A Taste of Denmark

I've just been to Denmark to visit our son and his family.

As you can see it's very flat.

 A few wind-machines among the Rapeseed fields.

We went for a drive up to the North west coast.
Where the landscape is totally different
Look at the trees all bent over due to the wind.

On our walk to see the old lighthouse 

I came across this beautiful wild flower , some type of Anemone'

I propped this one up with a small stick so that you could see inside.

The coast line is eroding

so now this once needed lighthouse is no longer in use.

  This past winter there has been more erosion of the coast,

and now these houses have been boarded up.

There seems to be more hills along the coast than inland.

With my lovely son, on a beautiful sunny but windy day.

A few fisher-mans cottages, probably used as summer houses now.

We took a walk around the nearby small town.

Very popular in the summer months.

Some tasty Danish snacks.

Take a closer look at the chairs outside, the restaurant owners 

leave soft blankets  to put over your legs, when the wind is chilly.

I saw this schooner sailing along the Fjord which is opposite our sons house.

I grabbed my camera and took this photo from the bedroom window. 

As I had only taken my aim and shoot camera I had to zoom in 

for this shot, so it's lost a bit of the clarity.

A mornings visit to the local harbour.

It was too early for the ice-cream shop to be open.

 An evening of culture  at the newly built music theatre.

Three generations aged from 7 to 75 years together.

to listen to the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra

playing Vivaldi 'The Four Seasons '  

Our grandsons gave the thumbs up 

and said 'It was cool '

A day window shopping.

I loved this old building I saw in Aalborg town

which is now divided into small boutique shops.

The original cobble stones in front of the building have been left.

Lots of bicycles everywhere.

Not sure what was happening, but they were doing some filming here. 

Lots of pink flowers.

I Loved these designer watering pots

 We sat here for coffee and people watched. 

and were tempted to buy some freshly ground coffee from this shop.

The end of another wonderful family visit to Denmark.

 Sunset over the Fjord.

 Now it's time for the drive back to the airport.

for our flight back home to France.

Back home to all the plants that have grown so much in such a short time 

 and need to be planted or potted on into bigger pots.

But that's for another time.

So I'll leave you for now and catch up with the garden progress next time.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Taking a short break from my garden.

This time of the year is always busy in the garden.
We are leaving for a trip and everything is growing so fast,
I wanted to do so much, but time is running out.
I feel like the mad hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland'

These days everything seems to take us so much longer to do.

We have shrubs that have grown so big they need to be cut back or moved.
They'll have to wait a little while longer.

 Fortunately the new roses have been planted at the replacement arbour.
They should have settled in nicely while we are missing
 and hopefully will have signs of buds when we return.

We do take a break now and again, to sit here
 and drink a mid morning cup of coffee and early evening 

after our day working in the garden we have an aperitif,

or as Mr France says.'Him doing the hard work and me titivating'.

Well someone has to give the orders.

I'm hoping that these climbing roses will do better this year.

After a year of neglect, I've given them lots of TLC which they were
in desperate need of, so I'm looking forward to seeing the reward.

Also I must stake up the peonies before they get too big.
I have Day Lilies & some Penstemon that a friend gave me still to plant.

Can you see my garden whimsy peeping out from behind the Euphorbia ?

I still haven't decided, whether she stays or goes.
Take a look here it was my gift from the floral committee. 

A gift from my daughter three Ranunculus in a pot.

Their petals are so pretty, wrapped round and round and so paper thin.

At the moment this is our view from the terrace.
We can see the wild Cherry trees in blossom  Food for the birds.

When we get back, I'm sure this view will be very different,
 all the trees will be dressed in their green robes,

I did manage to find some time to paint a sketch in my garden journal
of one of my Camellia flowers, before it turned brown & fell off.

I'll be taking this small sketch journal with me
 and a few ink pencils .

This lovely hand bound sketchbook was sent to me by Valerie Gardiner 
who has a lovely blog called Colours in the Breizh
 On her travels she doesn't use a camera, only the
detailed sketches she does 'en situe' in her own hand bound sketchbooks.

If I miss your posts, while I'm away, I'll try and catch up when I get back.
Enjoy your gardens,
especially those who have only just stopped having snow.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

The Circus has come to our town.

Knowing I live in rural France and seeing the title of this post

 I expect you were wondering what this post was going to be about ?

I'd just popped into the nearby village to post a letter

and where I usually park the car there was a Camel grazing on the grass.

Not an everyday scene. I wondered what was going on.

But then I remembered I'd seen some posters 

advertising the Circus, but as my grandsons are now young men

I hadn't really taken much notice of when or where it would be.

Usually it's during the summer months that 

'The Circus Comes to Town ' but as it's a festive time

the circus must have been touring the smaller towns .

I'm so glad  I had my camera in the car.

I was able to wander about and take photos. 

I'm sorry there aren't any clowns or acrobats practicing

their acts, for you to see. This circus is more like a zoo. 

But it's not everyday you get to see Camels in the car park. Is It ?

I'll be back in my garden again soon.

 I need to get the climbing roses planted.

 à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

An Easter Posy for afternoon tea time

Sit and enjoy your afternoon tea time posy

sent to you from France.

 A pretty posy from my garden

 in a pretty cup.

 to wish you Happy Easter 

Just a greeting from my home in France to your home

where ever you might be.

I hope my posy helped to brighten up your day.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Just Looking

 It's not very often we take this route, but how happy I am we did. 

Joy for my eyes , look what I found .

It's only a 25 min. drive south from where we live
but it's amazing how much warmer it is.
The temperature is always a few degrees higher.
which means the blossom is more advanced than where I live.
.

Then we took a detour to our daughters house and I was even happier
as we found a garden center which had opened last year
I spent most of my time inside .
I was in awe of the beautiful Camellias.

I hope you like Camellias, as there were so many I couldn't stop clicking.

and before I realised that the battery was running low

 on my camera, I had spent all my time photographing them. 

Outside were rows of shrubs,
Each row had a sign showing the type of shrub and where to plant them.

Easy to grow.

Climbing plants suitable for walls and arbours

I was very tempted to buy a Clematis, but as I hadn't done any research
on them, to know which one to choose, I resisted temptation
for the next visit, which I know will be soon.

So a few more different Camellias to show you.
I hadn't realised there were so many varieties.

My only disappointment with these flowers
is they don't last very long.
If they get caught by early morning frost they turn brown
and they don't like wind and rain.
Which seems to have been our type of Spring weather

I have one in my garden which is struggling,

apparently due to all the things they don't like.

Now after the expert advice I was given by the owner

 of the garden center, I need to move it, after it's finished flowering.

It was planted last year, when my heart was not into gardening.

I thought I'd chosen a good position for it, but apparently not.

Also we do have very acid soil, due to the hundreds of pine trees

that were growing here when we bought the property.

So I need to correct that, when I find a suitable place to replant it.

But not just yet, it will have to wait, as I have climbing roses 

waiting patiently to be planted and grow up the new arbour.

If it's stopped raining tomorrow, I'll take a photo to show you.

It will be like  ''before and after.''

 What ever you are doing in your garden

Enjoy your planting.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

It hasn't stopped raining, but I did what I said I'd do.
I took this photo, to let you see my pitiful Camellia. 
As I say I'm not a gardener and we all make mistakes.
It wasn't a plant I bought myself, as  I know all the difficulties
of growing a good plant  (it was a prize ) from our Floral competition.
Yes you did read that correctly  a prize. But I do grow lovely
hanging baskets.
.

The flowers were battered even more during the night

This is my Camellia looking very sad, waiting to be moved.