Autumn is here

After a varm and really long summer now is the time to say goodbye to the warmer days, because autumn is here in Sweden.

The sky is blue today but it is really windy. It is so wonderful to see all the different colors in the nature, here outside my home.

Leafs in red and yellow colors are all over my garden. As you well know by now, I live outside Uppsala, close to the airport of Stockholm, Arlanda.

I have been feeling badly for a long time and spent a lot of my days at home, but hopefully I am getting better and can resume a more normal life. And go travel the world again!

Have a nice week!

At home - inside and outside

Just relaxing at home just now after a day at work. It is still very much Christmas at my home as you can see here. And my cat is on the sofa, as usual.

And outside it looks like this. Cold and a bit of snow. But at least it is sunny!

Love this tree, it just wont die! Even if we had to cut of the big branches as they were falling on my grass and it was just too dangerous.

My pizza oven

My wood burning pizza oven in the garden has been in use again this summer.  It really make the best pizzas, the one's made as "forno a legna".

It only take a minute to get the best home made pizzas ever!

Then I give you a photo of another, very old, garden - and it's not mine -  with these lovely old pillars made in stone on the back of the house.
Read also:
http://agnetanisbeth.blogspot.se/2011/10/homemade-pizza-al-forno-legna.html

My pots this year

I hope to get some strawberries this year. Got some plants last weekend, and pu them directly in my pots, just outside the house.

The rest of the plants are flowers with a lovely perfume or just plants with a bright color.

And then in close proximity we have this, a field of yellow flowers.

Cat in the green

One lovely photo on my cat in the garden, with the apple trees and a lot of green grass.

You can hardly see the cat at all...

And here you can se a close up of the apple blossoms.

It is going to be summer!!

In Sweden you say that the most beautiful period of the year is the season between "hägg & syrén", that is between Prunus Padus, in the picture, a lovely bush with white flowers.

And then the even more lovely Syrén, as Syringa Vulgaris or simply Lilacs, with their wounderful perfume.

They are not ready yet, but you get the picture...

House in the snow

Looks like a Happy Christmas postcard - but the little red house is here a yellow one.

The photos was taken a really cold day with the blue sky and all, and a lot of snow.

And here we have a photo of my garden - or rather- some trees in snow, cold but really beautiful.

Outside in my garden

My garden in winter - a big difference from the green lovely place in summer.

The photo was taken before the really big snow fall last week. But it is really white.

And just remember how it all looked in the much more colorful autumn....

Winter is here

Really, now it's winter - even if I'm not a big fan of snow and cold weather I must admit it is really beautiful ouside.

Here is one photo from my apple tree garden today in the afternoon - with snow, a bit of sun and some degrees belove zero.

And here is a reminder from just a few weeks ago, with the apples on the ground.

Picking sloes

Today was a perfect autum day here in Sweden, I went for a walk and found these sloes, or Slånbär in Swedish. They are also called Prunus spinosa, and yes they they have very sharp spines. So you have to take care picking them.

Later I used them for making a liqueur, that will be ready for Christmas. I put them in a jar filled with Absolut vodka. It should have been Gin, but I prefer vodka. After at least 2-3 month i will take the berries out and add sugar.

Look here if you want to see the bushes of Prunus spinosa before the berries:
http://agnetanisbeth.blogspot.se/2012/05/prunus-spinosa.html

Strange mushrooms

I gound this strange looking mushromms in my garden, have no clue what type of mushroom they are. And I am NOT going to find out...

But they look really interesting, as for the form, shape and color. Probably very dangerous to eat...

Sculpture in the window

The sculpture you see here is of course made by my late mother Gunvor. Now it is watching out from the window - normally during summer it's moved outside. Love to have sculptures in my garden.

But this year it was so rainy and cold that se, the woman sculptured in ceramic, that she remained inside. Looking out to the garden. :)

Fruits to pick

Now it is time to pick all the fruits we have here in the garden, and there is a lot of them.

As you can see here above - this is my plums. Good for making chutney and marmelade.

And here you have som lovely organic apples, from my garden. Not so big but very tasty. I use them for apple pies and for apple juice.

Just roses

This is really simple and so beautiful - pink roses just outside my hose som weeks ago.

They are not only lovely to look at, the roses also have a lovely perfume.

Greenhouse

Would you not dream to have a greenhouse? A place where you can harvest your own veggies and or flowers, even in the winter? But not standing outside your home, but inside.

One of my friends have that possability, lucky her!! Here you can pick your own grapes.

Climbing up the wall

This is a beautiful blue clematis Climbing up the wall of my house. It has survived cold vinters and hard winds. And it's still standing.

The clematis is looking good this summer, as all the other summers before.

From flower to a drink

Elderberry or Sambucus, the loved one have many names. This is some nice tasting flowers from the Elderberry bush, also called Sambucus nigra. In Swedish we call it Fläder.

I have a lot of them in my garden and use them every summer for making a syrup that I mix with water and then drink with a lot of ice. I pick the flowers and together with a lemon in pieces and some sugar and water I leave it in a big bowl for 3 days. Then I pour it in a sieve and the remains become a nice tasting syrup.

Tree fungus

Yesterday I gave you something nice, and it was lovely to eat and nice to look at, my wild raspberrys. This time it is something completely different, a tree fungus. A bit icky...

It grows on a tree in my garden, a tree that I thought was dead but it is not really.

And then I have to give you something nice to look at again, some wild flowers from my garden.

Incense outside

One thing I really love is the profume of incense, but it could also be very intense, so I also use it outside as you can see here.

And it is not only give me a "nice smell" outside, but also scare away all the mosquitos and other flies.

Blackcurrant for dinner

Just went down to my garden to pick some homegrown,organic blackcurrants for dinner. Together with some greek youghurt and muesli it was amazing.

Here they are on the bush, ready to pick... Later I will use them for jam and marmelade.