Almost b/w

I do like winter, but cloudy November days can be really boring. There isn't much snow yet.

The temperature is just below zero (Celsius, in Fahrenheit that would be about 30 degrees), and there is a light mist, which softens the lines of trees on the other side of the lake.

There is less than an inch of snow. After the night, there are always paw prints of hares and squirrels around our home, and sometimes, like this morning, you can find these... each print is three inches long and the animal looks to have been running and perhaps chasing somebody smaller, a squirrel, perhaps.

We think it's a lynx, but we are not certain.  The (Eurasian) lynx is said to be an opportunistic predator, it feeds on whatever animal appears easiest - including hares and squirrels, for instance.

Well, to be able to catch a squirrel, it must be swift. The squirrels are so fast, much too fast for me! :)
This is my best photo so far:

To add some colour to this post, a chocolate box dedicated to winter (in Finnish "talvi")! The illustrations are by Mauri Kunnas, a Finnish cartoonist and children's author. More about his work later.

Stay warm!

Kuvahaaste: 10 kaunista - Summer 2014 revisited

Tässä tulee toinen osa Lauran kesäkuvahaasteeseen! Oli lopulta aika vaikeaa valita kuvia - ne näyttivät hyviltä aikoinaan, mutta nyt pitäisi valita kaikkein parhaita. Hmmm. Yritin myös valita kuvia, joita en olisi vielä julkaissut, mutta ei se täysin onnistunut.

This is the second set of photos I've chosen for Laura's photo challenge. It's about the good and beautiful things we have received and experienced during the past growing season. Now it's dark and colourless outside, and it is really nice to have a look back at the more cheerful days! (This time the short descriptions are in English. Initially, my ambitious plan was to write the texts for this blog at least in two languages, but unfortunately I have noticed it would take too much time.)

So, the ten beautiful things or events, in my garden or in my life, that made me feel gratitude... Here we go!

1 I love pink and find the colouring of these Million Bells very pretty:

During the summer, I already published many photos of Cosmos. I totally fell in love with them. The petals, with a lovely texture, are not easily damaged by the rain.

2 Our "bed" of lupins is gradually becoming less vibrant, even though we try to remove the plants with pale colours. But... tomorrow is another day! Next spring we will see new plants and new colours. Plus I'm preparing more beds.

3 Evening. It's that "golden time of day when the sun's rays are almost horizontal and kiss everything they touch". (The previous sentence is not mine. I need to thank Zoe Mullery, in Brothers in Pen: Six Cubic Feet by San Quentin Nine, whose beautiful sentence I have slightly modified.)

4 This picture is sheer art. Early morning dew, mostly out of focus, yet so beautiful:

5 There are actually more than ten photos in this set, also because I decided to include two of harebells (for Finns they are "cat's bells").  Below, the background is our newly painted house :)

There were so many bells last summer!

6 Dew drops on marguerite petals. The pink petals seem to reflect the blue sky of a beautiful summer morning:

7 Autumn leaf colour wasn't very spectacular this year, perhaps because even the long-established woody plants suffered from drought during the summer. This shrub (unfortunately I don't know its name), however, wears its very best:

8 Now I'm repeating myself. I already had a photo of tomatoes in the previous group of pictures. These cherry tomatoes, however, look so round and cute and delicious...

9 This photo was taken in late October. Autumn had come, and yet there were sunny days and plants with happy-looking green leaves:

10 Speaking of My Woodland Garden, the stress is on the word "woodland". For example, the area seen in the last photo is almost "natural" and not very orderly (yet), but it's embellished by the morning mist and the colours of the approaching autumn:

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm joining Judith for Mosaic Monday. For more mosaics, visit her lovely blog!

Kuvahaaste: 9 hyvää

With today's post I participate in a Finnish Photo Challenge. It's about the good and gratefully received things of the past summer.

Laura esittää kauniissa Paratiisinpalasia-blogissaan haasteen esitellä kuluneelta kasvukaudelta yhdeksän hyvää ja kymmenen kaunista asiaa.

Haaste tuli sopivaan aikaan; ulkona on niin harmaata ja pimeää, että on mukava muistella kesän värejä ja valoa!  Kokosin kuvat aika nopeasti. Suurin osa niistä on jo julkaistu aikaisemmissa postauksissani, mutta ehkäpä se ei haittaa, koska ne ovat ajalta ennen kuin laitoin blogin julkiseksi ja monikaan ei varmaan ole niitä nähnyt.

Tässä tulevat yhdeksän hyvää. Ne ovat ainakin suunnilleen aikajärjestyksessä.
(Pieni päivitys: Kun katselin blogia julkaisun jälkeen, Lightbox ei jostain syystä toiminut, vaikka asetus on valittuna. Harmillista!! Toivottavasti asia korjaantuu!)

Juhannusruusun tuoksu on aivan ihana:

Sen kukinta onnistui tänä kesänä erityisen hyvin. Edellinen talvihan oli epätavallisen leuto. Tuhohyönteisiä oli vähän ja/tai ne onnistuttiin torjumaan tavallista paremmin:

Viime vuosien iloinen yllätys on ollut lehtoakileijojen kylväytyminen tuntemattomasta lähteestä juuri rakkaan kissamme haudan ympärille, ei mihinkään muuhun kohtaan. Se tuntuu hyvältä. Yritän auttaa niiden leviämistä ja runsastumista:

Hyvä ystävä ja tervetullut vieras:

Kesän paras ostos olivat punakosmokset. Niiden kukinta vain komistui viikko viikolta, ja syksyllä pakkasten tullessa kukkia ja nuppuja olisi ollut vielä kymmeniä kussakin kasvissa:

Tämä on selvä. Nämä ovat niin hyvänmakuisia :)

Hyvää tekevästä sateesta on kaksikin kuvaa. Monien viikkojen kuivan kauden jälkeen sade elokuun puolivälissä virkisti kasvit ja ihmiset:

Kukat olivat märkiä, mutta onnellisia:

Tämäkin kuva liittyy makuun. Omat tomaatit maistuvat tietysti kaikista parhaimmalle!

Nyt vain pohtimaan, mitkä olisivat ne kymmenen kaunista...

Indoors

Outside it looks like this:

Greyish and darkish, no matter from which angle you look. On the plus side, it's a good day to watch a nice film or TV programme munching on something tasty. My favourite snack is this: red wine, breadsticks, Parmesan, and stuffed chillies: 

The best stuffed chillies I've tasted were of course home-made. My mother-in-law didn't use tuna fish for the stuffing, only anchovies, and the chillies she used were hot, but not excessively so, just enough to be really delicious... and to cure any occasional headache. :) 

I found the following recipe on the Internet some years ago:

Stuffed Chillies  (Peperoncini Ripieni)

from the book Return to Tuscany - Recipes from a Tuscan Cookery School 

by Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi

These little stuffed chillies are usually preserved in oil in jars and sold at markets and delis in Italy. The recipe originated in the south of the country but stuffed chilies are now made everywhere. Be careful when cutting the chillies and don't touch your face or eyes as they will burn. However, when the chillies are boiled in wine and vinegar, then water, the heat dissipates. In Tuscany, the chillies used are small, dark-red, round ones, called Calabrese.

18 tiny chillies, tops cut off and seeded (you can do this with a small spoon)

200 ml (7 fl oz) white wine

400 ml (14 fl oz) white wine vinegar

3 salted anchovies

90g (3 1/4 oz) tuna in oil, drained

1 tbsp salted capers, rinsed

1 tbsp fine breadcrumbs

enough oil to cover the chillies if storing

Makes enough to fill a 300 ml (1/2 pint) preserving jar.

Place the chillies, wine and vinegar in a pan, bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain, and discard the cooking liquid. Bring a pan of water to the boil and boil the chillies for 5 minutes. This will get rid of most of their fiery heat. Set aside.

Rinse the anchovies thoroughly under cold running water to remove the salt. Finely chop them with the tuna and capers to form a paste. Combine the paste with the breadcrumbs.

Carefully stuff the chillies with the mixture, filling them right down to the bottom to avoid any air pockets. Do not overfill.

Eat the chillies straight away or place them upright in a jar that has been sterilized by being washed in a dishwasher, or in soapy water for 5 minutes. Cover with olive oil. Push a knife down the sides of the jar, around the chillies, to release any trapped air bubbles, then tap the jar on the table to release more bubbles. Make sure the chillies are completely covered in oil and screw on the lid. They will keep for up to two months in a dark cupboard.

Searching on the Internet, I noticed that there also has been a BBC2 cookery series “Return to Tuscany”. At http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?programmes[]=p007b4jj (accessed on 31 October, 2014) you can find more recipes from Tuscany!

As every Sunday evening, I'm linking up with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Judith. Do visit her beautiful blog for more mosaics!

Now, what to watch on a Saturday or Sunday night?  I thought to have heard that the third season of Scott&Bailey would start in Finland in November (in the UK they have already seen the fourth season), but I just read it will be shown in December and January.  The series is about Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott, Detective Constables in the Major Incident Team, headed by Detective Chief Inspector Gill Murray, of the fictional Manchester Metropolitan Police force.  I was gripped by the series from the beginning, even though the crimes sometimes are really grisly and the private matters of the characters not completely credible. The cast is excellent, as in all British television series I have seen. 

I could see my favourite crime drama television series, Inspector Morse. I have all the DVDs...

Or perhaps the best television series ever (ever ever), Yes Minister? As its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, it's as topical and witty today as when it was made in the Eighties!

There have been earlier versions of the following quotation concerning Britain's newspapers, but this one is unforgettable:

Hacker (Prime Minister): Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers: the Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey (Cabinet Secretary): Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?
Bernard (Hacker's Principal Private Secretary): Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.

By Jekyll and about Jekyll

"Miss Gertrude Jekyll digging up early carrots" by Greg Becker

On Greg's website (http://www.gregbecker.co.uk) and blog (http://plot52.blogspot.com/), 

you can find a lot of other lovely illustrations... 

♥ ♥ ♥

A pioneer of the informal garden design inspired by nature, Gertrude Jekyll is surely known by all of you living in English-speaking countries.  I wanted, nevertheless, to pay a small tribute to a great gardener that I think would deserve to be more known elsewhere too.

Jekyll (1843–1932) was a garden designer, painter, and writer. Even though an "amateur" (at that time there wasn't professional formation in horticulture available for women), she was one of the major figures in English garden design and shared her large practical experience through her books and articles, written in her pleasant, unpretentious style.  In 1932, The Times wrote:

She was a great gardener, second only, if indeed she was second, to her friend William Robinson. [...] To these two, more than to any others, are due, not only the complete transformation of English horticultural method and design, but also that wide diffusion of knowledge and taste which has made us almost a nation of gardeners.

Jekyll at Munstead Wood in 1918, photographed by Country Life gardens editor Herbert Cowley: 

Manuals and handbooks written by Jekyll are still reprinted and widely read. In 2011 Cambridge University Press published a digital reprint of the original edition of her first book, Wood and Garden of 1899. According to the editor’s introduction, the CUP Cambridge Library Collection reissues out-of-print titles that are still sought after “either for the source material they contain or as landmarks in the history of their academic discipline”.

Jekyll, G. 2011 (1899).  Wood and Garden.  Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur.  Cambridge: Cambridge Library Collection:

In her charming book, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers presents some of the greatest amateur landscape gardeners whose work has also a considerable literary quality. Gertrude Jekyll figures in the book among names such as Rousseau, Thoreau, and Thomas Jefferson.

Rogers, E. B. 2012 (2011). Writing the Garden. A Literary Conversation Across Two Centuries.  Jaffrey, NH: David R. Godine Publisher:

Unfortunately, only few of the gardens designed by Jekyll survive in any recognizable form today. Her ideas about garden design, however, live on in numerous books and articles she published.  Judith B. Tankard demonstrates, with fascinating photographs from the archives of Country Life, why Jekyll, her own garden of Munstead Wood in Surrey, and her writings continue to inspire designers and gardeners even today. 

Without doubt, she also was an encouraging example to the women of her time. In her fifties, she started a new career, not common for her gender, and gained nationwide and international recognition for her work.  In 1897, when the Royal Horticultural Society inaugurated the Victoria Medal of Honour in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, among the sixty awarded there were two women, Gertrude Jekyll and Ellen Willmott.

Tankard, J. B. 2011. Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden.  London: Aurum Press:

Happy Mosaic Monday! 

(Edit: unfortunately Judith's blog doesn't exist anymore.)

♥ ♥ ♥

And, last but not least... wishing you a happy birthday, D!