Glorious summer days

To wake up to birdsong on a glorious summer´s day, to find out that the sky is blue, the sun is shining and the temperature is just right... it does not get any better than this.


I love to open up the doors and windows to the summer breeze (never mind the flies and bumble bees that end up inside the house) and leave them open all day long. I wonder barefoot out to the deck and into the garden, to check what has come up, or started to bloom, during the night.


The roses have indeed started to bloom in earnest, and all the flowers are doing their best to attract the bees that fly from one flower to the next, gathering nectar for the lightest, most delicious summer honey.


The potager (kitchen garden) is doing fine, and all the veggies are coming along nicely, as are the strawberries (now with a less attractive blue (!) netting to protect them from hungry birds).


On days like this I am happiest at home, in my little "paradise" on earth, just enjoying the day, doing nothing in particular (I did harvest the rhubarb yesterday and baked a rhubarb pie today, using this recipe).


No photos of today´s pie available, though, as most of it has already gone... enjoyed with vanilla custard and coffee. But at least I have plenty of rhubarb in the freezer now, for the long winter days to come (which I prefer not to think about at the moment...)


In fact, I wish it were always summer, filled with glorious days just like today. I wonder whether I would tire of it... if it were always "perfect"? What do you think?

More denim

What a fantastic bloggers get-together it was on Saturday! I met so many lovely bloggers, and indeed had the time of my life (alas, without my camera...) Thank you, Solveig, Ann Helen and Julie for arranging it, and for making it a day to remember.


When in Oslo, and able to do a bit of shopping at reduced prices (a special deal for us interior blogger for the day!) I found it hard to resist this rag rug the minute I saw it. A rug made of recycled denim (old jeans!) How great is that? After all, you know me and my fondness for blue denim...


Now I have had bare floors for several years now, even though from time to time I have tried various rugs on them (without much success, I might add). But I believe this rug is different, and indeed a keeper.


And now it graces our entrance... one that rarely is used, other than by first time visitors. Our everyday comings and goings happen through the back door by the laundry. So this rug will not get a whole lot of heavy traffic. And it does go nicely with all my denim "stuff"...

What should I wear...?

What to wear tomorrow? This seems to occupy many an interior blogger´s mind these days. As tomorrow is indeed the big day, the day for us bloggers to shine and glitter... the day for our first ever get-together, arranged by NIB.


When it comes to clothes, I do not tend to glitter and shine... My taste in clothes does reflect my taste in the way I decorate my home. I prefer the same colours; light blues, whites, browns (as in my bb - boring brown - furniture!) and greys, as these simply are the colours I feel most comfortable with.


I love my denim blue jacket, which I wear a lot, just as I love my Ilse Jacobsen rubber boots (I do, after all, live in the countryside). I also love my new white summer tunic (by the same Ilse Jacobsen), but I am not sure that any of these are suitable for a "glitter and shine"-get together.


Speaking of glitter and shine, the only garment that does exactly that is another favourite one, the brown linen tunic, which I wear with white leggings (this is after all Norway, and the summer so far has been anything but warm). So the brown one it is going to be... I think.


Worn with matching brown sandals... unless it rains cats and dogs (like it has done today) and I end up wearing my trusty rubber boots instead. That would really make me glitter and shine, along with the 150 or so other bloggers. One thing is certain, though, the denim jacket comes along, rain or shine (or glitter!) Wish me luck...?


Does your clothing style reflect the way you decorate you home?

Sweet summer

The melancholy from my last post is gone. How can I mourn the passing summer, when it is in fact at its most lovely, and when there is so much to enjoy? Not least my beloved garden.


Many of my favourite roses have started to bloom. The strawberries in the potager are ripening (and are under a constant threat from the hungry, cheeky birds. Netting has been bought, and will soon protect the ripening berries).


Lettuce and spinach will soon be ready to eat, and most everything is coming along nicely in the potager. The perennials and roses, that grow along the picket fence, are doing their best to make a stroll around the potager a particularly delightful one.


Like I have told you many times over, the past winter was a particularly tough one here in my neck of the woods. I lost a few roses, all the honeysuckles (that climb over the wire arches) and a few fruit trees. So I am even more grateful for the roses that did make it. Like this beautiful Canadian, Therese Bugnet.


The perennials, though, did not seem to mind the cold winter, and neither do they seem to mind the wet summer we seem to be having at the moment. They do their best to bloom, and delight me no end with their colour and beauty.

Summer melancholy

Summer... my favourite time of the year. June... my favourite month. An evening in June, on the deck, with a view of the garden... my favourite time of all.


A June evening on the deck, when the light seems never ending. It is magical.


Watching the swallows fly over the garden, the seagulls come to beg for breadcrumbs, listening to the cockoo´s beautiful song. All of this just spell "summer" to me.


Yet it is tinged with a bit of melancholy... as it is only a matter of hours till summer solstice. Once again the days will get shorter and the nights grow longer.


But the warmest summer months are yet to come. More evenings to be enjoyed on the deck, watching the bees, the birds and the garden. More roses to bloom, flowers to pick and veggies to harvest. A good deal more of summer fun to be had.


On a different note... thank you Wawanna for kind words about my blog.

Colourful Friday

After a lovely sunny June evening yesterday we woke up to a wet and grey day today. And I instantly felt the need for a bit of cheering up.


What better way to do it than with colour? In fact, I do feel the need for more colour in my life again, after a more "sober" spell of neutrals and whites (not to forget the blues that are a constant).


Also, I feel a vintage vibe coming on, and the wish to explore the more (dare I say it...?) retro look. Not that I have anything to show for it, but I do feel the need for a slight change. Whether I will be able to pull it off is an altogether different matter...


Neither do I possess many retro goods as such. This jug, though, is one of the very few vintage ones I do have, given to me by my mother (who received it as a wedding gift umpteen years ago).


Retro goods or not, at least I can play a bit with colour, using what I already have. The result of which is a new summer guise (the previous, more "sober", look can be seen here). Now which one do your prefer? And how do you feel about the increasingly popular retro look (one that I do not master... yet)?

June evening

Is there anything more delightful than a June evening in the garden? The lovely evening light, the sun that does not seem to ever set.


I do love to take a little stroll, to enjoy the colours, scents and sounds of the garden and surrounding countryside. Everything seems so fresh and lush. And the cold winter is just a distant memory.


I have enjoyed pottering about the garden this summer, so much so that I am still not quite done with it. Hence the rose and some annuals, still in their shopping bag, just home from the nursery today.


While others have been around a good while, and are doing their "thing" just right. Like this old rose (the only one that was here when we moved in) with its repeating flowering and delightful scent.


And lupins. I love them, count on them... and they do always "deliver". So I have planted them all over the place, from wide flower borders to the kitchen garden.


Is there indeed anything more delightful than a June evening in the garden? I do not want it ever to end...

Summer Living

The sun is back, after a few days of leaden skies and heavy rainfall. And I do love the sun. However, the reappearing sun made me notice how tired and "un-summery" like my living room looked. Obviously a lighter summery touch was called for.


I started by picking a lovely bouquet of summer flowers from my garden. The first "proper" bouquet of the season. It is indeed a joy to walk around the garden, gathering a bunch of lupins, veronicas, irises, cornflowers and so on. My favourite flowers. All blue, I might add :)


As for indoors, the observant reader may notice that the rug is gone back to the attic. Again! I do have to admit that I prefer bare floors, especially in the summer.


Gone are also the woolly cushions and the sheepskins (save for the one in the wing chair, which is just too comfortable to sit on for it ever to be removed). As is the denim chair cover, replaced by a white loose cover.


I am generally fond of a light touch in interiors, and never more so than in the summer months. White loose covers, a rosy cushion here, a pastel coloured crochet throw there, some geranium cuttings in a favourite turquoise box, and summer has indeed arrived, inside and out!