Chronology, who needs it?...

I have decided that, this late in the game, to just throw caution to the wind and tell my travel stories as I want to, rather than chronologically. Challenging though it may seem to one so desiring linearity and order, I am just going to make it work.

I was going through my Estonia pictures and figuring out which ones to post, when I came upon the pictures I took at Rosendals Tradgard. I think that it means "Garden in the Rose Valley", or some combination of those words. I guess I am not very concerned with what the words mean, so much as this PLACE is so very much ME and where I would LOVE LOVE to spend the rest of my life. I feel now that I have seen what my slice of heaven could look like. How's that for a piece of drama pie??

Really, to be honest, my friend Yazmiene kept talking about this "garden" and how her family liked to go there and how it was so nice....and I guess I just thought, 'yeah, yeah, they have gardens in the "states" too, I want to see some museums and things like that.... Swedish things...'

WELL, I was IN AWE as we walked over a little kind of dark hill and the vista just opened up to this beautiful, lush, make you want to sit down and just pass out from the wonderfulness, this sanctuary to all things animal, vegetable and mineral. The sweetest waddle fence "enclosed" row upon
row of the most beautiful and luscious leafy greens that I will ever see. Kale waves cresting upon waves of marigolds.

My secret dream garden full of both eye-catching flowers and bushels upon bushels of vegetables. It is too wonderful a place...

Just look for a while...

There was garden art tucked in here and there...never really anything too over the top, but very complimentary to the plantings and hardscapes. I loved these two little turtle stools, I thought that my boys would have enjoyed jumping over them.

The borders lining the road where also full of flowers and food, with little hiding places for any gnomes that might be passing through...

Yaz told me that during the summer time people can come here and buy little picnick-y things and eat with their families, or they can pick their food and some flowers to take home.

I would encourage anyone who is curious to look at the link above and read about this wonderful, wonderful place.

The pink building in the background is a palace that is now a museum, I always love a nice bit of pink architecture!

These eggs were so big and fun, it was like a dinosaur from the Flintstones came and left them here under the bushes.

I also LOVED the "Roomy-ness", meaning all the hedges that would just have an opening to yet ANOTHER one of the coolest areas...in the world.

I took a bunch of pictures of this border, because it looked LOVELY, water-wise, AND low-maintenance... The THREE MOST IMPORTANT GARDEN RULES...maybe we will be seeing more of this closer to home...

When I first neared the orchard, there were these fluttery gossamer things that kept coming in and out of my sight line.

Around the hedge, stood these simple flags, but so artfully done. I could have just sat and watched them in the breeze for a long time...but the sprinkles were on their way.

More neat borders, I took this picture to show my husband what I thought look like a cool path....Guess what?

I arrived back home and he had started a path in our garden....just the same!! Hooray!

These flowers begged for a portrait...

Below is a view from the greenhouse where we ate our most WONDERFUL lunch. As luck would have it we made it inside before the downpour. There is nothing better than the coziness of a candlelit lunch in a greenhouse listening to the rain patter down on you.

Everything was well-done, but really not ostentatious, like these arrangements done on the dessert table. It was as if they just walked in the garden and picked some beautiful things and then they just looked beautiful together on the table.

And what would a garden lunch be without some spy shots... You know shots of some "up-and-comer" who was getting her portfolio taken and as she came in from the rain to munch her air sandwich, she nearly set her chic hairball (ball o' hair? Hair o'sphere?) on fire by frowning too close to the candelabra in the background.

Very exciting times! Caught!

There were even pretty flowers outside the WC (the international sign for potty!).

I didn't even buy anything at the Butik (if you say it out loud it really sounds like boutique!), having stuffed myself to the gills with the MOST DIVINE FETA SALAD EVER! Topped off with a coffee and the MOST DIVINE GIANT-SIZED THUMBPRINT COOKIE.... EVER!

(Sometimes when writing with such joy, I am overcome with capital letters, please pardon my exuberance.)

I don't think that veggies have EVER looked so good...and I like them, I do!

A parting view of the picniking orchard, where I will be enjoying my lunches next summer, if only in spirit.

The next few are simply for me to remember and be inspired by...trellis, paths, plants galore...

Memories to bring home and make my little home plot a little more me.

The rain that day only helped me believe that this garden, no, oasis is possible here at home in Oregon.

I hope that you enjoyed my memories,
will be inspired for next spring,
to plant, and to eat good things,
in a beautiful way.

JMB

Goth/Punk vs. just dirty...

I was at the library yesterday with the whole brood. We were snacking on some bagels, because my youngest had a meltdown on the 2nd floor...you know where the adult books are....and it is really, really quiet. We needed a bagel.

While we ate I noticed all of those "mall rats", the teens that kind of loiter around in our downtown, causing all good and upright people to run to the large shopping malls and big box stores for their commerce and leave all the good merchants of the downtown, to struggle until they finally move to the large shopping mall......but back to the "mall rats".... I was so happy to see that FINALLY the Goth/Punk look is back! HOORAY!

I was getting so tired of dirty teens begging me for change, the kind with their dirty baggy pants and hempy looking shirts.... the begging teens are now DECKED out in their cool black tight pants, multi-hued tutus, and dark-dark hair and make-up!

I am so happy!!!!

The disgruntled teen fashion of my youth is back in style. I always thought that if you were going to rage against "the man", you should do it with some kick-a#$ flair.

So,

I salute you-- teens of the downtown, THANKS for bringing the Goth/punk scene back to your herd as you move through our empty downtown! I am so serious, I was tired of the dirty wannabe hippie stink, the Goth look is so much edgier and much more exciting to see. LOVE LOVE THE TUTUS and the striped knee-high socks!!!!!

JMB