Das Leben ist herrlich

La vie est si belle...

quand on va à la brocante et on trouve des trésors d'antan.



Januar ist eigentlich ein Warte-Monat. Man wartet auf besseres Wetter und man wartet darauf, wieder raus zu können. Aber wozu gibt es Leidenschaften? Die Flohmärkte bieten tolle Abwechslung in den kalten Monaten. Solange es trocken ist, kann man schön stöbern und wenn es sehr kalt ist, sind auch die Preise im Keller.





Heureusement, mes passions sont si variées qu'elles m'occupent toute l'année. D'habitude, Janvier est un mois d'attente. On attend les jours avec plus de clarté et des temperatures plus agréables afin de pouvoir recommencer à se défouler au jardin. J'adore chiner en hiver quand il fait sec car plus les températures sont basses, plus les prix descendent eux aussi.



Ce matin à mon arrivé, le soleil n'était pas levé. Alors plein de gens fouillent avec des torches. D'abord je trouvais le petit pot à lait et plus tard, à l'autre bout de la brocante, l'assiette assortie.

Heute morgen war es noch dunkel und manche Leute kamen mit Taschenlampen. Ich fand auch im Dunkeln mein kleines Milchkännchen und später, als es hell wurde, am anderen Ende den dazugehörenden Teller. :-)



Letztes Mal fand ich so ein Brett für die Butter und dieses Mal wieder.
En 2 jours différents je trouvais ces bois pour le beurre.

Heute gab es diese Schlittschuhe, ich dachte mich verhört zu haben... (zu 50 Cents)

Ces patins sont une trouvaille de ce matin, à 50 Cents.

Ceci sont des cartes de menu pour la table, derrière l'animal se trouve une petite encoche. Du jamais vu!

Solche Tischkartenhalter habe ich vorher noch nie gesehen.



Der Mörser ist unglaublich schwer.
Ce mortier est le plus grand et le plus lourd de ma collection.



Quand on reste dans la même région à chiner, on trouve souvent des objets de même série, fabrication et dessin. Et subitement, on est un collectionneur. :-0

Ich habe festgestellt, wenn man immer im gleichen Umkreis bleibt, findet man oft Sachen die regional hergestellt wurden mit den gleichen Attributen und schon ist man zum Sammler mutiert!



Dieses Bild (Kopie eines englischen Stiches) ist für meinen EG, der die ganze Woche in Moskau weilte und heute heil zurückkommen wird. Ich kann gar nicht sagen, wie dankbar ich dafür bin.

Cet empreinte de scène marine est pour EG qui revient sain et sauf après une semaine à Moscou. Je ne peux pas dire combien cela me rend heureuse et combien j'en suis reconnaissante.

LUCKY ME!

Escape to the South - Part 6 - Around the River Test

Mottisfont Abbey and Garden



If we had been a bit more familiar with the area, we would have taken a boat and let us drift down on the river Test to Mottisfont. :-)



This estate belongs to the National Trust. (I have recently become a member, a great gift from Father Christmas ;-) )



The parkland around is very ancient and, as always, the old trees are majestic and are naturally dominating.





This must be an old graveyard for dogs but the writing on the stones is quite fainted.



We stroll through the park and arrive at the river Test.



There are workers who repair the old bank reinforcement. They explain that it was initially in elm wood but due to the Dutch disease there are no more elms to be found and it is replaced mainly by chestnut. They were confident that they would do this work only once in their life time ;-).



Those rainbow trouts had a decent pan size and were so quiet - I thought I would be able to catch them with my bare hands...



We had a look inside the catacombs, very dull and dark and mysterious.



The we were walking along the Abbey to the walled garden.
A late rose still flowering - there were a few labels in the walled garden.



Lots of hedges to cut and all very well maintained.





This is how EG and I imagine our arched way in the front garden. However, we have now metal arches as those wooden ones have rotten away after 8 years. I would like to come back here in summer and see the roses in flower with all the bees and butterflies around.



The autumn bloom was not too well presented, it is a rose garden and therefore much better on show in summer.



We did spot some geraniums (my friend Georgia is responsible having infected me with the hardy geranium bug :-o)



A part from the Verbena bonariensis and the cyclamens we could not identify those blooms and unfortunately there were no labels. They had either white or slightly purple flowers. Any clue?



On the way back, one has again a good overview of the walled garden.



On the field outside were 'my' highlanders waiting but they were not interested in coming closer.



We waved good-bye to this ancient place. It was our last day in Hampshire and we had to get our luggage ready for next day's drive. Georgia was to be dropped in Gatwick to take her flight back to Hamburg and I was taking the ferry again for driving home, alone. But before that, we had plenty of time to explore:
Wisley Garden in Surrey.

Escape to the South - Part 5 - Around the River Test

Hougthon Lodge Gardens is situated on the river Test. We wandered through the lovely village of Stockbridge and promised ourselves to come back for creamed teas later.



The garden walk starts with the discovery of the new greenhouse and one can see that they are fond of hydroponics. This is new to me to see hydroponics in the UK. But why not? I always found it exciting to try all sorts of cuttings to have them made roots in water alone. They were never in contact with soil and stayed in that clay substrate. My plants, however were mainly indoor ones and the outdoor plants for hydroponic use were mainly in big containers for roof gardens or terraces where heavy soil was not appropriate. It needs very low maintenance and I should do again some cuttings.






Already at the entrance gate, one is invited to pick apples and other fruits from the walled kitchen garden. We could not resist and tasted a few different apples. I also liked that everything is labelled and all the labels are quite peculiar.



Autumn colours are so warm, aren't they?
And there were still plenty of flowers on show.



After the walled garden, we enter the peacock garden.



It invites to sit and to observe. Very calming.






Coming out of the peacock garden, the view is suddenly captured by the lodge.
This lodge is of a very particular design and its differently shaped roofs are charming and give it a special beauty. Inside in the tea room, it is explained that the lodge was used as a pretty background to one of the "Rosamunde Pilcher" films which are shown on German TV. It also says that the original conservatory around the house had been added much later. As it caused damp inside the house and endangered the wooden structures, it had to be put down again and was replaced by the more open glass roofs which one can admire now.



In front of the lodge, alongside the river Test, is the park with really huge ancient trees.



Suddenly one is frightened by a steaming monster. It is the dragon topiary.



Extremely well designed, the dragon keeps his eggs and tries to scare whoever approaches by letting out steam of his two nozzles.





When going down to the river, there is a little summerhouse built for kids and one finds colour pens and paper and on the walls hang all kind of children's pictures and writings.





We explore further and find the long border and more summer like flowers.



It is a kind of tree poppy, very fragrant. No chance to have one like that in our climate.



Also nerines were flowering, which are very difficult to keep where I live.



This iris is not mistaken by the season but is a winter flowering type. But obviously again only for milder regions.



I am pleased that solar energy is also one of the things which are used at Houghton Lodge Gardens. All together, this garden provides the feeling that the people who look after it are interested in and do care of our planet's future.



I was intrigued about the message on that picture. Does it mean: "take your time" ?



Visiting a garden in some kind of dull weather is not so bad when you know that a nice welcoming tea room in a cute location like Stockbridge is just round the corner :-).

We enjoyed the scones and already looked forward to visit Mottisfont Abbey.