I admit that my blog "... und eine kleine Blume muss man auch haben" - which I have written in German - with Google sometimes changes into awful English translations - is damned to wither.
Here in "You are witty and pretty" I might write awful English too - but what you read here are my own blunders, my faults - and not Google's.
I am a woman of quick decisions. If at the stock market I am not convinced that a share is worth its money - I sell it (although I can be very stubborn and keep it against all croaks of the fire-bellied toad if I am convinced of their potential). Quick and without (much) remorse. Then I forget about it.
I will do that with the plant&flowers&garden-blog too - though plants in all forms are what I really love and what I am deeply interested in. I told myself that I can - as I have a hotchpotch blog - add and twine some flowers or news from the world of plants into it.
Above you see the latest - but not the last - bunch of wild flowers I pick here on my walks in Bavaria - I'm always modest and take only a few, and if a bee sits on it I will not pick it.
They are offerings from nature, the arrangement is by me.
My parents had large gardens at home, but it wasn't until I first saw botanical paintings in 17th century Dutch art that I found the colours and shapes mesmerising. We can cut, shape and arrange the flowers, but they are Nature's creations.
ReplyDeleteBy Hels, sorry
DeleteDutch paintings are a real feast for the eyes, dear Anonymous - and they are very realistic in one way - one thinks one can touch them - and yet they often have a symbolic side too. And what I like extremely: though the painting seems so idyllic you will always find a little snail or aphid or whatever we consider as "imperfect".
DeleteDear Helen, I am sorry too - maybe I reconsider and write that blog in English? The aim - to present many, many followers to a publisher is much too labour-intensive - but I maybe can continue as in my old garden-blog "Gardening in High Heels" http://gardeninginhighheels.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI must check your other blog, thanks for the address of it. I will need the translation, so I hope Google isn't too clunky.
ReplyDeleteDear Boud, that is exactly the reason why I will translate the posts about garden/plants/parks or even novels with "garden" in it (yesterday I bought an interesting detective novel from a Bavarian author about "Death in the Botanical Garden" which is set in Erlangen) myself.
DeleteIn my old blog - "Britta's Gardening in High Heels" I have written in English - no Google translation necessary - and that will offer a lot of posts, some of them might hopefully please you.
Your wildflowers are lovely. Planting and growing is a long time interest for me. Watching plantings thrive and traverse through our 4 seasons is a great pastime. Visiting garden centers and adding to the landscape is always enjoyable. I have a fondness for trees and my collection is thriving.
ReplyDeleteDear Susan, I understand you so well!
DeleteI made a huge garden starting from scratch and had it for over twenty years - and missed it very badly when we moved to Hamburg.
The house and the garden are still mine, but the woman who rented the one flat with the garden - she was a garden architect! - ruined not alone my 18 old French roses on stems (??), but most of the other plants, I was shocked - only the many box frames remained, even the big quince she managed to kill... Well - I had to accept the loss.
Now I "garden" on balconies - they have the drawback that most plants don't come year for year, which is one of the magic that gardens have. Some roses in pots, a buddleja and some herbs come again. This summer was very trying because it was so hot, and I have a balcony in Berlin and one in Bavaria to water...
I am very interested in your collection of trees - which sorts do you have?
I would never have imagined a garden architect could do this much damage. Shocking really. As for my property: On the West side I have a Beech Tree sitting in an open woodland space. Facing South directly behind the house at the edge of the forest is a yellow blooming, scented, Elizabeth Magnolia. To the left of a large balcony, facing sun South is a Weeping Cheery tree. Facing West is a soft pink Magnolia. Facing North-West is an island collection including: Korean Fur, Birds Nest Blue Spruce, Sugar and Cream Japanese Maple and Golden Cypress. Enclosing a grassy meadow are several Norway Spruce planted on a berm (3 truck loads of soil) in an arc formation followed by 3 Blue Spruce. In the front of the property on either side of a granite walkway to the front door are 2 Japanese Maples surrounded with black bark mulch to offset the color and form of the trees. On the North side, I have a Cypress tree and collection of dwarf conifers in various shades of green. Lastly, I have 2 Pear trees. The fruit is good but this year the wildlife found the trees and enjoyed more fruit than I did. (I forgot the Dawn Redwood which is one of my personal favorites.) My latest interest is the Katsura Red Fox tree and it will be purchased in the Spring.
DeleteWow, Susan - THAT I call a very, very large collection of trees! Some I knew - and with the help of the Internet I gathered informations and photos of the others and am really impressed. You must have a lot of garden room to place them, and the colours must be lovely!
DeleteIn Hamburg, where we lived for 8 years, I had three very old copper beeches in the garden situated at the foot of a slope - utterly beautiful, but such a lot of work when the leaves came down - and that were only three big trees...
I have a hard time letting go of things. How I envy you.
ReplyDeleteDear Mimmylynn, I thought a long time about your comment. Is it true, I thought, that - as I wrote - I can let go easily of things?
DeleteI have to differentiate: it is hard for me - as for most of us - to lose a person - I am not callous. But with things - though I remember lost possessions with fondness - I am quite resilient. I use things a long time, and always try not to collect too much. But if I see that something becomes a real burden and eats up my energy, I make a quick and clean cut.
Oh, no! At least you can be witty about the brief flash of your extra blog. It proved to be more of a potted colour filler in your garden than a stalwart perennial, shall we say :)
ReplyDeleteOh Pip, a stalwart perennial I never was - and at the moment I feel like the proverbial Chinese reed, bending to the wind (and if I want to look the wind into its face I can't because it changes its direction every day). But I learned that the alternative - not to adjust myself to sometimes upsetting circumstances - would be to break as the tree in the Chinese fable.
DeleteAnd break I will not.
A blog is for anything you like to write about. A hotch-potch of things you like. Instagram is quite nice for something different and more specific perhaps. I keep an instagram account for my art and nothing else. I add to it almost daily and it does not need lots of words.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Rachel - and I am quite happy with this blog here.
DeleteI over-estimated the easiness to get German followers (without much work - I know how to do that, but think that my time is better invested in trying different ways to convince a publisher to buy the garden- manuscript).
Yes, Instagram is a very different medium.