In the pink

In clothing my favourite colour is black, but our garden looks prettier in pink. Our patio is separated from our neighbour's patio by a simple concrete wall. Plain concrete can look quite dull, so few years ago we painted the wall pink (and my boyfriend chose the colour!). You should see people's faces when they lay their eyes on our pink wall for the first time ;-) Perhaps not everyone's cup-of-tea, but we like the cheerfulness of it and pink goes well with green. If we ever want to change it, all we need is some paint.

I love Clematis, we have several of them in our garden and hopefully have a wall of flowers soon. The Clematis above on the right is called Nelly Moser and the Clematis below with very delicate pale pink flowers is Clematis Montana.

Lawrenson's Pink which thrives gorgeously on the sunniest spot in our garden.

*Edit* actually the Clematis on the upper right picture is not Nelly Moser but "Capitaine Thuilleaux". It looks very much like Nelly Moser especially when the plant is young. The young Capitaine Thuilleaux also has large single petal flowers with a lighter edge and a darker pink center, but when it matures the flowers turn into double petal ones.

Thank you very much Carol for pointing out my mistake.

Dining room plan update

Our cabinet was finally painted fully couple of weeks ago. You can not see it clearly in these pictures, but the cabinet is two toned; outside is white and the inside is warmer off-white. Three layers were required until we got rid of the colonial colour, phew...

We have not made any more progress in the dining room. Currently we are waiting for this special oil we ordered couple of weeks ago. We are planning to mix some tint into the oil and treat the dining room mirror and the chest of drawers with it. Once the dining table top has been sanded down it will get the same treatment. I just wish the oil would arrive so we (= boyfriend, I just "supervise") can continue the project. Patience is not one of my virtues.

Fuzzballs

Oh happy news! We have a swan family across the street from our house. I have no idea if this is another couple or if our lonely swan managed to find a new partner this quick.

Anyway, these very protective parents have eight cute fuzzballs, awe (mind you, couple of days ago I counted six chicks but today I counted eight). When one parent goes for a swim with the chicks, the other parent stays behind just standing on the corner of the field. We have a lot of cats around here, constantly hunting and killing birds. The cats always use the same corner to enter the field and the swans must know this by now. Every time I see these fuzzballs my heart just melts. What a lovely family :-)

Let there be white

The previous post was about outdoors, now it is time to show some indoor images again. We found this small side table from 't Gemakje (surprise, surprise). Though we really like our black round Chinese table, it had to move upstairs and make space for this one. This table is not only pretty with its delicate curvy legs, but also practical. The table top acts as a lid and there is surprisingly lot of storage space inside. And we can never have too much of that!

Garden updates

This warm sunny weather has done wonders to our garden. Everything is so green, few perennials are already blooming and the rest will follow soon. There are changes happening every day. Our Syringa (Lilac) is blooming and growing fast. We only planted it last autumn and it is so nice to see it doing well.

Alliums just started blooming and a Peony, also planted last year, is making buds. Few plants are a bit behind the "schedule" because of some frosty nights we had earlier this spring.

Shades of white

This pretty old chair is yet another find from 't Gemakje. To my boyfriend's great relief this time paint job is not required. I am not quite sure what technique was used to create the pattern on the seat, but it looks great. A light coat of wax brought the pattern out even more.

The weather has been absolutely amazing during the past week. Blue skies, sunshine and warm temperatures. We spend as much time as possible out in the garden, just enjoying ourselves. I keep splashing on sunblock and try to stay in the shade (I am not much of a sunbather), but still I ended up with a lovely strawberry coloured nose...

The Beach

Some time ago I showed you pictures from the dunes. Once you have walked through the dunes, you will end up here; the beach. For me one of the most relaxing places to be is by the sea. I just love it. I could spend hours and hours there just watching and listening to waves and seagulls, smelling the sea air. Bliss.


I was born and raised in a seaside town in southeast Finland. I suppose that explains my love for the sea. I also like lakes and rivers, but nothing beats the sea. So untamed and so beautiful.

New curtains

Our new dining room curtains arrived much sooner than expected. When I ordered them I was told it can take four weeks. A small miracle happened, it took just over a week! Amazing. At first I thought they look a bit too romantic and grand, but not anymore. We are very happy with them. Curtains go pretty well with many of our dining room accessories and the atmosphere in the dining room changed completely. You will see more pictures once the furniture is finished.

A challenge postponed

I thought a small explanation is required. Some time ago I received and accepted a nice challenge from Jaana from Huvitusmaja (a lovely Finnish blog). However, there is a small bump on the road. I am still suffering of very bad neck and shoulder problems (called RSI) and I am relying on my boyfriend's help with all computer work. He has typed some Finnish for me, which is not easy for a Dutchman whose Finnish skills are next to zero. Bless him :-)

But this Finnish challenge is too much for him to handle. So as soon as I am able to do my own typing I will do the challenge. Trust me, this is so incredibly frustrating.


Also some time ago I received an award from Anu from Valloittava Valkoinen, another lovely Finnish blog. Thank you soo much.

After the rain

This picture was taken today after it stopped raining. I like this time of the year as everything is changing so rapidly. Our garden is starting to look quite luscious, though most of the plants are still quite young.