Droopy's Blog

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The Story of the Knights of the Round Dining Table Part 1
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That Really Unique Love Story - T.R.U.L.S.
Posted: 21 Oct 2021

Floriade 2012 Holland
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Holiday 2012 - The Netherlands
Posted: 28 Aug 2012

Holiday 2012 - The Beginning
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Returning From Hibernation

Category: Garden | Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 7:06 pm

Dear Blog,

sorry to have left you hanging for so long, but I've been busy you see.

Last autumn I was busy building the Walls of Jericho border - no bugle allowed within 50 meters of the thing.

This is what I managed to do before the frost suddenly stopped me as early as mid-October:

Step one started:

Step one done:

Step two under way:

And this is what they look like now:

I've promised Lord Paint, four-legged Master of the house to hurry up and complete step three, and will do as soon as I get the time.

This spring started awfully late. We still had winter in mid-April, but then everything exploded. That includes my husband's energy level. He dug a hole, put a plastic water trough inside, and voila! a small pond:

The girls snuck some frog spawn home, so now we're trying to raise the tadpoles.

My husband's energy level didn't get any lower with that little success, so he's started to make a big water feature. I mean big! It looks like a mountain wall so I've nicknamed it Trollveggen, the Troll Wall, a spectacular mountain landscape near Ãƒâ€¦ndalsnes. I wanted a big waterfeature, but I had thought of half the size and dug down, not built up:

The bamboo thingy to the left is a Japanese fountain thing said to scare away bad spirits. So far it's only scared away my energy. I can't find it anywhere. Oh, yes, this is what the top half looks like. It's nowhere near finished mind!

The bottom half looks exactly like this only the other way round. The rocks are supposed to hide hoses and the connection between the two halves. The spirit scarer pours water into the top half pond, then the water runs into the lower half underneath some rocks, and a pump brings the water back up to the spirit scarer which empties the water into the pond and... yes, well. Round and round and round it goes bar in winter when the pond will be empty.

My husband insists on me planting Sempervivum in the cracks. I can't imagine even Sempervivum living there so I think I'll just squeeze in some moss. We've got plenty of moss.

In case you're wondering, this is the real Trollveggen, or Troll Wall:

Then we can talk about my mother. My mother's always wanted a water feature with water lilies. She never managed to make herself one, but decided she'd have a water lily anyways. A yellow one at that. She bough one and planted it in one of our plastic whatchamacallits, just until the pond's done. Our pond. The one my husband's making. Mother's happy. She's got a water lily now, albeit it lives with me. She also wants a red water lily. I guess that will live with me too.

The borders are coming to life, and we're discovering what we've lost during the winter. We've lost a lot! Most of our decorative grasses, some Erythronium, Heuchera, a couple of Hellebores, Hostas, even primroses! A few of the no-shows were bought last year and we never got to see them bloom. But most of our babies survived. Here are a few:

Husband's Jerusalem artichokes survived in a trough:

The P. auricula survived, at least most of them:

Blooming decorative apple tree:

The Empress Wu managed to survive too:

The small Dicentras:

Harebell poppies and Rhododendron:

We've also managed to get the veggie patches ready but haven't planted everything in there yet:

Please note our creative cat deterring fence:

The pumpkins and red Brussels sprouts sprouts will go in in a week's time. Here are the red sprouts:

Well, that's it really. I don't know when I'll have time to update you again, dear Blog, so please hang in there.

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Strawberry Spin-Off

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:14 pm

If we go east for about an hour and a half or so, we're in strawberry lovers' paradise. Yesterday we were going to buy strawberries. Valldal has a lot of them, and they're the best you can get. *drools*

So off we went to Valldal. In case we wanted lots of strawberries we used the camping car. We got the strawberries, but only seven kilos of them, and then we decided to head up to Trollstigen to have a look, since we hadn't been there for years.

Valldal is a small community by the sea. There are a few shops, several camping sites and lots and lots of strawberry fields.

Here's Valldal:

Valldal - houses up the side of the mountain ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Valldal - the center ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Strawberries ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

And off we went:

Up towards Trollstigen ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Nice little brook ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Yup, beginning to look like a mountain road ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Die-hard cyclist ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Some snow left still ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

A bit gentler landscape in between ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

The road and the place looked almost like before, but the view point and the path had been upgraded a lot.

We're getting closer ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

The tourist parking and cafÃƒÂ© ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Building a new cafÃƒÂ© - looks exciting ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Small I-was-here-stone-piles ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Ok - lets have a look at this road ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

We have to go over there for a good look ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

There are people to the left by the creek - mad people! ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

A view down the valley ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Oh, long way down! ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Tourists in thin air ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Those little white specks are cars ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

View straight down from the view point ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

The sea is over there. *points* Can you see it? ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

We counted people from 17 European nations by the view point. We didn't listen to languages, by all means. We checked the cars' licence plates, just for fun. And then we went back down the same way we came. We're not driving Trollstigen with anything but a regular car. It's just too scary. *lol*

This autumn's sheep in cabbage. ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

On the way back to Valldal - gentler landscape ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Long, narrow road with little traffic ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Water everywhere ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Very green grass ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Very hard rock ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

A typical farm ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Not too wide bridges ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

I hope you enjoyed the trip. We certainly did.

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Rottneros, Art and Blooms

Category: Garden | Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 6:44 am

Rottneros park was created around an idea of making art and artful gardens available to the public. The creator, Svante PÃƒÂ¥hlson, rebuilt the manor after a fire in 1929 and bought artwork from Nordic artists, including Gustav Vigeland. The park has changed a bit over the years of course, and the new idea gardens feature was delightful.

Here are some photos from the park, just to give you an idea of how it looks:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

This is a veggie garden:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

A throne fit for a queen:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Not practical for here, but very nice:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

A water feature with mirrors:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Sculptural sedges:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Even I could enjoy a soccerfield like this:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Herbs and spices mostly:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

And we're off into the park itself:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

If I were able to I'd gladly take this sculpture home:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

The mansion:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

This is a lynx statue, not your ordinary lion:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Inside the pavillion:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

My kind of garden art. A chair:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

A trellis?

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Stepping stones:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Rudolf? Moss is a wonderful material:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Anyways, I loved it. Swedish love:

Rottneros, show garden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

There are more photos in the My Garden-section if you're not bored silly by now.

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Hanging In There

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:17 pm

When I looked outside this morning I felt sick. The snow fell and fell, like all day yesterday, but it was wet snow and turned into rain eventually. So now we've got lots of very wet snow outside, and unless all three weather channels are wrong we'll get freezing temps in a couple of days. That means ice. Lots of it too. *sigh*

Don't get me wrong, I love a proper winter with nice snow and steady cold. What I don't love is that it lasts forever. We're not used to that any more. We had these winters in the mid-'80-s, but since then our winters have been unstable to say the least.

And the amount of snow we've got is downright ridiculous too. Half of it would be more than enough. As it is, it's too deep to play in, too dry or too wet or just too crusty to do anything with and it's in the way.

I want to weed, sow, plant and harvest. I want to see colour outside. I want to mend fences and smell dirt, watch the worms wriggle and the slugs suffer.

So what to do? Well. I took a lesson from my younger friends. I have started playing FarmVille. *blushing* I get to weed, sow, harvest, put up fences and tend animals. It helps. I'm still hanging in here. :D Grannies need to play too, you know.

Last edited: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:18 pm

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Our borders before and after the snow

Category: Garden | Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:23 pm

We've got snow. We've had little snow for the past couple of winters, but we've got it now. With interest. First, a look at our house.

The north side:

The south side:

And now the comparison photos. Here's west-side rock border:

And this is the border today:

Our south-eastern corner:

Today it looked like this:

The Ligularias with the boat-shaped border behind it:

You can still see the cone fir, yes?

And over there is our Hosta path. I do wonder when I'll see that again:

The Empress Wu:

Well, the view is still beautiful though:

And I'm getting very strong arm muscles too.

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Christmas the Norwegian Way

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:01 pm

Us Norwegians celebrate Christmas Eve. The church bells toll at 17.00 which marks the beginning of the celebration. We seat ourselves at the table and start to dig in. Here's what we usually eat:

Rutabega mash, white sauerkraut and pork ribs with the crispy side up:

Sheep rips, steamed on top of birch twigs, spicy pork sausages and potatoes:

Red sauerkraut and fat rendered from the pan where the sheep's ribs were steaming:

For afters we had rice porridge cream and red sauce with an almond hidden in it. I never managed to photograph it since the bowl was nearly empty when it reached me. Whoever gets the almond wins a marzipan pig.

Then it's off to open the presents. This year we had so many presents they didn't fit under the tree:

We piled them high all around the tree:

I'll spare you the images of the carnage after having opened the presents. But the face of Lord says it all:

"Can't understand what all this is about, really!"

In between opening presents we fortify ourselves with coffee and cookies, of course. Can't risk going hungry, can we?

Tomorrow it's boiled halibut with sour cream sauce, potatoes and cucumber salad with lemon-and-sugar dressing, with cloudberry cream and special cookies for dessert.

I'm looking forward to that, and will probably have to be rolled into bed.

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Me, The Movie Star

Category: Pets and other animals | Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:08 pm

My efforts in the Marathon class at the driving do I attended have been YouTubed. *lol* Those stable girls are really something. If you'd like to watch us, just click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtA47YqzC2E

The first equipage is in the same club as me. Her horse is a Norwegian breed called DÃƒÂ¸lahorse. Then there's us. We didn't go fast but we're cute. :D The third equipage is also from our club. She drives a Norwegian fjord horse. I hope you like the film.

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The Five-Countries Holiday - Part Seven - Final

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:26 am

Well, after we reluctantly left Holland we decided it was time to play. The girls had been very good during our visit, so as a reward we went to BonBon-land. There was a large crowd by the entrance:

When we finally got inside there were lots of fun things to do. We just started on the first and went from there.

I'd look like that turtle too if I had to swirl round and round all day:

The rail bikes up high:

The cobra tower. I went up there, and suddenly we were back down again. That was actually fun:

We went for a little "Round the world"-boat trip:

Bad croc!

There was also a huge house with little doll displays. Everything was so neat:

Danish Guards:

After this we went up to HelsingÃƒÂ¸r, didn't get a parking ticket but it was close, slept one night in Sweden, crossed the border to Norway, spotted a moose cow with twins grazing by the main road, visited an aunt and uncle by Norway's biggest lake and then finally got home to an overgrown garden and some very colourful veggie patches:

Oh, it was so good to be home! Thanks for tagging along as I've tried to find out where we have been and what we've been doing.

Last edited: Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:27 am

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The Five-Countries Holiday - Part Six

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:01 pm

We're in Holland, finally. It's been a very long drive to get here. Our estimate is about 1,600 km or 994 miles from here to there. Of course we didn't go straight there, so we don't know how far we've driven. But anyways, we're in Holland.

So we drove along the big dike road, asked directions to a good camping site and ended up here:

The view behind the camping car:

And the view in front of the camping car:

The neighbours:

There were rabbits on the grass and moles underneath it, all very exotic to us northeners. Also exotic was the fact that the toilets had no paper and no soap, so we had to carry our own with us. Hm. Strange customs in this country.

The day after we went to see the nearest town, Hoorn. It was beautiful! Especially the old part of it:

I have a tendency to snap photos askew, but this house is really askew:

The town square:

More houses and ornaments:

Look at this house. It looks like a curious old lady looking left and right so she won't miss anything:

The entry to the Old Ladies' House:

The Museum back garden:

They were big on cheese, obviously:

Our knowledgeable guide and gracious host might know a lot more about the houses and ornaments than I do. I walked about with my nose up, my jaw hanging and probably looked like your typical idiotic tourist.

The following day we went to Hosta Paradise. I posted that in it's own thread in "Member's Gallery".

Then we went and had a look at a garden some of you might recognize:

We also got to do a bit of sight-seeing in the more rural parts around Hoorn:

I have to say we took a lot more photos. This is just a small taste of the sights.

Next stop is BonBon-land in Denmark, on our way home.

Last edited: Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:27 am

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The Five-Countries Holiday - Part Five

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:15 am

Since the Norwegian coast is rather rugged we haven't got very many big, flat expanses of sand, and none that are as big as the one we saw near Ribe on the Danish west coast. We took a trip to a small island called MandÃƒÂ¸, and actually got to drive on the sea floor. Very exotic for us.

By the shore on the mainland:

And into the sea we went:

There were low dikes all around the island:

The means of transport:

By MandÃƒÂ¸ beach. There are small dots way out on the horizon, and they are people. Very difficult to go for a swim here. A couple of kilometers to walk there, a swim and then the long way back? Nah:

We went back to Ribe to check out the cathedral and the medieval part of town. Ribe is Denmark's oldest town, or so they claim:

And up into the tower:

We found some proper transport for our sightseeing:

Some of the streets and houses. People live here, so it's not a museum:

One of the more original medieval-looking houses. It was under repair:

I saw people walking about who actually stopped and looked through the windows of the homes. Ouch. How inconsiderate can one be?

We stopped at an Italian restaurant and had pasta, since our smallest celebrated her birthday this day.

And the day after we went through Germany and to Holland.

We actually managed to get stuck waiting for a ferry. In inland Germany, can you imagine? As if we haven't got enough ferries to wait for closer to home.

The view while we were waiting for the ferry: