Royal Greenhouses of Laeken

One of the first days of May we made an excursion to the royal greenhouses at the Palace of Laeken, Serres Royales de Laeken. The greenhouses are only open to the public for a couple of weeks every year (this year 18 April - 9 May) so it is a very popular destination. We first went there on May Day and arrived around 10:30, one hour after opening. The queue of cars to get to the parking lot was so long we gave up right away. Instead we returned two days later and made sure to get there even before it opened. In retrospect it was very good to be even some of the very first visitors, since we had the pushchair with us in the greenhouse and they can get pretty cramped when they fill up with people. Here comes a cavalcade of photos from these beautiful place (it's a shame not even the park is open all year or at least parts of the year).

The Palace, on our way to the greenhouses

I think the greenhouses as buildings are really beautiful. Design by architect Alphonse Balat.

At a distance I thought the greenhouses were made of copper that was covered by verdigris but it is actually green paint that has flaked off and worn down by wind and rain.

The devil is in the detail?

Cool tree

It seems like all royal parks has an Asian garden.

Inside the green houses

No access to this one except a peak in the window.

More plants than flowers in this section.

Entrance to the secret garden

Chasing a curious one-year-old.



No caption necessary

You can't see it in the photos but many flowers had begun to wither. I think the best time to go is the first week.

The only thing that was perhaps missing were signs with names of plants and flowers.

I like these flowers on both sides of a staircase.

The path ended in the big greenhouse.

The Great Outdoors

We spent part of the weekend at the country house (and the rest at a two-year birthday party as well as dinner at my parents). On Saturday we had beautiful autumn weather, chilly but sunny, perfect for some play by the lake and a walk in the woods.

Friday Gallery: Harvest Time

This year I haven't taken any pictures of any late summer/early autumn produce so I had to go into my 2011 archive to find these sun-soaked and delicious apples.  We were hoping to go to the summer house this weekend - where these trees have hopefully produced some apples yet again - but it's just supposed to rain and we have a one-year birthday party to attend tomorrow anyway, it will have to wait until next weekend. 

Wet Walk

It was really wet in the woods after the massive downpour of the last 12 hours and towards the end of our walk it started raining again. So it was three rather wet - but happy - walkers who returned back. Premiére tour with the back carrier went well despite the rain.

Off we go - dry and comfy

We pass more and more puddles and it has also started raining...

Almost home - wet but happy faces

Gorges du Verdon

I was manouvred out of bed this morning (at 9:30 so a completely decent hour though) as you can see. Isolde's is supposed to sleep in the so-called snuggle nest in the middle... She did sleep in her other bed (the pram for this week) from 9pm to almost 5am so I'm not complaining though!
After all the morning chores we got on the road around 11:30 to go to Gorges du Verdon, France's Grand Canyon. On our way we saw many villages on hillsides and hilltops and looked out over the astonishing gorges (no pictures with the iPhone though) and the gorgeously blue Lac de Ste-Croix.

We had lunch at the entrance to the gorge, Castellane, and afternoon coffee at the other end, in Moustiers-Ste-Marie.
I highly recommend a visit to Gorges du Verdon if you're in the area! Such amazing landscape and views and beautiful villages built in/into the mountains. Not for the faint-hearted or those suffering from vertigo though! Via Anna's iPhone

Show & Tell: Ice

After taking a break in January I'm back on the Show & Tell bandwagon again. Annika calls the shot in February and her first theme is ice (she loves winter and snow so the topic was not surprising at all!).

I thought I'd show you some photos from my visit to Niagara Falls (Canadian side) back in December 2005. Some of you might have visited the falls in summer time but I'm quite sure not many of you have seen it frozen in winter*! Talk about ice, Annika! It was so beautiful!

Ehum... I still have this winter coat (it was new then)...time for a new one perhaps!

* The main falls do not freeze of course but smaller falls do and the whole area is covered by ice - and natural ice sculptures - due to steam from the falls that has subsequently frozen.

Interlude

While I finish the post about Lake District I thought I'd show you some nature (or animals to be precise, or birds to be even more specific) shots. Peter took most of them so I can't take all (or even most) credit.

Fiat Yogurt

The best quotes about the volcano so far (taken from the Eyjafjallajökull's fan page on Facebook and its Twitter page):

1. Iceland's President to God: "I said CASH, not ASH!"

2. The best things being a volcano: 1) the attention; 2) allowed to smoke at work; and 3) after dinner you throw the dishes in the crater.

3. English-speakers can't pronounce Eyjafjallajökull: "Eye-a-fyat-la-jo-kutl, there you go"




4. You go Eyafjallajökull! Show mankind who's the boss!

5. Okay, Iceland had som bad economics, but it was a little early to press the self-destruct buttom already; I know you can get out of this one.

6. Do you lava me like I lava you?

7. How fast can you type the name of the Volcano?

And it's pretty cool that the grounding of almost 100,000 flights over the past few days have saved 1.3 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to more than the annual emissions of many developing countries, e.g. Malawi, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and 50 other developing countries.

Show & Tell: Autumn

Time for Erica's fourth theme of the month, Autumn, or specifically: Autumn is here. What are "autumn feelings" for you? What is best/worst with autumn?

I really love autumn! Well, I love all seasons equally! :) I think there is something special with each season. Autumn is so beautiful, much more beautiful than spring and early summer, even if there's something special about those new, soo green leaves in the spring too.

I went to a relative's funeral the other day (one of those very sad ones because she was taken from this world much too early) and the priest said something memorable, beautiful and true at the same time: If death was the end, why would nature show itself in full splendor when it is dying?!

I don't mind the gradually descending darkness either. Sure, on some days, especially this week when it's been either grey and raining or just plain grey EVERY day, it's not that fun - and that is what is worst with this season - but I don't mind the cold or the shorter days. Instead I think about how I can make it cosy with candles (and a burning fire, if we had had a fireplace...) and start looking forward to winter and snow! I know, I'm weird! :)

Today the weather was at its autumn worst but at least it wasn't raining. So I went on a walk to shoot some pictures for this post.

Autumn walk on a October day

Erik Dahlbergsvägen which runs parallel to my street

Some flowers are still going strong

Some of the trees in the Tessin Park are still rather green

The Kaknäs Tower fits in well in the autumn splendor

Some trees don't seem to turn orange or red at all but a light yellow (this is the path past the Chinese Embassy down towards the Djurgård canal)

Along the canal

I like the difference between the grey stones and the orange leaves

View through the reed towards Skansen open-air museum and park

If I had brought some hot chocolate with me I could have taken a rest here!

This turned out blurry but I like it anyway! I wanted to show you one of the red trees I saw on my walk - otherwise most were yellow or orange.

Near the end of my walk - the eastern stretch of Strandvägen near the Djurgård bridge

Oscar Church on Narvavägen is a favourite of mine (though I have actually never been inside it - should go and visit it some day)

And back home from my walk; our newest piece of art, an autumn view from Madrid, acquired from the Salvation Army shop for 30 euros