April 2009

Birds in our Garden

These are a few of the birds that I took photos of in our garden today. I love to hear all the different bird songs as we work in the garden. I am enjoying being out in the garden -dividing and moving perennials and making little improvements here and there. We are also working our way through the beds raking and tidying as we go. The sun is shining and the grass is getting green so life is good!! how about you are you enjoying your garden too?

Take care,

Carolyn

wis design children's hospital

: : .irene. at .bloesem kids. brought my attention to .wis design's interiors. I've blogged about this young creative Swedish design group before. and I am the proud owner of their silicone tablecloth thanks to my sister and brother.

I was particularly drawn to the photos .irene. posted of their design for .astrid lindgren's. children's hospital in Stockholm. knowing that my boyfriend spends everyday in a children's hospital and hearing the stories about the kids there, I hope all of them will get a chance to enjoy similar environments to these.

.astrid lindgren. is one of Swede's most beloved authors, if not THE most loved. She wrote an impressive amount of classic children's stories. Most Swedish children grow up reading her books; Pippi Långstrump, Barna i Bullerbyn, Bröderna Lejonhjärta, Karlsson på taket, Ronja Rövardotter and Saltkråkan,my favorite. Beautiful, beautiful stories!

Finally Some Early Spring Color!

We had record breaking warm temperatures here yesterday and it really made things pop in the garden. I am so glad to have color again and even some lovely fragrance as I walk by the hyacinths.
We are busy in the garden these days and come evening we are two weary gardeners so not much else is getting done for awhile.However, I did go out this evening and take a few shots in the garden to share with you. I am so excited to see so much promise of good things to come.
Hope you have a good day!
Carolyn

puschkinia or striped scilla naturalize readily.

chionodoxa or glory of snow are very early bloomers.

Hope you enjoyed an early spring tour.

Take care,

Carolyn

spring in Sweden

: : signs of spring in my hometown of .göteborg. on .sandra's photoblog.

Boston in the spring

: : this week in Boston has been pure bliss. we started out with a fabulous weekend with temperatures in the 90's (almost too hot for a Swede like myself), and continued the sunshine and heat into the week. I had to snap some shots of the gorgeous cherry blossoms on the esplanade which is my bike route to work. it's so wonderful to be able to bike along the water every morning and afternoon. Boston is truly a wonderful city!!

Heather's Blue and White China

My friend Heather, kindly sent me a few photos of some of her beautiful blue and white china to share with you. Some of you may remember seeing some of the photos of Heather's lovely new home that I shared with you awhile ago. I love how Heather displays all her lovely dishes. Hope you enjoy!
Have a good evening!
Carolyn

Enjoy your evening!

Carolyn

Fanningbank Gardens

Today I am sharing the gardens at Fanningbank,the home of the Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island. These are some photos I took last August when we went for a tour of the garden which is open to the public. There is a large formal garden ,a rose garden, veggie garden,and an informal garden around the edge of the property which has a lot of large trees and a view of the harbour.

I am pleased to have been asked to sit on the board for the gardens(although I normally dislike meetings). I think it will be a learning experience for me and later I will be helping to pick the annuals for the annual beds in the centre of the garden. The garden has 4 or 5 full time gardener's on staff so we don't do the planting and maintenance just the planning. I would love to have these gardener's in our garden for a few weeks!!

This reminds me that a few people have asked if we do the gardening ourselves in our own garden or if we have gardeners and the answer is that Andrew and I do all the gardening ourselves and enjoy it(mostly)!

Also, I want to clarify that the garden photos that I shared yesterday as I mentioned were last summer's photos as we live in a zone 5b and our crocus,snowdrops are the only things blooming yet. So the garden is far from photogenic at this point but we are busy doing spring clean up and a few projects and the best is yet to come!
Also,thank you Mary for the award but I am not able to get into your cottage blog for some reason to accept it. If you read this maybe you could email me your blog address and Thanks again. Also ,thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my blog,leave a comment or follows it.I know I am not very good at getting to everyone but I am slow at this computer stuff and time is short so I want to say thank you again.
For the next couple of weeks we are really busy here so I will only post occasionally but when the garden starts blooming I will have lots of pictures to share.
Have a great weekend!
Carolyn

I love this garden bench-it started out with New Dawn roses and clematis but now it has grapevines growing over it.

Love this water fountain!

These are cleome-a good annual filler in a bed.

I couldn't find my pictures of the house so I took this one from their website.It is beautiful and in the summer it is open for tours some afternoons. The gardens are open to the public as well.

I hope you enjoyed a quick tour of their garden in August last year.

Enjoy your weekend!

Carolyn

inspirational sneak peek

: : I absolutely love the sneak peek photos of .helen palmer's home. on d.sponge. I love her playful approach to wall art, and the collection of art/plates etc. is so beautiful. I also love this mirror where little pieces of value seem to collect. helen is a photographer herself, so this sneak peek was especially enjoyable. check it out here.

Viva Frida!

: : I can't remember the cyberspace path that led me to these gorgeous and colorful photos .viva frida. on flickr. Great for inspiration as Katie and I get ready to do a second week of colorful outfits on the .colormeblogg. Stay tuned......

Garden Views

I think when you are planning a garden it is important to be able to enjoy the garden from inside the house as well as outside. If you are just getting started with gardening you might want to plan a new bed outside a window that you would be looking out the most. A few people have asked me for advice on getting started and I am somewhat reluctant as I am still making mistakes myself and learning as I go. I am sharing some old pictures that I found(the quality isn't as good as I would like) to show you the view from some of our windows. This summer I will enjoy taking some better shots to share with you.
We are getting some nice spring weather now and on the weekend it is supposed to be 20 degrees Celsius so that should make everything pop! My husband,Andrew is busy outside with a carpenter friend working on a new project that I will share with you later.The sun has come out so I am going out to divide and move some plants around -one of my favorite jobs in the garden.
Happy Gardening!
Carolyn