More catching up - May 15th

I've bought some new pots to go with the more colorful style




I turned out quite pretty, don't you think?




The primula is in full bloom now




I like how all the pot colors look with the flower colors




A pot with strawberries (jordgubbar) and wild strawberries (smultron)




An another one with the violet and the chives (gräslök). Talk about odd mix! LOL




Close up of the freckled little violet bud




I also bought a plastic "basket" to us use storage for pots etc.
I decided to go for green to make it blend in with the floor




Look tulip buds!




This poor tulip forgot to grow a stem though. LOL




The bleeding heart (löjtnantshjärta) has some buds too




I decided to add a wind chime to the balcony this year.
I only wish I had a better place to hang it




The table area




The view

Catching up - May 5th

I'm waaaaay behind with my photos so I've got a lot of catching up to do. We're starting with some photos from May 5th.



Look, look! New fabric!!!


Much better than the old sun bleached, dirty fabric, don't you think? LOL And as I mentioned before, the new rugs called for some stronger colors this season.

I also got some new plants from my mom's garden, like new strawberries and wild strawberries (smultron) since mine didn't survive the winter. I also got a primula, a pot with bleeding heart (löjtnantshjärta) & Forget-me-not (Förgätmigej) and a plant of my beloved freckled violet.




New plants!



The primula already had some buds




The tulips, the chive (gräslök) and dead parsley.




Pretty pansy (pensé)




Pretty pansy (pensé)




Pretty pansy (pensé)




Close up of one of the butterflies in the pansy flower pot




and of the other one as well




The bonus flower bed below my balcony (it needs some weeding)




Baby trees with baby leaves




This tree didn't have any leaves yet though

Looking pretty! Oh so pretty!

One of the things I've never liked with my balcony before has been the floor. It's a hard, cold concrete floor with ugly, flaking paint. Yuck! But since my stepfather had promised (several times over years now) to give me a wooden floor I haven't done much about it myself. But well, he's the kind of guy that keeps forgetting things like this and he REALLY doesn't like to be reminded so this year I decided to solve things myself instead. A wooden floor was out of the question (it required too much money and too much work) but instead I bought some new, fresh (and matching!!!) plastic rugs for the floor and it's looking so nice now. Love it!!!!

They're green though, very green, which makes the pale pinks I've used before look too pale and washed out so I need to spice up the colors a bit on the balcony this summer.



Before!



The pieces of fabric I've used to block the view looks absolutely awful. They're both VERY sun bleached and dirty. Can you imagine that the top on used to look like the background I'm using for the blog? (It was actually the inspiration for the blog layout) And the colors that now looks kind of gray were pink and green last spring



After! MUCH better!



I've moved the plant box to the area I use to call "the corner".



And look and the chives/gräslök and tulips/tulpaner growing!


I have replaced those really bleached and dirty draperies by now (photos will come another day) but I still need to find new fabric for the chair and a new oilcloth for the table in more appropriate colors. And yes, I DO plan to add more plants as well, but it's still too early in the season for most plants.

Spring on the balcony!

I promised you some spring photos and I usually DO keep my promises so here are the first ones (there will be more recent ones as well later).

Remember the spring flower bulbs I planted last fall? It was soo exciting when the first life started to show up in the flower pot. Looking for the first spring flowers is something I really miss from my old garden. I wasn't sure anything would survive this harsh winter but at least some of the bulbs did. Yay!



Look!!!


Growing bigger


To me it looks like these are just the tulips which mean that sadly the grape hyacinths/pärlhyacinter and crocuses/krokusar didn't make it. (I'm not sure yet about the Narcissuses/Påskliljorna yet.) I guess I'll have to protect them a bit better from the cold next season (but most likely next winter will not be as rough since the last one was usually cold and snowy for this part of Sweden).




The winter was really hard on the poor plants in the plant box too. The poor
strawberries/jordgubbar and wild strawberries/smultron don't look too happy


But look!!! The chive/gräslök is still alive! And MAYBE the parsley/persilja too.


A couple of days later!





I've bought some lovely Pansies/Penséer this spring (way more than I should but I could resist theses colors)




Note the butterflies!
















And look! No more snow!!! Yay!!!

Winter on the balcony!

I thought I should start off with showing you some winter photos, just to show you how much snow we've actually had. And keep in mind that I've got a roof on my balcony, it would have been A LOT more snow otherwise (as if this wasn't enough? LOL)

Remember all the nice heathers/ljung I got last fall to have something pretty to look at on the balcony during the winter? Talk about wasted money! LMAO



Before



After!!!



Before



After!!!
(This photo is taken standing indoors going outside wasn't an option. LOL)



The plant box, before
(You'll get bonus points if you can guess what the tall black thing is)



And after!



The strawberries, in December, BEFORE the massive amount of snow and fierce cold came. They were still doing fine then. Now? Well... no so much!



We hadn't gotten that much snow yet here...



...but we got more...



...and more...



...and more...



... and MORE!!!



This used to be the bonus flower bed below my balcony



And this is a poor, icy cold Rhododendron (they don't lose their
leaves in the fall, instead they curl them up when they're freezing)



This is a flower pot, in a huge milk can, on a table, under a pile of snow. See
that smaller snowdrift in the background to the left? That used to be my car!!!



I know, I know, cars are a bit off topic but since you can hardly tell
that this actually IS a car I thought it would be okay anyway. LOL



And no, it's NOT an SUV, it just looks that way. LOL


In case you wonder, since I've got a disease (ME/CFS) that gets a lot worse during the winter I hardly use my car even during good winters.

And yes, it actually started again (the battery had been removed during the winter to keep it from getting ruined) and it's working just fine again now. (It's doing MUCH better than the strawberries. LOL)

Okay, okay, I promise, enough of cars and snow now! LOL Next time I'll show some more recent SPRING photos instead.

Welcome back!!!

It's been a long and VERY snowy winter but finally the spring is here and it's time to start up again, both with the blogging and with a new balcony season. Yay!!!

I will return later with some photos. I just need to recharge my camera batteries AGAIN. Meanwhile I'll see if I can finish some new "curtains" for the gap in the railing. The old fabrics have faded to almost white and there's also a slight color change to expect on the balcony (I'm saying SLIGHT here, there will still be lots of pink, I'm still ME after all. LOL)

But for now I just want to wish you all welcome back to the blog again!!! (And don't forget to comment to keep my blogging motivation on top. LOL)