I’m a terrible flâneur, it seems. I let my husband fly to London for the weekend on an impulse, and I didn’t go with him. That’s just awful and unforgivable, I’m sure. On the day of reckoning, this is one of the (many?) things I shall have to answer for.
Instead I went up to the garden on Friday after work, but absolutely failed as a gardener by choosing to go back to town already on the Saturday afternoon, since I really just wanted to lie back on the sofa and watch some crappy TV and play some PlayStation. “PlayStation over perennials”, resounds the chorus from the internet, “BUT THAT’S APPALLING!”
I know. But… Yeah, I just wanted to lie back and do nothing at all, so there we go.
The only thing I got done on Saturday was this:
There’s a somewhat nondescript shrub growing at the corner of the covered terrace, and it’s really getting too large. Sure, the bees love its flowers in spring and it produces pretty red berries in late summer, but it was just too big.
So chop-chop I went with the hedge clippers, and it’s now at the same level as the fence around the terrace. It has opened up the terrace to the garden, and the “stubbles” will soon be covered by the perennial sweet peas that grow rampant through it, so there’s no great loss, except that the terrace feels less enclosed which can be seen as a good or a bad thing. I’m not sure which side I’m on, but the deed has been done.
(And come autumn I’ll probably chop it even lower so there’s room for next year’s growth without it becoming too big again. It’s rather too vigorous a shrub for that position, really!)
Anyway, I went home on Saturday, and I rode my bike down to the station (20km) and had a really lovely time of it.
It seems my iPhone doesn’t think it was sunny enough, so the camera decided to add some more suns to the image. Not sure if this is really a good thing, but it certainly looks rather curious! (I never had that problem with my old phone, even when shooting pics directly into the sun…)
It is harvest time, so at times clouds of dust would blow over the road from one of the combine harvesters working the fields of the Jægerspris Castle estate, and somehow that smell just brought me back to my childhood when my Dad would go help my paternal grandparents with the harvest, or when my brothers and I were holidaying alone with my maternal grandparents in the last week of the summer hols (every year we did this; it gave my parents a nice break from having three sons around the house all summer!). People who’ve never ridden on – or driven – a combine harvester or tractor during the harvest probably don’t realise just how much dust is produced, and it gets absolutely everywhere. And the smell is just, well… I love it, but others might hate it, especially if they have a tendency to be allergic to stuff.
And for good measure I also visited a stone age tomb I passed on the way; the mound has been “re-vamped” in the 18th century in terraces and geometric tree planting, so it’s difficult to know how much of the tomb chamber is really original. One thing is for certain; they moved the entrance, since the Danish stone age burial chambers where always at a straight angle to the entrance corridor, and this one is in continuation of it.
Still, it’s rather impressive to think that this structure was built 5000 years ago. We currently only have about 500 of these burial chambers left – in carious states of repair or decay – but archeologists estimate that there might have been up to 40,000 of them. Sadly many were in the way of farming, and many stones were recycled as building material, but the remaining monuments are somehow magical; a travel in time.
Oh, it’s a gardening blog? Sure. Have a rose!
This is the latest bloom on The Flâneur Husband’s birthday roses from my parents, and though the picture doesn’t show it, the flower is actually redder and less “H0TT PINK!!!1!” than the previous blooms. I suspect the amount of rain and sunshine has made a difference, and I also suspect that in a less sunny part of the garden, this rose would bloom a truer red. Still, it’s gorgeous, and it’s staying where it is!
I let my husband travel as he chooses sometimes as we all need our own time…I love the idea of how you spent your day just doing whatever you felt like….and I love historical sites and enjoyed the burial chamber..I’d say it was not a failure at all!
We often spend weekends apart – or at least as often as we feel like it – and we deliberately bought an apartment big enough for us to be able to spend some time apart, even when we’re both at home.
And of course if I was in any way ashamed of it, I wouldn’t have posted anything about my weekend. It has been lovely, though it will be nice to have the Flâneur Husband home later tonight.
I am proud of you, following your spirit and not letting the garden (or the gardening blog) become a prison. I love the walls of the tomb, just wonderful. Sounds like a pretty fine day to ME.
It was a lovely Saturday; the weather was excellent, and it was perfect to go for a bike ride in the early evening while it was still warm but not midday hot.
-And I’m sure gardeners are allowed a spot of exercise outside the garden every now and then…
Sometimes I just look outside, at all the things I need to get done, and sit back and watch t.v., too. We can’t always be working! I think you did great in accomplishing cutting down the shrub! I have never seen tombs like that – it must be very awe inspiring!
The old tombs are always fascinating; there’s something intriguing about stepping into 5000 years of history…
But yes, a break is in order every now and then, and weekends are, after all, designed for rest so we can return to work with renewed energy – both in the garden and the office.
I’m pretty envious of your relaxing weekend. Hubby was on a mission this weekend to get loads ticked off our ‘to do’ lists. I say our, it was actually loads of things I needed to get done. Sometimes I need a bit of a shove to crack on with things and with a hectic couple of weeks coming up this was going to the only ‘free’ time. It’s now the start of the week and I feel like I need another weekend to recover. I have to admit the Olympics have been quite a distraction so fortunately they’re over and I can focus on more pressing matters. Loving the non-gardening interludes. I love hearing more about Denmark.
Our to-do list is miles long, but we got a lot sorted out in the apartment on Monday evening to make up for the lazy weekend (on both our parts; after all, he didn’t go to London to do practical stuff!).
Fortunately, next weekend is only 3 days away now; up to the garden Friday to get some stuff hauled out to the road for the large rubbish collection (furniture etc.) on Tuesday, then on Saturday back to town for Copenhagen Pride and Sunday, well… Pizza and a bad hangover? And the weekend after I’ll be in Stockholm with work, attending our annual all-staff gathering, so I guess it’s a good thing I prioritised relaxing this past weekend!