Short Days

It is dark when I walk to the bus stop in the morning, dark when I come home from work in the afternoon. My daily garden walk is a memory from lighter, longer and warmer days. The garden is going to sleep, just like the bears, through the winter. Though the sleep will be filled with dreams of another spring and another summer. I am a dreamer, and a Nordic gardener is forced to live on dreams months of the year. Dreams of seeds to buy, dreams of new beds to make, dreams of colour combinations to try out and dreams of laughter in a garden which never goes to sleep.

Though being a gardener still is something you are all year round. I still fit in my daily garden walk, if only to feed the birds and the squirrels. I read garden books, I visit garden blogs, I buy garden magazines, I write letters to other gardeners around the world, I draw plans for what we will do in the garden next summer, and I write invitations for my BIG 50th which will be celebrated in The Blue Garden next summer.

Photos: the playhouse is ready for Halloween. While I write this, Terje and Marta are busy in the kitchen making a pumpkin ready for trick and treaters. And through the house flows the fragrance of freshly baked sweet rolls which will be our treats for those who come.