Bears

The February winter has brought us some bears, too.

Source, seventeen pictures altogether: English Russia.
... And here you are a bear tale and some cultural bears too, from the Wang river, the blog of Tamás.

This morning

I don't say we woke up with this view, because we started the day at half past five as usual, but around nine we saw this from the window.

After that I managed to cut back the dry grass, thanks to God. I asked Tamás to pray for me to succesfully finish this heavy work. I completed twelve Miscanthus and ten Pennisetum in about two hours. I was very satisfied with the result.

The last snow

It is absolutely not sure that this will be the last one, but I would like very much if it were so.

There were some years when on March 21th there was more than twenty centimeter of snow in the garden.

Nevertheless I hope that in this year spring will come already in February. It did happen sometimes. To the family budget it would do good anyway.

The meteorology site MetNet - the most reliable one in Hungary, to my experience - does promise a budged-friendly weather for the next week.

Inspired by this outlook, I decided to start to put the garden in order in the next year. I will cut back dry grass and perennials.

So, if God helps, these are the last photos of grass with snow in this year.

This morning a thin layer of snow greeted us as we looked out of the window.

By now it has disappeared. But it was beautiful.

A blessed, beautiful week to everyone!

Country Gardener

I have to say thanks to Heirloom Gardener - you should by all means visit her site - for the blog of Yvonne Cunnington, the Country Gardenert.

Yvonne is a gardener and photographer. She has a garden in Canada, near to Ontario.

I like very much the garden of Yvonne. It is very natural, but in the meantime so poetic and subtly elegant that stands very near to me. And it has a special interest to me as she has built it in a rather cold climate, just like us.

If you have a little bit of time, have a look at her site.

A little bit of springtime in January

Peter Janke - Gartenkonzepte

It could have been made even by me. But it was not me. It was Peter Janke of Germany (the link on his name leads you to the gallery of his page). On the page of James Golden I found a short post on Janke in December. Our tastes are identical again, like so many times before.

2008

We have put the album selected from the pictures of 2008 on Hortus Carmeli.

(When entering the garden, go to the bottom of the page. By clicking on the thumbnails in the albums, you have the images enlarged, and following the little hand in the upper right corner you can visit them one by one.)

Those wonderful barberries! 1. Berberis koreana

One of my great favorites. An extremely sturdy shrub which is beautiful all year long.

This is how it looks like in the spring, when the leaves spring up.

In May, when in blossom.

This is its summer shape. I find that it enhances the Oriental character of its environment. And it is a rather shady part of the garden, with heavy clay for soil. It is almost impossible to find a plant that grows well here. Although I water here (if you compare the spring and winter images you can see that it grew like fool), but according to Praskac it endures dryness as well.

It is about 1.5-2 meters high, and although most pages underestimate its dimensions, I think it will be at least 3 meters wide. Its berries are eaten in its native Corea.

It can be brought by us as well. In the Zöld Király nursery I always see one of its sports.

Blessed New Year!

A walk around the garden on the last day of the year.

Close to the house, behind the thuyas is the “peasant garden,” where I grow various berry-producing shrubs, and this is also where I keep my little collection of Phloxes.

In the right corner of the picture is the bench in front of the house with a view on the roses and the large upper bed of perennials.

The same bench seen from the rose garden. The columnar poplars indicate our borders. Behind them comes the forest.

The lower part of the garden, towards the forest.

The row of thuyas you’ve seen on the second picture, now seen from the lower part of the garden.

In the middle: the medlar tree.

The right side of the lower part. The path in the right lower corner takes you back to the “peasant garden.”

In the meantime the sun came ahead from behind the clouds promising snow. The evergreen magnolia you’ve seen on the third picture here is hidden behind the Leyland cypress to the right. The main stair to the lower part descends here, as seen from the Japanese tea garden.

The stairs descend to this twisted hazelnut.

By following this road, you get back to the house. The white brick wall is our fence towards the street.

This is the path to the house. The evergreens are immediately at the house.

Both on gloomy and sunny days: a blessed, happy new year to everybody!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

... There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. ... He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God ...” (Jn 1:1-12)

Blessed Christmas to you!