Grey matter

I found a small table from the flea market. My husband wasn't so keen on it as it was painted gold. I told him not to worry, the table would look great after I paint it. I chose a matt grey-brown colour and think the result is good enough (I used Jeanne d'Arc Living's mat grey and brown paint - mixed a bit of brown with the grey). I might still wax it to get a bit of a shine but I am not quite sure yet.

Leafy greens

Gardening is not only about flowers. I love foliage plants, too. Especially in shady corners the big leaves come to their own.

Time for lilacs

If there were a lot of flowers in the apple trees, there aren't any less in lilacs. Both violet and white lilacs flower in abundance this year.

Sitting pretty

You have to grow apple trees just because it is so lovely to sit under them!

White is overrated

The garden needs a lot of colour in strong spring sunshine. In the shadow blues and whites are ok but for the sunny spots you really need to add some colour.

Like everybody

I know there must have been thousands of photos of apple trees flowering this year. No wonder, they have never flowered as much so I also wanted to save a memory of this extraordinary sight.

You sweet thing

Fazer still makes "Fazerin parhain" sweets so we could buy new contents for the old tin.

Who grants you a good time?

You'll get one guess :)

Iittala's (Tapio Wirkkala's) Gaissa glasses we have had for ages but the tray is "new".

Night in the garden

The summer is getting on...it is still bright outside even though it is rather late.

Playing chess

I love fritillaries, especially the violet ones as the beautiful chess pattern shows well. The white ones are really just white, the pattern is too light to see.

Working for peanuts

You need beautiful cups for eating peanuts, don't you? We found the perfect ones when visiting Iittala's outlet in Arabia. These are from Rörstrand (Svenska rödlistan -series).

Mother's little helper

I don't even (want to) remember how hard it was to move gravel without our dear mr Ferguson. We are now tackling the second level of the garden and without the tractor it would take ages. Well, with it, it still takes ages...

Flowers and sunshine

Even though the winter was really wet, all my tulips survived and now there is more color than ever in the garden.

I love pink!

We got two pretty little pink (or violet) 60's glasses from my mother-in-law. Lovely!

Just in time

In this year I managed to use all the berries in the fridge before the new crop arrives. I don't much care for baking anymore so more often than not I still have some blueberries lurking in the fridge in the end of the summer.

Back to school

Ms Ebba Masalin illustrated the most amazing educational (plant) boards for Finnish schools in the 30's and 40's. New productions can be bought in Taito Shop (link...). They are rather beautiful but the originals are even better as the colours are much deeper. The tins here are of new production, too. The whole product serie is new in fact, there were no tins with Ebba's illustrations when she was alive. I think she would have loved these, the colours and design are quite beautiful. I saw the new productions in one magazine or another and first wanted to have a table runner with Ebba's design (new product line this, too). Luckily I went to Taito Shop in Helsinki to see the product instead ordering the thing online right away. I was a bit disappointed as the supposedly black background seemed blue, not black. So the runners stayed in the shop and I bought two boards and the four tins instead.

I can, can't I?

The first of May decorations are not only for the first of May, are they? I could have them outside for at least a week, couldn't I?