The gardener moves indoors

It is time to start the hyacint bulbs. Those for indoor growing have been hard to find here this year, but on Saturday I was lucky. We were at our cabin and when Terje visited a shop to buy some tools I found a corner filled with bulbs. Most of them were for next spring flowers, but in between I found six hyacints, two white, two pink and two blue.

Marta has promised me to make paper hats for them tomorrow and they will then be removed down to the basement for a few weeks of resting.

Red and blue in the autumn garden

Back in the sanctuary

Last spring I decided to make the backyard wilderness into a sanctuary. I place where I can walk around enjoying beauty and wildlife, a place where I can sit down in quiet or in prayers, a place where I can find myself.
It really was a wildlife when I made my desicion and Terje spent many hours digging old plants and loads of soil. Slowly the place started to show us its own charm, and when spring came this year Terje continued his work.

In good time for my birthday he finished the digging and grass was sown. A few trees were planted, some lavender bushes were moved from other places in the garden. I spotted two huge terracotta pots at a gardenshop I pass on my way to work and knew that they would be perfect for the sanctuary, and the simple bench became a good spot to sit down in reflections.

The sanctuary is not finished, and might not never be - the best part of growing a garden is the work which continue and change from day till day, from season till season. But it has become a good place to stay.

I fill the air with prayers hoping that the film between heaven and earth will be worn thin.

The sanctuary is what I see from my kitchen window.
The late afternoon sun played hide and seek with the flowers and trees today, and I let the beauty fill me.

The first snowflakes

During our morning coffee we looked out the window and saw the very first snow flakes of the season. Only a few, very wet ones, and they melted almost before they reached the ground, but still a clearly sign - winter is on its way.
There were still flowerpots left out in the garden, I always wait as long as possible to empty them because I hate saying goodbye to the colours of summer. Often I wait too long and the frost takes plants which could have survived in the basement, or it breaks the pots.

We finished our coffee and then dressed in boots and thick jackets.
Four hands work so much better then two, and in almost no time most of the pots were emptied and stored away. Some plants have found their winter room, some are still in the livingroom or the kitchen to give us more of their beauty before I also have to carry them down into the basement. A few are still outside, I never give up the hope that frost will be delayed and we can enjoy one more last rose, more sparkling colours from the fucsias, a few geraniums in white, pink and red.

The squirrels didn't like to be disturbed by two busy gardeners, the neighbours little dog loved it though, and helped us spreading as many cones as possible. Marta watched from the window and came out to play along.

A happy Sunday

The porch is decorated for autumn

A favorite part of autumn is to decorate the porch.

Which theme to chose for this year?

I go to the flowershop with a head filled with ideas.

Some of the flowers I want are not there, new ideas meet my eyes,

and I come home with a totally new theme.

This year a basket quilt from my quilt collection craved the be used.

"Are you sure you want to stay outdoors at this time of the year?" I asked.

The quilt reassured me.

"It is autumn, and your wooden porch bench is the right place for me."

Before the long sleep

October has come and our long and unexpected Indian Summer must come to an end. The days are shorter, and the nights are cold, cold, cold. Frost is right around the corner and it is time to find comfortable sleeping areas for plants which are not comfortable with the long, cold and dark Nordic winters.
My morning walk in the garden is extra long today. I pick huge bouquets of roses, I mix colours and make small and large bouquets fo late flowers for every room in our house. It is better to enjoy the beauty and the colours for a few days indoors than be sad the morning you woke up only to discover that the frost got it all.

Every season has it's own charm. Autumn often brings a sadness, time for goodbyes, time for endings. But it also brings the hope of new life. Death is not the end, but a beginning of something else.

I can trust my garden. It is always here waiting for me. It greets me through my life - "go, see the world, then come back and enjoy what you have here", "come, stay, wrap yourself in colours and fragrance". My garden, my sanctuary. Charming in its untidyness, never a garden for the magazines, always a garden for my life.

This post was originally posted in The House in the Woods.