A happy picture..

..from Washington needs to be shared on this grey and windy day in Sweden when the trees are shedding their leaves in heaps! My son and granddaughter - she is getting quite and amount of teeth now I can see...
Photo: Ilhem Baghdadlis

Autumn Sunday in Gotland

Rute Stenungs Bakery in northern Gotland, exterior installation.

Risung,s one of the largest sheep farms in Gotland. They also run truffle safaries and a Romagnolo Lagotto Kennel. This Sunday a well attended Lagotto Dog Show was held on the farm.

This one came to visit me -before the show -in my garden frolicking with all my apples.
Oh how I would want one of those! But. Then I would not be able to travel..

And here is one of the show participants resting in the garden before going off to Risung´s and the show. The Lagottos are famous for their ability of snuffing up truffles - and Gotland has plenty of those. It is called the Black Gold of Gotland!

Some of the pretty Lagotto winners and their British judge.

Eager owners in the huge barn which had been stripped of sheep for the two days of the Dog Show. Here they were also selling truffle related products - likeTruffle Soap, for example !

In red in the centre is Ulla, the owner of the farm. She will be coming around to my and my sister´s farm soon with one of her best "sniffing" dogs to see were our truffles are to be found on our ground which hold all the desired prerequisites for truffles - oak and hazel trees in abundance.

The connosseurs and publicum. And my sister in the cowboy hat!

The country bakery of Rute was closing down for the season this Sunday so we stacked up with their delicious stone baked bread and had a coffee there on our way home.At Tingstäde träsk I discovered this old boat house on our drive home. In this lake there are a lot of crayfish they say. But they are said to be quite muddy and not very well tasting..

At Risung´s I bought some black truffles..Oh the smell..heavenly!

Fresh corn fromthe fields and the bread and melted butter with ground truffles became Sunday supper!

While this little pretty fellow below was looking on(lured by the strong truffle smell?) from my kitchen wall. He was later carefully brought back into the garden.

Collecting sprees..

These days I feel a bit like Little Red Riding Hood walking about in the garden with a basked to fill with goodies..

Reflections in a window:
The first tomatoes are brought indoors to redden a bit faster on a tray. I had some on my breakfast sandwich this morning. Needless to say - the homegrown stuff taste very special! Yesterday I harvested and boiled the first beet roots. And had them with crumbled goat cheese and fresh thyme. Mmm mm...(Photo and recipe from Mimmi´s mat)

However, the days are now focused on plums. Last years crop was scarce but this year! The branches are almost cracking under the burden! I have two kinds - the green ons and some lovely ones with pink cheeks..

This is a plum water color I just love made by Sara Midda.

The Complete book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour (ill. above) follows me where ever I go in this world.
The Swedish version and the English below.
It was given to me when I lived in Zimbabwe by a dear friend. And have I been using it as a garden bible ever since! Seymour has a number of tips on plums among a million of other useful information for the keen gardener: on how to prune, to make marmelade, plum jam, about pollination, and so on..
John nowadays feels like an old friend of the family!
The guru of self sufficiency.
I recently found out that he died at the age of 90 in 2004 and this is the obituary of his interesting life in the Guardian:
" ...at the age of 20, he moved to South Africa, where he managed a sheep farm, worked in a copper mine and joined the government veterinary service.He spent much time with Bushmen, whose assured hunter-gatherer lifestyle in a semi-desert environment profoundly influenced his thinking; he said that they took from nature only as much as they needed for survival. He came to realise that much of human knowledge and culture is an ancient inheritance, and not primarily the product of urban progress."
Full text here.

unThese plumes above looks like soft maiden´s blushy cheeks!

A great illustration from Seymour´s book on what to do in the garden this time of year.
Well. Hmm--
I haven´ t made even fragments of what he suggests for the garden in September. But I know he will smile in his heaven at this. The books are undemandingly written with so much humor that it will be oozing down to generations poking in their soils long after he is gone..

Since words fail me after the Swedish election results last night , the genius of the Swedish artists of the old "Yellow Dog" show will do just fine..

Harvest time..

..From my garden, in Gotland.

Sandhamn. Weekend remix.

Autumn is almost there..

A strange kind of peace starts settling upon you like some weather proof outfit.. Outdoor activities are traded by indoor occupations at the tune of the rain drumming on the windows accompanied by an unmercyful wind from the restless, greying sea.

So.

Today I brought out the paint brushes. Long time no seen, friends!

And practised on a bit my roses.
I wonder how many of those I have painted over the years in my interior decoration store? On furniture, linens, fabrics and on canvases.. A rose is a rose is a rose..
It worked quite OK so I made this one (see below) from memories of the rooftops of Paris instead.
I always dream of Paris, particularly in the fall-then who doesn´t? To take afternoon tea in Jardin de Luxembourg..
..enjoying the fragrance of the abundance of asters this time of year in this huge garden "très ravissant"..
In this small studio (below) I stayed when the deadly cyclonic windstorm hit Paris 10 years ago. I spent all night fully dressed clasping my passport and handbag by the entrance door rigging all the stuff I could find against the only studio window.
Well that was a night to remember. In the morning when the storm had faded somewhat, I hit the deserted streets of Paris - and was chocked. It looked like Paris had been under a siege.The Seine had overflowed. Huge parts of buildings and balconies had landed on the streets. Broken glass were cracking and scrunching under my feet.
Below is the Paris rooftop painting I made this morning out of memory of the little studio window just before the storm:

A doorway in Paris.
Click for a great Paris blog: Peter´s Paris from which this picture is taken. Makes you long even more..