Flowers in September

There are even some new summer flowers for this year in autumn, and some perennials flowering as well.

common poppy & friends

To begin with… there are still common poppy flowers in the garden. Friends are loving it.

calendula/marigold & friends

There is no autumn without pot marigolds or calendulas… 😉

calendula, marigold

My personal little autumn sun…

calendula, marigold

calendula, marigold

calendula, marigold

clematis

Clematis growing and blooming as well. Our first ever clematis plants, planted in summer this year. Yet another new favourite… now I would love to have many different types of clematis flowers.

clematis

clematis

Our clematis is growing by an oak tree.

clematis

annual mallow

And there are still many annual mallow flowers at their prime…

cosmos

There is no summe… yeah well, I planted cosmos seeds this year as well, but there’s been only few flowers – all the green parts of the plant have grown, but not much blooming this year. I think it’s the a bit strange summer and the spot where I planted them, both. I planted them by the ditch by the woods – that was the only place I could squeeze them in this year. 😀

shrubby cinquefoil

Shrubby cinquefoil is flowering this autumn as well.

sunflower

This year we have finally succeeded in growing sunflowers! We’ve tried to grow sunflowers already in the summers of 2015 and 2016, and last year we thought that we should start the pre-growing earlier. But… we didn’t pre-grow them this year at all, just planted the seeds directly into the ground. We think it’s the soil – this year we used both fresh soil and the fertile soil in the places where we put our grass clippings and some leaves. Worked like a charm. 🙂

sunflower

clarkia amoena, godetia

Candies… There is no autumn without clarkia amoena or godetia flowers.

clarkia amoena, godetia

peony poppy

And there is still at least one peony poppy flower.

peony poppy

dahlia

Dahlias growing and blooming. Our first ones ever these, too. Planted in spring this year, and new favourites again…

dahlia

Mellow…

dahlia

Cactus dahlia. How charming!

-Leena

Summer flowers in August

This year everything is a little late, so also the summer flowers are at their prime only now in August.

peony poppy

Peony poppy. There is no summer without peony poppy flowers…

peony poppy

peony poppy

Dutch iris

Iris hollandica or Dutch iris. Siberian iris and German iris flowers in July… and this year I have also Dutch iris flowers now in August! 🙂 They are grown from bulbs that I planted in spring this year. My first ones ever.

annual mallow

And there is no summer without annual mallow flowers…

viper's bugloss

Viper’s bugloss, a bit wild now – I planted the seeds last summer.

cornflower

More cornflower flowers…

cornflower

cornflower

cornflower

A busy friend.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

And more schizanthus or butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid flowers…

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

Maltese cross, burning love

Maltese cross or burning love, a perennial, flowering this year as well.

tropaeolum majus, garden nasturtium, Indian cress

Tropaeolum majus or garden nasturtium or Indian cress flowering. The taste is good as well – a bit peppery. 🙂

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And my first ever tropaeolum minus or dwarf nasturtium flowering.

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And the Ibiza lizard lurking… 🙂

common poppy

This summer I have common poppy flowers, too! My first ones ever.

common poppy

common poppy

I love all the colours… Another new favourite…

common poppy

common poppy

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine…

common poppy

With the shadow of a peony poppy…

common poppy

A nice skirt…? 🙂

common poppies & peony poppies

-Leena

It is coming! – Spring is almost here…

It’s March… quite nice, almost incredible! Lately we’ve had snow and sunshine, grey days, temperatures below freezing and wet snow… everything. And we just may have been hit by the biggest snowfall for this winter earlier this week as well – here in southern Finland we sometimes have this too-much-snow-too-late-it-should-have-been-at-Christmas -thing… But yes, this week’s snow, too, has already been melting. No one’s stopping spring! 🙂

The first 13 pictures I took today, the last two are from last night.

March moss

Moss magic at the summer flower bed…

March moss

backyard pine trees

Backyard pine trees.

March clover flower

A clover flower…

March strawflower

A strawflower flower… power. 😉

March

March annual mallow flower

An annual mallow flower…

March annual mallow flower

…and another…

March annual mallow flowers

…a few more…

March annual mallow flower

Perhaps I should plant annual mallow seeds, too, in many places in the garden this spring – then there would be some lace all around the garden in wintertime, how nice would that be? 😀

double sun

Double sun… 😉

March orange

An Egyptian friend…

March potato field

At the potato field…

Even though the days may be warm, the nights can be a bit cold:

it will be warmer

“I adjusted the thermostat so that it will be a bit warmer in here… is that okay…?”

purr...

“Purr… nice! I’m telling you…”
Our radiator tiger. 🙂

-Leena

More October

Just some more October pics, from last weekend and past few days, in our garden…

October

In the backyard again…

strawberry

October strawberry… In a pot. We thought this plant already died in the summer, but it started to grow again… but still ripe strawberries for this year…? – Not gonna happen. 🙂

cornflower

One tough cornflower. I’ve been visiting this flower regularly during this autumn – and it’s just always there! It’s been facing downwards already for a while. But it’s still there. 🙂

October

October

Backyard trees again – more pine trees, two apple trees, a birch tree, a bigger rowan and one other yellow Norway Maple…

annual mallow

And one sturdy annual mallow! This flower hasn’t fully opened up, and it, too, has already been facing downwards, but it’s been there for ages. 😀

October

Some lovely yellow tiny flowers spotted in our carrot field…

October

Under our bigger oak tree

October

October

Our smaller oak tree. 🙂

October

Dill, too, was still growing nicely in the ground, despite the cold at nights. Now I’ve picked most of them, some we ate, the rest are drying.

October

Still some tiny single viola flowers in the pots… Two of them in the pics here, symbols of boldness and strength – in the beginning, these plants were here and here. – Oh dear… 🙂

October

October

Some October fern

October

My next blog post will be about growing tomatoes. 🙂

-Leena

Coffee, pink flowers, blackberries

Today’s morning coffee pic along with some more pics of pink flowers, taken lately and today, and a couple of pics with blackberries in them. – Pics in the still very warm September here in Finland. 🙂

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Other one of my upper eyelids is a bit red, very swollen and somewhat sore today, it started already yesterday. My boyfriend had the same thing a while ago. But my eyelid is a lot more swollen than his was. Nice. Just taking it easy today…

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These two flowers I met amongst the shaggy ink caps. We haven’t planted these. I’m not even sure what these actually are – they look a bit like tiny, and somewhat dark-coloured annual mallows, though… 🙂

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Blackberries! And I’ve missed almost everyone of them, when it comes to taking pics. 😀 – I’ve just been eating… We planted the blackberry bush in our garden last year. This year we’ve gotten many berries, so juicy and delicious.

dsc05072

shrubby cinquefoil

Dasiphora fruticosa or shrubby cinquefoil, ‘pink paradise‘. We planted the bush a couple of weeks ago.

shrubby cinquefoil

A tiny bush to fill the empty space ( a bit too big, and not to be seen wholly in the pic) in the middle of our garden. – This is a start… 🙂 Very flowery shrubs are shrubby cinquefoils in autumn…

And these old friends today:

annual mallow

Annual mallow, one more pic…

cosmos

And a bit of cosmos

cosmos

-Leena

Cosmos flowers & annual mallow flowers

There are still many cosmos flowers and annual mallow flowers in our garden. And still so many buds of them, too! 🙂 I took these pics of some of the flowers yesterday and today.

cosmos

Cosmos flowers.

cosmos

cosmos

cosmos

cosmos

One of the cosmos flowers has this different, interesting colour combination. One petal missing? Charming. 🙂

cosmos

annual mallow

Annual mallow. Other names for this flower: rose mallow, royal mallow, regal mallow.

annual mallow

annual mallow

I have now started using Owlnature’s Instagram account a bit, too. Our, mine and Owlnature’s, username in Instagram is owlnatureleena. 😉

-Leena

Holistic wellness from nature, me -10 kg (!), annual mallow flowers…

It’s getting miscellaneous again. And I’m visiting Turku again, clarifications about my Turku here. 🙂

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Morning coffee pic this morning, on my second floor here…

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These two pics I took on Thursday at 23.30 PM (still lightly light in Finland) in the garden of our country home, after we had come back from Nordic walking and eating blueberries in the raven forest. 🙂 And after these pics, when I went inside the house, something bizarre happened…

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I hadn’t weighed myself for a long time, but after taking the pics above, I DID, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing… I have lost 10 kilograms without trying! – I have only moved from the block of flats to a country home. 😀 Yes, I’ve noticed that my face, for example, looks thinner now, compared to pics of me a bit over two years ago, but still, my focus has been my mental health – I mean, really, my peace of mind and all… And I know that 10 kilos in two years may not be that much to some people, but for me, that’s a huge accomplishment! In my case, an accomplishment without even trying – just happening naturally – literally. OK, so, no wonder I’ve been feeling that light, the light and the bright at times. 😉

It was just that living in a city and in a block of flats… it just wasn’t for me, I didn’t know what to do with myself there in the end. I started to feel uneasy and even crazy at times, in a bad way, and I know what panic attacks are. In a way, I lost myself, but yes, I gained WEIGHT. 🙂 But I felt at home spending some time in the bushes of northern and eastern Finland. And yes, I’m not alone in this, my boyfriend had the same problems and he has already lost 20 kilos – he already took everything as a physical project since almost a year ago. And we’ve been eating normal (Finnish) food. But my boyfriend hasn’t eaten any wheat for almost a year now. So, we have never been obese, just easy to see.

But enough of this for now, I must just say that one has to give the good time to grow… So, this whole blog of mine is an ode to nature, I share pics and thoughts and the LOVE here, and I’m witnessing the holistic benefits of living close to nature every day in reality, in my own life, and this does not mean I would not love to visit cities, too, and cities, too, have some nature in them. This is just becoming myself, finding my place

So, let’s continue the holistic struggle! – This I really mean, and this I say with love. 🙂

And with mallow flowers:

annual mallow

annual mallow

More annual mallow flowers in our garden. I took these pics, too, on Thursday.

annual mallow

-Leena