Yesterday, on the darkest day of the year, I was finally home when it was light enough in the garden for photos. Alot of the snow has melted now, and what is left is transformed to hard ice. But now the sun has turned and we are looking forward to lighter days.The sun is too low to reach the garden these days, only the top of the pines can see it.
The logs are lined up outside the playhouse, ready to give us comfort and warmth. It is the darkest days of the year, dark when I leave for work, dark when I come home again in the afternoons. Gardening these days means reading magazines, books and seed catalogues, and dreaming about days and nights to come. There is not much time for dreams though, it is the most busy time in The Blue Café.
While the Blue Garden sleeps under a cold blanket of snow, I enjoy reading about other gardens and garden designers. In a Danish Christmas magazine from last year, GARDEN Living, I find an article about Capability Brown, the Bristish garden designer who is said to be responsible from alot of what we today see as the typical English landscape. Lancelot "Capability" Brown was born into a labour family in Northumbria in 1716, he went to school and aged 16 he started as a gardener apprentice. Blenheim Palace is a place where you can see the result of his genius planning of a garden. Anwich Castle is another place. I have never been to Blenheim, but I enjoyed walking in the Anwick park last summer, enjoying the serene beauty.
Yesterday, December 4th, was St.Barbara's Day in Germany. I learned about this tradition some years ago though my friend Gabi. Every year on this day she cuts a branch from her forsythia. The branch is placed in water, indoors, and is supposed to bloom on Christmas day. My forsythia is new, from this summer, and still too small to cut any branches. So I decided to cut a small branch from my cherry tree instead. The cherry tree is also still very small, but it gave me one branch :-)
Barbara, the daughter of the rich merchant Dioscuros, grew up in Nikomedia (today's Izmet, Turkey). In order to retain her innocence, Barbara's father locked her up during his absence, in a tower with only two windows. When Dioscuros returned from his journey, he found the third window in the tower. Barbara was baptized by a priest disguised as a physician, and she ordered to make the third window as a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
With all the white snow outdoors, it is also nice at this time of the year to decorate with a little white indoors. Since it is advent all my candles are in purple, so this shining white amaryllis stands out with its own beauty and charm.
I bought the amaryllis bulb a few weeks ago with the idea in my mind that it would be a perfect flower for Christmas. Well, the amaryllis grew too fast for me, and is giving me its charm and scent during advent instead.
I have just been out the garden to feed the birds. We have had a couple of very cold days, so the snow is hard and icy now. It is a difficult period for the birds, so they are eager when I come with the sunflower seeds, though they have to standing in line, waiting, when the squirrels come. I am watching it all from my studio window.
