Second Hand Rose

At the moment I find myself struggling with a rather particular conundrum: designing my very first garden. Or, to be precise - making the most of a pre-existing design.

When I took over this tiny garden it was practically empty, apart from two roses, a overgrown lawn and a few weeds. Due to the brickwalls that surround the plot, there are very few sunny spots but they create a warmish microclimate and the soil is moist and crumbly (I found lots of blue-and-white china shards and few rust-encrusted wrought-iron nails while planting).

I have planted my winter and early spring vegetables (early peas, lettuces, purple sprouting broccoli and spinach), a few winter pansies, Japanese anemones and semi-evergreen low grasses. Yesterday I put in a lot of (inexpensive) bulbs - dwarf tulips and small daffodils.

vegetable patch and dandelion paradise

My Mom's garden (which is the background of all of my OOTD posts) is sort of a cottage garden, lots of different plants, perennials, shrubs, trees, fruit and vegetables intertwined and I have always loved this. But I have known for some time that given the chance I would like to try something more formal. Or at least have more formal elements. I will need some time to figure this one out, maybe by spring I have some more ideas on how to do it.

Japanese bed - just to the right is the neighbour's massive bamboo

One of my second-hand roses [yes, Funny Girl is one of my favourite films ...] has just now come into bloom and it turned out to be - orange. Usually not my favourite colour but somehow it works quite well with the brick-and-flint walls. It smells absolutely delicious, intense and fruity, almost like peaches or apricots.

Love, Qaroline

a tiny conundrum

Foraging Frenzy

I have been walking a lot this weekend, foraging for flowers and fruit. This morning I woke up early, had a quick breakfast and went out blackberrying.

I remembered how my parents used to bribe me with picking blackberries or cobnuts when they had trouble persuading me to join them on a Sunday walk. Foraging for free food still is the main reason why I always try to get a sense of my surroundings. I simply have to find out where the blackberry bushes are, good mushroom spots or sweet chestnut trees.

I found lots of beautiful flowers today but as I do not have a single vase in my cupboard I took a milk bottle from the recycling box and arranged the budleija and elderberry branches, the comfrey blossoms and grass stalks in there.

milk bottle bouquet

Apart from blackberries I also found damsons, very small, prune-like, slightly bitter fruit who are quite exotic to me – I haven’t seen them anywhere in Germany. I will try to make damson cheese but my jam-making equipment is still packed away – time for more experimenting …

Love, Qaroline

damsons I brought back home wrapped in my shawl

dusk settles over the river Kennet

Hungerford Common

Roadtrip: Hughenden Manor & West Wycombe Park

At West Wycombe Park

Two weeks ago I went on a trip to Hughenden Manor and West Wycombe Park, to see some more gardens. I always had wanted to visit West Wycombe Park, as this house features in so many films and TV series I love (like The Importance of Being Earnest or Cranford ...) and public access is restricted to three months a year. And I have recently read the mind-boggling "Matters of Fact in Jane Austen - History, Location and Celebrity" by Janine Barchas [seriously, read this book!] in which ties between the real Dashwood family of West Wycombe Park and Austen's fictitious Dashwood family are explained.

Suggestive architecture: Temple of Aphrodite at West Wycombe Park ... well, yeah.

But I loved Hughenden Manor (once belonging to Benjamin Disraeli) even more. It had a beautiful walled garden where I was given free perpetual spinach seeds [which are doing great and will be potted on shortly].

Hughenden Manor

Hughenden Manor

I hope you're doing something equally wonderful this weekend.

Love, Qaroline

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

At West Wycombe Park

Benchmarks: Snelsmore Common

I have always loved revisiting places. And like Dr Sheldon Cooper I have a soft spot for ... the right spot. I also believe that a lot of beautiful things can happen, if you allow yourself to sit still for a while.

Today I was up on Snelsmore Common, a site of special scientific interest in Berkshire. I found my favourite bench, sat down, made a few notes in the small notebook that I carry with me most of the time - and a small herd of Exmoor ponies appeared. They slowly worked their way around me, grazing, minding their own business.

As I am currently without a self timing camera, I will not be blogging about fatshion for a while. But I will revisit some of my favourite spots in the UK. Some of them I found when I was here in 2011, some of them will be totally new discoveries. Come along, Pond.

Love,
Qaroline

OOTD: Sustainable Me

Dress: selfmade

I am still making dresses for a summer that hasn't really showed up yet. After one week of blistering heat it's back to woolly cardigans again, and wearing this white summer dress is an act of defiance. I have just finished it; it is made from thrifted old-fashioned duvet covers with a beautiful white-on-white in-woven leaf pattern.

Obviously I had a bit of help. Hamish insisted on taking care of the leftover fabric:

Hamish hard at work

pulling faces for the camera - glasses: eyes+more; turquoise earrings: gift

almost the same design as the ice-cream cone dress

finally, "Constance Spry" is in full bloom

[OOTD]: Treasure Trove

I have been collecting material for quite some time now but somehow I never got around to posting any of it - so this particular post is a multipurpose one, updating my OOTDs, flower blog an craft project blog all at once!

OOTD

I made this skirt a few weeks ago, using my favourite, very simple pencil skirt pattern which I have adjusted to my size. The cloth is very stiff (needs no ironing, yay!) and almost like canvas. As I love to wear stripes at the moment I thought I'd combine it with horizontal stripes in the same colour range, just for fun.

top: H&M; skirt: selfmade; shoes: my garden clogs

Roadside Bouquet

A week ago I picked the flowers for this bouquet from the roadside: gorgeous lupins [insert Monty Python joke here ...] and daisies. It didn't really last long but was quite stunning.

one day later

Treasure Trove

Looking through some of my stuff I found my tablet weaving box, full of old samples I made back in the days when I was re-enacting Viking and medieval crafts. Although only one of those samples is actually made from linen and therefore more "authentically" Viking than the others [the blue one], I loved finding them all again and will definitely need to get to grips with this craft once more.

Love, Qaroline

Bad Wolf.

I have finally finished the embroidery for my pillow case - just in time to hide a little something for this particular date:

The next paisley pattern will be white on red. Let's see if this is in some way prophetic regarding the impending casting decisions!

Love, Qaroline

Empire Bouquet

My Mom shares a birthday with Queen Victoria - and this is the bouquet I made her for her today. All the plants and flowers are from her garden and the vase is a [not very precious] family heirloom. I used lilac [Flieder], bleeding heart [Tränendes Herz], lungwort [Lungenkraut], lily of the valley [Maiglöckchen], garland spiraea [Brautspiere], rhododendron and columbines [Akelei] and was especially enchanted with finding out the various English names for the bleeding heart: "Dutchman's trousers", "lady in a bath", "Venus's car" and "lyre flower" - love them!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend, Qaroline