100 happy days :: day 9

finally. a day of sunshine and no wind. a real spring day. husband had a day off and we finally moved that row of asparagus that was way too close to the rhubarb. these are asparagus roots that we started from seed our second year here. how they're 4 years old and very substantial. we hope moving them won't have traumatized them too much and that they'll have a good season. dad had loads of asparagus in his garden and he was known for it all over town, so having a long row of healthy asparagus roots makes me feel very happy. i know that if he was able to see our project today, he was smiling.

the bees were very happy as well and the air was alive with their buzzing. there are plenty of crocus up and they were feeding greedily and cleaning out their hives. great to see that all four hives were buzzing (literally) with activity. we had a mild winter, so we expected them to be just fine, but it's nice to know it for sure.

molly loved that we were in the garden and obviously also loved the sunshine. she snoozed on a warm roof tile (it's part of a cover we put over our artichokes to keep them from being killed by the hard frosts. it was a perfect spot to relax in the sun.

today's happinesses. very simple, but somehow profound. spring is wonderful.

new names, moments of bliss and food

once again playing catch-up on the reverb10. i got a bit stumped on the dec. 23 prompt and then christmas came and well, you get the idea.

december 23 – new name: let’s meet again, for the first time. if you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?

this question stumped me. mostly because i feel like a julie (i use julochka because there are a lot of julies out there and all forms of julie are always taken online), so nothing else comes readily to mind. i've always disliked my middle name - kay - because i don't think it goes very well with julie and it just never felt like it fit me.

but when i asked my sister, she immediately rattled off "penelope, gwendolyn and chloe." which i frantically scribbled down. i said out loud, how do you spell penelope and husband answered - "it's like pineapple with more l's." which was very amusing, if not entirely true.

i also asked husband, because let's face it, jens-peter isn't really the coolest name ever. and he gave the odd response of "heinrich." i think hope he was kidding.

i guess if i had to choose something for me, it would be something with a russian flavor - natasha or sofia or anastasia.

december 24 - everything's ok: what was the best moment that could serve as proof that everything is going to be alright? and how will you incorporate that discovery into the year ahead?

i have to say that it's fortuitous that i fell behind on this, because this moment came yesterday. we (and by we i mean husband and his eldest) cleared a skating rink out on our lake. they built a little fire beside the lake, where we could warm ourselves and some spiced apple cider. i made a batch of little bite-sized mushroom tarts and we ate them together with full mugs of spiced apple cider. we took along a bag of those lovely orange peel-able clementines and they got gorgeously cold waiting for us to eat them in the basket - their bright wedges springing cold and sweet in our mouths as we gobbled them up. we were out there for most of the afternoon - racing one another and then skating through the snow (new skates are sharp and the snow covering the lake was light) to the other end of the lake in the purplish-pink light of sunset. again and again, all afternoon, i was aware that this was exactly what we were here for. and that everything would be ok.

me, taking pictures. taken by my sister.

december 25 - photo: sift through all the photos of you from the past year. choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

photography was a big part of 2010 for me - my 365 project helped me notice my surroundings and live more in the moment that i think i ever have. it may be that a great deal of what 2011 is about for me is taking pictures, so i have chosen this photo, where i'm doing exactly that. taken last summer by my sister, during a 4th of july fishing derby at a lake near our hometown.

from the garden

december 26 - soul food: what did you eat this year that you will never forget? what went into your mouth and touched your soul?

we moved in may - a bit late to plant a proper garden, so we didn't have a whole lot of garden produce this year, but we did find, to our delight, that there were 12 rhubarb plants already on the property. and so we had rhubarb crumble and cake and i made a gorgeous pink rhubarb juice that was turned into a summery rhubarb fizz with the addition of a bit of gin. food from the garden has to be the best kind of soul food.

brilliant pink rhubarb juice

rhubarb gin (or genever) fizz

december 27 - ordinary joy: our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. what was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?

is it just me, or are these starting to repeat? i think i already answered this one. here.  and possibly also here.

that said, i find that i still have something new to say about it....those moments when i most often experience joy during an ordinary moment i'm cooking. that has been curtailed a bit by my depressing old kitchen, but i have gotten it back of late. as recently as making dinner this evening...squeezing an orange over the duck we had for dinner, peeling and chopping veggies, sipping a glass of white wine, sprinkling snow of flaky salt over it before putting it all in the oven those are the moments when i most consciously feel joy in the everyday.

and now, once again, i'm caught up - only a few days left of reverb10.

more fun from the weekend

sabin went home with a friend to play last friday after school. when it came time to pick her up, i realized i'd not been to that friend's dad's house before and i didn't know where it was, so i had to call him and ask the address. when i called, he said that the girls were about to grill sausages and so i could wait 'til later to pick her up. ahh, the sudden freedom of a few extra hours to myself and from the responsibility of having to have that friday evening meal ready. bliss.

husband came home rather late and we started some coals for our own dinner and then went to pick up sabin. her friend's dad lives a little ways out of town on a small farm. they have two ponies and a couple of extremely wooly sheep. he was in the midst of cutting up a couple of old trees that he had knocked down with his big giant digger machine thingie (i think that's the technical term). i wish we'd been there to see that.  he had a big bonfire going and it was there the girls had roasted sausages for dinner. yum. there's just something so good about food cooked outdoors.

while we were waiting for the girls to finish up playing, we got to chatting with the dad. he asked if we'd like some of the wood. husband couldn't believe his ears--free wood for our two woodburning stoves! how cool is that? so he eagerly accepted and spent the entire weekend going back and forth with a trailer and pretty much cleaning up those two trees.

and he had plans for them, that didn't just involve them ending up as firewood.  husband often has grand schemes in the garden. like a little fireplace area for roasting marshmallows and bread on a stick (snobrød, in danish):

and using some of the thicker bits of tree stump to line a new vegetable bed in the upper garden:

we have serious slug problems here in denmark, so we always have to think about raised beds and areas of sand/gravel that slugs don't like around the outside of the beds.

another cool thing that sabin's friend's dad showed us was an old fiat abarth that he had recently finished restoring. i'm not really into cars and know very little about them, but this was just too cute:

the light wasn't great in the garage, so these shots aren't as good as i'd have liked them to be. but you can see from the person standing at the back exactly how TINY this little automobile is. i know mr. bean's car was a morse mini, but this reminded me very much of mr. bean. he started it up and it was LOUD! it would be SO much fun to go down the road in it. super cute.

a perfect autumn day

i arrived home very early this morning. another of those jarring transitions from 30 degrees, high humidity and smog to the clear, crisp, sunny fall weather in denmark. it's about 15 degrees, light breezes and sunshine. THE perfect weather for donning my new gap sweatshirt (from the boy's section, why don't they make non-zip hoodies for women anymore?), some walking shoes and going mushroom hunting in the forest.

i had to take some pictures of the last of the summer flowers using my new macro lens. there was already frost once while i was away, but in the greenhouse, it only got down to 3 degrees, so the dahlias are still going strong.

i doubt the melons will really get a chance to be ripe before the real frost comes, even in the greenhouse, but they look pretty now anyway.

the hydrangea are finishing up, but i absolutely love them at every stage. they're wonderful!

the chocolate cosmos look so autumn-y:

the little japanese acer is a blaze of color:

and the rowan trees are loaded with their berries. i love to pick these clusters and make an autumn wreath for the door and this year it feels like i have the time and energy to do things like that again.

but first, a whole mess of these are going into the freezer so we can have an apple pie at thanksgiving:

i just love fall, don't you?

lemon tree very pretty...

i'm not sure how it happened, but today, i was standing at the nursery, which in danish is called planteskole--"plant school" (which i find very charming) where i had actually gone to buy a lemon tree. i was thinking that the lemon tree i already have, which is blooming its little heart out, but never produces any lemons, needed a friend lemon tree. to commune and perhaps cross-pollinate with. 

but strangely, i found myself wandering the rose aisles. i think i may have mentioned here before that i'm not that fond of roses. i have even been heard to loudly declare that i don't like them at all. they're all spiky and pokey. they slyly try to lure you in with their lovely scent and appearance and then stick you as soon as they get the chance. 

but that was before i met:

paul cézanne

and ms. nostalgie

and ms. friesia

oh, yes, and ms. hanne

they all just begged to come home with me. and they even invited along their friend mr. westerland, but i forgot to take a picture of him. he's a bit of a climber. i think this might be tangobaby's fault. but i did get that lemon tree and the old lemon tree seems very grateful. they're just hanging out in the greenhouse, filling it with the lovely scent of their blossoms.

weeds vanquished

this weekend, i was able to weed and tend the last two beds in my upper garden because the strawberries have stopped producing. actually, they hadn't entirely stopped and i did pick one more cereal-sized bowl before i went to work on them.  but i do think it's the last for this year. they have been absolutely heavenly and we have thoroughly enjoyed them.

i had to keep reminding myself (out loud) of one of the lessons learned previously in this garden:  "strawberries that are growing where you do not want them to be are weeds."  it hurt a little bit to pluck those little buggers up, but the big plants are sending out so many runners, there will soon be plenty more.

i spread new "stenmel" (stone flour?) on all of the paving stones. it's sort of like sand, but has slightly larger bits of flint and shells in it and the slugs don't like it, so it helps keep the garden slug-free. tho' the slugs haven't been bad at all this year. i think because we had a relatively dry late spring/early summer. we've had a good mix of rain and sunshine of late and the garden is looking wonderful. 

gardening is such a soothing and wholesome activity. i'm not sure why i didn't realize that before. you can immediately see the results of your labors. i can't wait for that big hollyhock on the right to bloom, as it's from seeds i took from my mom's hollyhocks a few years ago and it's finally really big this year. 

the neighbor was digging up her front garden and gave me a whole mess of rhubarb roots! yippee!  i love rhubarb and although we have one big plant, it's always nice to have more.  the lavender border that's surrounding this garden on two sides is in full bloom and full buzz and smells absolutely heavenly. it may have contributed some of its aromatherapeutic goodness to my relaxed mood while i was weeding.

next, i've got to make a big cushion and some pillows for the iron bench that you can just barely see in the bottom picture. it looks so perfect with the rose trellis and once i get a cushion on it, i'll be able to sit up there with my morning mug of tea or my late afternoon cold glass of sauvignon blanc and enjoy the garden and the birdsong all around. 

things i learned in the garden: part 2

the work continued this weekend in the upper garden. i tell myself it's good for my left hand to do some activity of a different sort than sitting around typing.  the garden isn't totally cleaned up yet, but it's getting there. i have a strong sense as i'm weeding and fixing and tending up there (i say up there because our yard is on a hill and this little garden is up that hill) that this activity is very good for my soul. i find myself slowing down, breathing more evenly, listening to the bird song, feeling the dirt under my fingernails. it can only be good for me.

roses now tied to the trellis so they can begin to climb and climb.

i think i said before that i'm not THAT fond of roses,

but these are a beautiful, vibrant orangey red.

the one on the right has suffered a bit from neglect, but i am hopeful it will come back now that it's been fertilized and given new soil and had all the dead bits trimmed off.

6 beds fixed, 3 to go.

you can see that i'm still unable to "weed" the strawberries

that have escaped their bed and are crawling over towards the other one.

they're nearly done bearing fruit, so perhaps then.

two giant buckets of weeds!!

now that my peonies and the one giant poppy are done, there's not much color up here.

hmm, perhaps i should go get some pretty plants that are blooming from the nursery.

that hydrangea on the right should bloom soon tho'.

these little primordial plants, while rather pretty, are an insidious weed.

they may look cool, but their roots reach up to 5 meters into the soil.

this makes them very nearly impossible to get rid of!

they were here in the time of the dinosaurs and i guess they will long outlive me.

well, i'd best get back to work, there's plenty more to be done and i can see that my lavendar is covered in butterflies, just beckoning to be photographed. i wish you all a happy, slow, lazy sunday.

things i learned in the garden

i've horribly neglected the upper garden.
it had gotten a little outta control.

weeds everywhere.

roses can actually thrive even tho' you

woefully neglect them.

although beautiful, roses are kind of a mean plant.
i got stuck multiple times by thorns today.
i probably deserved it.
but i'm still not that fond of roses.

despite neglect, there are tons of strawberries in among the weeds.
learned today: i talk to myself more than normal while i'm weeding.

they taste like beyond amazing.
and i didn't even have to do anything to get them.
other than pick them.

also learned: strawberries that are growing where you don't want them to be are weeds.

i'm only halfway through cleaning it all up.
will post pictures of "after" as soon as it's done.
that might be on the weekend.

i have to admit, i love the global warming

it has been a stellar weekend. weather-wise. socially. every which way. amazing how things seem rosy when the sun is shining.

and the sun shined all weekend. i sat in my garden circle with a pot of tea and read my sunday paper this morning. i'm a little sunburned on my shoulders and nose. i feel i got a thorough dose of vitamin d. i attended a party last night across the sound in landskrona, where we sat out 'til 11 p.m.

in short, global warming is not really so bad from where i sit. in fact, we're probably benefitting from it.

normally this time of year, it's been raining and raining and raining, grey skies and the sun hasn't shown its golden face in weeks. the slugs are normally taking over the garden. stripping my roses of their leaves.

however, this year, it's been relatively dry. not so dry that it's not gloriously green, but dry enough to keep the slugs at bay. i haven't actually seen any yet.

my strawberries are loaded with blooms. my peonies are glorious. my poppies are lush and feeding their fat buds, which will burst out in a few weeks. the morning glory that was planted from seeds from my mom's morning glory in south dakota is growing like mad. my nova zembla (yes, i bought them for their nabokov reference) rhododendrons are in their full magenta glory.

spring is moving rapidly into summer and it's all accompanied by the most most amazing array of birdsong.

ahhh...i do so love the global warming in denmark.