Feeding the birds for Christmas

Birds and squirrels deserve a little extra when Juletide is here.

Blue in the Blue Garden

The Santa Barbara twig

December 4th, on Barbromesse, Santa Barbara Day, I cut a twig from the plumtree and took it indoors to let it grow in lukewarm water. It was supposed to bloom on Christmas Day.

I suppose our Nordic winter is too dark and cold, as very little has happened to the twig yet.

White for Christmas

We are enjoying a White Christmas, but the snow is old and icy and not at all the way I want snow to be - no snowmen making, no playing in the snow, no skiing for me though my husband is out almost every day.
The garden is dead and frozen. The days are short and during the week we are home only when the world is dark. During the holiday we enjoy the light.

I took a garden walk this morning, filled with dreams of a coming summer. Indoors I have a pile of garden books ready to be read, and my dreaming continue.

Winter closed

The play house is winter closed. Some days I wonder how it would be like to open it, serve some hot chocolate and sit down with some reading. But I soon come to my senses. The winter in Norway is too cold, and anyway the playhouse is a perfect storehouse during winter, so there would be no place to sit down.
I wonder of the "nisser" are there though. Somewhere inside, making their nisselife comfortable. We will give them risengrynsgrøt on Christmas Eve and see what happens.

The birds need a helping hand

Our old birdfeeder has seen its best days. But the birds need food, and I want to see them from the livingroom when they are feasting on nuts and sunflower seeds.
I found a couple of new feeders a few days ago, and now both I and the birds are happy.

It looks like it will be a long winter

More winterphotos in The House in the Woods.

How to make the snow a little warmer

The last rose