Our little princess.

It's been so very long since I have updated my blog. Nevertheless it has been such a lovely and exciting summer the highpoint being my granddaughters birth in the middle of July. I think we all went into kind of a waitingmode in July as we were hoping for her to be born around the 6th because it would be practical. Her duedate was on the 12th and she was born on the 22nd.




And here she is.

Summer in Denmark this year was what I like to call a typical danish summer. Temperatures around 20-22 degrees Celsius and the weather changing every two seconds between bright sunshine and summery showers. Our project thei summer was, as I said, in my March-blog to get rid of the big trees on our plot and so we did in the beginning of April. I must say I have missed them burt this it how it looks now.. July 2012.

We practically barbecued every day up until our grandchild was born. It stopped then for one obviouse reason as her mum is the master of the barbecue in our family and the rest of us really only capable of making this.
Which is a traditional danish summer dish made of sweet cookies in a kind of milk sweetend with vanilla and spiced with lemon. It's really nice and to me represents the taste of summer.
.

Fixing the window.

Some light gardening.

They'll have to go.

Our first garden-project this spring will be cutting down four trees. I'm actually sad to see them go as I firmly belive that trees should be allowd to stay where they are, as long as they are not a danger to anybody, but this is obviously a matter of opinion. The alottment association has decided we have to cut them down because they cast to much shadow on the surronding plots so we'll just have to obey. On the upside I have spent the last week "dating" lumberjacks to get the job done at the best price.

 I have always imagined lumberjacks would be big, stong and muscular, but the truth is most of them were rather small and wiery. Nevertheless i'm sure I will be quite happy with the one I decided to go for and he will get the job done tomorrow, so that way I hope everybody will be happy. Having trees cut down is a rather costly affair so I think that is something everyone should bear in mind when planting them in a limited space. The birches we are cutting down now are approxematly 50 years old and have grown to be at least 25 to  30 meters high. Another downside to birches, though pretty, is that they drain the soil of every drop of nutrition and water. 

 The fake cherrytrees, in picture above, grow at least one meter every season so they are under ten years old. I still think it's a shame to cut them down but we have decide to keep the trunks because they are perfect for hanging the hammoc in between and leaving a few branches at the bottom will provide a little bit of shadow. I realise this will probably kill them off in a few years time, but we will face that problem when we get to it. 


Another upside is that we will have plenty of firewood for the winter in a couple of years time. Our man said that the two birches easely would provide enough wood to heat up an ordernary home for one whole winterseason. That is approxematly from late October to early March here in Denmark. Still we are planning at some time to buy an outdoor fireplace, so it will be nice to know we will not have to worry about buying wood for it in any foreseable future. More tomorrow after they have gone.

It's cold outside

For the last week or so it has been cold and snowing here in Denmark so we went up to the garden yesterday to put some food up for the birds. The mice had buildt a little nest inside our old sofa so they seem to be ok. Hopefully they will move out come springtime. When we got up there I noticed there was quite a lot of ice on the inside of one of the windows so i decided to put some plastic on to keep the cold out. Will have to mend the wood around them in spring as it seems most of it is going to fall off. But for the time being it ok as it is.

Our new feedinghouse

Cody

Winter in Denmark

Removing string

An apple a day

I sne står urt og busk i skjul

Going home

A garden in January.

January always makes me feel like it will never be spring again, and like my friend the bear, i like to hide in my bed. But this year is a little bit different because we have the garden. I must admit we haven't been up there much during the cold period, but as we had a very good October I planted quite a few bulbs. Hopefully something will start to grow soon, if the mice havent eaten them all. Nevertheless if they have it is still no tragedy as this is a live and let live project. In November we went up a couple of times to check that everything was ok, and remove leaves of the lawn. I do know this is quite unnessesary, but it looks so much tidier when it's done and the dogs enjoy the trip.

Cody and I went to hang up some food for the birds before Christmas, and we have not been there since. Looking forward to spring now. Can't wait.

And look what I found

Saved by the bell

It's been a long time since I have written anything here and there is a good reason for it. What happend was that the autum rain washed the road down to these gardens away and it took a long time for it to be mended, so our work came to an abrupt halt. We therefor decided when spring came and there still was no way of getting any materials on to the site to let it go.

This I think has turned out to be a blessing in disquise as the latest news I have heard is that they are planning to build a new hospital on the grounds and I would have hated to have spent a lot of money on something just to have it taken away. Althoug I feel sorry for those who have had their plots there for years. I do hope they get some kind of compensation. I however felt a dream had been taken away from me and went looking to replace it.

Help

It coming on slowly very slowly. I have discovered that I'm not very good at this blogging thing, but I'm getting there. Like I said it has been to hot during the last week to really do anything at all besides lying around panting, (they said on the news that we have actually had a heatwave), but today is a bit cooler so why am I sitting here writing this blog instead of digging away is a mystery to me. The girls went out to buy my birthday present so it's nice and quiet here and 
I really don't know where the dog has gone , but on the bed is probably a good guess. I'll just leave her to it. My main concern at the moment is how on earth I am going to be able to make a foundation for a house and do the paperwork with the council. Rules are that if you want to put up anything bigger than 10m2 which isn't very much you have to have a permit. I have looked at some of the ready made garden sheds, but I don't think they look nice and are very good quality. I really liked these by the way, but they are in England and getting one shipped over may cost a lot of money. Good for inspiration though...http://thegardenhouseltd.co.uk/featured-products/