Annual Spring Report

It is time for my annual May 1st update on spring.

This year spring is very late compared to my previous updates since 2009.

It is even later than it was last year.

Not a hint of green in the woods, the daffodils are not blooming, but a few of the earliest ones are sporting large, yellow buds.

 

Even though there are no green leaves yet, the pussy willows are in bloom.

So are the crocuses, and have been for a couple of weeks. However, they got quite beaten down by the hail a couple of days ago.

The winter has been long and cold, and the ground has been frozen until recently.

The snow keeps falling still.

Eldrid

 

Spring Report

Every year I take photos and post a report on the progress of spring on or around May 1st. This year we were travelling on May 1st, so the photos on that exact day shows the spring progress on Iceland, which varied a lot even within quite short distances.

The photo above was taken at Jökulsàrlon, a lagoon created by a retracting glacier. Icebergs break off the glacier and float round and round in the lagoon till they melt, as the opening is too narrow for them to float out into the ocean. They are quite a sight.

A few miles from the iceberg lagoon, we stopped to look at this old church, – the last one to be built in the old Icelandic manner with turf covered walls and roof. The dandelions were blooming on the roof, sheep and lambs were out and about nearby, so this was infinitely more spring like than the icebergs.

This primrose was blooming on one of the turfed walls of the olde houses in the photo below.

And this low bush similar to pussy willows was also in bloom:

I am not sure what the correct name of this bush would be.

As for the home scene, I will have to make do with before and after photos this year.

The two photos above were taken on April 26th before we left.

And here are the after photos of the same views….

… taken on May 6th.

We seem to have moved backwards into winter instead of forward to spring.

Eldrid

Spring Status Report

Last year I posted my first May 1st report on the progress of spring.

Spring was very cold and rainy then, – even snowy, – so there was not much greenery to be seen when May arrived.

This spring seemed to be progressing along the same lines for a while, but the last week’s fine weather has boosted everything big time.

Suddenly the woods were all green almost from one day till the next. My narcissuses in the photo above have all come out during the last two days.

This morning the ones in the shadiest corner had not come out yet.

However, this evening, just after sundown, I took the photo above, and they are nearly all out here as well. With this kind of weather, they will all be finished in a week, I think.

I’ll just have to enjoy them while they last.

The earliest rhododendron bush will soon open up completely.

The tulips by the south wall have been blooming for a few days already. In the photo they look like they are a red and yellow mix due to the direct sunshine, but in reality they are only red.

I love the way the narcissuses brighten up the garden even when it is nearly dark.

So in conclusion, this year spring has behaved itself much better than it did last year, – so far at least. The last week has been excellent, – even better than most of last year’s summer. 

Eldrid

Promises

This time of year there are blogs all over which are filled with crocuses and other lovely signs of coming spring. When we still have snow and cold weather, they make me a little envious.

However, crocuses have finally appeared in our garden too, and each time I walk past and see them, they are a personal promise that spring is on its way, at last.

The photos were taken a few days ago when there was no sun, so they had not opened up yet. Yesterday was a very fine day, however, so when I arrived home in the evening after a trip to visit family, most of them were in full bloom. It was a lovely sight, but sadly, it was too dark by then to get any good pictures.

While I was browsing around the garden taking the photos above, I also came across this collection of shells nested in a hollow in one of the tree stumps left from the trees we chopped down a couple of years ago.

They are the tangible memories of last summer’s visit from the grandkids, and a successful foray on the nearest beach on a fine August day.

The boys enjoyed themselves immensely. . . . .

. . . . collecting lots of small treasures to carry home…..

. . . .  to play with in the sand.

Then some of them ended up on the tree stump as well, where they have spent all winter underneath the snow and frost.

Their lovely blue gradated colours caught my eye;  – they are as decorative as the crocuses, in their own way. . .

. . . and hold as many promises too.

Spring is a lovely time.

Eldrid

Nature’s Pearls

. . .  a gift from the fog:

From a walk in the garden on a Saturday morning in May.

Eldrid

Concrete

We have concrete stairs from one level of our garden to the next. They are getting on in years now, and frost, the salty air, and acid rain have all taken their toll.  The surface is not very even any more, and now and then they have to be cleaned of moss and other growths that want to settle there.

This summer I kept looking at the stairs, and kept telling myself that they should be cleaned, but for various reasons it did not happen.

Late in July I came across this sight:

A small Iceland poppy (here we call them Siberian poppy) was blooming on the edge of the top step, soon to be followed by two sprigs of oregano and a foxglove.

I have been planting Iceland (Siberian) poppy for several years in various places in the garden. They are supposed to be perennial, but have never resurfaced after the first year, – neither in the same spot, nor elsewhere, – until now. I am very surprised that anything was able to survive on the steps at all, as we had several weeks of very hot and dry weather this summer, and the steps were not on the watering priority list.

It is a pity it cannot be left to grow on the place it has chosen, but we let it stay til the flower had gone.

Lesson learned:  plant the Siberian poppies in the driest, most barren place in the garden next time, – then maybe…….

Eldrid

Some guests are not welcome

This spring we planted nasturtiums for the first time in many, many years.  They are easy to grow, and I love the bright cheerful colours of the nasturtium flowers.

They really brighten up the corner where we planted them, and they are also climbing onto the terrace, and winding their way into nearby bushes.

Last week we had some rain, and when I looked at the nasturtiums again this week, I thought they did not look so good as they did before.

I wondered if it was the rain , or maybe the late summer time that got to them. However, when looking closely, there were the telltale signs:

Soon I also spotted the culprit:

The caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly loves both cabbage and nasturtiums, and it is almost unavoidable, – which is why I do not often plant nasturtiums even if they have lovely flowers.

There was only one thing to do: start picking caterpillars. Luckily my husband is home at the moment, and we are the perfect team: I look and point, and he picks. So far I think we must have disposed of 60-70 caterpillars, and new ones are turning up all the time.

Will we win the battle? Probably not entirely, but perhaps we will manage to save some flowers to bloom throughout August.

———-

To make this a tiny bit quilt related, here are some links to quilts with nasturtiums on them:

Mary Transom, New Zealand

Click on her gallery and classes to see more of her wonderful flower quilts.

Botanical Art Quilts

Scroll down to see several quilts with nasturtiums, – and stop to look at the other quilts too.

Adventures in Quilting

Scroll down and look for “Blazing Nasturtiums”.

Velda Newman

Ruth Powers

Maggie Wise – for sale

Ingrid’s webshot album – quilt made in a class with Ruth B McDowell

Cathy Van Bruggen – here is even a pattern if you want nasturtiums on fabric

Enjoy!

Eldrid

Cherries

My husband got a cherry tree for his 50th birthday. This year it had lots of flowers in the spring, and later we could see that lots of fruit were developing too.

Before my husband went away for his job in June, he tried to cover the tree with a net to protect the fruit.

The net was too small, so the tree was only partly covered.

We have been eyeing the cherries for the last couple of weeks, trying one now and then to see if they were ripe enough to eat.  Yesterday evening I visited Juliann’s blog, looking at the delicious photos and reading her mouth watering description of her cherries, – and looking forward to picking and eating our own.

This morning, when looking out of the kitchen window, I could not see a single cherry on our tree.  “Where are our cherries”, I asked my husband.  He went out to look, and came back in with four cherries, – that was all he could find, except for a lot of cherry seeds on the tree and on the ground.

Now, if we only count the price of the net that was on the tree (which had been ripped open), each cherry is about NOK 40. We ate them for dessert today, – with reverence.

Afterwards I produced these, which I had bought in the shop for “only” NOK 99 per kilo:

They were both cheaper and tastier.

Eldrid