Weekend in France, garden surprises and busy September

The winds are changing from warm and smooth to a bit nippy and chill. I find myself reaching out for a long sleeve shirt and even my light duvet vest when going outside. Our garden is a mess of dried out and dead plants. What happened with the garden this year? I think it must be a consequence of the hot and dry summer. We certainly did not get the amount of rain we could have needed. Well oh well. I'm seeing a day of ripping out dead plants and weeds coming up in the near future. I'm actually looking forward to that. I find garden work to be very calming.

GARDEN SURPRISE
A big happy surprise are those beautiful yellow flowers reaching for the sky ("To infinity and beyond!!!"), a result from some seeds we planted earlier this spring. It's some sort of alternative artichoke seeds we tried out, and those tall and steady stalks are now performing in full bloom. We had no idea  they would be so beautiful! I think we will have to plant this particular artichoke seed every year from now on because I just love these yellow bright flowers against the blue bird sky. I love how they wave in the wind on wobbly stems. So so beautiful!

WEEKEND IN FRANCE
We had a lovely time in Nevers, France last weekend, just hanging out, me and Jay. We are not spoiled with time away and to be able to leave the kids for a couple of days for some quality time  just the two of us, felt like a true luxury. We needed it.

Once again we did our favorite concept: a couple of track days for Jay to enjoy some speed and adrenaline rushes while I'm chilling out by the tent crocheting and absorbing the motorsport environment with raveling engines and Super Heroes dressed in leather. That is how we like to do it as neither one of us are much up for holding hands and drowning in each others eyes over lit candles. It is just not our style, never was. But nice dinners and a drink on a plaza while people watching is nice as well as just being together doing our own things side by side and share the joy of each others passions.

We stayed at a nice hotel, enjoyed one terrible dinner (How can a Chinese restaurant fail to deliver??? I thought that was impossible...) and one very nice meal at a fancy French restaurant. We started to watch the Poldark series (season 1 - no spoilers please...) tucked into the hotel room bed with the lap top balancing on top of our bellies (!!!), and I was surprised when Jay said he wanted to continue to watch this series as I thought it was waaaay to much of a "romantic periodic drama" for him to handle... He surprises me sometimes. Still. 17 years... its a long time. We are reconnecting after all those years of parallel parenting team work, figuring out who we are now individually and who we are as a couple. It is scary and exciting at the same time. Anyone who can relate?

WHEN DID SEPTEMBER BECOME SO BUSY?
A new week is laying ahead and my agenda seem to never ease up, being full of scribbles with no blank spaces. What is it with September? Why is life so busy this time of year? I'm longing for some breathing room. Time for reflection and a day shining bright and white without obligations in my agenda. Do you feel the same way as I do?

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE:

Flowers, crochet and coffee = happy!

Hi my lovelies. I'm so happy to hear we are many who wants to set a healthy walk routine this fall. Thanks for all your sweet feed back on my previous post. We can do this, girls. Every step counts.

I took a long forest walk with my friend Liz this morning followed by coffee and a chat, the best kind of walk in my opinion. The rest of the day I've been prepping for a flea market event tomorrow.

Nelly Bo has lots of clothes she wants to sell (and earn some pocket money). I haven't done a flea market in years but I think this one will be fun and hopefully a bit fruitful. It is located in beautiful allee of trees that protects from sun and rain, the weather is supposed to be overcast with a good temperature and no rain. I think that sounds like a winner Flea Market Saturday, don't you?

I'm going to sell bits and bobs, things we don't use anymore, clothes, shoes, toys and some yarn from my stash. We'll see how that goes. You never know. Maybe a yarn addict will pass by and fall in love. They do exist, the yarn addicts, you know (twink)...

Yesterday I picked the most beautiful wild flower bouquet, mixed it up with some Phlox and Cosmos from my garden and put it in a jug for my outdoor table. I sat down on my bench with a latte and crochet, listening to Swedish radio. It was so nice. I finished my Fun With Stripes Baby Blanket. I have loved every minute of this make. I'm currently writing out the pattern for it but I also wonder: Would you be interested in a Yarn Color Pack for it? Do you buy Yarn Packs for your projects? I'm thinking that maybe it would be a good thing to offer Yarn Packs for some of my patterns as Tilda yarn is so difficult to find outside Sweden. What do you think? I'd like to know.

Happy weekend and I'll be back soon. Hopefully I'll snap some pics from the market so I can share it all with you later.

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE:

Home Sweet Home

Two weeks have passed since we came back from vacation. I was so full of energy at first, made plans on things to do, projects to start, blogging and catching up with things where I left it. I even started on a few blog posts but they just ended up being such loooooong rambles that I never got around to edit or to push the publish button... I thought, after a few days in limbo, that maybe I just need to land in my Home Sweet Home for a bit first...

I landed. I started knocking off things on my To-Do list, kept my kids stimulated enough to not heavily fall into Cyber world 24/7. I got poorly and suddenly my machinery was running on low gear and I started to feel bad about being ill, as a mother most often do, or at least I do (we want to be Superwomen right?). What a waste to be sick and miss out on hours of productivity... Kind of sad that...

Anyway. I'm picking up my energy levels. Surprisingly I've accomplished more in the last 24 hours than in a long time. :) And I finally - FINALLY - finished my Wall Of Frames. I'm so happy this project is now accomplished. It's been dragging on for over a year. So typical me, I would say.

So, to keep this short and bubbly. I'm here. And I'll be back with glimpses of summer fun, new projects and much more very soon. Take care my lovelies. I'm off. To the garden. With crochet bag in hand. What are you up to?

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE:

Early summer morning

We're on the last stretch. Only 2 1/2 weeks left and then school is out. We get up at 6.30 pm in the mornings, have breakfast, let the cats in... let the cats out again. I go outside in the garden, hang some laundry and listen to the birds twittering in the otherwise very calm and quiet morning air. The cats follow me around, crave attention, stroking my legs, meowing... I give them a cuddle, they roll around in delight just to attack my hand with a gentle bite after a second. Same procedure every time... I grab a secateur and cut off some bloomed out lupines and roses. I should add that I know nothing about flowers. I'm known to be a plant killer and I am totally improvising everything I do. Occasionally I Google what to do, but most of the time I just take a chance on what I think might be the good thing to do. Any gardening advice is welcome, just shoot and I'll absorb it all in hope to become a better gardener.

I'm so excited about my roses. They are absolutely magnificent. I planted them last year and they looked so small and poorly... Now they are full of flower buds, growing like crazy and I've only fertilized them once. The dark pink ones are starting to bloom and the one in the middle is creamy white.... I can't wait to see them all spread beauty in my garden.

The cats keep following me around, they chase each other, play fight, roll around in the growing boxes, come up for a cuddle (and a gentle bite)... I so enjoy our cats. We wouldn't be complete without them.

I prepare my bench with a quilt and a pillow. Later I'm going to have some coffee and crochet time there. It's time for the kids to take off to school. The laundry is up, the sun is slowly spreading over my garden. Before going inside I lay down under the plum tree, looking up towards the sky. What a hide away. I walk back inside, still dressed in my pyjama. I think I'm facing yet another beautiful sunny day. Time to kiss those kids good bye and wish them good luck on exams.

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE: