Is It Spring yet?

January Colours

This wet January brings some colour in my garden and a few new blooms - the snow bells.

The hellebores started blooming in early december, well, at least one of them did.
Now that one is in full blom with two more budding up.

The new ones

 

 

The anemones are struggling with the cold weather, all messed up by the very cold intervals.

They'd really like to bloom, but it's still so early.

And here are the pretty snow-bells, the early ones. I have a different kind that are far behind these guys

This geranium is in a rather sheltered position and it did not die back in winter.
To the contrary, it produces some tiny blooms now and then.

The viola cornuta does what it does best - defying the cold and blooming away

The heather is really pretty in a close-up photo

There are also some primulas that show the first signs of blooms, but I'm keeping those for later on.

Deck the Halls

Holidays are getting closer, so my creative side is starting to adapt to the circumstances :)
I went outside and looked for pretty things to put in a christmassy arrangement.
I found those branches and those berries and that poppy pod forgotten from the summer days.
I added a couple of apples
And I made this:

 

I must confess I'm quite pleased with the result.

And even better, after having enjoyed it for almost a week on our living-room table, I can offer it to a friend to keep her company during the holidays.

 

Speaking of remnants from summer days, this rose bush seems to ignore it's winter.

Can't really complain, especially since I'm not very partial to this particular rose because of its lack of fragrance.

 

In the garden, the new flowers started to show on one of my hellebores

It's nice to have some colours in december

First Snow this Winter

We've waited and waited and we've been jealous (just a bit, really) on our friends and family in Romania who had their first snow in October, but this week, we've also had a bit of the white stuff, much to my kids' delight.

It was no big snow, no roads blocked, no shovelling, but it was enough for the kids to play a bit and pretend it's a proper winter :)

These are a few photos I took in the garden, just before the snow melted.

Pretty, isn't it?

 

This Moment

Joining SouleMama

for {this moment}...a single photo from the week I want to savor and remember.

 

Bouquets of Late Autumn

As expected, the first frost hasn't arrived yet and I keep gathering a few roses now and then.

Probably, if I had more time to take care of my flowers, there would have been more, but winter arrives with such lack of energy for me plus the loads of germs that my girl brings from the creche and always shares with me :)

Still, I've managed to plant all the bulbs and clean a decent part of the garden.

Now I just need to cover all those rose cuttings I took and we're (almost) good for winter.

 

Here are some photos of small bouquets I brought indoors during this month of November.

 

 

Of course, colours needn't only come from blooms...

Looking for Summer

The last week of October was a week away.

Away from the grey days and the cloudy skies and the very cold mornings.

We didn't have to travel far - only 1:40h flight and we landed in Mallorca where it was still summer.

 

The kids were excited and their mood contagious.

 

I believe this is the first travel entry I write on this blog, but I just enjoy these images, especially now that I'm back in cold-grey Luxembourg.

 

This was the beach near our hotel in Playa de Palma.

There were some spectacular sunsets, as you can see.

One day, we rented a car and went beach searching.

These are two of them:

On another day we took the vintage train to Soller.

Soller is a town you can see a part of in the photo below.

It's set at the foot of the mountain

 and it ends in a perfect little port with clear water and fine sand.

On another day we visited the city of Palma.
Just like the first time I visited it, 5 years ago, it reminded me of Barcelona. A miniature version of Barcelona.
This is its cathedral

And this is a photo of the Palma marina

 

Although there were plenty of flowers in full bloom, I only managed to take these two flower photos below :)

 

And every day, we played and bathed by the sea and my little girl and I admired our pink toe nails in the sand.