Colour play.

During my daily walks in the garden I often bring my camera. And I always find new spots worth photographing.

Blue Café in Blue Garden

The weather is great, and we are living our lives outdoors.

Blue scillas

Creating my garden, I realise again and again that gardens from my childhood are of great inspiration to me. I wish I had photos from the gardens of my two grandmothers. May be there are some photos around if I search for them.......

There were alot of scillas in grandma Olga's garden. In spring they were like a qujilt covering the grass. I would love to sew a scilla quilt in The Blue Garden, and a couple of years ago I planetd the first bulbs, a few around the lilac, more around the cherry tree. And it seems like they are feeling at home. The grass around the cherry tree has alot of blue patches now.

The Lieutenant's Heart

I think this flower is called Bleeding Heart in English. Here in Norway we call it The Lieutenant's Heart. I have always wanted one in my gatden, but somehow never had any. Untill now.

I bought this one a couple of weeks ago. I had it in its pot the first week, and it looked sullen, almost dying. Then I planted it in a flower bed on the western side of the house before I went to England, and when I came home it was in full bloom.

Finally a lieutenant's heart is bleeding for me.

Singing the Blues.

Whitsun lilies

Here in Norway daffodils are called Easter lilies and these white ones are called Whitsun lilies. The Whitsun lilies in The Blue Garden are all blooming, just in time for the holidays.

We are on our way to the cabin to spend Whitsun there.

Homecoming!

I've been away for almost a week and was looking forward to see the garden again. Well, it has mostly been cold (will summer ever come this year), so there was not alot of changes since I left. But still thr growth goes on every day. And wonder over wonders. The cherry tree which we bought a couple of years ago is finally in bloom.

The first year the tree bore now cherries, last year I found 10 (!) and I could eat them all since the others were away :-). Now it looks like there will be alot of flowers........what will autumn bring?

A spot in the garden

The first rhododendron

Blog rose is planted.

My special blog roses are planted. One, the Rosa Rugosa, in the sanctuary, three in front of the Blue Garden.

Tomato plants.

The western wall outside our kitchen veranda was overgrown with some old bushes when we moved in. Terje cut down the bushes last summer, and now the tomato plans are planted in the bed. I am crossing my fingers that the summer will be sunny and warm for them.

Blue Raindrop Catcher.

The only things catched in the wasp catcher so far this summer are blue raindrops.

The Blue Garden as perfect Background.

The Blue Garden makes a perfect background for a bouquet of beautiful (;-))women dressed in regional costumes - bunads.

From the left: Ingrid's friend Hanne with a bunad from the region of Nord Møre, Britt-Arnhild with a bunad from the region of Trøndelag, Ingrid with a bunad from the region of Rogaland and my mother Marta with a bunad from the region of Gudbrandsdalen. My mother got her bunad when she was 17 years old. Her bigger sister, aged 19, did all the embroidery.

Celebrating Norway

May 17, Norway's birthday. The Blue Garden is dressed for the celebration. Brances of birch coloured in spring green, the Norwegian flags. We have always decorated with birch and flags for May 17. The birch comes from the sanctuary.

Blogspot was a challenge when I started to make this post. I was totally unable to upload the photo. This sent me over to my House in the Woods though, where I wrote a reflection on what to do the day I don't have a garden any more. And coming back here after writing the other blog blogspot behaved quite perfect again.

My original plan was to write about the cherry tree and that it will soon start showing its pink beauty. The photo was taken a few days ago. Since then it has been wet and cold, but with our long, light days the nature still grows from day to day.

After the rain.

Nights filled with light

Our spring might come late, but when it is finally here, nothing can be compared with it. The sun has almost no time to sleep, it wants to stay and watch the Nordic beauty.

This photo, which shows the sun admiring a brack of our black currant bush, was taken after 9pm last night.

There is more about my garden over in The House in the Woods today.

The night sky is never the same.

From my kitchen window I see the western sky. Our days are long now, and the nights are shorter and shorter. I am always fascinated when I travel sout to Italy and experience the dark summer nights. Though born a Nordic girl I could never do without the long and light summer nights.

This photo was taken at 22pm last night.

Primulas

I have always had a special fondness for primulas, especially the oldfashioned ones which used to grow in my grandmother's garden. I have always wanted a collection of different primulas in my garden, but somehow I have never managed to have this dream come true.

Now I have four different ones blooming. May be I can start calling it a collection?

Caring Bloggers Rose Day

I have been a blogger since January 2005, and I am amazed by the friendliness in the blogging world. A couple of weeks ago I got to idea to introduce a Caring Bloggers Rose Day, and did so in a post in Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods on April 30.

The response was immense.

I celebrated the Rose Day yesterday with a visit to a local garden center where I bought several roses. One of them, a Rose Rugosa, will be my special 2007 Blog Rose. I will plant itnear the open gate to the sanctuary, and it will remind me of all my blogger friends. The 2007 Blog Rose will be the first in a Blog Rose collection.

In the sanctuary

The sanctuary is faced north and shadowed by huge trees. Little grows there so far, and spring comes late. But now the wood anemones are blooming. The sanctuary/wilderness will be greener, but for the moment I am enjoying the tiny anemones, which have been among my favorite flowers since my childhood.

A Wildlife Gardener suggested "sæter" or "grønne enger" as the name for the sanctuary. Great suggestions. Sæter is the place/old house where the farmers took their animals during the summer season to let the land around the farm get some rest. Usually tha sæter is high up in the mountains. Grønne enger is the Norwegian translation of "green pastures", from the Book of Psalms. The Norwegian translation means more "green hills" though, and not exactly describing our sanctuary.

I am still working on the name. I know it has to be something in connection with the rainbow. Something colourful.

The magpies are busy in the sanctuary every night. Two deers passed by last night. And I have already had my first conversation there, with a visiting neighbour. The sanctuary is coming to life.

Daffodills

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

All Creatures, Great and Small

I want my garden to be a sanctuary. I want my garden to be a sacred place for all creation........though I hesitated when I came over this snail today, feasting on one of my crocuses.

I left it to finish the meal. It would have been rude not to, wouldn't it.......

A Stepmother

Do you know why the pansy has a bright yellow spot in the middle?

The purple petals represent the stepmother (bottom petal), her two daughters and her two step daughters. The four women sit around a bowl filled with porridge, and in the middle of the porridge there is a blur of rich, melted butter. Look close and you will see that only the mother and her two girls will get butter on their porridge. The step daughters must eat their porridge plain.

This story reminds me of the importance of sharing. Our garden is an open garden, not closed with fences or a hedge. And we want it so. Fell free to come and enjoy it.

A Daily Visitor

Almost every day through the whole year one, two or three squirrels are visiting our bird feeder. The feeder is right outside the livingroom window and I love to sit indoors watching my visitor.

The squirrels are often quite shy, but Marta has managed to feed them from her hands a couple of times.

Furniture is out.

During the long, dark and snowy winter months the garden furniture is stored inside the playhouse. Now they are back in the Blue Garden, ready to serve us sunny and colourful meals.

The Blue Garden got its name from the blue furniture.

Life!

The gray and colourless photos here are history :-) There are more and more colours in the garden every day now. I usually write this blog in the late afternoon/night the day before I post it, so while writing right now I am just in after a couple of hours with garden work and chatting with my dear old neighbourlady.

I have been working in the vegetable patch today making it ready for seeding, and even sewn the first rows - rucola which will give us greens for months, sweet peas which will bring cascades of scent and colour, and borago which will colour my salads and icecubes blue in a couple of months.

The photos are from the table on our kitchen veranda.

A Nordic garden means alot of dreams......

Gardenblogs from around the world have been showing colourful feasts of blooming for weeks now. Here in The Nordic Blue Garden the snow only recently melted.

At this time of the year I spend weeks dreaming. Of a garden to be. Every morning I walk out with my camera, and though I often feel impatience, the garden is slowly coming to life.

The photos show the cherry tree, a peony and a rose ready to sing in praise.

Creating a Sanctuary

The backyard wilderness is slowly transforming into a sanctuary. Thank you very much Mouse and Ardi for your ideas.

Terje hung a bird's nesting box up in one of the trees today, and an old bench was moved from another part of the garden.

I need a name for this part of the garden, the Blue Garden is actually the walled front garden. Any suggestions?

Circle this place by day and by night.

Keep far from it all that harms,

bring to it all that is good.

May this place be fragrant with the presence of the Lord,

God's peace be always here

and in those who dwell here.

Ray Simpson in Celtic Daily Light

The time consuming "prikling".

"Å prikle" is a Norwegian word, and only by hearing the word I can relate to something time consuming. "Priklearbeid" is what we are doing when we are untying knots which are almost impossible to master. To do "priklearbeid" you need patience. The origin of the word comes from the work you do when you plant out all the tiny plants in spring. Hundreds of small seeds have been sown together, the plants have started to grow out of the first pots and it is time to take one and one plant over in new pots to give the roots space to grow.

I am not known to be a patient person, but I love to "prikle" the plants. The release their tiny, white roots with care and give them a new home. And yesterday was the day to do the "prikling". It is still too cold to leave the small plants out during the night, right now they even need a place indoors during the days. And it is a challenge to find a room for all the mismatched pots. The windowsill is full, the office window is full, right now even the hall is filled with growing plants instead of shoes.

The solution must ge a green house..........and a greenhouse is on top of my wish list for my 50th birthday next spring.