My trip to Denmark.

I feel like I don't know what season we are in ! It will be June in a few days and I'm still wearing winter clothes. I've told you before I love my garden, but when it's cold and raining everyday I would rather be indoors doing something else.

Which means  I've made  very little progress in the garden. Usually by this time of the year all my hanging baskets and balcony troughs have filled out and everywhere is looking colourful, ready for the summer.

I have to tell you I had most of my plants hardening off ready to go in the baskets and we had a severe frost overnight and it nipped the tops of most of the plants, , the weeds are growing like mad, they don't mind the frost.

Although I've been busy planting my baskets ready to hang when we get some warmer weather, I thought I'd wait awhile  until  they are worth showing you. So how would you like to see some of the things I saw on my trip to Denmark at the beginning of May.

If you've ever visited Denmark it would probably be Copenhagen , which is a beautiful city, however my son and his family live in the North of Denmark, so it was a family visit, with some sight seeing.

Here's a taste of some of the things I loved seeing

and a few of my favourite places we went to.

After looking through the window on a rainy day, I could see that the Forsythia needed pruning.
and I know they don't have the time for jobs like this, so I went out with secatures. 



This is what I did with all the pieces I had pruned.

I just pushed the cuttings into the ground. I can't say planted as their ground is so soft. I hope they take.

I have a very good friend, who just shoves bits off plants in the ground and they always grow.
If she reads this she'll know who I'm writing about !

Where I live it's very stony ground, so I'm not always successful.

Bikes can be seen everywhere.
I think even I would ride around on a bike if I lived there as it's so flat.
I loved this pink/white one I saw outside a super market with a wooden box on the front
 for those small things we always forget when we do our weekly shopping.

This one looked so pretty with a large basket decorated with silk flowers.



Bicycles in the nearby city of Aalborg.

 Some of the flowers at the supermarket.

Which I thought were a better selection than I have here in France.

Our son lives near the Fjord/sea and 
we always like to take a walk at the harbour.                       

Half timber modern houses at the harbour.

We spent a lovely weekend at our daughter in laws parents
 summerhouse on the North west coast.

There was a special reason that this piece of architecture was hung here.

 it was to warn you there was a step.

I loved this idea.

 Each time everyone goes for a walk on the beach they collect pebbles with holes in

 so they have been threaded onto a cable.

A sheltered corner.

Our walk on the beach.

I just love the coast, even when it's windy

and as you can see so do my grandchildren.

we walked on to the cliffs and saw lots of birds.

 Some of the Kittiwakes.

They  build their nests on the very narrow ledges of the cliff.

I always love to visit this chateau, as it's so different from the ones I see in France.

These colourful houses are in the northern tip of Denmark

This  circular maze was amazing.

It was designed by a Dane and built from planks of wood.

It was an echo maze, the echo came back 4 minutes after the sound.

A familiar sight over Denmark.

Now we're back to where we started
nearby the local church.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of Denmark from my visit.

and you'll join me again soon on my next trip .

.Until next time

à bientôt
Barbara Lilian.

A country garden in France.

Our daughter dreams of one day having the time to make a garden & being able to find time to look after it. But having just spent a week at her home, I wandered around and saw such lovely focal points she never gets the time to enjoy.

So as my hubby had just bought himself a new camera, which does a lot more than my point & shoot, I took lots of photos, so sit back and enjoy my wander around her garden seeing it through my eyes.

 

Don't ask me why the chair was left in the 'potager'.

But I thought it deserved a photo to share.

A slow maturing Willow tree.
This is where her boys play rugby or football.

The boys bikes outside of the barn.
Probably left there till the next time they ride them.

Pretty wild flowers growing in the disused veg. patch.

The swing the boys used to play on when they were younger,
still hanging on one chain from a branch of a huge Chestnut tree.

The cockeral & his lady followers left free to roam.
These have recently replaced the previous batch,
 that one by one were attacked by a fox !!

The driveway leading to the house.
 A lovely variety  of trees.

A lovely typical cottage feel
Some of the Hollyhocks in front of the shutters.

The Walnut and Cherry trees, making a pleasant shady area
where we've enjoyed many meals shared with family & friends.

Buddlia shrub or more often known as a butterfly bush.

An arbour made from an old ladder which had been left in the barn
 when they bought their house.
 It did have roses growing on either side, but the Deer must have eaten them !

 

An old wire crate, where there had been wild strawberries growing in it.

 

The old well which has had doors put on

 to save any accidents when the boys were little.

So as you have seen, every garden has it's charm and doesn't have to be flowers all planted neatly in rows.

I love this garden, and hope you enjoyed sharing my photos.

 and when my daughter sees this, I hope she will enjoy seeing all the

 charmimg parts of her garden that she doesn't get time to see

 because she is so busy with her work.

I hope you will pop by again, when I hope to have had time to visit my friends garden.

A bientot

 Barbara Lilian.

French windows.

I just love the windows on old French houses.

This cottage belongs to some friends of mine who live in Limoges city & now that they have retired, they come to their country home as often as they can. Later I will show some pictures of their garden, it's a true country garden & I'm sure would be everyones dream garden. 



 I think I love the windows on old French houses because the windows open in, inviting the warm sunshine indoors. However the French people always close the shutters when it's hot to keep the house cool. I love to see old lace curtains looking more like lace handkerchieves than the style I was used to seeing in England. I hated lace curtains when I was a child. It made me think of dark rooms and old people. I never really new any old people as my Grandmother passed away when I was very young, and I don't have many memories of her. But I do remember the lace curtains in her house covering the whole of the windows, making the Victorian period house even darker. So have a peep at some of the windows I love.

This window is on the front of my daughters house.

A friends cottage

One of the windows my husband put in

when renovating the old barn, which we now live in.  

He was able to find the granite to make the surround

from a barn which had fallen down. 

This is the view from the window of La Petite maison

which we rent for holidays.

I hope you liked peeping through the windows.

a bientot

Barbara Lilian