My friend Maria and I have a habit of consoling each other with the words "this too shall pass" when things aren't great, and sometimes lamenting the passing of great moments too. I was reminded of this now that my flower borders have finally burst into bloom. It is such a fleeting moment in summer that a certain flower is at its best that I'd really like to press on the pause button to have time to saviour it! As it's not possible to pause time I have instead saved the memories of it here on my blog, and today there is a veritable photo dump of pictures from the gardens.
I am totally in love with the almost black Persian lilies in my woodland garden at Humlegård. They have failed to stay upright like the statuesque candles they should be, and instead bend and curl almost like snakes over the stone path and in the border. The spring has been sunny but cool, and so they have charmed me with their grace for weeks.
The tulips too have bloomed for a long time, and to my delight Lulu the dinosaur dog has scared away the deer and rabbits so successfully that I have not had one tulip eaten from my gardens. I suppose all the gourmand animals have moved to the gardens of the red house Stensund, because there all tulips were devoured before their buds even broke.
At the red house the borders are suffering a bit since I decided to let the Ladies out to forage as soon as the bird flue alert was lifted. My sweet neighbour Monika asked me if she could continue to bring them cooked baby potatoes now the chicken have a run of the yard, or if I have stopped feeding them grains and chicken feed now they are outside? "No, no" I said, "please continue with the potatoes! They get all the food they are accustomed to as well as going out, and to be honest I also police the family over food waste and take all the scraps from dinner to the Ladies. You can't imagine how much they complain when they don't get goodies from the table!!" It might be that they are the most spoiled little hens in Finland...
As we are going into summer I have updated the pots around my porch. It's a small thing, but sometimes it's the small things that counts. The orange and green tulips I planted three years ago in the small border in front have come back this year too, much to my delight! With this I'm wishing you all a lovely sweet June!
