Sofias Country Gardens

I am a lemonade kind of girl. When life gives me a bunch of lemons I try to figure out how to make lemonade, even when there is no sugarcoating in sight. So, five years ago when I found myself stuck in one place due to unforseen and unavoidable circumstances I decided to make the best of it. As it happens, it was a lovely place to be stuck in, far out in the middle of no-where and deep in the Finnish countryside. I already had a few summer chickens who spent their winters wit

The most beautiful first line of any book I've ever read was Karen Blixen's Out of Africa which begins "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills" . In all its simplicity, it tells you all you need to know in the wistfulness of the past tense she uses. More hopeful and happy is the most frequently quoted sentence from the first chapter that goes "Up in this high air you breathed easily… you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be" . The

In the last days of November the ground froze deep, and soon after it began snowing. It is not so common to get a deep layer of snow so...

A few weeks ago the snow had thawed and I was happily looking forwards to spring, and then... it started to snow again. "Hurrah!" said Lulu the snow monster, and "Jee!" said my darling daughter who has spent the last five winters in Europe with early spring, but the chicken and I agreed that there is too much of a good thing. Winter is great, but endless winter is just endless. We have already moved the clocks forward to springtime, but apparently no one told the weather that

There is nothing as beautiful as when the light returns after a long, dark winter. As quickly as the round-a-clock darkness descends in...

A new year is upon us, and with it all the hope and good intentions a fresh start heralds. Last year was challenging, to say the least,...

A few weeks ago it began snowing. At first came a light drizzle, and then some more. The gardens turned into a beautiful winter wonderland, and we were overjoyed. "Isn't it lovely to get a proper white Christmas?!" we said to each other. Lulu was especially keen, and decided she wants to be a Yeti, an Abominable Snowman, when she grows up. "A Yeti is not gender specific," she says, "the main thing is to be really scary and covered with snow!". After a week of light snow, we g

This winter has felt exceptionally long. Perhaps it is the state of affairs in the world, the constant anxiety of going from a pandemic...

“I’m telling you, something strange is going on here!” says Betty in January. “What has the hooman done?!” Hilda is aghast. “Ou nou did she change something again?!” asks Snow White. “Yuck! New stuff on the floor!” says Gwendolyne, the know it all. “What?!! This is so scary!” the ladies cluck in chorus. Not everyone is pleased about having the cleaning lady visit… After a long winter break the ladies are laying eggs again by the end of February. “That one’s mine!!” says Berth

My mother liked things to be as they had always been. Truth be told, she abhorred change of any kind. She felt a little bit run down was...

All winter long my godfathers and I have started each Saturday evening family dinner conversation more or less with the same incredulous...

Last new year as we turned into a new decennium as well as a new year, the world looked so different in many ways than it does today. It...

Twelve days before Christmas we made the gingerbread dough for building our traditional gingerbread house. It needs to stand in the...

Keeping summer chicken has been a great joy for me for many years, and this year I decided to take it one step further and keep chicken...

On advent Sunday it started to snow. What perfect timing! The skies have been grey for weeks now, and this makes the days seem even...

And then suddenly its here - mid November. It is a grey month and most days are overcast with a thick and heavy blanket of clouds. Within...

There is a quietness that descends as autumn progresses. The weather turns more unstable, with rainy days and cold mornings, deterring...

Within two months Lazarus the duck had grown into a happy young person, curious about everything and everyone. Life was a constant...

Last spring when the Corona lockdown started, we had no idea of how long it would last, so the youngsters (and their close friends) all...

This weekend we are celebrating midsummer, although in a quieter way than usual. Most years all my friends come over and we have a really...