Update: A Note to my fellow "I love white party ~ and so do you"visitors coming over from Marianne's Song Bird blog in May 2011, I think most of my posts show my immense love for white in all it's shades in my home and in my garden, but I chose this post from last Summer, because there is lot's of white in both my cottage and my garden to see in and also two white revamp projects. You may find lot's of more white if you'd take the time to browse my blog and I'd be thrilled if you'd let me know that you were here by leaving me a comment. Congratulations to Marianne in our neighbor country the Netherlands for reaching 1000 followers ! Good luck (for winning her sure to be beautiful give away) and happy party day everyone! It's a wonderful warm, well almost hot Spring day here in Northern Germany and I'll definitely will enjoy most of it in my garden :)
xoxo ~ Carola
Hello again dear blogging friends and readers! Welcome into my Summer parlor and my Boxwood Cottage garden in July! I did a lot of changes lately & finished some projects but before I start the tour of more than 35 photos (maybe you'd want to go grab some coffe and go to the loo before you keep reading?) I'd like to thank the over 110 readers & friends that left me such heartwarming comments on my studio post below! What a great party that was and also I have still not been able to see all the many studios from the Where Bloggers Create 2010 blog party I saw some real juwels already which were very inspiring. I especially loved the outdoor studio of Tracie (My petite maison) what a fabulous idea to create a summer studio under a gazebo when you live in a warm and dry corner of our world!
But now to my living room changes, well I learned from my friend Paula that in the US you guys also call the living room parlor and I really love that word! My parlor has a beautiful view into the garden and when the weather is not good enough or even too hot like the last two days I like to sit here and enjoy looking outside.
I rearranged the seating corner under the window after I painted one of my 3 plant stands white in my May vacation. Everything is summery white and fresh now.
I did a few shots all around the sofa table and my dining area with the kitchen ( for which I have great plans of change too) behind the counter/kitchen island. I love how you can read the Boxwod Cottage garland my sweet friend Madai made from me so well from this angle.
The willow sofa that was standing under the 3 part shelves on the wall before, now it stands in the middle of the room and I wouldn't have thought it but I really like it because it is beautiful from the back side too.
I lately managed to get a lot of painting done in my vacation and on the weekends, in the next picture I show you the painting preps for for a garden window mirror. It is a 60ies mirror that my parents had hanging in their hallway when I was a child. I had it hanging in my old cottage but for the last 5 years since I moved into Boxwood Cottage it was standing around in my basement until it occured to me how great it could look in my fave creamy white.
See what I mean?
You never can have enough mirrors inside or out when the reflections are so pretty I think.
I really like the mirror there on my deck looking like a window in the wall, but now let's go down into the boxwood garden, where our tabby Riley is already enjoying himself.
The view through my two rose arbors is really pretty now with Leonardo da Vinci, Queen of Denmark and Constance Spry in bloom.
I thought Riley looked so handsome with his grey fur against the fence of my neighbor Ulla:
I wont bore you with too many close ups of my peonies and roses today but I have to at least show you a few faves like my white snowball peony "Boule de Neige":
They look so delicate with the hints of soft pink, what a pitty that they withered already in last weeks unusual heat, but hey there are still the roses to admire like Eden85 who is finally blooming again:
and my new love planted last fall under the rusty rose arc. It's called "Giardina" and supposed to climb 3,50 to 4 metres high and is supposed to climb over the arbor in the years to come:
And the soft pink beautiy in the next picture is Wild Eve by David Austin, it wasn't blooming well for the last 4 years since I planted it because there was a tree standing over it, but since we cut down that tree last fall it has really made a huge effort to bloom beautifully:
In front of "Wild Eve" is my white hydrangea "Annabelle", also planted last fall after we cut the tree, beginning to grow her white balls, still tiny but I can see the potential she has to become a stunner in this corner.
There is clematis Piilu climbing up the white wooden trellis not yet in bloom
and my Rokoko rose blooming on the other side of it.
I think it looks so pretty now in it's fresh white coat!
Also seen through my rusty rose arc. If you follow my blog for a long time, you may remember that my dad has built it for me years ago and that it was blue before - I uploaded an old picture here:
But now I really must show you my new fave garden corner, right there in the very back of my yard under the shady maple tree, see it?
On hot summer days like we enjoy right now it is a wonderful place to sit and get a gentle breeze of wind, because on my deck it gets so hot that you think you are going to bake every minute lol
Well my faithful readers and followers might now that I have this place for 5 years now, the new thing is that I gave it kind of a carpet of white carrara pebble gravels so my feet and the feet of my friends and family wont get dirty anymore sitting there. Since the maple grew and grew the lawn under it disappeared more and more over the years and it was time to think up a solution and since it became such a dark and shady corner I thought white pebble gravels would be the best thing.
When I did the studio rearragements lately, I decluttered my old white studio chandelier and brought it down here too because the chandelier I had hanging here last year now hangs in my living room again.
I also painted a former blue Ikea stool white for this corner and added a lantern I had in my front yard before to it.
I so enjoy sitting here lately, I actually sit here right now as I type. See the plant stand on the left? Another one I had in my basement for years and finally painted it white this summer. You can also spy my favorite home and garden magazine on the table. Next thing to paint white is the bird feeder!
My dear mum gave to me the pretty white crocheted table cloth she got from Cyprus some years ago for my black round iron table.
The vintage wine basket bottle is a souvenir from a vacation in Provence France 16 years ago in a beautiful old mass under the white Monte St.Victoire in the middle of a vine field, it was a gift from Madame Savournin our lovely landlord there whom I will never forget. What a pity that they use plastic bottles nowadays instead of these pretties.
I put my stone dove up again on the red brick stack after I had finished laying the gravel.
I decorated the space under my plant stand with some of my white enamel jugs and watering cans and a gardb glass cloche
It's a great pleasure to sit here now taking in the beauty of the garden. Riley enjoys it with me. He also loves to sleep on the iron bench at night when I leave the cushions outside.
I put another mirror there on the bird feeder which reflects the garden while turning softly back and forth.
Late in the evening when the sun stands really deep, right now this is around 9 pm the sun light lits my chandlier which looks quite spectacular.
I leave you with this photo where I stand on the way behind my shady space. This way is only for neighbors to use and is not used much but when they pass they can get a glimpe through the hedege over the iron bench and into my little garden Eden.
Hope you are all enjoying Summer right now!
Carola xoxo~
