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. 🤎 From autumn 2026 onwards, Villa Emilia will be even more Christmassy than before!

Thank you for your visit.

15.9.2015

Shadows (MakroTex)


This week's theme in the MakroTex Challenge is "shadows". I took the first six photos already some time ago, because I found beautiful the play of light and shadow in the evening sun. 


























I was wondering, however, whether to add this last set of three photos or not. There have been much more interesting images, in the blog world, of the recent beautiful autumn moments, when the morning mist flees before the sun. Yet, here's to the sun rising! Soon we in Finland will see it less and less. :)














Have a happy day!



Participating also in Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)



13.9.2015

Postcards #13: At the seaside with friends


During our (much too) short stay in Italy, we had the pleasure to spend a lovely day in a small seaside town with some dear friends.  We started the travel early in the morning, had breakfast at a bar... enjoyed the lovely mountain views on the way and the beautiful town... ate a delicious lunch and many ice creams... visited a small botanical garden... and admired the wonderful sea views.

I hope you will enjoy the photos!






































Grazie, carissimi M. e F.,

per la splendida giornata

passata assieme a voi!






Participating in


hosted by






Wishing you a happy Sunday and a lovely new week!


9.9.2015

Simply neutrals





I love bright colours. One of the reasons may be the fact that where I live there are only neutral colours for almost half a year:






Fortunately, it doesn't look like this yet...






Now, Wendy at AppleApricot is hosting a new blog event for all the lovers of neutral tones


                                                            Simply Neutrals Tuesday


and it looks too charming to be resisted.


"What neutral coloured beauty did you find or make or buy or receive this week?"


These items have been "found" in the cupboards or cardboard boxes recently, but they have been in the family for some time already. The crochet laces were gifted to my mother when she got married. The ring was a gift from an elderly relative, long passed away. And the small cat statues... they were made by me when I was a child. Yes, they are cats!






Thank you for your visit and have a lovely day!





7.9.2015

Postcards #12: Our village


Hello, dear all! I hope you are not totally bored with my travel photos yet! There will be still a couple of posts about Italy... :)

This is how our home village, in the province of Piacenza, was looking at the end of July.






The municipal building:










The days were warm and hazy...










There are many castles around the village, some occupied, some abandoned, some visited by royalties, some for sale...






This small one is of my favourites, romantically abandoned-looking... and in springtime the climbers covering the walls are full of beautiful flowers:






Participating in


hosted by















And when the evening comes, you are just a few steps away from a nice pizzeria...






I hope you'll enjoy the new week!


4.9.2015

Five on (a September) Friday


Joining again, after the August break,




Five photos of the past week:

1. Autumn is a time for enjoying candlelight and chrysanthemums...






2. Thinning our veggies, I pulled out this one.  First I thought there were two (romantic) carrots, but then I noticed it was a single, elegant one:






3. After the cool summer, our pansies are still blooming happily. Because of the hares, they are all surrounded with chicken wire fencing. This one had grown outside the fence and I picked it. (The photo doesn't do justice to its velvety colour.)






4. Aren't the chrysanthemums pretty?!






5. Yes, they are!






♥ Happy Friday! ♥