My mouse doesn't work so here i sit, looking at my computer that i cant use and thinking how sad am i to be so desperate to get on the net i am using my phone. I am a true addict. Was going to post pictures and share my day gardening and decorating but even for an adict like me that is too much to cope with on a phone. Have to wait till i get a new mouse

A Grey November Afternoon

4 pm in November

It's winter here now, it looks like winter, feels like winter and the sun sets early. We have had very mild days...............but even when its mild, the air feels like winter

Art Sunday; Hans Dahl

Norwegian Painter Hans Dahl (1849-1937)

Hans Dahl, born19 February 1849, Granvin, died 27 July 1937, was a Norwegian painter, famous for his paintings of Norwegian fjords and surrounding landscapes.

Dahl had his first exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1876. He lived in Düsseldorf until 1888, when he moved to Berlin. Almost every summer he was back in Norway painting.

In 1893, he commissioned his summer residence to be built on the banks of the Sognefjord at Balestrand. This was a popular and picturesque area frequented by artists of the time.

After 1919, Dahl no longer traveled to Berlin, he lived permanently in Balestrand which became a popular tourist destination in western Norway.

 The German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, became one of Dahl's most loyal patrons, conferring a professorship upon him in 1910, and visiting Dahl in Balestrand several summers in a row.


Dahl resisted the transition in art from Romanticism to Modernism. In the 1890s a new school of art arose, and artists like Dahl became unfashionable.

He was openly criticised by the art historian Jens Thiis and several of his fellow artists especially by Christian Krohg.

Krohg was one of the leading figures in the transition from romanticism to naturalism which characterized Norwegian art in this period.

Dahl often described the scenery of the western part of Norway in brilliant sunshine with smiling people in national costumes.

His vibrant colors and charming portrayals of young Norwegian girls in their national costume are simplistic but have remained popular.

Hans Dahl was married to Helene Bewer, the daughter of the German painter Clemens Bewer (1820-1884). Their son was the Norwegian painter Hans Andreas Dahl (1881-1919), who died of tuberculosis at the age of 37.

In 1902 Dahl was appointed knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, 1st class. Hans Dahl died in Balestrand in Sogn og Fjordane during 1937. His grave is located in the churchyard of Tjugum.

Music by Altan, an Irish folk music group.

Song Saturday; Who am I?

Here’s another couple of songs I’d forgotten about, but then I started thinking, and these words seem so appropriate. Appropriate on two levels, most of us know someone who has served/ died/ lost limbs in Afghanistan or Iraq. And the few of us who managed to remain completely unaffected by the wars can’t remain unaffected by the world wide economic meltdown. This is just another method of grinding us all down and stealing our dreams.

‘’ Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.’’

 Who Am I Country Joe & The Fish


Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ?
There were some things that I loved one time,
But the dreams are gone I thought were mine,
And the hidden tears that once could fall
Now burn inside at the thought of all
The years of waste, the years of crime
Passions of a heart so blind;
To think that, but even still
As I stand exposed, the feelings are felt
And I cry into the echo of my loneliness.
Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ?
What a nothing I've made of life
The empty words, the coward's plight
To be pushed and passed from hand to hand
Never daring to speak, never daring to stand
And the emptiness of my family's eyes
Reminds me over and over of lies
And promises and deeds undone
And now again I want to run
But now there is nowhere to run to.
Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ?
And now my friend we meet again
We shall see which one will bend
Under the strain of death's golden eyes
Which one of us shall win the prize
To live and which one will die
'Tis I, my friend, yes 'tis I
Shall kill to live again and again
To clutch the throat of sweet revenge
For life is here only for the taking.
Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ? Who am I ?

A couple of old well loved songs.

A couple of simple little songs from a long time ago that always make me think of this time of year. And a water colour I did a while ago.

Garden 2011 no 16; Closing down for winter.

Garden 2011 no 16

Closing down for winter

I was lucky last weekend; I had a completely free weekend, no arrangements, no commitments, no interruptions and mild dry weather. We are into November and the time has come to close the garden winter.

All of the fallen leaves are swept and composted and all of the garden waste that wouldn’t fit into the composter is happily rotting in a corner. The garden shed is tidy, the fruit canes are cut back and the last of the buddleia is dead headed and trimmed. While cleaning out some of the debris from the pond I cam e across two frogs which is wonderful, I was afraid the pond would never recover after the pollution in the summer and now, just a few months later, I have frogs back again.

I started my vegetable garden too late in the year to expect a high yield of any thing during this first year. I have had quite a few radishes, lots of lettuce, and one crop of carrots. The radishes finished a while ago but there were lettuce scattered around and my one and only carrot crop were still in the ground. I knew every thing had to come out. It’s November and even though the weather is  mild, I know I could wake up literally any day to a ground frost and the start of real winter weather.

I lifted enough lettuce to last me and my daughters for the coming week and then its back to shop bought ones. The carrots are small but sweet and tasty, I decided to lift them, prepare them, freeze them and save them for our family Christmas dinner. I thought that would be a nice way to use my first carrot crop.

I’ve also lifted all the geraniums. When I lived in the south I never lifted my geraniums and always at least some would survive. But I have learnt, geraniums never survive the winter here, they have to be lifted, so now I have a kitchen full of geranium plants.

I have dig over and enlarged the vegetable garden ready for next year; I’m even considering putting in some broad beans and garlic before the winter sets in.

So that’s more or less it for the year, oh except for the bird food, I forgot to buy any but its that time of year and I can’t forget to feed the birds.