Easter hellebore

I haven't blogged much in ages, but thought why not upload a couple of pics now that I was trying to get a few photos of my new hellebore.

I love hellebores, but it's more about admiring them in photos and flower shops than actually buying any as they're a bit pricey and I'm a bit broke. But this friday I went shopping and spotted some hellebores. The gorgeous purple and double ones were too expensive for me, but then my sis spotted a shelf with smaller hellebores that were on offer. Half price off, I think. So of cause I had to get one.

This is the one I really wanted but thought was beyond my price range at 200 SEK (approx. 17 GBP/22 EUR/24 USD). It was one of the big ones, perhaps three or four times the height of the one I bought. And a gorgeous, gorgeous colour.


So far the one I did get is indoors, but I'll have to figure out a good place to plant it outdoors. Not sure where to put it. Don't think they'll end up near our other hellebores, which look like this. Don't want those colours together. Maybe there's place somewhere near some of the snowdrops – which, like the crocus, is really spreading out on the lawns nowadays – so they'll create some sort of spring flower corner. Maybe. We'll have to see.

Anyway, as you can see below I got an assistant when taking the photos. It's one of the kittens we accidentally got last summer. A little cutie, don't you think? I find it hard to get good pics of hellebores, but a little cat improves any photo.

For these photos – taken in poor light as heavy rain clouds started to cover the sky – I covered the plastic flower pot it came in with pieces of bark clad in moss that I took from some old logs lying behind the barn. Fastened them with a matching piece of embroidery floss.


One of the reasons for taking the photo was to test putting something on my relatively new Instragram account. Have thought about trying it out ever since getting a modern phone. Something easier than blogging, just putting a pic up every now and then, I thought, something to act as as an alternative to my blog for those who like it when I'm not in the mood to do proper blog posts. But so far it hasn't been able to really pull me in. A small phone that's slightly too old to be really useful for the purpose and my being a newbie with little time to learn has hampered me. (Also, I suck at taking photos with the phone. The camera in it is good, the photographer isn't.) I'm trying to keep it bilingual, with swedish as the "first language".

It's not very interesting right now, but if you're curious or want to see more pics for me, why not check it out?

Ännu en bild på min #julros (nu utan katt). Ser lite mer av den klädda krukan. Mossan och barken den sitter på tog jag från en bunke med gammalt bränne som vi har liggande. Bröt loss några lagom stora bitar och knöt fast med grönt brodergarn runt plastkrukan. Ett enkelt #pyssel för finare foto. Moss clad pot with #hellebore. #helleborus #garden #trädgård

Ett foto publicerat av maneki (@manekibeader) Mar 27, 2016 kl. 11:15 PDT

I'm so note comfortable with hashtags. Too many? Too few? Too generic? Too useless? Too unnecessary? I've got much to learn...

~*~

Oh, now that I'm doing a blog post I must of cause not forget to end this post by wishing you a

Happy Easter!

.
Glad påsk!

Hope you're lucky enough to relax and enjoy some sunshine, budding flowers, a gentle spring breeze, birdsong and everything else one wish this season to bring.

First snowdrops of the year

The other day the weather turned colder again after weeks of temperatures above zero, turning rain and heavy grey skies into white clouds, sunshine and blue sky. It's cold, but the sun is bright: the cats relly enjoyed sunbathing on the porch around noon. But, yes, still cold. There was frost here and there on the ground still in the afternoon, and not just in the northside shadows. And today was the day I got the urge to check the snowdrops. Was meaning to do it yesterday as I felt they'd probably budded, but never got around to it before dark. With the sun setting around 5 PM, there aren't yet many hours of sunlight when you oversleep... But today I remembered to have a look and I was right: the first snowdrops are beginning to bloom.

As I'm done it for several  years, of cause I had to keep up with the snowdrop blog tradition even if I'm still not back blogging really. The post from previous years can be found here.

Enjoy!

It's that day of the year again

I've ended up not blogging very much these last two years, but I haven't give up on my two "traditions" of documenting the last day of the year and waiting for the first snowdrops and so at least two times of the year I'll remember this blog.

This year, it's been a very warm December (one day, earlier in the month they claimed on the radio that many parts of Sweden had had the same temperature as on midsummer's eve). Snow on a couple of days, frost on others, but most of the days have been warm for the season. And rainy. This last week or so it's gotten a bit colder, with frost staying on north side of hills and in the shadows through the day. To top it all off, when I looked out the windows the sky was blue with just a few light clouds and the sun was shining, but I didn't see the wall of clouds moving in from the west so the sunlight disappeared far too early compared to my calculations. All in all, not the greatest weather to photograph (not even moody fog like last year), but I do have a few more photos to show that back in 2012. You can't change the weather, just your own attitude towards it.

But first, a little DIY I made for christmas. We don't have an outdoor christmas tree this year either so instead I bought some string lights and made a tree shaped decoration on the still boarded up window (with the cat hole). As a reference, I think it's 60-something cm tall and the lights used are these. It's been a tad stormy since I put it up so it's not in the same pristine condition as it was, but it still looks decent enough, especially seen from the road.

[click pic for a close-up, where you can see how the lights 

have been strung in the left pic, which was taken in the 

afternoon rather than at night like the other two were.]

I don't have a long new year's wish for you this year. I simply wish that 2016 will bring you much joy and happiness, may it be a year when dreams come true and new dreams are born. May 2016 be everything you hope for and much more!

First snowdrop buds

I'm still not back blogging for various reasons (most lately because I got ill for a week), but I can't give up on my blog traditions, such as noting when the snowdrops pop up in the garden every winter/spring. If you want to compare with previous years, you can find all snowdrop posts here.

I spent much of january bemoaning the lack of a white winter, mostly because otherwise the winters here are wet, chilly, foggy and very dark. Miserable to put it plainly. But then we got a little snow and these last couple of weeks it's even stayed instead of melting away as fast as it's come.

The other day, after recovering from a week in bed, I started thinking about the snowdrops that surely must have started to pierce through the soil under snow at that point. And so last night, it started to really thaw again. One of the first things I did this windy morning was therefore to check out the snowdrops and sure enough, they've started to bud!

The last light of the year, and a wish for the year to come

I haven't blogged much this year, but of cause I have to return with the traditional new year's eve post. I'll be the sixth year now that I do this photo post, the posts from the previous years can be found here.

Unfortunately, unlike during the first years of this tradition, the weather hasn't been on our side. We got frost on boxing day and then some light snow after that, but then it started thawing again and today it's just been grey, wet and foggy. Hopefully the pics won't be too dark and dull. Was aiming for for the serene and melancholic, though you might have to be a fellow november child to really enjoy these silent, fog veiled winter landscapes. (Even I prefer the fog and rain to end with november, though, so the winter months can be white. Frost white or snow white, either is fine, it just has to be white. You need something that lights up the short, dark days.)

One a positive note, though, the warm winter means you can get som fairytale/troll forest pics even after autumn. And it makes those pretty little snowberries more visible.

Last year, I ended the new year's post with a long wish, coloured by what happened in my life. Though aiming for a positive wish, in a way the darkness in the heart that wished it shone through. It reflected perhaps more the lack of direction in my life and the negativity in my mind than anything else. It was a wish for others in my situation and not perhaps for everyone. This year, I'll just cut out the most positive bit for you, in a slightly new version:

So my new year's wish for you is thus: May 2015 be a year filled with dreams that come true, happiness, adventures, courage and many new opportunities. May you wander along your path in life, your north star to follow, be it one you're already on or a new one that is just found. May you create and thrive and grow. 

Happy New Year!