Shadows in late night sun.

Ready to be harvested

Busy days

Busy days celebrating the St.Olav Festival. But still time for an early morning walk.

Hidden in the blues.

Double Pink

Roses

Fucias, or Blood of Christ

Ever since I, as a young girl, learned that fuccias are also called "Kristi blodsdråpe" (a drop of Christ's blood), this beautiful and vibrant plan has had a special room in my heart. For many years I have dreamed of starting a collection, but so far I have never managed to let the plants survive the winter. I buy new plants every year though, and this summer many of them look glorious.

I don't give up, and will try to keep a few for next year. May be I can get some help from a neighbour who used to grow several hundred different plants, but has now reduced his collection to around 50.

Tomatos

Sweet dreams of bruschetta fried in rich extra virgin olive oil, topped with alot of tomatos from the garden...........in na few weeks.

Just before the rain.

We have had a glorious week-end, which have been great with the celebrations of my parents' golden wedding. When the guests left The Blue Garden last night, two small cousins wanted to stay the night here with Marta. They spent all morning today playing out in the garden. I made a "blue garden" pizza for lunch, and as soon as the girls (and their parents and brothers) had left, it was time to start preparing for a new group of houseguest, my father in law and a grandchild of him. Never a dull moment here.

I am home alone just now though. All the others have left to go to a football/soccer match, Rosenborg vs. Viking.

I have just been out for my daily garden walk, and met a few raindrops on my way.

In one of the front flower beds I have this small plant which have some tiny, beautiful flowers right now. I just call it a "lily", but have no idea what the exact name is. Can it be a hosta?

Searching red spots

The blue garden has been filled with guests today, in a lovely sun. After the guests left and the garden was tidied up and watered, and took my daily walk in the garden with my camera. I have alot of these "nellik" in the garden now and love to spot their different shades of red and pink.

First roses just in time.....

The first roses are up in The Blue Garden. Just in time for my parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Lavender time.

A Gertrude.......

When I visited Lindisfarne in May I spent alot of time in the Gertrude Jekyll garden. The last day I discovered that a few pots with some small plants were for sale, 50 pence each. They were called Gertrudes. I had no idea what kind of plant is was, it was too small and I have too little knowledge. But I decided to buy one plant.

I am pretty sure I would not be allowed to bring the plant with me in my handluggage, but since I always travel with a small tin box for my artsupplies, I amptied that box and had a perfect bed for my tiny plant.

The plant survived and when I came home I repotted it. It grew, and grew and grew, and I realised it was a poppie. Coming home from Italy last week it had started to bloom with the most beautiful white flowers.

Burning Sky.

A burning sky just before midnight last night.

Back home from two weeks in Italy.

I always want the best from two worlds. I want a huge, blooming garden without a gardener to help us with all the work. And I want to travel during the summer months. This is not easy. We are just back home after two weeks in Italy and an overgrown garden is waiting for our green fingers.

It rained all day yesterday, so instead of gardening I spent the day indoors, unpacking and working on my travel diary. But today is a perfect garden day. I started working again today and had to wait till the afternoon to start gardening. But Terje is still on vacation and has done a great job today. The garden is coming alive again and looks so pretty.