Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

In the garden on a rainy day

@brittarnhild

After a long period of really warm weather (for our part of the world) we woke up to rain and quite chilly temperatures this morning. It made everything very lush and green and I had a nice morning walk in the garden.

This rhododendron was already here when we bought our house back in 2001, and has continued to grow and grow over the years. Every second year os so it is resting, and offers less flowers. This year is a no-rest year, and I love it.

Last autumn we started a quite big renovation of part of the garden, and now we are about to finish it. This area already had slate stone when we moved it, but the ground has become very uneven over the years. We have built a new terrasse and also done some other changes. Now Terje is doing the physically hard work of laying the slate stone "floor" and then it will be by job to do the finishing touches.

 

Sunday in May

@brittarnhild

Sunday, May, sun, spring.

I had a quiet morning, all by myself, and decided to spend it in the greenhouse. Mornings and nights is the best part of the days there, in the middle of the day the sun makes it too hot.

As a little girl I always dreamed of my own playhouse. I never got it, but when our girls were born we built one fort them. They never shared my dream, and even though they loved to play there. My childhood dream has followed me and when I bought the greenhouse a few years ago, and started to use it, I soon realised that my dream was fulfilled. The greenhouse has become my playhouse. And I love it.

     

Sunday in the Blue Garden

@brittarnhild

Hello dear readers. How are you?
Here in my little corner of the world live is going on as usual. A new grandchild, our forth, since the last time I "saw" you. My parents getting older and older, grandchildren, children and Terje and I doing fine.

It has never been my intention to give blogging such a long break, but I was hoping to come up to date with blogging about my travels, and tried to focus on that, completely forgetting to blog about everyday life. I am still not up to date, and will go back to work on that, but I also will try as best I can, to pop in on a day to day schedule. (Wish me good luck with that:-))

To get me back on blogging track, I took a walk in the garden this morning, with my camera, imagining that you were walking there alongside.

And after the walk, what is batter than a cup of tea in the middle of the dahlia field.

I have never had such an amazing dahlia garden as I have this year. The flowers have not quite reached their peak yet, but climb the path and get closer every day.

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I hope to hear from you, and will be back tomorrow.......hopefully.

 

A late and slow spring this year

@brittarnhild

Spring is late and slow this year. We still get snow every day, and I am waiting for growth and warmer days. Not all the garden is covered in snow any more though, and the fresh snow we get melts quite fast. Actually, since quite a lot has melted today, more than half the garden is bare now. And new miracles are appearing every single day. 

Life is stubborn. Even when covered in layers of snow, the spring plants start to grow, and as soon the snow melts they praise life with their colours.

I still do my daily walks in the garden, morning and afternoon and in between, just as I do all through the year as long as the snow permits me. But where I spend most of my time is in the greenhouse. The violas have been blooming for weeks now, and with glimpses of sun through the day the greenhouse easily warms up and more plants are growing as well. In these pots are irises and pelargoniums.

In just two days now we are promised sun and warmer weather. I simply can't wait.
how is spring in your corner of the world?

 

When big plans fail

@brittarnhild

I had big plans to post from our travels in Sweden and Denmark this summer. And failed.

I had big plans to post about our travels in France in October, and the retreat where I taught knitting. And failed.

Now I am challenging myself to come back here in my House in the Woods, if not on a daily basis, at least more regular.
I ah crossing my fingers and hope you cross yours :-)

 

The pictures today are from yesterday's playing in the garden, making moss trees.

 

The frosted garden

@brittarnhild

Frost has come, with no snow yet, which makes the garden look and feel icy cold.
Plants have died down, gone to sleep, and one could think there is nothing more to do in the garden for some months.

Which is not trur of course.
I keep on doing my daily morning walks in the garden. I feed the birds, I check on plants, I visit the greenhouse, where we have no electricity on any more so it is as frosted as the rest of the garden.

And most important of all, I have my plant table.

I filled a pot the other day with hyacinth, a hellebores, moss, cones and hips. It n ow stands on a small round table close to our entrance door, welcoming guests and ourselves. When the temperatures fall below zero (which is the Celsius freezing point) I let the pot inside the entrance hall, then carry it outside again when the temperature rises.

 

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By the way, the plant table will hopefully play an important part when I start recording my advent episodes on YouTube.

 

 

 

A garden for all

@brittarnhild

My grandpa Johannes was a headmaster, my grandma Ragna Josefine was an art teacher. They lived in an appartement in one of the old buildings in the school area, with a classroom up on the loft where we kids were sent to play during family dinners. Oh my, what fun we had. The house had a garden, with old trees and columbines and a bench, with old chairs and a wooden table where we sat down and had ice cream on hot summer afternoons. The adults had coffee as well, of course, for us kids ice cream was more than enough, Eaten in small glass bowls, using silver spoons, the silver giving you this very exciting brain freeze when you topped the spoon with home made vanilla ice cream and ate it all at the same time.

When Johannes and Ragna Josefine retired, they moved to a small house with a big garden. Grandma loved her flowers, and every time we came to visit, we found her on her knees in the alpine bed, her huge pride. While my grandpa planted trees.

I played with my brothers and cousins in the garden, and one day I was unlucky and cut the top of a tree with the ball we were playing with. Pa got angry. Grandpa said, no problem, let the children play.

For me it is important to have a garden where children, and of course adults as well, can play and have fun.
Today our grandson Milian, 2 years old, has been with us. We have an area in the back garden where we have created an area especially for our grandchildren.  We had lunch there, while Milian played in the sandbox.  A fairy tale garden. For children of all ages.

 

With only one wheelbarrow

@brittarnhild

"Before we start we need wheelbarrows. Those objects that can rend gardening compatibility apart. Marriages may founder as each person tries to be the first to find the empty one." I have borrowed these words from Mirabel Osler in her book The Rain Tree, a Memoir. I have already read Oysler´s book about the garden she end her husband created, this is the memoir she wrote after her husbands death.

After what feels like weeks of rain, the weather is beautiful today. Mild and sunny and the autumn colours are sparkling. Terje and I plan to have a day working in the garden, with a long list of things to do to prepare the garden for winter, and a coming spring. We have only one wheelbarrow. After being married for 40 years, running a garden together for 35 of these, we still have never gone around to buy a second one (which I think we should have,Terje is completely satisfied with the single one). I know there will be times today, more than once, when one of us will start walking around in the garden, hunting for The One. "Hi, have you seen the wheelbarrow? Oh, there it is? When will you be finished?"

Ha, we are still married, with our solo wheelbarrow between us, and now it looks like we have got a competitor. The little red robin :-) It is time for some coffee, and while I sit down I think I will read some pages from The Secret Garden and the red robin which showed Mary the key.

 

 

Collecting memories for the coming seasons

@brittarnhild

I wonder if today is the last day of summer. From tomorrow rain and lower temperatures are predicted. In a few days the sun will be back, but not the warmth of summer. I woke early this morning, my pillow wet with the nights sweat. Still in my night dress I walked out in the garden, feeding the birds, opening the greenhouse, checking the growth of the spinach which I sown just a few days ago.

I will spend today in the garden. I will walk around, watering some pots, deadheading roses, enjoying colours, fragrances and beauty, taking photos, but most of all, collecting memories for the coming seasons.

 

I refuse to wait any more

@brittarnhild

Still cold, still snow, still deep frost in the soil, but now I refuse to wait any more.......

I drove over to a local garden center after breakfast, filled up my stock of sunflower seeds for the birds, and bought quite a few pots of spring flowers to plant in the greenhouse. A hellebores, a few irises, a bunch of daffodils.

Soon I had a cozy corner where I could sit down with a mug of tea and my greenhouse journal.

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Touring my blog world today will take you to:

 

Akeleiehagen, The Blue Garden, 

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader, my journal

 

By the way, have I ever told you about my different instagram accounts?

@brittarnhild

@akeleiehagen

@brittarnhildsstrikkedagbok

@trondheimtales

And as always, my dear baby, Britt Arnhild on YouTube: