Resurfacing...

Dearest blog readers,

Now how did that happen?! A blog silence so long that even I was beginning to wonder if I would ever find my way back to the gates of Bloglandia. As you can see, I have resurfaced, but only with the help of some recycled photos from previous autumns. My camera lies dormant in its case, and I, I neither lie nor am I dormant very much... Instead, it seems I have boarded life's own speed train, with a ticket that will last at least another few months...

As for you, dear readers, I wish you all the best, hoping you are enjoying many revitalising autumn walks and special moments with friends and family. The season for going a little candle crazy is here, so bring out the hot chocolate and the fluffy throws!

Helena

The winds are changing...

Today when I went for my morning walk, the fields were full of sheep, crows and autumn. The sheep, who usually greet me with cheerful baah-baahs, were surprisingly silent. Perhaps they thought that the croaking wall of sound from the black feathers was enough noise for a Sunday morning, perhaps they were simply contemplating the changing seasons...

And the seasons are definitely changing. A different wind tickled my temples today, luring various strands of hair out of my ponytail and playfully throwing them straight into my eyes. The ducks in the lake told me in no uncertain terms that they were not impressed by my lack of bread for them, and the skies looked at least fifty shades of grey...



The photos in today's post are from the pretty little village of Monkton Farleigh, just a few minutes drive from here. It is apparently known for its underground mines of Bath stone, which have been converted into one of the largest Ministry of Defence underground ammunition stores in the UK. To me, however, it is known for its beauty, its quintessentially English... well, Englishness!

It is with a spot of melancholy that I say goodbye to the glorious summer that seemed to last forever, but it is also with a smile that I greet autumn. The colours, the crisp air, the cosy nights in... bring it on!

Wishing you all the most wonderful autumn days!

Love, 

Helena

At last...

... a small sign of life ...!

Yes, I am indeed alive. And kicking. Mostly accidentally kicking sheep droppings on my many walks in the countryside here, where summer has been lingering and the air has had that lovely scent of promise, warm soil and cow dung. Well, the latter might not be my preferred perfume as such, but there is something so grounding, so wholesome about walking through agricultural land, that a whiff of fresh cow pat actually does add that je ne sais quoi that makes the picture complete somehow...

The summer of 2013 was glorious, the weather sensational and I simply could not bear to spend a minute more than necessary indoors. The blog was neglected and with life picking up speed again now, I dare not make any promises for regular posts anytime soon. But perhaps that is how it is sometimes, that one part of your life has to slow down in order to make way for other parts to evolve...? 

I hope you have all had a relaxing and soul-nurturing summer and that September has begun with smiles all around!

Love, 

Helena

Flirting with turquoise...

Now, many are the eyebrows that might now be raised a little higher than usual in front of the computer screens... Turquoise, she says? Aqua colours in the Swenglish home...?

Well, lately I have, to my own surprise, felt drawn to this strong and cheerful colour. Perhaps it is because of the magical summer we are having, where temperatures seem to have soared many weeks ago, only to surprise even themselves by then getting stuck there, high, high up in the unusually sweaty register... Perhaps this is why I am drawn to this slightly cooler colour, a sort of surrogate dip in the ocean for a Swede longing for school to finish and mental doors to open for beach days and splashing galore?

Perhaps this is why, during a visit to Camden Market in London at the beginning of the summer, I was surprised to see myself point at this large piece of fabric and say "could I have that one please?" and a moment later find myself in the street a few pounds shorter but with a bag full of aqua-coloured joy?

(Love versatile garden equipment..., like here with a tray placed on an upsidedown leaf bin/butt/barrel -instant side table, hooray!)

And this little fellow, he and I met in Sweden in June, and I invited him to come home with me. I am very glad I did, as with him came some wonderfully calming vibes...

Fruit... oh how we eat fruit in the summer heat! Pears, melons, strawberries - any and every fruit seems to lodge in our fridge, but only for a brief moment before it is enjoyed, giving us the juicy, fruity kick we are craving...

So there we have it, a quick and long overdue hello from a warm Wiltshire, where we are now getting ready for some proper summer holidaying, hoping the weather will not already have exhausted itself completely...

  Lake splashing, here we come!

So, from my little corner of turquoise tranquility, a warm hug to all of you who still pop in to visit The Swenglish Home blog. What is your colour that has got you tingling this summer?

Helena

❤

Munching dragonflies in the kitchen...?!

No, not to worry, no insects were harmed in the production of this blog post...

I just thought I would dig out some photos from our kitchen from earlier this spring...

... to somehow bring the interior theme back into the blog, before...

... I go off on one of my garden musings again, or perhaps...

... simply give in to the urge to make hundreds of thousands of biscuits 

with my new dragonfly cookie cutter...!

Sooo, if you do not hear from me again for some time...

it is very likely I can be found somewhere near a beach...

with a face that says... 

"Who... me? 

No, I did not just eat eighty-three dragonfly-shaped biscuits!

Of course not.

Ehm."

Wishing you a lovely July week,

filled with your favourite biscuits!

Helena

You Can Leave Your Hat On...

... I believe he sang, Joe Cocker, all those years ago... 

And here, in my favourite garden, a hat may be advisable to shield you from the sun, but on some days you need not worry about any other clothing, as The Naked Gardeners welcome visitors in their birthday costumes on certain dates throughout the season...

However, on Friday last week when I revisited Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury, it was a normal day, where the only nudity on display was offered by a few statues in the glorious, creative and inventive gardens that constitute this green gem. The photo above was taken from the tiny island in the river, a perfect spot from which to admire the majestic backside (no pun intended!) of the house.

I love the contrast of the wilder, "junglier" area down by the river, after having admired the slightly more formal garden rooms in front of the house. 

 

The sun loungers looked very appealing on this sunny day, as did a game of chess...

The front of the house is covered in an array of gorgeous green leaves and more colourful floral phenomena...

And when we sat down for a drink in the café by the koi carp pond, Robbie came to say hello. Well, Robbie admittedly seemed more interested in the biscuits my fellow garden admirers were munching than in any real bird-human bonding, but even so, I fell in love with this little feathery fellow!

Now look at those curves! I LOVE this section of the garden, with the funky gigantic green head, the lollipop trees and all the shaped box hedges and trees...!

Gorgeous giant poppies, red, pink and white, all looking as if made of silky paper...

Now, I am not the kind of girl who forces people to do things, nor do I tend to give unsolicited advice to my friends, but I may just have to make an exception here... You simply HAVE to visit this garden one day! It is a very special place and if you do not find at least one spot in the five acres of green loveliness that makes you weak at the knees or at least filled with a desire to plant your bottom on the lawn and just be for a moment, soaking up the view from your tranquil spot, well, then I am not sure what to say!

There are loads more photos from this garden under the heading Abbey House Gardens in my Categories - please feel free to browse them should you like to see more.

Blog posts are not exactly bombarding your screens from The Swenglish Home at the moment. Summer hibernation has set in, I am afraid, and I spend more hours outdoors than in at the moment, far, far away from screens and keyboards. I hope you are also enjoying the warmer season. A special thank you to all of your who still pop in to visit my quasi-dormant corner of the blog world, and a special-special thank you for kind comments!

With much love,

Helena

Lollipops, lucky clover and a surprise little black number...

Just outside our double doors to the garden, there is a small patio between the house and the steps that lead into the actual garden. If you have visited my blog before, you will have seen this little corner of my world a lot, as this is an area that changes with the seasons throughout the year.

With the baskets of pansies looking less than... well, less than alive, shall we say, after my visit to Sweden (when they were left without the tender love and care they crave), it was time to invite some new players to the team...

Can you see all the four-leaf clovers in this beautifully coloured clover-y plant? I look forward to many lucky moments in my life over the next few years, if this is a sign to go by! And my new lollipop mini-trees - what is it about me and my lollipop trees? I can't seem to get enough of them. They are just so... cheerful!

For the second time in my life, "a little black number" has found its way into my decorating. Or two little black numbers to be precise, both old terracotta pots that had a close encounter with a jet black paint brush the other night... The greens of the clover and the other fluffy green loveliness seemed to demand to be offset by a black pot, and I obeyed, of course.

And my dear Buddha seems to have survived last winter without any cracks or blemishes, and sits on his special spot on the steps, spreading vibes of serenity and calm to anyone walking past.



Cluttered with pots? Perhaps. But as our neighbours have recently cut down all the bushes and blackberry branches that used to form a little roof over this seating area and offer a leafy feel to the place, as well as covering some of the not so pretty parts of the old wall, well, this abundance of green and purple eye candy works for me!

Today the winds reign here in Wiltshire. Everywhere I see people muttering and mumbling as they pull their coats tighter around their sun-longing torsos. The sky shows very little promise of anything that does not involve wet and damp, but I will cling on to the hope that we will have more of those lovely temperatures that only a few days ago spoke of summer and planted sunshine in our hearts and in freckles on our noses...

May the sun be with you, in heart and happy freckles!

Love,

Helena