Thanks for visiting us & welcome back

 

What a beautiful weekend we got. Super weather, lots of sun (in the middle of very rainy days before and after....) and very much nice guests who came and visited us. A lot of them went around in our garden, tried a coffee or had some homemade cakes. You haven't been here yet? Please, come and see it next time when we are open, feel welcome. 

Thanks for welcoming us with Lingonställen in Västra Småland. We are very proud to be member in a network to promote this region. Of course, a picture was taken when Karin Lindahl was visiting us (in between Vittaryds Kyrka och Skällandsö 😉) . 

Beside of our lovely cakes and coffee, we sold some small loppis stuff and we had a växtloppis. 

That means, plants for sale, which we grow ourselves by sowing or the seedlings I find while cleaning the garden from weeds. We still have a lot of tomatoes, paprika, annual (ettårig) flowers like Cosmos, Tabak and Nattljus, but also grandmothers plants (perennials/perenner) like Akleja, Blågul, Stor Blåklocka and more. By the way, the plantmarket or växtloppis is always opened 😀😁. So when you want to take a look?

We (Peter, Steffi and Brün) like to thank all the people who came to visit us this weekend. 

Of course we hope to see you back next time also, for some relaxing in the garden, for a coffee or just enjoying a homemade cake from The Netherlands, Germany or a Swedish one. 

Lingonrundan 4 and 5 juni 2022

 

We will join this network of countryside gems in this region. It's all about foodculture, unique shops and experiences, locally produced handcraft in the heart of Småland. On the 4th and 5th of June (from 10-15 o'clock) they have a special open day. For more information, take a look on lingonrundan in Västra Småland .

At our place (nr. 36) you can visit our open garden, have a fika on a cosy place outside somewhere in our garden or buy some plants. We like to share our garden and the beautiful scenery near the lake Flyxen. 

You're very welcome to visit us!

Busy times preparing a garden

 

Normally this is always the most busy time of the year in the garden, April and May. You have some advantage when you start weeding early, of course it is easier to weed when plants are still small. Beside of that, next weeks we will have the famous midgets and horseflies over here, they make it impossible to work outside. But most important reason we are very busy tight now, is that we will join the next lingonrundan in Västra Småland on the 4th and 5th of June 2022 (from 10-15 o'clock). You can visit our open garden in the beautiful scenery near the lake Flyxen, have some fika outside on a cosy place somewhere in our garden or buy some plants.

So we need to finish a lot of things to be ready the beginning of June. We are preparing the garden to be good looking, with a lot of flowers and without to much weeds or to high grass. We have been creative with pallets and branches.We have been growing a lot of seeds and small plants for selling.

We are very happy with the result. The garden is nearly ready now. The last week we can start baking cakes. We hope to see you beginning of June, so you can see it yourself, you're welcome 😉

A bitch of Branches

Who's that girl....

One of my latest projects, I've been making a sculpture out of Willow tree branches. I prefer to call it a "bitch of branches" (so called "takkenwijf" in Dutch or "kärring eller häxa av pil" på Svenska). It started with cutting back our willow tree and in the neighborhood a lot of young trees were cut down by our neighbor. So lots of branches available. Years ago I got a picture from my friend Marjolein. Ever since I wanted to make something like this. So this was the moment to start it. 

We started with a wooden frame, covered with chicken wire, a lot of short cut birch branches (bjorkris) and a lot of patience. Just put in the branches round by round, hour for hour, in the early spring sun, til you get too much cold in your fingers. Inside a made the form of a head, out of willow tree. Later a started making the arms and body out of willow tray. 

The finishing touch was the ladies hair, some moss and a shawl of dried Clematis in her neck. I'm very proud about this project, though it took many hours te create it. But as long as you have fun and time, it doesn't matter. But it's too expensive to produce more of them 😄. 

Happy Easter

 

Do you need some extra inspiration to decorate your Easter? Take a look at the Easter decorations I made before. With only some Birch branches and Tulips or Blueberrie branches and Narcissus it is easy to create a colorful decoration. In the Netherlands they will have some curly willow branches decorated with colorful eggs. 

Dutch Easter decoration Picture Pixabay

Finally it is time to celebrate together again. Hopefully with your friends and family. Eating Easter brunch together, very popular in The Netherlands. You eat typical spring things like eggs (you really need to boil them in colored water or paint them with the children), sparris, salmon, cheese and lots of chocolates. You can have different sizes of chocolate bunnies or chocolates eggs filled endless sorts of tastes, like cream, egg liquor, truffel and so on. In the morning the children go out to look after chocolate eggs hidden in the garden. They are delivered by the Easter Bunny. 

Also in Sweden they celebrate together, mostly with family. Popular food is ham & eggs, fish and lamb. They also like the painted eggs. The eggs are delivered by Easter roosters. Children receive Easter eggs filled with sweet candies (instead of chocolates) and dress up like colorful Easter witches. And they have more Swedish traditions with witches....

We wish you good times together 💖. Let's be thankful we have this opportunity.

But don't eat to much eggs... Happy Easter, vi ses igen!

Sjöbygget Sowing Season

Enjoy the view from our balcony in spring in this Småland area, it is so beautiful. At the left side we see often the cranes grazing and eating. It happens we wake up with their sound very early in the morning (the sound which you can not miss actually). They told us they often nest at the other side of the lake Flyxen. It is not a very big lake, but a very friendly one. Nice lake to walk or skate on in wintertime. Or take the boat to fish or to swim privately in Summertime.

Some of the growing seedlings

We are preparing for a new garden season, also planning to start up our trädgårdscafé finally. After some years of delay cause by Corona. Some weeks ago we started sowing a lot of plants, to sell in the växtloppis in summertime. They are growing fast and looking good. But they are still inside because it is too cold outside (actually it is -7 early in the morning, so the ground is still frozen 😳...). They are in one of the coolest rooms right now. Next step is to the greenhouse outside (when the forst is gone), what we are building on this moment. 

My new greenhouse

Working to prepare the lane around the veranda

Another thing we have to finish is our sheltered outdoor terrace, where you can pick the sun as well be out of the wind. We need to higher up the ground, prepare the lane and the wood needs to be finished and painted. Meanwhile I'm so happy to see more and more plants wake up after wintertime, like this Helleborus beneith. It looks so fresh and full of energy. 

A Helleborus starting to flower

In between these jobs I have been working on my newest project: making a bitch of branches. I found a picture on internet, a picture of a woman sculpture totally made out of branches. I really like to create it myself. I will keep you informed when it is finished. Hope to see you next time. For now a good evening from Sweden. Like they say in Sweden: Vi ses ✋!

Start of my gardening season

 

Of course, my thoughts are with the people in Ukraine fighting and suffering for freedom 💙💛. But there is so little we can do, accept praying an hoping for the best 🙏. Meanwhile I'm very happy to have a hobby to loose myself in, to take away my thoughts away for a while. I hope every one can find a way to handle this. 

Actually my new gardening season just started. It's still cold outside, but beautiful weather. Frosty in the nights. Blue skies, lots of sun and a frosty ground special in de shadow. Still very long shadows, the sun isn't that high yet. In two weeks we reach the summer half year with more light. We live in the Swedish climate zone 4-5, even in the south, in the middle of Småland. It can take till May before we get rid of the frost and really have spring temperatures. Sometimes we have some nice spring like days, mostly it changes all of a sudden into summertime beginning of May without a real spring feeling. 

We started cleaning up the left leaves from autumn (when the snow came in so suddenly and unexpected) and some souvenirs such as branches everywhere from the winter storms. Only some weeks to go and the garden will look totally fresh green like if there was no winter at all, a fresh full grown flowering garden. Unbelievable, there's so much power in natures DNA.

Now it's time to prepare, to give plants the best start ever. Today we have been cutting the willow tree too, it needs to be done every 2-3 years. We can use the branches to create a sculpture. We started cutting back old parts of grasses and plants. I prepared the beds outside for seeding in some weeks. Same time a tried to weed already a little, but actually it is still too cold for your fingers. 

At the same time we started to sow inside. I started with some early seeds, such as tomatoes, night beauties, Gazania, Gaura (Sommarljus), Petunia and Akleja. Around ten days later, they will germinate because of the warmth. Time to move them from my mini greenhouse to a cooler place in the house and saw a new round in the greenhouse. A lot of seeds cannot wait to grow...

So proud on the first seedlings...💚

Start living now just collect experiences

Don't you ever wonder, what we could do to have a more happy live? And have a more happy Mother Earth? It's so easy, actually. Just only buy what you really need. Care about your beloved ones. Invest in meeting people, seeing special locations without your bucketlist. Just really be there. Feel it. Love it. Make pictures for ever in your heart. Because memories last longer then things. Just live!

I've been busy with some research for my book. I read a lot about developments in our world last century. It started with farming, which was a hard working life, long working days and always illness around the corner. No wonder without clean water to drink, less healthcare and knowledge. They spent days to wash or bake their bread. They made or used all the things they needed for living, no extra. There was a sort of balance. We gave and got back from nature.

Later the industry came. In the 50's people were motivated to buy (more) machines to make their life more easy and comfortable, like washing machines and coffee brewers. Because it would grow production and give more people a job. No problem, it saved time. it lasted for about 20 years and you could repair your machines. 

Some decennials later we were encourage to buy more, more and more. They produced stuff which didn't last long at all. Because you need to buy new stuff within short time. We started exploiting the earth, even for products we didn't need. Just to make more and more money. Not because it was necessary but as a sort of status, to show on Facebook or impress your neighbors. Much more then we ever will need. We produce lots of clothes for example, we buy them on internet. When they don't fit you just return them to the fabric, where they throw everything away like garbage. We use all raw materials from mother earth and give back the trash without any scrupules. Our houses get more and more filled with too much stuff, we even get stressed of our filled up to the roof houses. 

Meanwhile more and more people have to work too much, or too long or too stressfull. They need more and more money to pay all. The only thing we reach, is richer people getting more rich. Companies making more money. Money ruling the world. Money destroying the world and it's people too. 

But more and more people meet a burnout one day because they loose their intuition, nature and contact with themselves and nature. The result is they need to pay a lot of money, they earned so difficultly, to restore their own health and recover, if it is even possible. And maybe the saddest of all, we didn't reach a decent goal: No satisfaction at all and nearly 99% from all the things we buy (because we think we need it) go to the trash within a year. Mother Earth is becoming a landfill, the seas getting a big plastic soup. Nature has more and more problems which can not be solved without humans beings help and offers.

I really hope we all will wake up in time. For ourselves, our children and Mother Earth. Stop making money for the big companies or your status, it's enough when companies can go on and you can pay your living. When yo have a roof above your head, to eat and to drink.

It's time too start real life instead. To collect experiences. To feel warmth and love. To share beautiful thinks with your nearest and dearests. Don't forget to save the good memories in your heart forever. Just because memories live longer then things.

We try to buy the things we really need for living. Life with less is more. For a lot of things you can go to the Loppis in Sweden, to buy secondhand. It's nice to look around for news things. "Another ones trash can be my treasure". Don't throw away your one year summer plants, but try to get them over the winter and enjoy them again next summer. It's fun to care of them. Try to find your creativity!

Be critical and buy only sustainable furniture in your house. I hope they will try to produce more sustainable. Go back to the start and produce products with can last a lifetime. Like our ancestors did. 

Check your road in life. Check what makes you happy for more then one day or hour. Is this really the direction you want to go? Do you have fun in working? Do you do the things you like to? Is there any energy left for other things? To meet your dearest as much as you want? To cherish your good relations, your friends and family. Loose yourself in good music, feel touched or start crying when you see a nice view or picture. Just be in the moment of that day. Be in the now. Care about your home, Mother Earth. Because without, there's no life anymore. 

Preparing plants for wintertime

About January moods

Photo by Laura Barbato on Unsplash

Sometimes you have those days, it's gray, dark and rainy outside, no more snow left and you feel low energy. Guess what? That's typical January! It feels like everything is closed down but the new didn't start yet. Somehow in between. Somewhere on internet I read about the name January. It's named after Janus. In the Roman mythology he was seen als the god of the doors, but also the god of the beginning and the end. He has two faces, one is looking back, one is looking forward to the future. That's exactly how it feel just now. Sounds reasonable, or not? Like it is today. It is very rainy, dark and stormy outside and it will be even worse tonight. It feels like a heavy autumn storm. A perfect day and atmosphere for remembrance. Because today I'm burning a candle to remember my mother. I said goodbye to her already three years ago. It makes me feel a little sad. I will always miss her. But it makes me also looking back to my youth and the life we had together, the travels we made and the good memories you save in your heart forever. This is the perfect time to look back.

In The Netherlands January is called "Tanning month", the month to tan the animals skin to new leather. Typical something you could do in a month in which you could not do that much outside because of natures wintertime. Like it is now. It's too early to start gardening, because snow can still come and it's too early to seed, because the new plants have to wait to long to go out. Hopefully april but maybe May as last year, it was frosty very late. To early to start traveling too, because Corona makes traveling abroad so complicated and by the way Omicron is moving around a lot in Sweden this weeks. 

So now in January it's time to get rid of to much not needed stuff in your house, which will get more and more every year. It's time to clean the house, to paint the walls and renovate the old traditional winter windows. Thinking about when to open the garden to open for visitors in the summer months. Preparing recepis and having tryouts for cakes and cooking. Or to make a planning for the coming year, to plan the travel trips to meet my family. To dream about the garden I should like to create and what's needed to make it work. Or to prepare the seeds and needs before planting out later. I started reading about growing and seeds, making a wish list to buy some things new. Can't wait starting the new garden season.... So I've been busy thinking actually 😁. 

At the same January is nearly finished now, the days are getting more and more lighter. We are moving towards spring every day. Only some weeks to go now. Till then, I'm longing for snow and frosty times, just like in real winter times. To cheer up the days till spring finally comes, let's hope! 

A fresh start begins here, happy 2022

I would like to wish all my blog friends, a safe healthy, hopeful and happy new year. Never loose hope. Because the hope will be the light in your heart, today it will give you courage, tomorrow strength 💖