up to cover most of my hand.

(the three pots that constitute) My Herb Garden

Tags

Chives, Gardening, Herbs, Indian Cress, Oregano, Plants, Survival, Thime

After a year of packing my daily schedule to the brim of what’s possible I now find myself with quite a lot of time on my hands. My bones ache and I definitely need the time off. My head won’t let me relax completely though. I’m going Martha Stewart on the house and find myself constantly planning and starting minor projects.

The kitchen project, which I wrote about here, was started many months ago. Now it is nearly done, but due to a certain’s warehouse inability to read my mind and automatically know what I want and when I want it, a few things are missing and the photos thus have to wait. The colour, I can inform you, is white.

My herb project started last year. I planted a few herbs, killed most of them by ignoring them while on holiday, and let the rest to fend for themselves. The plants in my house, and also those outside that are not part of Husband’s well tended garden, are sturdy plants. They have to be or they’d never survive. In the explanation of a person with green fingers, I’d be the antonym, the exact opposite. But, the plants that I do manage to grow can survive anything. I grew chives and oregano last year, but left them outside through one of the worst winters I can remember, still, both came back this year. The pot they were planted in did not survive though…

The chive and oregano that can withstand anything

I planted some more herbs this spring. But many died while I was working on the last part of my thesis and my husband was at work. The few that survived was tested again when Son and I went to Denmark. Two survived when I came back, a small, but not weak, thime and some indian cress. I think both will survive, but never grow as strong and sturdy as they would have been in anyone else’s garden.

A fighting thyme

I won’t spend as much time at work this year so my wee herb garden will have increased by this time next year. I hope the strong, green, little, miracles will still be with us then. (The indian cress however will not survive, it only lives for one season and I have no plans of trying to achieve the impossible!)