News from the green world

 There is always high potential for improvement in our garden.

There are some flowerbeds that would require some love and we have had also some serious problems, like having Japanese knotwood issues as our neighbours have it in their garden, on the border with ours. 

I am now focusing on three flower beds - one that our gardener, Pia, had tried to improve last year after I had failed to plant some hosta (which i like a lot). 

Last year she planted some lungwort, which survived to this year despite the slugs eating them up heavily during the previous season. She then recommended to plant some geranium, that seems not popular with them.

Let's see if we manage to fill this flowerbed, which is in a very shadowy spot of the garden and make it a bit more maintenance free.

After I planted the geranium and the hosta

I have started to work on another flowerbed, and planted few on one of the flowerbeds I put more effort as there is ground elder suffocating everything (and me). 

I did an investment in few perennial plants and I hope they will manage to survive this time.

The problem with the knotwood is that is very invasive and that we have had to come with a plan about what to do.

We discussed first removing part of the hedge, move out plants from a relatively big area, cover it for at least a decade and hope for the best. We ended up, after cutting the relevant part of the hedge and moving some plants, that maybe it was smoother to use Roundup, despite us not being very keen in chemicals. 

I am just afraid of the consequences on the surrounding vegetation (and our well and cats), even though I have moved around some of it - but maybe not far enough? And anyway now the whole area looks like there has been a tractor detroying everything...

We had removed the fence

The knotwood and part of the area that we had planned to cover at first

The knotwood

Finally Spring!

 It is finally spring. Which is great as finally there is some sunlight, it is getting warmer and the garden starts to be colored by the different flowers blooming in waves.

If there is a bright side of the medal, there is also a downside, which is that there is a lot of gardening and similar to do - and in reality, it is not a bad side either as I actually do like to work out in the garden. The main problem is that time for doing all of this (and all the rest) is scarce and my level of frustration around the ocean of things I see that should get done and never do increases.

Luckily, at least for the gardening I have got some good help so at least some task get sorted out.

Ivy grows a little bit too much everywhere, so at least the trees should get some oxygen and breathing chances. 

 

The ground elder is a serious problem I have a bit everywhere in the garden. In this "raspberry alley" I have tried to put some stones with flat small cute plants, which sadly died. Now the area is completely clean. I would like to continue with the stones and plants in between, but maybe we should first cover the patch to not have ground elder growing for a while?

Still between the stones on our "eating place" there is always a lot of weeds growing in between. Quite annoying and they can be also growing quite high. This time we caught them as early as we could and now I am trying to fill in the gaps with some special sand that we are testing. This sand is also supposed to not be great for letting weeds grow so maybe it will be a bit harder. 

According to the instructions we should have been vibrating the area after putting the sand, but we can't really do this as the surface is not flat, so we have just to hope for the best and check how this will turn out.

Maintenance

 There is always lots to do in our house that it is general maintenance. Let's not talk of the cleaning, painting, whatever we would have to do to keep things in order, considering that everything always break.

Anyway, we need also to do some preventive cleaning/maintenance, that should be done at least seasonally.

A typical "autumn" activity should be to clean the gutters. This because when all the trees lose the leaves, we need to secure that the water flows properly through the pipes, considering that there should be rain/snow during the winter season.

Now, the thing is that autumn means often also storms, dark, cold, so doing this job after the trees have lost the leaves is completely uninviting. Hence, we often end up doing it in spring/summer time.

Professional cleaning (Mattias)

Our house is also incredibly practical when all of this needs to be done. So, as the gutters are about 6 mothers high from the ground, it is just a pleasure to climb of the ladder and hang there with a water hose and a brush and hope for the best...

Useful modernities

 As we have this incredible controversial relationship with the wind, last year I tried to pragmatically buy a "Weather station" that could support, at least mentally, our handling of extreme weather situations.

I will never be tired to repeat that, as every project for us, things take its time and now, one month and one week later, we are finally able to have the "weather station" up and running, to enjoy being obsessed about temperature and m/s when the wind blows.

The main interface of the weather station: you can read indoor and outdoor temperature, how much it has been raining, what time is it, and how strong the wind is. It also predicts the coming weather

It is of course something that does stick out a bit in the structure of the house. But I doubt i would have ever managed to find something "jugend" inspired ;-)

We need to get happy we could sacrifice the "pumps" house, that has an half painted door, odd tiles and well, it is at least placed in the most wind sensitive part of the garden (that is why we have mounted the wind sensor there).

The wind sensor

We also sacrificed the look of the balcony. Well, that balcony has nothing to do with the original balcony, really. Plus, since it has been probably built in some cheap/fast/unorthodox way, it does look like it would need a hand of paint, or two, or some love and care.

Anyway, I must confess that the rain sensor is just horrible... 

Rain sensor on our beautiful balcony

Now, will all of this help us out to defeat the worst storms that will ever attempt to lift pool roofs and slam trees on the ground?

Let's see if this is just a toy or something useful...

The saga of a Platanus

 In our garden there is a quite big tree, a Platanus, that has been possibly be brutally cut down before we moved in.

Still, despite the cut, branches have been growing up from the top and, although not as impressive as it was probably before, it has been still a fascinating tree. Covered by a lot of ivy, which we have bothered relatively little to remove, it has been one of the few trees that are welcoming to climb (thanks to the ivy, I guess).

This tree is probably one of the oldest ones that we have in our garden and all the Swedes I talk to are always mesmerized we have such a tree in our property.

The crack 

  

Today, our arborist came by for the annual apple trees treatment and I asked him if he could check the other trees around. He then noticed a big crack on the plane. I am pretty sure that that has been there for quite some time, it can't have been appearing from nowwhere, but on the other hand, the tree has been covered by ivy and I have attempted recently to clean it a bit.

A big chunk got off

The risk that it would fall and harm something is small, at worse it would damage the hedge, but better to take precautions as we usually don't have much luck with trees that are old and fall. So, we agreed on removing the dangerous parts.

One can see how big the trunk is (or better, was)

From the other side, the part that got removed

I believe we have a mixture of branches and ivy

It is an old tree and it is not in its best shape. I believe this was the main reason why its crown was cut before our arrival. But it is still beautiful to see, with those enormous leaves that when it is autumn and winter (and partially spring), fly around. 

Good to have firewood out of the cutting of the tree

What is left of the tree got secured and stabilized. Let's see what will happen to it.

Summer action

I have been trying to find the occasion to write what we have done, small and big, but time always fly away. 

At least today, I manage to make concrete the attempt to document some of our minor efforts during the summer.

Some of the small things we have manage to do have been in the pipeline forever. It feels as the whole past year has been sucked up into work and kids and our own logistic/activities without leaving much space for anything else. Also the energy has been limited. 

There is much more that has happened in the last months, so I hope I will manage to catch up in the future to summarize things that I would like to have documented, from both small and bigger house projects of all kind.

1) 

I sadly do not remember why but clips that were holding some cables in the basement fell off. I then asked to try to find news ones, but what I got was not exactly the same product, was some metall hook for fences, as far as I understood.

I then tried to fix these new hooks to hold the cables, but that didn't turn out to be perfect as it was very hard to hammer them into the ceiling and I manage to create more work for me to fix. Holes that will need some adjustment. 

The ceiling, the cables and the holes

2) There have been a lot of small issues with a couple of doors/locks/keyholes. I still have one to fix that has been wrong since we bought the house and probably for decades. But I have put some effort in trying to fix (again) the keyhole for the pentry door. The holes have been just made into the void, basically and the screws have been not manage to get a proper grip. I have now tried to fix it with some linseed putty, with the hope that when it gets hard it actually holds everything together and not that it becomes to brittle and fall aparts again.

The keyhole with the putty

After being "repaired"

Similarly, I repaired also the bathroom door. Also there, one of the screws couldn't get a grip and seems that has been just poorly placed. A bit annoying as this was done by some pro and I would hope that when you pay for something (and not cheaply at all), it would actually give you some insurance on the quality.

Anyway, I removed all the parts of the handle and then I applied once again linseed putty hoping that it will also hold things in place.

The injured wood

I put the putty in the previous holes

I put back things and I am hoping for the best :)

3) As summer is summer, there are also a lot of outdoor projects ongoing, mostly a general maintenance of the garden.

Being inspired by some neighbours with some similar system, I have invested in an automatic sun driven watering system to be used when we are away (and even when we are not).

I also got some old barrel that I have then oiled with linseed oil and filled with water.

The barrel

The sundriven watering system

The system set up for test

I have still to set it up actually properly, to be able to water the plants and so on. It will require me to cut the little pipe and puzzle it together in a smart way. But I want to move the barrel closer to the pump so that it is also less in the way with all the piping.

4) Finally, earlier during summer I had the chance to check the roof as part of the two-years inspection after we painting it. When doing so, I noticed that there was literally all sort of things on the gutters.

Especially before autumn, it will be great to have the regular task of cleaning them out. If they are stuffed, the rain will just overflow with the risk of causing damage to the house structure instead.

Mattias jousts on a long ladder for cleaning a gutter

Also this is not a trivial activity as for reaching some parts you really need to be safe and sound on a ladder. But work is in progress at least!
 

We have a bad connection with the wind

 I guess we have never connected properly with the local wind deities as at storm time, we are always the ones that manage to be creative in damages.

I was down in the basement, after barely sleeping thanks to very strong wind tonight, when I heard Mattias screaming from the kitchen and then Isabella came down announcing that a tree had fallen.

I was of course terrified that it had fallen on the house, people, garage or even the cars. So, I took one of Mattias jackets and out, in pijamas, I went on the street.

I met one of our neighbours but before even realizing he was there, I just cursed loud.

This is what I saw:

At the sight I got mostly irritated at our arborist. I had asked him now for few years to check the tree and possibly cut it down. We had got already some big branches on the way, at some past storm and it was obvious that the tree was not in the best shape. I do not know why he insisted that it was not going to be a problem, but I will face him with facts now and I will ask him how he could think that it could stay...

For how strong the wind was, it would have never brought down the tree like this if it was not completely rotten inside.

It was a complicated morning this one. Mattias had a lecture at 815 and Oscar had to be at school before 8 for his gymnastic class. 

We have one chainsaw and there was breakfast and kids to get ready. Luckily, most of the breakfast was in place and the kids, when there is some emergency, they are quite cooperative, so they were ready in a blink of the eyes.

Mattias started to cut off some of the branches with the support of our neighbour, who realized he was lucky. He had been driving at 6 and back at 630. Not only he was lucky. We were very lucky too.

The tree fell perfectly on the street. Probably some of the hedge got damage, but who cares. The garage is in one piece, the gate still work, no cats or people ended up under the tree and definitely noone with a car.

I went and took my chainsaw gear and went to give a change to Mattias, so he could get ready. He had started to saw a big piece of wood. So I started to cut from there, but a change in the tension of the log made sure that my chainsaw got stuck. The piece was so big and heavy that I manage to get the chain out just long after...

We ended up gathering some of the neighbours, equipped with saw and chainsaws that managed to get more and more branches off the way, until the whole crown got removed and now it is lying in our garden, ready to be chopped for firewood or simply to be put for being thrown.

Mattias managed to leave in time. I was there and helped cleaning out the last big pieces and finally, I also removed the small parts that one of the neighbour had collected to clean up the road.

I locked the garage, put back all the tools, except the chainsaw that needs to be mounted back. I moved a bit the logs in the garden to give space for the cars to drive (but it is a bit too tight).

I took then some pictures and I have sent them to our arborist. He will come to cut the last of it.

Mattias did suggest we would go and buy some firewood, as the logs we have had have been too wet and in a bad condition. Now, we really don't need to do that.

And I think we will have to have a small gathering with our neighbours, both to celebrate the perfect fall of the tree and that we managed (or better, mostly them) to clean out the road in time for everyone to start their day.

Having a vision (or more than one)

Sometimes, when things break, one can't wait forever to get them repair. 

If we think about my attempt to destroy the (probable) original floor with vinager (which I mentioned here), I did apply oil on the tiles and it looks definitely better. I think some more treatments (and probably, a general one to the whole floor) will make it proper.

That was an easy fix, which didn't require an external intervention.

When we think instead about the kitchen stairs, the topic is more complicated. That is possibly something we can't fix by ourselves. Well, we could, but it would sum up on the list of tons of things we keep fighting with every day and I am not sure when we will actually get them done. At least, a temporary patch that would allow us to walk over it, that is.

 

The stairs have been patched

The company that will fix us new stairs during the autumn came also for handling the patch. 

When looking at it, it was nothing that absurd that we couldn't have been thinking about it ourselves, but yes. That was a couple of hours of their expertise vs our attempts.

The main structure of the fix

I am looking forward to have this fixed properly (and this is what I am thinking here when using the word "vision") but I am glad to be able to walk on the stairs without doing some acrobatics.

Talking of vision, I have a quite long term plan to crash myself over the area behind the pool. I have tried to fight ground elder for years and I keep doing that.

This year I have so far expanded the area that I have tidied up a little bit more. Of course, the ambition is to try to cover as much as possible of it, but between other emergency actions and the fact that I should really focus on windows and door restauration, I will probably not meet my target neither this year.

The area cleaned up of weeds (see the difference with the ground elder ocean on the left)

I am trying some new plants this time

I must say that the work around this is very satisfactory. Although it is always a bit irritating to see leaves of ground elder pop up there and then even if I have tried to be thorough in the removal. 

Mostly, the sundial

I have spent the last hour digging into our pictures for finding one of the photo of Villa Bellevue's sundial. I couldn't find a single one, not of when we moved in and found it behind the bushes, almost thrown away, on the back of the garage, neither of when we moved it from that hidden place, to the back of the house (although we knew that that was the wrong place to have it, if we think of its original placement) nor the one that I had sent to Maria, our painter, when I asked her if she could restore it.

So, let's make a long story long.

The first traces of the sundial can be found in the pictures of the Persson family (who lived in Bellevue 1944 - 1952). I can then guess that the sundial is at least from their epoch. 

We have a quite decent picture coming from the Edlers (1958-1974).

Pictures from the Edlers'. 

The position is the same as the previous owners had it, just in front of the house.

Replacing it there would mean that we can't go with the cars conveniently as we do today. I suppose that at that time anyone had possibly just a car and their size was considerably smaller than ours.

From that picture one can also see that the circle with the hours is golden and the rest look quite pale in the color (although which color exactly is unclear).

This is the sundial before I gave it to Maria. This is how we found it.

What we got instead was a rusty piece painted in black, with handpainted cyphers on the time circle. The black paint was just flaking and it was definitely not in a good state.

Details

Rusty and flakes

With the only decent picture we had, Maria had the mission to restore it to something closer to that picture, hopefully that it is the original one. We chose also to pick up a bit the shades of the metal sheets on the roof and hence one of the colors is a variant of a light green with some blue in it.

Before starting to paint, she made some tests and simulations to see if I thought it would work out fine.

Originally she thought we would have wanted it painted black again, so she had prepared the ground work for having that kind of color (e.g. by using some paint with graphite in it), but when I showed her the picture she understood that she had to adjust and the job got harder as we didn't really have a real palette to copy from.

Simulation #1

Simulation #2

Test #1 for the right nuance of green 

Test #2 still finding the right mix

There was not even anything online (a similar sundial?) to get inspiration from. It seems that we got something that is a bit different from the standard (I am not really surprised as for this house nothing looks standard...).

What I like of the job she did is that she just didn't paint it with a pre-packed color and that was it.

She meticoulosly prepared the right ground for then painting with the right color and she asked many times how I wanted to have the cyphers painted (and my standard answer was "as close as what we had before").

The gold is shining through

The arrow looks a bit more red than it is in reality in this picture

I waited patiently to get this back - I was hoping to have it home during the autumn, but Maria came with it during a very nice sunny day, so after placing it in front of its pedestal, we could talk a bit about byggnadsvård while sipping a tea in the sun.

The sundial is home. Now we have to wait to move the pedestal a bit more central (it is central in relation to the house, but just behind a bush and hence well hidden) and then to mount it back on it.

The final result! 

You can easily see what time it was when I took this picture, can't you?

Parallel to this process, we have had also the mission to get some plexiglass sheets to match some part of the walls we restored last year. The surface is very delicate and everytime someone just look at it it gets ruined. And with kids (but even adults!) that are not always very considerate, I usually get some temporary heart attack.

We have spent the whole autumn basically discussing with a company that work with plastic and we have made measurements for months, where my grey hair became even whiter.

To get a correct measurement seemed impossible and we just had to do the best of the approximations and add some margins. 

Corona didn't help as the company had some staffing issue, but then, finally, after confirming the measurements one more time, the sheets were ready.

Please, pray with me and hope that we haven't messed up the measures... please?

Anyway, we went and pick them up on a windy day (not the best to deal with light stuff) and we were lucky as we could put the biggest sheet just precisely on the trailer floor.

Looks! It fits just fine

    

We have done wrong so many times so Mattias wanted to secure things for once...

Doing some acrobatics

Now the sheets are waiting to be mounted. I would like at least to check if the size is correc,t but I think it will be cumbersome so the best is probably to just mount them to the walls. 

I guess that will take some decades too...