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Poisonous beauty
Once I bought small lupin plants to add them to my flower bed, they are such lovely flowers. But soon I found out that they are not only lovely-looking but also quickly-spreading and deep-rooting. If you don’t keep them at bay, they shamelessly displace other more modest plants. The other day I read an interesting and actually quite alarming article describing how mountain meadows in the national park Giant Mountains (Krkonoše) get overgrown with lupins preventing the smaller original plants from thriving and rendering the hay worthless because of their poisonous properties. Would you believe that only 100 grams of lupin seeds can poison a sheep? If I just imagine…
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First snow
The first snow always comes as a surprise and when it is like it was this morning – meaning I woke up, got out of bed and saw our garden covered in white – it feels especially special. I even held my breath for a while. And even though the day was eventually overcast and felt like a dreary winter’s day, I was impressed by the change. Snow stands for beauty, wonder and awe…as well as for cold, difficulties and obstacles…and we have to live with both sides of the phenomenon. But we can always choose which side we stand on – that of exasperation, anger and dissatisfaction or that…
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Our rebuilt rock garden 2 years later
Two years ago my husband and I devoted lots of time and effort to rebuilding our neglected rock garden, you can read about the whole process in this post. I was quite surprised to see how quickly the seedlings that I used from the original rock plants settled and spread. Only the Sempervivum varieties – especially the smaller ones – seem to need more time to cover the space which I assigned them to. On the other hand, some of the other plants have already tried to occupy neighbouring areas… Here are a few photos of and from the rock garden. It looks rather flat in the pictures, in reality it…
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Birds on the roof
When pictures tell their own stories, one should not interrupt them with unnecessary questions but should listen to their language rich in shapes, patterns and encounters. Shh… Can you hear this one?
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Rose inspiration
I have a small rose bush in my garden which burst into beautiful flowers this year. It made me feel inspired and willing to experiment with the photos where I captured it. You see, using textures in editing might have been fashionable a few years back, yet I believe that using a technique is not just a question of fashion, it is also a question of what you want to achieve and where you want to arrive. The texture I used and the photo I applied it to let me mold their expression to something that speaks to me. Although I am not generally a fan of bright colours and…
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Do you like lupins?
Lupins are in full bloom in our garden now and that is a joy to behold, I love them. But the truth is that if you didn’t restrict them, they would force out and displace other less expansive flowers. I’ve learnt that in gardening as well as in life one needs to remove even what is beautiful when it’s out of place and doesn’t add to achieving balance…
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Free to have a vision
Sometimes we see or understand things that others do not recognize but we are afraid to share our vision not to be laughed at or misunderstood. And if we muster the courage to share and do not get any positive feedback or encouragement as our vision may not be interesting enough for those around us, we may feel to be let down or not appreciated. But that does not change a thing about the fact that the freedom to have a vision and follow it is still there. Follow your visions. They may not be always breath-taking but they will let you grow…
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Round the village
The last week was cold, with occasional snow showers, and as much as I like snow, the time has come for spring to seize control. I’ve been looking so much for flowers to bloom in the garden and fresh leaves to appear on the trees and plants! In the meantime, before that happens in our neck of the woods, here are a few photos from Saturday’s walk around the village. Birds singing and chatting loudly in the branches (and I love how different impression the tree with the birds gives in colour and in black-and-white)… …and hopefully the last snow of the season… When passing power lines outside the village,…
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Colourful calmness
Sometimes it’s the simple country views that make me feel calm and balanced in the middle of all that feels stressful and I appreciate being able to take such a view with me home in the form of a photograph capturing the calmness of the moment…
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Icy imagination
Do you enjoy watching clouds moving across the sky, wondering what their shapes resemble? If I’m sharing what I can see with someone else watching the clouds with me, I’m always surprised how diverse pictures we get, highlighting different features of the clouds. The other day I went across our yard, which has been in the process of reconstruction lately, and I was watching my step not to stumble over a piece of hard earth or some stone. As I was looking down under my feet, I noticed a piece of solid ice giving me artistic impression. I was thinking about the clouds and their shapes triggering my fantasy… I…
