The Elderberry miracle.

Hello. I am still alive. In fact, I am alive and on holiday, since yesterday was the first day of 2.5 glorious weeks off. Happy!

So yesterday a miracle happened. I went in the garden in the morning and noticed that the our small elderberry bush is about to bloom. Which made me think what a shame it is that in this huge garden, we only have this one little bush. I made a mental note to add elderberry bushes to the ever growing list of "things we need to buy for the garden someday".

Elderberries are important, you know. Not only do I love the jam you can make out of their fruits, they are also said to bring luck to the owners of the garden. My mom knows such things. When we bought the house, one of the first things she asked me was whether there was an elderberry bush in the garden.

However, one of the things on my to do list for yesterday was to cut the dead branches of those huge mysterious trees which grow on one of the overgrown corners of the garden (on the right side in the picture above). I´ve never taken a closer look at these trees before and also I´m not very good at telling what is what in nature. You see where this is going, right? They´re elderberries. A whole cluster old, huge, overgrown, woody elderberry trees.

We expect to be very lucky now. And eat lots of jam.

This picture has nothing to do with elderberries. It´s just nice. Happy Friday!

Happy Friday.

This picture is from a house tour in the current issue of Livingetc. I have a love-hate relationship with this magazine. Every time I am thoroughly fed up with all the unattainable/unlivable homes they feature they have a house tour that I really love. Like this one. By the way this is Cornforth White on the walls - the color I used on the floors throughout the house. It does look lovely as a wall color... which makes me think...

Happy weekend!

One year ago.

One year ago today, we viewed our house-to-be for the first time! I have to admit it wasn´t exactly love at first sight on my part... I liked the house but thought it really was too big for us.
I looved the village though. Here are some shots from May last year. Can you blame me?!

It´s funny to look back at this time. Our crazy but dedicated real estate agent, the previous owner who wouldn´t talk to us personally, a completely useless house inspector, many weekend visits to the village including sneaking around the property, so much anticipation and even more doubts and worries. Buying a house really is something.

Happy anniversary of sorts, house. We are so glad we found you.

Getting there.

I took this yesterday in the evening after a weekend full of hard work. Seriously our workload these days is insane. We´re trying to get everything ready for the next big project which is building our back porch. And there´s always the garden...

Yesterday we removed the scaffolding on the back of the house... quite pleased with how my paint job turned out. We´re planning to get rid of the hideous plastic back door as soon as possible... I want to get a nice wooden door which I´ll paint in a darker color. I think the contrast with the white will be nice.

Also look at my flower beds! I planted 120 little plants (all perennials) in the walled garden over the weekend (there are two more beds on the side which you can´t see in this pic). Quite a lot but still I do think we´ll need more. The beds look a bit sparse but then again I´ll have to wait and see how the plants will grow in.

By the way here´s the plan for the walled garden if you want to revisit. The patio´s ready, too but we still need some furniture for it. I´ll show you soon. 

Happy Monday!

Happy weekend.

I know my blog is a bit lame these days. I apologize. It´s just that life in general is still stressful and I can´t carve out enough time for this little space although I´d love to.

Time seems to fly by and like every spring, it seems I haven´t cherished the beauty surrounding me enough. Do you know that feeling? Also I´m so consumed with my worries and the house and the garden that I don´t even seem to notice things anymore.

Like last weekend, when the husband asked whether I had seen the crazy blooming trees behind our garden. Uhm, no? We went there and what the what. I´ve never seen anything like this in my life before. I don´t even know what kind of trees these are - I assume some kind of fruit though? Apples maybe? (EDIT: Yes, apples.) Anyhow, oh the beauty.

Have a happy weekend! And try to savour the beauty around you.