Mosiac Monday Little Red House - Saint Lucia

This post Little Red House - Saint Lucia was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden

This is from yesterdays walk through the little village Åkerby. What a wonderful winter day, the sun was shining and the snow was glittering and it was just a perfect Sunday afternoon. All the little red houses brightened up the otherwise fairly black and white landscape. This is where I have my little red cottage, my "summerhouse", Åkerby is a very old village, I don't know how old but I know that the Russians burnt most of it down in 1917 during the so called "rysshärjningarna" Russian ravages. The clocktower in Åkerby is from 1739 and my little red house is from 1901.

Today we celebrate The Day of Saint Lucia   (Saint Lucy's Day wikipedia) a lovely day in Advent. A day with filled with glorious music, lots of candlelights, saffron bread and of course Lucia.

Mosaic Monday - Little Red House

Leufstabruk - Orangery and Mansion

© This post was originally uploaded and written by Tyra at the blog Tyra's Garden http://waxholm.blogspot.com

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Leufstabruk Orangery and Mansion -

Leufstabruk Orangeri och Herrgård

When we meet Leufsta today she is dressed in December colours, it is cold and already dark despite it is just three o’clock when we walk through the baroque gardens of Leufstabruk. Last time I visited Leufsta it was September at the end of summer and it was still nice and warm. Very different yet she is still a beauty so calm and serene, a few hours in this place and your are relaxed. We have just visited the Christmas market in the 17th century Orangery, filled with Christmas goddies, knitted hats and mittens, hand made pottery and other handicrafts made of wood or iron. A lot of very nice things and I bought a pretty blueish green pitcher that will be nice to serve the 'glögg' molded wine in.

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Orangery at Leufsta is from the 17th century and did survive the big ravages and huge fires by Russians in 1719. The floors in the Orangery are smooth, rustic and very beautiful, the stone walls are thick, I guess at least 70 cm thick and in the big room there are two enormous tiled stoves they must be 6 x 2 meters, huge and very impressive. I know that these tiled stoves are filled with sand and that is a great way to accumulate the heat, I wish that I could have one of those tiled stoves in my greenhouse.
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There isn't very much to see in the gardens, I mean growing things but I like to look at the structures in a baroque gardens during the winter it is especially nice if there is snow of course. Although this time it wasn't the gardens we were here for, our goal was the Christmas market and a tour of the mansion at Leufstabruk. Leufsta was founded in 1596 by the way. It was a special Christmas tour 'Leufsta mansion at Christmas' how the life was here during the Christmas time. How the mansion was decorated, what they ate and how the Christmas traditions were back in the 17-18 and 19th century, most interesting and very beautiful.

Orangeriet klarade rysshärningen och branden 1719
Omkring 1880 uppfördes här en trädgård i tysk stil på den nuvarande barockträdgårdens plats. Den innehöll bland annat en staty av en vallonsmed, exotiska växter som övervintrade i orangeriet och en damm med en sprudlande fontän. Orangeriet uppfördes under senare delen av 1600-talet och var brukets enda stenbyggnad när Leufsta brändes ner av ryssarna 1719.

Släkten De Geer och vallonerna
När kronan 1641 sålde ut sina kronobruk köpte holländaren Louis De Geer upp Lövsta. Bruket skulle komma att ägas av släkten De Geer i flera generationer. Med de invandrade ägarna inleddes en 200-årig storhetstid inom svensk järnhantering. Louis De Geer värvade smeder och masugnsbyggare från sin gamla hembygd, Vallonien, i nuvarande södra Belgien

TYRA

Have a great day - Ha en trevlig dag!

Don't be a stranger, write something! - Skriv en rad det är så trevigt.

Mother Earth's Wild Flowers Garden - Uppland

Tyra wrote this post at the blog Tyra’s Garden http://waxholm.blogspot.com. If you are not reading it at Tyra’s Garden, then this content was stolen without permission.

Mother Earth's Garden - Uppland

I'm up at my 'summerhouse' again to make the house ready for the winter. There are a lot of things that need to be attended to, empty the water butts (?) storing all the garden furniture etc. As I was looking at some pictures last night I found these wild flower pictures taken on a walk in May this year at the Bondskärets Naturresevat. This protected area has a great flora and fauna as well as very interesting geological features. This nature reserve Bondskäret is just a few K from here and just by the sea. Meadow flowers at Bondskär Dactylorhiza sambucina. not latifolia as it says on the photo (an old name) , I don't know the english name for it, we call it Adam & Eva. Its an orchid and all the orchids in Sweden are protected species accordingly it is prohibited to pick, dig up or in other ways harm the orchids.

This is the pretty Spring Pea Lathyrus vernus - Vårärt

Meadows and Woodland at the Nature Reserve - Ängskär - Bondskär

Cowslip - Primula veris L. - Gullviva

And at last but not least a favorite the wonderful fragrant Lily-of-the-valley Convallaria majalis L. -Liljekonvalj
Om ni vill ut och göra fina promenader i Uppland rekommenderar jag verkligen att ni går in och läser på Upplandsstiftelsen sida. Den är fantastiskt bra. Massor av fina utflyktstips, promenader, läs om naturvård och lite... nej en massa annan interessant läsning.

Have a great day - Ha en bra dag / TYRA

RED

Falu red or in Swedish we call it Faluröd is the name of the beautiful Swedish, deep red paint well known for its use on wooden cottages and barns. The paint originated from Falun in Dalarna ( copper mine) , Sweden. The traditional colour remains popular today due to it's effectiveness in preserving wood it is absolutely fantastic. Easy to paint and it doesn't smell.

The earliest evidence of its use dates from the 16th century. During the 17th century Falu red was commonly used on smaller wooden mansions, where it was intended to imitate buildings with brick facing. Except in bigger cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg, and in the extreme south of Sweden, wood was the dominating building material. In the Swedish cities and towns, buildings were often painted with the Falu red until the early 19th century, when the authorities began to oppose the paint. At this point in time more and more wooden buildings in urban areas were either painted in lighter colours (e.g. yellow, white) or sided with stucco. The number of buildings made of bricks (with stucco) also increased. However the Falu red saw a surge in popularity in the countryside during the 19th century, when also poorer farmers and crofters began to paint their houses. Falu red is still widely used in the Swedish countryside.
The actual colour may be different depending on how much the oxide is burnt, ranging from almost black to a bright, light red. Different tones of red have been popular at different times. Recently a mix giving a dark green colour, Falu Grön, has also been produced by mixing black and ochre.

The last fading beauty - Rose against the red wall on my cottage in Åkerby Village in the north of Uppland.

The paint consists of water, rye flour, linseed oil and residue from the copper mines of Falun which contain silicates iron oxides, copper compounds and zinc. The current recipe was finalized in the 1920s.

Pictures from the small village called Åkerby, this is where I am now when I'm writing this post. Åkerby bruk founded 1638

TYRA