SEPTEMBER

And so one day it is September and you open the door in the morning and wonder how it can be, that on the first official day of autumn it really feels like a change of season in the air; it is cold and the morning mist is heavy and grey, just like nature would have a calendar and switch mode as soon as the date change. Strange.

I have as usual been busy with work but also just spent a lot of time reading the newspapers and articles feeling even more bad than it usually makes me and thus not really feeling like blogging after that.

This morning I however had some time off.

Gave my orchids a bath; haven't been properly at home in either place to take care of my plants.

Did something of a pimp-my-hipster-porridge for breakfast - oat porridge, a nectarine, peanut butter and red wineberries plus hazelnut milk.


Opened the door and smelled autumn,  just before it started raining (and it rained all day).
And here are Dag's gathering of coloured tractors on the back yard table.


It will be chili time soon! (Btw it is always good when you water your outdoor plants just before it starts raining for some 12 hours straight. It makes you feel like you really just did something useful.)


And my coriander, in the growing box that survived the vicious lamb attack, is overgrown huuuuuge.


Then I went back inside and thought about wearing this little mint green vintage fabric piece that arrived from Etsy some time ago. (But I just ended up wearing a kitty romper instead).

BYE BYE GARDEN

This summer I haven't really had any vacation. It's been a lot about work (which I will get into here soon), but most of the time that I've had off I have spent watering plants and taking care of the garden. And anyone who has been stopping by here this summer or follows me at instagram know that  I have actually managed to grow things this year.
I had a really nice garden.
Had.


Until the lambs decided their, I don't know, three square kilometres or so of grass was not enough to roam but decided to start hanging out in our garden instead. And as they tend to do, they ate EVERYTHING. Even my palm tree from inside that I had outdoors for some sun-therapy.  And most flowers and all the berries bushes and my god damn growing boxes of kale and salad and peas and aaargh.

But I think there was a Chinese proverb saying that nothing in life is more important than to attend to your garden. And even that is not so important.

GARDEN LIFE vol.1

(flower photo alert)

As summer comes we spend pretty much all free time at the farm and we let the back door stay open to extend living out to the garden. Everyday life elsewhere, perhaps but here only for those short sweet summer months.

I stocked up on flowers and pots at the start of the season as usual.


Hello hanging strawberries-to-be!

 So beautiful, aren't they?


And things that I have planted, as well as others generations before me have, pop up one by one. So many colours, so many prety flowers.

 I had Eddi build me these growing boxes. I planted herbs, salads and other greens in them.

And the cats tried their best to sabotage it all, by hopping in and out of the boxes and making a mess.
Let's just say the order I put the seeds in are no more.


Cauliflowers waitinig to be planted outside. I hade some sunflowers coming up too. But they fried in the mini greenhouse when it got real sunny outsisde. Ooops.

 I also have a set of tomatoes and chilis sitting on a bench by a sunny wall.

 It's a goddamn water circus every day (not to forget all my indoor plants) and I dread going away as I know no one else will remember to water them. But I like having a lot of plants around there and every now and then get to enjoy a home grown tomato too.


We had Dag's three year birthday outside party in the garden as well.

This was a few weeks ago now already, when it was still cold(er), but we were lucky enough to manage the party right on the only day it was warm and sunny during those weeks.

The pram park. I actually don't have so many friends with kids so this was an unusual sight. People have been busy the past year!

Dag's favourite colour is red. Preferably everything he wears has to be red.

Evenings are for barbecue, and as usual the guys are at it with their burgers and sauces.


And come night time, my solar lit fairy lights go on.

But it is still so light they are merely there just for the fun of it. But come August with it's warm (hopefully) and dark evenings they get to shine to their full potential. I might hang up a few more still...

GREEN GRANDCHILDREN

I have a plant at home that has been with me since my first ever own flat. If you think about it, it's kind of funny that plants can get so old. But of course they can. I know of some geraniums that somebody's grandmother planted back in the days.

This one is obviously a green plants that is easy to take care of, as I have managed to kill of quite many plants over the years too. It has produced many new plants that are spread out in the house and at the farm and at friens' houses. And those new plants in return have produced new baby-plants as well.


That kind of makes them like plant-grandchildren.


This one is waiting for a new home at my sister's.


And this is the newest offspring;  two actually (two branches cut off and re-planted) - their parent had grown huge. I didn't have a suitable pot for this one but no problem, one can always use a tin jar instead. (The plant itself is in a smaller planting-pot for now, standing on some gravel in the jar.)

LEMONDE, SYRUPS, JUICE AND ALL THAT

 I picked most of the rhubarb before midsummer already; jammed, juiced, pied and froze in. Now I made a last batch of syrup of what was left of it in the garden. At the same time I did a set of summer lemonade, the one with black currant leaves.

 Dag was very eager to help picking the rhubarb. It's fun now that he is so big he can almost really be of help. Well he did pull all of the staves out from the bucket afterwards, but kindly out them back after I told him to. He probably would have repeated the procedure over and over again wold I not ave been finished with the gathering after that.

 Earlier I made syrup the plain way by boiling the fruit (or, herb or vegetable or what it was now again that rhubarb was classified as) and then filtering it and heating it up again with sugar. This time I made the other version of just pouring boiled water on a mix of rhubarb, lemon and some tartaric acid and let it stay for three days, after which I added sugar and set it to boil, the same with the black currant leaves.

 On the last day of letting it soak I put in some mint from the garden too.

I fill up a few bottles to drink at once but put the rest in the freezer, to enjoy later. It's also good to pack along for a picnic or a longer trip away - a bottle of frozen syrup or lemonade in the picnic or grocery bag doubles as a cooler as well.

PAIRS IN COLOUR

 Green & orange.

 Purple & yellow.

Red & blue.

IN AND AROUND THE EVENING GARDEN

There are lots of flowers blooming here and there in my garden. I mostly let them tend to themselves.

So things get a little wild, but that's OK. Here we have a mix of (edible) weeds (edible and healthy, what a great excuse to just keep them there!). strawberries, chive and parsley. Plus some random flowers that have found their way there trough the wind.

 

The garden is very well set originally though, by Eddi's grand-aunts and parents. There is always something blooming and when those flowers have faded the next ones are on their way.

 My little gardener.

Saying good night to the lambs.

Brothers and farmers. Talking farm stuff.

 

I love these light nordic summer nights - it's past eleven int the evening when I took this photo!