Step up!

I played a shop-keeper yesterday, we had a flea market at our shop (and will have one today, too). While I slaved away at the shop (=read magazines), my husband built us new steps.

Things are not black and white

If it was good enough for the Germans in the 70´s, it is good enough for us! I bought this vase to use in the garden but in the end both I and my husband thought it is too precious for outside use and now it has a home in the kitchen.

Let there be light

My husband has worked hard with his two new radios. This one got lights and it is cleaner than when it was new. And it works just fine!

Take it easy

I don't get people who don't like bergenias (vuorenkilpi in Finnish). They are easy, look good and green in both summer and winter. The only thing you need to do is to take off any damaged leaves in the spring and the plant looks great for the rest of the year. It spreads easly but is not invasive, its flowers are a delight in spring and it might flower again if the conditions are right. If something is easy, it is not bad - get over it and start using bergenias in your garden immediately!

Greener pasture

It was incredibly green in the beginning of the summer. Something good came with the continuous rain and cold weather.

Yours for the taking

My husband demands that I gather all the apples that drop down as he is afraid there will be rodents coming to eat them - never mind the cat that lurkes around. I wanted to save some for the birds and here they are, ready for birds to pick up. There are apples on the tree, too, so it might be that my construction doesn´t interest birds much but the apples look good so I´ll let them be. One pedestrian walked his dog by our garden and he almost wrung his neck trying to figure out how the apples stay in the air - you can't see the pole when looking from afar!

Movers and shakers

As we don´t stay for night at the cottage anymore I take flowers with me everytime we go there. This time I made a bouqet with a couple of very fragrant lilies. The pelargoniums are from the cottage, too. They moved to Vårkulla a week ago. As I knew it would rain during the week I put them under the garden table and they seem to have liked their stay under a roof.

It´s a draw

I kind of said to my husband: no more radios/record players to this household. And he feels the same about me buying cheap paintings. But here we go again, a new painting and a new radio (that I love by the way, a woman has a right to change her mind!).

Practical and beautiful

Can you imagine a time when you had to make even the clothes pegs yourself? Someone has used these for years and even wrote her name in each to make sure nobody takes them by mistake. The basket came with the pegs. Lovely!

Good for something

We bought a box of nectarines yesterday and they were so hard you couldn´t eat them. Well, they look good and got to decorate our "new" tray (from the 50's).

Small world

The painting on the left is my brother's who got it from my mum who got it from my father's mother. The painting is now in Vårkulla. The printed copy on the right we found at a flea market in Vääksy. The funny thing is that the copy is a copy of an original Aune Äyräpää painting from 1937 that Ateneum art museum now owns. And the painting is a copy of the printed copy, we think. After we found the printed copy (never before seen at any flea market), we found another one at a flea market in Loviisa. Never two without three and small world, eh?

Must buy me some sweets

We have a Fazer sweet stand from the 50's. It has 12 glass tubes and a white metal stand. My husband washed the tubes at the cottage and the glass looks like new. We still have to figure out what to do with the chrome lids as they are in rather a bad condition. We thought about painting them white but on the other hand we'd like to preserve the original looks. Maybe somebody could chrome them again.

Best things in life (of a gardener) are free

You gotta love ferns. When the garden is in the middle of a forest ferns just appear here and there. Remember to never clean them away - they look amazing when just starting out. The new leaves curl out from a tight ball and in the end of the summer the leaves get large and look like something from a rainforest. I need to transfer some ferns to Vårkulla and hope they will thrive. At the cottage they live where they choose and that must be the reason they survive even the hottest summers (like this one).

Picking up gold

No wonder these are called golden balls in Finland - they look golden in the August evening. I picked these up from the cottage, I just had to take some with me even though I only got to enjoy them for one day - they will be dead when we come back to Vårkulla on Friday.

Nothing is ever easy

My husband bought a record player and now we of course need records. We got a box full of old singles from my brother. As the copy paper box didn´t exactly make our living room more beautiful, I found new use for one of my old potato measures. I bought this big one at one yard flea market a couple of weeks ago. I felt like robbing the poor man as he sold it for 30 euros. The bigger measures usually set you back about 100 euros. This one is big, from the 40's and in good condition so it was quite a find.

Little maidens

We call columbines (akileija in Finnish) as maiden flowers (neitikukka in Finnish) because - well because they look like little maidens; delicate, colourful and fragile.

Optimistic thoughts

We are going to go mushroom hunting on Saturday! You know, when it rains there is hope. The photo is from a couple of years back, lets see if I can show something like this on Sunday.

Getting a bit blue

It has been too hot even for lavender! This photo is from our vacation, now the poor plant hasn't got any flowers left. I still don't want to throw it away as it just might survive the winter if I have energy to plant it in a border.

All time favourites

I like all campanulas, small / big / blue and white. Campanula persicifolia (kurjenkello in Finnish) is the one I remember from childhood. There were lots of blue ones in Vääksy where I stayed for summer holidays for years in the row. At the cottage I have both blue and white campanula persicifolias and both are wonderful.

Survivers

At least the pelargoniums are alive and kicking - everything else suffers from the heat and continuous drought.

Old lace is better than none

We visited Vääksy yesterday and found a little shop that sells things made from old clothes, laces etc. This little purse wanted to come with me to Vårkulla's living room to decorate one of the chairs. I usually carry so much stuff with me that I can't use this as a handbag but it is beautiful as a decoration. The old green corduroy (vakosametti in Finnish) has never looked better!

Do some good and visit Pajapuoti, more info at www.oivappk.fi and there "Pajapuodit".

Man's best friend

Need I say more?

Hospitalizing our home

Things you find (and buy) from flea markets...one of our newest posessions is this old hospital lamp. My husband just had to have it and it kind of suits our home in an old factory. I haven't seen anything like it before so it was a good catch for 40 euros.

Emigration

As we normally go to Vårkulla for Friday evening and come back on Sunday to leave for work on Monday I decided to move most of my summer flowers from the cottage to Vårkulla. Then they don't have to wait for watering as long as when they were at the cottage. In addition, I'll like to have a lots of summer flowers at Vårkulla as there is otherwise mostly only gravel and green bushes at the moment.

Paint effects

Kolomikta vine (laikkuköynnös in Finnish) is a fun vine for the garden. The leaves get pink/white "paint" effects after the vine has rooted. The kolomikta vine is related to kiwifruits and if you are lucky you'll get fruits of the size of a gooseberry. Well, luck is not quite a right word - you´ll need two plants of different genders or a monoecious (yksikotainen in Finnish) plant. In addition to this you'll need a very warm and sheltered spot to plant in. I have gotten no fruits but am happy enough with the fun leaves.

A rabbit in a right place

The only place to enjoy rabbits is on the wall!

Collecting in nutshell

When we start collecting something things happen very quickly. One day we didn´t have any ice buckets and then suddenly we had three and need no more.

Fishing for compliments

We don´t usually go to the local flea market on Fridays but yesterday we did. I found a couple of good books cheaply. The big fish cookbook was only 2 euros! The coasters and the holder are from H&M Home.

As we had saved so much money we went for an early dinner to Loviisa´s Ölvin restaurant. The food (salmon burgers) was good and the weather warm - we sat outside to celebrate the summer.

Missing them already

Paeonias are lovely. They do well in bouquets if you have a heart to cut them out. I usually don't, at least when they are in their prime. But they do look good even if they are not in the best condition...