sam's notebook

malmö garden show

 

Lovely weather and a lovely morning with Charlie and Nora at the Malmö Garden Show yesterday. I forgot my camera, but Charlie took my iPhone and off she went. I love seeing the garden show from her perspective!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images by Charlie.

 

greengate: summer 2011

 

I'm feeling quite inspired by the summer atmosphere and beautiful bright colours in the current GreenGate catalogue...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images from GreenGate.

 

easter weekend blossoms

 

 

 

betty and billy

 

Too bad I don't need a new bicycle right now, because I have fallen completely in love with these gorgeous hand-built old style beauties from UK company BEG Bicycles. Found via great blog Nursey Bang Bang.

So lovely! Especially Betty in Flirty 30s Green and Billy in Lamp Post Grey. Gotta love those fabulously descriptive colour names!

 

 

 

Images from BEG Bicycles.

 

jinny blom: landscape and garden designer

 

The first signs of spring here in Malmö have, as usual, left me yearning for a garden. If it was anything remotely similar to these gardens designed by British landscape and garden designer Jinny Blom, I would be in heaven. Just look at these gardens! 

 

 

 

 
Images from Jinny Blom

Photos 1 - 4 © Charlie Hopkinson
Photos 5,6 © Nicola Browne

 

tirups örtagård

 
A few days ago I read about Tirups Örtagård (Tirups Herb Garden) on a lovely local blog called Mäster Henriks. So yesterday we hopped in the car and headed out to spend what turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon wandering around the plant nursery, herb gardens and fantastic children's playground. We finished up with cake and coffee in the beautiful gardens - perfect! Thanks to Magnus of Mäster Henriks for the wonderful recommendation!

It was a cool cloudy day here in Skåne yesterday and the garden was a little past its best after the heat of the last few weeks, so the photos I did take are not so blog-worthy - instead here are a few from the Tirups Örtagården website. Enjoy!
 

 

 
Images from Tirups Örtagård.

 

incredible colour

Found here.

I would love to be able to paint our apartment building these colours! Although I am fairly sure the heritage protection laws for our building would not allow it... Will have to be content with planting some flowers out the front I think, perhaps some hollyhocks as they seem to do amazingly well here, in not so perfect conditions. Will have to get G (the gardener in the family) onto it!

Image by MIgraciónTOtal on flickr.

sofiero: den stora trädgårdsfesten

Way back at the end of August, we three piled into the car and headed north to a garden festival held at Sofiero Slott och Slottsträdgård (Sofiero Palace and Gardens). Sofiero lies on the outskirts of Helsingborg and used to be the summer residence of Sweden's King Gustav VI Adolf.

The palace and gardens are very beautiful, especially when you are lucky enough to get a lovely sunny day as we did. Highlights (apart from the gardens!) were the stalls by Marthas HaveHöns (pics 1 and 2), Flickorna Fläderblom (pic 3) and Butik Sophie (last 3 pics). Enjoy!
 




































 








 


Images by me.

 

rosendals trädgård

 
Look at this gorgeous place that Chelsea found in Stockholm!
 

 
Images by Chelsea at {frolic!}.

 

landskrona citadel allotments

The August 2009 issue of Country Living magazine (UK edition) had a great article on an area of garden allotments in Landskrona in Sweden (Citadellets koloniområde). The allotments are situated in the heart of Landskrona, along the banks of a moat that surrounds a 16th century citadel.

The article mentioned a garden festival at the citadel (Landskrona Trädgårdsgille) on August 14 - 16, so we decided to head up there that weekend. The weather was dreadful the day we visited, but the allotments with their gorgeous little cottages were still beautiful even in the pouring rain.
 

 
 



 
 











 

If you click on the above pic, you can see the sign by the water bowl reads 'Vatten till vovven... plus till icke läskunnig katt', which translates as 'Water for dogs... and cats that can't read'.

 

mellby klockargård

 
Way back in June we went to see Becky's exhibition at Mellby Klockargård in Kivik. The exhibition was wonderful (you can see Becky's work here), and below you can see a few photos of the location. With a small cafe, lovely little shop and beautiful gardens, Mellby Klockargård was a perfect place to while away a couple of hours on a sunny day.
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images by me.
 
 

vintage fairytale garden: part two

in becky's garden

 

vintage fairytale garden: part one

in becky's garden

click on the picture to view more detail

 

paris: sixth & seventh arrondissements

Le Bon Marché (24 rue de Sèvres, seventh arrondissement)

We spent quite a few hours in this fabulous department store, and had a great deal of trouble dragging C away from the toy department (where the staff were absolutely lovely and encouraged the kids to play with all of the toys on display).

Do not miss the children's book/craft section at Le Bon Marché! I spent so much time in this section and found so many incredible books (I'll talk about some of the illustrators I found in later posts). In the end it was a good thing that I can't read French and that I couldn't convince G that I really really needed beautiful French children's books that I can't read, otherwise my wallet would have been much much lighter and my suitcase much much heavier.

Don't forget there is a branch of La Droguerie (buttons, ribbons, fabric, wool) on the top floor of Le Bon Marché!
 

Jardin du Luxembourg (sixth arrondissement)

A beautiful park with glorious flowerbeds and sprawling lawns, perfect for small children - entertainment for the small ones was sweetly old-fashioned (think carousel rides, puppet shows and go-cart rides). The park is scattered with lovely pale green chairs to relax in and comes complete with a stern uniformed park warden chasing cyclists who dared to ride through the park!
 

 
 
Image by me.

 

dreaming of a country cottage with a chook pen and a veggie patch

A few years ago G and I were driving in Berry on the NSW South Coast when we spotted a beautiful old farmhouse. We couldn't resist and reversed back to have a better look. There just happened to be a sign on the front gates (also rather gorgeous - the gates, not the sign) that announced that it was a new build (what?!) by a local building company called Strongbuild.

I love the projects below, and I love the fact that Strongbuild will happily include recycled materials in their projects. The white brick cottage below was built behind an older style mansion in Berry, and includes recycled bricks, timber and stone. Much of the timber inside the cottage was procured from old warehouses and bridges that were built around the same time as the existing old house.

These guys will even build your chook pen and veggie enclosure!

Images from Strongbuild.

 

tea party

Some more red and white dots for Becky!

Image from le blog d'odile.

 

rhythm

I saw this image by Hotze Eisma over at lovely blog the seventy tree and it reminded me of how much I miss swimming - I love the rhythm of lap swimming and used to swim almost every day when we lived in Australia. Sydney in particular has so many beautiful outdoor public pools, including this gorgeous one below.




Image from Hotze Eisma.

 

midsummer

this could be the perfect spot

Image from Stockholm Skargardsstugor.

 

weekend

at the beach in Malmö
 

slottsträdgården

Slottsträdgården (castle garden) is a fully organic garden in Slottsparken, Malmö. There is a lovely little organic cafe (with great coffee), as well as a vegetable/cut-flower garden, lawns for picnics, a plant nursery and eight different garden areas, including one which is maintained by children from local schools.

The cafe hosts live music afternoons/evenings during the summer, and throughout the year there are a few plant/produce markets. It's a great spot to spend a summer afternoon or to pop in for a quick coffee after work!

The cafe re-opened for the summer on April 1 under new management (for any Malmö locals that are reading this, the new management is Tareq Taylor of Restaurang Trappaner fame*), and so far so good!








 


 




Images from Slottsträdgården.

* Thanks for the tip Becky!
 

arrived

Spring has arrived on our little balcony! G has been busy lugging pots and potting mix up and down stairs, digging and planting, with beautiful results!

 

it feels like spring today

I hope the blue skies continue this weekend. It's Malmö weather though, so you can't rule out snow for the weekend...

Image from Your Home & Garden.

 

books & stuff

From Juju. Two books, Juju and Maja. Both look totally gorgeous.

Images from Juju.

 

again with the magnolias

Found on flickr.

 

waiting for summer

Image from Paul Costello.