Purple Tuesday

I felt like posting some pretty things today, although I'm away from my garden.
At a quick glance through my phone photo library I realised I wanted to post this photo of the smallest anemones in my garden.
They look quite similar to the wild white ones growing in the forests of Luxembourg, but they're purple. Much prettier! :)

And since I started with purple tones, I had to add these beautiful giant crocuses.
I have them in a pot and also in many places in the garden.

Here, they make a decent combination with the blue iris.

 

And here they're paid a visit by a busy bee.
Look at all that polen!

Garden Tour in mid-March

It's been a while since I last wrote on the blog and these are not the newest photos I took, but .... I gotta start somewhere, right?

Last week I took some photos as a lot seems to be going on in the garden.

I love this time of the year when I go out and discover something new every day.

Well, the hellebores are not really new as I believe I also posted them at least a month ago, but in the meanwhile new ones started blooming so I'm adding those to the list as well.

This is the old one, as in the first one that blooms every year. It must start somewhere in January and it goes on for about 3 months or more.

That's what I call a good flowering plant!

The following two are very similar, but not quite the same.

The second one, which must be my favourite, is lighter and it has those pretty freckles in the centre.

There are also a lot of crocus blooms everywhere, but I'm only gonna post these ones here.
They make a pretty pair with the blue iris, although not chromatically so :)

This is a rather ugly photo because of the irrigation hose, but I admit I was too lazy to put it away for winter.
That scilla and the primula have been in my garden from the very beginning, 3 years ago, and they always come back, side by side, being among the first to bring colour in my garden.

These are the funky anemones that come out from the ground already in bloom.

They're not spectacular and not in any of my favourite colours, but they do bring colour and warmth in an early spring dull-looking garden.

And this is a new addition after having visited the gardening centre with my son.
He's so thrilled that "we take care of all the animals" !

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?