I am Ms Twitter, Norway!

I love Twitter, and apparantly have many friends there since someone told me to look at this;
http://tweeterwall.mallplace.com/walloffame/norway/mstwitter

It's fun because I have never been Miss anything.

Results of the Garden Poll

The Garden Poll is closed and I would like to thank all of you who voted. I asked if you had a garden or not, and then I you would like to have one, or if you were happy nt to have a garden. 72% of you have a garden! 11% did not have and 16% of you would like to have one. None of you were happy not to have a garden.
Thank you for participating!

To bee or not to bee.

Very eager for the growing season to begin last spring, I did buy a garden magazine that had free seeds attached. They where described as deep red velvet sunflowers. Here are four of them! What ever colour, they make me happy! They also make the wild bees around here happy. Bees are heading very close to the list of endangered insects due to extensive use of pesticides, large areas without food, climate changes and other reasons. It's nice to grow flowers that feeds the bees! Our food production relies on them!

Here are some facts about the ever importent busy bees:

http://www.saveourbees.org.uk/bee-facts.asp

And here you can read what gardners can do to save the bees;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/25/save-bees-gardeners

A good morning.

I got up early today, and had a cup of tea before the world got too busy. It's nice to sit on the porch with a good cup of tea watching the birds looking for breakfast in the trees and bushes in the garden.


After I had breakfast I harvested some garlic. It's the Chinese type that have just one bulb, and they are very tasty! The most amazing thing about them is that I didn't plant them this year. They must have grown from some that was left from last year! A pleasant surprise!

Work in progress

Summer is not the best time for knitting for me as I use wool, and not cotton, it can be a sweaty experience! However, this summer is rainy and cool, so here I am knitting away on a lace sweater in fine wool yarn. I finished the body and one sleeve. When I have finished both sleeves I will put all parts on a long round needle and knit a ragland decrease in the lace pattern. I hope the result will be good. Cross your fingers for me! I'll show you the end result soon.

I made my first ever knitting pattern!

For many years I have designed knitted accessories, skirts and tops, but never written down what I have done. When I have made a second one, I have just looked at the first I made, and that can hardly be called a pattern! Finally, I got around to write it all down and work it into a real pattern that I hope every one can use! My first ever knitting pattern is for a decorative collar/neck warmer.


I did write down what I did as I went along knitting. I modified a lace pattern form a chart and marked the modifications I made. When I finished the piece, I decided that this was so well documented that it had to be my first knitting pattern! I search the internet to see if I could learn form experienced people. And I could. I came across http://chezplum.com/blog/2009/06/11/tutorial-how-i-make-my-knitting-charts-for-lace/ who in a very detailed and understandable way explained how to make a lace chart based on a excel type program. Thank you so much Sylvie! She is an accomplished designer and her patterns are on sale at http://chezplum.com/

When the lace chart was made it was easy to write down the instruction for how to make the collar. When I had finished I realised the need for additional information. The obvious is yarn and needles, but size, skill level, amount of yarn needed, gauge and where to get the yarn I used in the model. I knit a lot in Icelandic wool and Gudrún in Iceland sell this wonderful yarn on Etsy; www.TheIcelandicWool.etsy.com

Late at night I had managed to make the word document into a PDF file, that can easily be send by email to customers, and posted it proudly in my Etsy store "The High North".

Happy knitting!

Fresh from the berry bush!

I said I was going to write about the vegetables we grow, and I will. However, the berries are ripe now and so tempting to ..write about. And eat!
When we got this garden two years ago it had all the fruits and berries we could wish for, except cherries. We soon discovered that the plum tree didn't really produce much. The first year we had one plum, and it fell down in July.

As for berries we have raspberries, red currants and black currants and strawberries. We did as well buy a cherry tree. This year it gave some cherries, but the magpies we so much faster than us in getting them! A lesson learnt for next year.
In the spring we replanted the raspberries. They had been left to them self for very long, and weed was as plenty as raspberries. We had red and yellow berries last year. After replanting they all turn out to be yellow. I can't believe that we by accident just picked the yellow bushes. But it seems to be a funny fact.
Red currants grow on an old strong bush. This is the third year in a row that it is loaded with berries. The first year we were here we cut out some old branches and many new ones. We had no idea of what we did, we just wanted to stop the red currants bush from taking over the garden. We must have done something right!

We did a tidy-up in the strawberries as well, and they gave us treats for some weeks. It was very hot for the weeks they matured,

so they all did ripe at the same time. The most exciting fruit for us this season is the grapes. We bought a stock two years ago and now it shows signs of grapes! And oh! I nearly forgot to mention the blueberries! They are the American type and moved into our garden this spring. They seem happy here with lots of berries that are not yet ripe. Berries are very rewarding I think. I do very little to them and they give a lot back!

Allotments - an urban gardener's Paradise!

It is said that the Romans where the first once to have allotment gardening, as a consequence of the city being over populated and people started to grow vegetables on the outskirt of Rome. Today many big cities like London, Berlin, Stockholm have allotments.

The characteristics of an allotment is that the ground is owned and managed amongst the gardeners. It is expected to take a turn in keeping the common areas nice and well kept. It’s also expected that each owner of an allotment is actively keeping her plot tidy and nice. This might sound strict, but for anyone with green fingers it is a great social place to live a garden dream in a crowded city.

Our allotment garden was built in the late 1920s. It is called Solvang Kolonihager. The whole area has 545 cottages and gardens like mine. It’s a little garden world with small roads, low hedges, cute cottages and many pretty gardens. There are no cars on the roads and a paradise for children and parents alike.

We grow some vegetables and fruits. I’ll write about that soon, so look in again!

A place in the sun.

Two years ago we bought an allotment on the outskirt of Oslo. As they are not sold on the open market we had been waiting for more than six years to get one. What we got was a 40 m2 cottage and a 400 m2 garden 30 minutes on a push bike from the centre of Oslo, and 5 minutes to the woods and lakes beyond the city!

The closeness to the city is due to the fact that the area was developed into allotments in the 1920s. It was built as a place for the working class to be able to grow food and their children to get fresh air and escape from the small dark crowded apartments in the city.

At that time it was not allowed to grow flowers, or even to have a lawn! Today it's different. I will write more about the history of the allotment we are in soon. Meanwhile you can look at pictures of our cottage and garden, and read about allotment gardening on Wikipedia;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening)

Peonies - "flower of riches and honour".

It's hard not to love peonies. The size of the flower, the plentitude of petals and the fragrance makes them irresistable. The name peonycomes from the Greek Paeon or Paean. Apperently he was a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. Asclepius became jealous of his pupil; Zeus saved Paeon from the wrath of Asclepius by turning him into the peony flower.

I have three different kinds of peonies in my garden. They have all been here a long time, befor I came here, so I don't know their names. But I do enjoy them every year when they do appear in early summer. Here are some of the peonies in my garden for you to enjoy! No wonder the Chinese call them the "flower of riches and honour".

In the shade under a tree.

A perfect summer day is spent under a tree in the shade in my own garden. A cup of tea and a good book at hand will make the day perfect. I have allways wanted a tree seat, and so far it is in a shop in the UK, and not in my garden. You can have a closer look at it here; http://www.gardeniron.co.uk/product.asp?ref=4542

I did get myself a bench this year though, and I am very happy with it. It's solid granit and will last til the end of days! Here I can sit under the old apple tree in the afternoon sun! The summer cottage looks good in the low sun.