Welcome to Villa Emilia (My Woodland Garden), a photography blog with a slant towards gardening and nature. An amateur gardener and photographer, I hope to share beautiful moments with you through pictures. Let me know if you like them! 💚

Thank you for your visit.

26.6.2015

5 + 5


For Amy's Five on Friday, five of my favourite plants blooming now:



Lupinus regalis


Geranium macrorrhizum 'Spessart'


Geranium sylvaticum


Aquilegia vulgaris


Syringa vulcaris






Only one photo of lupins? No, that won't do... They have just started to flower and merit a set of five photos of their own. :)






















I'll come to visit you as soon as I can.
Have a lovely weekend!



22.6.2015

Tiny






The lupins are finally starting to bloom. Admiring them, I noticed an insect I hadn't seen for some years... a ladybird!






I was so pleased that I decided to publish my second post today and to participate in Our Beautiful World. This week's theme is "tiny".






Participating also in Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).



Ode to geraniums... and lilacs





As adults, we sometimes notice that things are much smaller than they seemed when we were children. However, I could swear that the wood cranesbills (Geranium sylvaticum) have more and bigger flowers now than in my childhood... :)





Geraniums, 
with deep purple eyes
Scan avidly 
the Springtime skies
As if despite 
their diminutive size
That they could 
from Mother Nature prize
…Eternal Springs and endless lives…

                                  David Whalen











The lilacs are starting to bloom.










I wish I could share with you also something more than only photos...  The air is so lovely, warm, calm, rather humid, and very, very fragrant.




You may have noticed that I'm very much in love with our
Begonia × tuberhybrida (Pendula Group).
With this collage, I participate in 







Have a lovely new week!



18.6.2015

Flowers and tea


There's a bunch of lilies-of-the-valley in a vase in front of me, and the fragrance is almost overwhelming...





The weather continues to be cool (ca. 12 ºC; 53.6 ºF) and many plants are late to leaf out here.  This is how the leaves of our Parthenocissus inserta look like...





However, I decided to have an afternoon tea, even if hasty, on a small terrace,
 to be finally able to join Judith at Lavender Cottage 
for Tea and Garden Journaling on Thursday.








The cups (THUN flower) might be for coffee...





... but they were good for tea as well.




Sitting on the terrace, we see some plants blooming. Million Bells is one of my favorite flowering plants. It looks pretty even in orange. ;)









You have already seen this beautiful begonia, in my previous post:





 There's fresh new green everywhere...





After two days we will celebrate Midsummer, but one of its symbols, Rosa spinosissima 'Plena', is not blooming yet. With this photo (from a previous year), I wish you all a lovely Midsummer!




Kaunista juhannusta!


12.6.2015

A creamy white beauty



Participating in Amy's lovely Five on Friday,

five photos of my Begonia × tuberhybrida (Pendula Group):























Have a lovely weekend!



11.6.2015

Wild flowers


On the 14th of June, the name day of Kielo (Finnish for "lily-of-the-valley"), we celebrate the annual Wildflower Day.  A number of free flower walks, for example, are organized on the day.

The wildflowers of these photos bloom here from June or July onwards. (The photos are from previous years.)

On Muusa's lovely blog, Muusan elokuu, you can find other beautiful photos of Finnish wildflowers. Definitely worth visiting! 





Yhteispohjoismaista Luonnonkukkien päivää vietetään 14.6.  Päivän tavoitteena on kasvituntemuksen ja -harrastuksen edistäminen sekä yhteisten luontokokemusten tarjoaminen mahdollisimman monelle. Tänä vuonna teemalajina on tupasvilla.

Luonnonkukkien päivänä järjestetään kukkaretkiä ympäri maata. Retket ovat 2–3 tunnin mittaisia, maksuttomia ja avoimia kaikille kiinnostuneille. Lisätietoja: Suomen luonnonsuojeluliitto, Marja Haatanen, puh. 044 559 9755, luonnonkukat@sll.fi

Geum rivale



Vicia cracca



Geranium sylvaticum











Participating, of course, in

Mosaic Monday

as well as in

I Heart Macro








Have a lovely (wildflower) day!