Sivut

30 kesäkuuta 2019

My June in Collages


SIGHTSEEING
I wrote about these fantastic places / museums: Halosenniemi / Art Exhibition,
Lotta Museum, Rhododendron Park Haaga Part I & Part II, Spotted Views of Oodi
& Ainola, the home museum of Jean Sibelius


GARDEN
There were so many plants blooming, that it was difficult to choose.
Geraniums, roses, rhododendrons, foxgloves, Gillenia, Aruncus, Centaurea...

// MAKROTEX MONTHLY COLLAGES
//  ALL SEASONS

28 kesäkuuta 2019

La Vie en Rose


I don’t like pink anywhere else than in the garden. Right now pink blooms
are seen here and there - most of all in roses. My Rosa rugosa shrubs are blooming:
Zwerg, Snow pavement = Schneekoppe, Rotes Meer, Jens Munk, Belle poitevine, Hansa....



Also the Bourbon rose Louise Odier looks especially fine this summer ❤︎
It did not freeze last winter and shows now good growth and a lot of blooms & buds.
I noticed that there are a few wild sprouts - their different leaves can clearly be seen 
and there were also a few blooms. Probably the base used in grafting is Rosa laxa, 
that has small, simple, almost white flowers. Have not yet removed them, I know I should...






 ❤︎  ❤︎ ❤︎
Wishing a beautiful weekend!
- riitta

// WILLY-NILLY
// SOMMERGLÜCK

Everybody knows Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose, but I chose also a cover by
the young Canadian Daniela Andrade who has a lovely voice and the lyrics is in English.

Friday Bliss #42 - Romantic Spikes



Today I’ll share some of the Digitalis blooming right now. I connect these romantic spikes
to the English Garden style. They self seed where they want and grow one here, another there.
The seedlings could be replanted in groups but I don’t bother.
It seems that everyone is different when looking inside the flowers.







 Wishing a happy weekend & a good start to July!
- riitta


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27 kesäkuuta 2019

Ainola - The Home of Jean Sibelius



There was facade painting going on...


Ainola means Chez Aino and it was the home of our national composer 
Jean Sibelius  (1865 - 1957) and his family - today a home museum. 
The pair got six daughters of whom one died as a baby. This handsome home was designed 
by Lars Sonck (1870-1956), a celebre architect of Art Nouveau and National Romantic styles. 
Located in the artist community of Lake Tuusula, Ainola was completed in 1904. 
In this link there is much interesting reading about the Sibelius family.


The house has log walls and a green-tiled fireplace, very typical of that time.
It is very cosy and looks like the Sibelius family could come and greet you any minute.


Sibelius’ wife Aino had a tough job restraining his ingenious husband's partying & drinking lifestyle
- and raising their daughters and managing the household with a tight budget.
She cultivated vegetables in the garden to make ends meet and teached the daughters at home.
Next autumn a biography of Aino Sibelius shall be released
and I am sure it shall be an interesting reading.



Ainola’s kitchen is big and it was once white, now the colour is a bit yellowish.
The atmosphere was relaxed and lovely.



Old apple trees were in full bloom when I visited in the spring.



The pair is buried on the property. The bronze grave monument is simple & impressive.
It is designed by the architect Aulis Blomstedt married to Sibelius’ youngest daughter Heidi.
Jean Sibelius died in 1957 and Aino in 1969.


Of course today the garden has no vegetable garden, mainly decorative plants, 
but the old apple trees were still blooming. 



The house is situated on a low hill, the garden lies on the lower part.
I can imagine Aino walking these stone stairs many times a day.

 

Before the time of regfrigerators a cellar like this was needed.


The sauna of Ainola looked very primitive inside. 
But there was an ingenious water leading system from the hot water cauldron directly to 
Mr. Sibelius' bathtub behind the wall. I read that he loved to take baths!


Jean Sibelius' monument by Eila Hiltunen is located at the Sibelius park, Helsinki. 
It was unveiled in 1967. The Sibelius Monument, resembling organ pipes, 
is made of welded steel with over 600 pipes and with the bust of the composer on one side. 
The monument is one of Helsinki's most popular statues and 
one of the most well-known tourist attractions.


FINLANDIA by Jean Sibelius is a bit dramatic in the summer time,
but this video has beautiful winter views from Finland, and a choir & lyrics.

// WANDERING CAMERA
// LITTLE THINGS THURSDAY 
// MOSAIC MONDAY
// FOTO-TUNES

Get a Laugh!




My blog friend Kirsti shared things she is fascinated with - cultivating & preserving and books. 
My fascination is photographing and reading, of course, as you know.
Photos don’t always turn up great, although I seldom share my unsharp shots.
But now be the time - get a laugh!


These are traditional - not highly breeded -  delphiniums whose advantage is 
that they stay upright without support. That compensates the small flowers.
I have got these from a plant swap, the darker colour is not yet in bloom.


These delphiniums grow in a long flower bed beside our garage, the absolute star
right now being Gillenia trifoliata, whose common name in Finnish is
Butterfly spiraea. And indeed, tiny butterflies they are!



 ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ 
Have a happy day & keep smiling even if it is a rainy day in Finland!

25 kesäkuuta 2019

A Walk in the Neighbourhood


My neighbourhood is eclectic: there are new houses & old houses,
wild gardens and also a few wonderfully planned and maintained gardens with a great
plant selection. I’ll share a few glimpses photographed during my daily walk.


This Syringa reticulata - Likusterinsyreeni is huge and so beautiful.
A gardener lives in this house and the plant choices are very professional!



Excellent plant choices in this house’s garden play beautifully with different foliage colours.
When I walk by I always admire their well maintained small garden.



These big planting boxes must have styrofoam inside, because
all plants have survived for many years our cold winters.




One neighbour has a long spruce hedge, always beautifully cut!


Rosa ’Splendens’ - Valamonruusu blooms abundantly right now. The name derives from 
the Swedish name Vallmoros = Poppy rose as the flowers look like an open red poppy.
This rose has no connection to the Orthodox Valamo Monastery in southern Finland!




Blooming goutweed and fireweed are also beautiful - but please not in my garden!

// My Corner of the World 
// Wednesday Around the World