59 My grandmother loved her dahlias. Her garden was gorgeous, for the vegetables and berries, but also flowers, tended to with so much skill, joy and love up until her last summer in life. And I think the dahlias were her favorites in the flower beds – digging up the roots every autumn, keeping themContinue reading “grandma Anna-Liisa”
Author Archives: Katja
Lyon (ii)
58 The botanic garden in Lyon has a variety of greenhouses and, on the day of my visit, a beautifully still lake, yes. But what really took my breath away: The most impressive display of dahlias that I have ever seen. The color of those flowers! I had a thing for dahlias that summer, 2018,Continue reading “Lyon (ii)”
Visby (i)
57 Perched between the low medieval buildings of old Visby and the steel-grey Baltic lies a tiny botanic garden. For being so small, though, it manages to accommodate a great number of different plants. Cared for by the association DBW (De Badande Wännerna = the bathing friends), it has been situated here since 1855. AlreadyContinue reading “Visby (i)”
all the rivers
56 A while back, I read “All the rivers” by Dorit Rabinyan. It is a novel, the bittersweet love story of an Israeli translator and a Palestinian artist who meet in New York and fall head over heels for each other. Despite the thick walls put up between them by the history and present ofContinue reading “all the rivers”
Zürich (ii)
55 On the grass next to the pond in the botanic garden in Zürich, they had made a neat little arrangement with chili fruits when I visited in 2017. Then, I had no idea chilis could come in so many different shapes and colors. Beautiful – but dangerous! (Today, though, the fruits on the doubleContinue reading “Zürich (ii)”
weathers
54 Waking up yesterday morning, the world was covered in mist. Living on the third floor on the top of a small hill, I stood in my kitchen window and saw the southern suburbs of Stockholm gradually softening their corners and eventually disappear, the mist slowly turning orange from the rising sun. After lunch, theContinue reading “weathers”
cognition (i & ii)
52 & 53 In August, while weeding among the kale on the allotment garden, I listened to a radio essay about hiking. The journalist referred to a cognitive science researcher who had said that research indicates that our ability for abstract thinking increases in places with open vistas, like mountains or by the ocean. AsContinue reading “cognition (i & ii)”
Bergius (iv)
51 During the summer months, the small Victoria greenhouse down by the water in the Bergius Botanic Garden is also open. It is tiny, completely taken up by a circular pool with Victoria water lilies, and a small selection of other tropical plants surrounding it. It is really pretty. Photo: Inside the Victoria greenhouse inContinue reading “Bergius (iv)”
balcony gardening (iii)
50 It makes me so happy to see the bees and the butterflies fly from flower to flower on my balcony. The marigolds are still in bloom, and through the kitchen window I can see the cucumber plants, covered in yellow flowers, climbing up against the espalier. And the insects find their way up toContinue reading “balcony gardening (iii)”
Barcelona (i)
49 The Botanical Garden of Barcelona might be the most unique botanic garden I’ve ever been to. Among the stadiums from the Summer Olympic Games of 1992 on Montjuïc hill, the botanic garden takes up 14 hectares of hilly terrain. It was established in 1999 and is dedicated to cultivating and displaying plants and ecosystemsContinue reading “Barcelona (i)”
Katja Malmborg 