Wednesday 14 May 2008

Old memories......and tulips soon in bloom

Grandma Olga lived in an old red house. She was widowed only two months after I was born in 1958, and when her grandchildren started to come she had alot of time available for us. I loved spending the night with granny, alone or with cousin Oddbjørg who was one year older than me and my hero through most of my childhood. Grandma's red house had a huge garden, with the best treat a little girl could imagine, a secret garden made by a circle of lilacs. In the middle of the circle was a stone table and two benches. The scent of lilacs always reminds me for childhood secrets. In all my own gardens later in life I have tried to plant lilacs, but they will never grow for me. I have come to realize it must be not to take my fragrant childhood memories away.
When I married the summer of 1980, Terje and I moved into the old red house together with grandma Olga, and we started to garden with her. The first thing we did was digging a vegetable garden where we planted beans and peas, and when autumn came we filled the freezer with vegetables for winter soups.
Wherever we walked in grandma's garden I found tiny blue scillas, and they soon became one of my favorite flowers. Blue muscaris were also found around in grandma Olga's garden, and the first thing I do now when moving to a new place (not that we move very often) is to plant scillas and muscaris. Lots of them.
My tulips are starting to bloom. This photo was taken last week.

2 comments:

Rowena said...

What sort of tulips are those? I love tulips, but given my location the ones I'm able to get are nowhere near as exotic-looking as yours! I've never seen variegated leaves like those. Can't wait to see the blooms!

Anonymous said...

The leaves on your tulips are stunning! I've never seen them, either! And what do you call the little blue ones -- scilla or muscari? Here, we call them grape hyacinth, and I love them. I have many here and there in my beds, but also coming up early in the spring lawn!