A Walk in the Park

I've been watching all kinds of British gardening shows these January weekends while looking at the wind/snow outside.

I longed for my gardening days, but made some plans to add 2 smallish beds and dig out some of the turf.

This weekend with the last day of January and the first one of February brought a lot of snow for a country like Luxembourg.

I do love shovelling the snow on the side-walk in front of the house and so do my kids :), but the shovelling thing does not allow for a smooth sleigh ride to the park as I was to discover this Sunday.

The park in my village looks really pretty in every season and my telephone photos do not do it justice, but I'm still posting these four photos I took.

The lake was frozen and it will only freeze more over the week to come, as big frosts are announced.

This viburnum is a joy to look at and smell in these wintery days.

I must confess I broke a small branch and brought it home with me, as I have no room for a viburnum bush in my tiny garden.

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...