Patience or Waiting for the Last Frost

The forest nearby slowly melts after a short return of winter

What draws a person to a given hobby?  Why does one feel compelled to do a certain activity?  Maybe there's something there for them that will help them along their journey, some important lesson to be learned.

I have never had any patience and that is something I have always just accepted about myself, that is until I became a mother.  I realized then that patience is imperative to help a child grow into a beautiful adult.  It wasn't about me anymore.  My garden has shown me too that if I don't sit back and wait for the right time the garden will not grow, no matter how rooted in enthusiasm my intentions may be.

After a few weeks of a prelude to spring, we got a blast of winter again. 

So, we wait.

Longer Days and Warmer Temperatures

Winter is not as brutal here in Sweden as it is in Canada.  Temperatures are milder, usually not going any lower than -10.  It gets dark, yes, but the moon is so bright, especially when there is snow on the ground.  I feel like spring arrives so much earlier here too.  It is early March and the forecast is hovering around 10 degrees.  My hometown, Toronto, has been struggling with one of the worst winters yet.  The days are noticeably longer now with almost 12 hours of daylight!  Believe me, this changes things for everyone.  It is hard to describe the feeling of watching the sun stay in the sky longer and longer knowing that there will be a time when it will barely set at all.  Sweden is getting ready for the beloved summer.  It's exciting.

Garden Outside the Dining Room

So the "sportlov" came and went and I spent as much of that time in the garden(s) as possible.  Mostly I cleared the overgrowth and raked the leaves.  By doing so I uncovered 2 stone walls and several forgotten - or abandoned - gardening tools.  There have been others before me it seems and this garden is determined to have things its own way.  Stubborn?  Bring it on.

That said, Design Stockholm will be heavy with gardening posts, which will be filed under the "På Landet" tab.  Gardening is something that I am compelled to do, not that I am particularly qualified or talented but I love getting my hands dirty.  I will also chronicle the various celebrations that lead to the height of the Swedish summer with an occasional look back to some of the events that marked last summer and the toils of my gardening challenges.

I invite you to join me on my adventures of struggling to tend the ancient soil of our little patch of the Swedish countryside.

A Mix of Wild and Cultivated Flowers - I have no plans to change this garden patch - I think it's perfect.

In the Garden Again

With two weeks of "sport holidays" ahead of us and a very mild winter hopefully almost behind us, I intend to be in the garden getting it ready for summer.  To call it a garden is perhaps a bit of an understatement.  The country house is on a large piece of land and there are many gardens to be tended.

Leading up to the old wash house that sits on the banks of the stream is a row of rocks and stones originally intended to secure grading.  Over the decades the rocks became overgrown and as a result were barely detectable.  While clearing some of the overgrowth we uncovered a great opportunity for a small garden above the stone "wall" and a sprinkling of smaller flowers to line the bottom.  To contrast the traditional red of the old wash house, which will soon be repainted and renovated, I think I will go with white poppies.  The poppy is a stunning flower.  Many of my neighbors in Toronto had them and I was always more than a little jealous.

{via}

And naturally I'll need a few of the purple variety for our purple garden at the front of the house. (click here to get caught up)

Fresh Design at Formex 2014 - Looking to Spring

I have always been a big lover of winter.  I'm Canadian, Toronto to be exact, and when it gets cold, it gets really cold!  I love snow, the more the better but around the end of January I'm pretty much over it and ready for spring.  Formex showed the Spring / Summer 2014 best of Nordic design this week so let's look forward to Spring.


Scratch what I said last year about my dream BBQ (click here for that), this is the new grill of my dreams!  Stunning design.  This is the type of BBQ a proper Texan could feel fantastic about (isn't that the gold standard? Texas = BBQ), design buffs and fancy Chefs too.

http://www.biggreenegg.eu/se

To get your groceries for the BBQ parties you'll be having you are going to need a couple of these chic plastic grocery bags.  These are an original Swedish design first produced in the 50s.  They went out of production when stores went from paper to plastic bags.  Now that we see the err of our ways and are taking care of the environment, these plastic bags are back and recyclable too.

hinza.se

To set the table, you can try these colourful napkins.  Designed for Duni by Swedish Designer Hanna Werning these will look lovely in your beautiful garden, or create a garden in your city digs.

www.duni.com

A lovely napkin is a waste if someone doesn't spill something.  Spilled Snaps is always an option of course but why not coffee too?  Here we have a perfect carafe for any occassion - Stelton from Denmark.

www.stelton.com

Et le pièce de résistance!  Whether you have a green thumb or not, you won't be hiding this garden hose in the snickarbod.  This is called Garden Glory and no kidding!  I got the stink-eye last year when I said we needed a new yellow hose.  Good thing we waited!

www.gardenglory.se

The First Real Snow

It finally snowed this weekend.  After last year's unbelievable amount of snow, I though I would be happy not to see it this year but snow makes the dark Swedish winter countryside luminesant; it's needed here.  In Canada I could usually feel and smell the coming of snow - I wonder if others have that sense of their mother country climate?  I don't have those instincts here, yet.  I do, however, love snow.  This is what our little pocket of the Swedish countryside looks in the beautiful white snow.

The Swedish Countryside in the Snow

Swedish Countryside Mudroom at Christmas Time

Things are quiet these days.  People are enjoying time with family and loved ones.  We are spending our holidays at the country house.  It was an unusually nice day yesterday and after many days of rain combined with the seasonally short days I couldn't help but take some pictures of the house.  We've been fixing up the country house for nearly 2 years now and the mudroom, while still not completely finished, is one of my favorite transformations. 

The country house has always been a special retreat for the family at Christmas time and that is something I've kept in mind when designing each of the common spaces.  The red paint is custom, mixed with rödfärg and black facade paint (click here for the recipe).  The draft curtains were shipped with us from Toronto and are a thick, wonderful linen, which I managed to get for a steal from Robert Allen.  The patchwork of rugs are from a late beloved Aunt.  The elk head was found in the forest near the house this summer.  I couldn't help but think that the elk was a little gruesome so I painted it a shimmering grey-blue, which is carried out in accents throughout the house.

and those are the pea green wellies I mentioned here.

Swedes, Pumpkins & Godis

Pumpkins

So it's Halloween in Sweden.  The Swedes have only recently adopted Halloween.  But really, is it surprising that these godis* lovers would jump at the opportunity to have candy on a day other than Saturday?

There's just one thing.  To earn the candy, you have to be willing to get your hands dirty.

You have to make a jack'o'lantern for your front steps or window, which indicates to all the little ghosts and goblins that you have candy to offer.

1. About 5 cm from the stem, cut a circle to make an opening in the top of the pumpkin (Pumpa på Svenska).

2. Dig out the slimy mess inside (separate the seeds if you like, which can be roasted with salt).  You can use a soup spoon but I think you'll find that using you hands will be necessary also.  Make sure the inside is scraped clean so as not to catch your jack'o'lantern on fire when you put the tea light in.

3.  Cut out the face. Basic shapes work perfectly.  You don't need to get fancy and for what it costs to buy a pumpkin here in Sweden, better to do something not too challenging.

4.  Put in a tea light. Leave the top off while the candle is lit.

Now you can enjoy your Halloween godis guilt-free.  Even if det är inte Lördag.

Jack'o'Lanterns

 

*Godis - (Pronounced Goodies) A Swedish tradition where kids can have candy but only on Saturday, which actually makes the Swedes the top candy eaters, globally.

DIY - Custom Red Paint

Deep, rich red is one of my go-to colours.  It is so dynamic and works well for all types of different spaces.  When we came to Sweden I had the worst time trying to find a red I could love.  It happened one day, as I was deciding how I felt about our newly painted black front door, the reflection of our traditional red snickarbod hit the black and there it was, the rich red I had been searching for.  So I mixed the two paints and the result was perfect!

Door with Polyacrylic Seal

All you need is:

- A paint brush
- Black façade paint (färg) and some Fula rödfärg.
- Mix them by adding the red pigment to the black paint until you get the colour you like, testing on some spare wood as you go.*
- Polyacrylic

* It is very important to note a few things:

1.  Rödfärg is a pigment made of copper minerals.  It is intended for exteriors.  Our front hallway is separated from the rest of the house by an inner door.  The paint smells for a few days so keep things well ventilated.  We actually sealed the painted door once it had dried with a polyacrylic to protect the paint and make it safer for the indoors.  The seal also made the colour that much richer.

2.  As noted above, rödfärg is made from mineral pigment.  It separates.  I took a soup ladel to dig up the pigment and mixed that with the black façade paint.

3.  The colour in your mixture may be a little deceiving.  You need to test often as the motion of spreading the paint will make the pigments burst thereby releasing the red colour.

The result is a wonderful, dynamic red that you will love!

Adjacent Wall without Seal


Swedes are pretty well acquainted with the inexpensive Fula rödfärg and will likely need it for the sealing of their house or summer house at some point.  I understand that the Fula rödfärg is likely not available in North America.  I suggest, if you love rich red, Sherwin Williams' Concepts in Colour Series - "Crabby Apple" is a delicious red!










Spring is Here! (?)

We have a little pocket of the Swedish countryside.  There is a traditional farmhouse, a snickarbod* and a pond, complete with stream.  These are the adventures of a gardening enthusiast who, while completely unqualified, doesn't mind (read loves) getting her hands dirty.

snickarbod*  This is a small building used as a workshop situated on the property of a farmhouse. 

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Swedish Countryside Spring Thaw

Swedes are very anxious for the arrival of spring.  After the long, dark winter, the promise of warm weather and bright nights, seems the answer for everything.  And I think I have to agree.  Recently we have had short blasts of spring only to be squashed by a snow/hail storm or a dip in the already miniscule increase in temperature.  I think things are finally going to thaw and these will be one of the last crisp nights, foggy with the condensation of the last of the winter snow.

Side Path After Removal of Thick Grass Cover

Much of the property has been overtaken by plants, grass and bushes. Over the past couple of weeks we have been working on clearing the overgrowth of grass from the side path which faces the road.  The many lilac bushes have been trimmed, as have the apple trees. Before anything can be planted there are a couple of plots that need to be turned.  One will be a flower garden and the other a vegetable garden.  Over the next few weeks the hard labour will be done before the planting can begin, after the last frost.