Thoughts – Nini's scattered thoughts - Page 3 of 38 - Nini's scattered thoughts – Swedish blog can be found at http://ninisworld-blog.blogspot.se/

Mar

2018

Sofa time again

My present sofa, an IKEA Karlstad 2-seater. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

It is sofa time again.

Sofas come and go for various reasons. I think I remember most of mine… so not THAT often. But now it is sofa time again.

Presently I have an IKEA KARLSTAD 2-seater. The 2-seater was discontinued quite some time ago and is no longer sold. The 3-seater is still sold. My Karlstad sofa has one cover in grey and another cover in white. The grey one needs to be cleaned by a laundry and the white cover can be cleaned in a regular washing machine.

I switched to this sofa after some time in my present flat. When I moved in here I hade a 3-seater sofa from MIO which was much too big and clumsy for the smaller livingroom in this flat. It was almost impossible to get rid of that sofa. Tried to sell it at Blocket.se. No deal. In the enda after much trying I gave it away for free to a neighbour whose son needed a sofa. Just to get rid of it. It is hard selling sofas – or even giving them away – on Blocket.se. There are too many sofas there. I am personally a bit suspicious of second hand sofas as you have no idea what has happened to their cushions… So no wonder they are hard to sell.

Ikea Delaktig by Tom Dixon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

When IKEA announced the release of the sofa DELAKTIG by Tom Dixon my interest was awaken. Finally a clean and simple sofa without any thick armrests and with space under it to make it easy to vacuum-clean the floor. It was introduced on February 9th 2018 in the warehouse. I went there with friend Ulla to have a look at it, sit on it, feel it, experience of that was what I wanted.

Ikea DELAKTIG by Tom Dixon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

I love it. It is comfortable. It is flexibel. The cover can be cleaned in a regular washing-machine.

BUT, at about the same time, the new brochure for spring from MIO landed in my mailbox. So I had a look at the sofas there. Found one that looked promising and flexible and had covers that can be cleaned in a regular washing-machine. That is actually important as it is very expensive to have the covers cleaned professionally at a laundry.

MIO Clean sofa. Screenshot from MIO website.

The one that caught my eye was called CLEAN and filled all the criteria I had for a new sofa.

So I went to MIO to have a look at it, feel the covers, get some details and sit in it.

Good enough but not a sofa that made me feel that that was the one. Too boring. Too ordinary. Too much like any other sofa I’ve had over the years.

So I went back to Ikea a second time to look at DELAKTIG again.

Ikea DELAKTIG by Tom Dixon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

That is my next sofa. What I love about it is its clean lines, it comfort and its flexibility.

I love the light grey covers and they are washable in the washing-machine at home. To begin with I don’t need more than one lean-to-pillow of the thicker model, and one slimmer armrest. If I later feel I need more cushions/armrests for it, it is possible to get that later. Ikea is supposed to be selling this sofa for at least two years it has been said. So, no hurry.

I only need to decide if I want the smaller 149 cm long model, or the longer 202 cm long model. I have space for either. For the longer one I need to remove one smallish book-case, but that’s all.

First I have to get rid of my present sofa before I can order this one. I will at least TRY to sell it via Blocket.se. If no luck, Ikea can remove it when delivering the new one.

To be continued…

Feb

2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018. At the entrance exhibition by Paola Navone. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

On Saturday I visited the Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018. I visit this fair every year. It is interesting. There are beautiful and innovative furnitures and lights shown. It is my favourite fair.

The fair is big though. They fill all the three halls of the Stockholm Fair ground. By the time you get to Hall C, you are exhausted and don’t really see what you are looking at… One thing I appreciate with this particular fair is that they do not sell anything except to resellers.

The entrance exhibition by Paola Navone was wild and craxy. I kind of liked the hug flowerlamps though…

Chargeable by usb lamp. This small lamp you can carry with you. You charge it by usb-cable. It lasts for about 20 hours. In the shops it costs SERK 1800. On the fair you could get it for SEK1000. The attachable fixture that hangs over the side of the chair is an add-on. I didnät ask for the price of that.

As for the furnitures and lights… there are beautiful things and there are wild things. Less office furniture this year than previous years. As for trends? I see lots of black details. There is still natural materials in wood and carpets in natures own beige colors… Less pink. Less pastels. The lamps and lightings are interesting and with the LED technique I guess the possibilities to create real interesting lightings is much larger than the lamps from former days. Lots of small stools. Lots of small chargeable lamps that you can carry with you. Lots of thing metal legs on small side-tables.

Someone has looked too close on the similar stool from Ikea I would say… Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Others may have reported from the fair with more details like the names of the producers and such. I intentionally don’t. I am more interested in trends and looks than the producers. But here are some of my impressions that I caught on picture.

Hover over the images to see eventual text about the picture. Re-load page to get the images in a different order.

More stools.

Stools in a pile.

Lambs skins.

Chargeable by usb lamp.

Someone has looked too close on the similar stool from Ikea I would say…

At the entrance exhibition.

Varpets in greys.

Tht little table in the background… Love it.

Oriental carpet. Love this one.

Black, black, black…

Chargeable by usb lamp.

At the entrance exhibition.

Green conference corner.

Small tables.

Ceiling lamps.

Tools for curtains.

One single stool.

Wall-containers for small stuff.

Wallcontainers for storage.

At the entrance exhibition.

Bathtub of wood.

Outdoor plantstands.

The cat lamps.

Chargeable by usb lamp

Carpets

Daybes. I think this one was at laast years fair as well. It is nice though.

Grey and orange and teal interior.

Balloons in the ceiling

A chair with beautiful details.

Hanging lamps.

Cactus

A puff on wheels.

At the entrance exhibition.

A bed with mice-lamps.

Hanging lamps.

Wooden animals.

Lights

Ceiling lamps.

A bathtub of copper.

Outdoor furniture.

More stools.

A beautiful wooden bench.

Outdoor benches.

Peanut-shaped chairs.

One crazy interior.

Tools for curtains.

At the entrance exhibition.

Cats- and banan-lamps.

At the entrance exhibition.

Mice-lamps.

One of few pale interiors.

Shelves of sticks… Doesn’ look to stable.

A wall decoration.

wall full of chairs.

Nice, square bed.

Jan

2018

The blackbirds

The tree across the road where the blackbirds sit. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The blackbird is Swedens national bird. I love blackbirds.

I have some blackbirds that always visits me. They spend a lot of time in the tree across the road, opposite my outside place. From there they can watch if I go out and fill the feeders. Then they fly over the road and eat at my feeders (when the cats are not around). I like watching the blackbirds.

Birdfeed in December. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

One of the feeders is in the garden near to bushes and I can watch it from my kitchen windows. That bowl with peanuts flew off last week when it was very windy. I took it indoors for cleaning and haven’t put it back there yet.

Birdfeed. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

This winter I also feed the blackbirds on the table on my outside place. Here they get peanuts and sunflower-seeds. And another bowl with mixed goodies for birds. Dried flour-worms among other things that the birds like.

Birdfeed. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

This winter it has been difficult to feed the birds as it until recently has been an extraordinarily warm and wet winter with no snow and plenty of rain. At times the birdfeed was swimming in water and had to be regularly thrown away and replaced…

Last week it snowed. This morning we hade -12.7C°. Warmer now, but still a bit below zero. The birds are hungry.

Birdfeed with blackbirds and a great tit. Photo:©nini.tjader.2018

I feed them the year around, but particularly in the winter when they really need it. They compete of course for the food with the smaller birds, like the great tits and the blue titas and the occasional nuthatch. And during spring-summer-autumn also some woodpeckers.

Next weekend it is bird-counting weekend in Sweden. That’s a recurrent activity every winter. We count the birds and report them to an organisation that collects the results and by that can see if certain birds in certain areas decrease or increase. I use to participate best I can. I am not a “bird-nerd” but I find them interesting to watch.

The blackbirds are fun to watch. They are always arguing with each other and competing for the food even though there is plenty of it. The females rule and chase everybody else away from the food, male blackbirds and smaller birds alike.

I take pictures of the blackbirds when I can. Both with my iPhone 7 and my Canon G15. Always through the window, which means I don’t get all that close. This time of the year the natural light is also extremely poor so not that easy to get good pictures. But, here are some of my blackbird-pictures. And one of a great tit that took the opportunity to get food when the blackbirds weren’t there.

The tree accross the road where the blackbirds sit. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Jan

2018

Indoor plants in January

Indoor plants. My kitchenwindows 2017-10-15. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Indoor plants in January can be rather depressing. The ones that are still alive often look very tired and almost gone. Others are already gone for various reasons. And some are still green and promise to survive the dark winter days. The picture above is from October 15th 2017. The number of plants in my kitchen windows (which are exceptionally good for indoor plants) has since changed somewhat.

Indoor plants in the kitchen January 5th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018 The south-facing window.

They have also become fewer. The large philodendron that climbs both windows and is there instead of curtains has grown further. It has lost a lot of leaves but at the same time also sprouted new leaves here and there. It actually looks better in January than it did in October. My ginkgo biloba has gotten a new pot and fresh soil. Not optimal to replant in December, but the pot was empty and the ginkgo needed a larger pot. It is still green and has so far not lost any leaves. It will though. That is what it normally does. The two green hanging plants look as they’ve always looked… Not much change there.

Indoor plant sin the kitchen, January 5th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The west-facing window in the kitchen. I’ve opened up roll-up curtain all the way for the winter. The plants (and the kitchen) need their light when there is some.

Dying rosemary 2018-01-07. PHoto: ©nini.tjader.2018

One of the rosemary plants I had in this window is gone. It just died. The remaining one in the middle of the window is slowly dying too (picture above). Will have to get a new rosemary plant later on in spring. I use rosemary a lot on oven baked potatoes for instance. I still have some dried rosemary too but I prefer the fresh one.

The small aloe vera in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The small aloe vera there has grown a lot since it got a new pot and fresh soil in the autumn. I know. shouldn’t replant in the autumn. But sometimes there is no choice.

I threw out my orchids during the autumn. They were really tired and uninspiring. And I needed the space.

Indoor plants in the livingroom, January 7th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The indoor plants in the livingroom include two figtrees that are indoors over winter. They have extra light to survive. They are both growing surprisingly well indoors. The smaller tree has lost some leaves, but the oldest and bigger not. That one lost its only fig the other day though when the large aloe vera fell on it… My fault. I moved their stands to be able to reach electricity and to clean under them.

Indoor plants in the livingroom, January 7th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

There are fewer indoor plants in the livingroom too as some have been moved to the kitchen and others hav e gone for ever. (I need to do something about all the cables on the floor…). Under the sideboard I keep the bird-feed for the birds outdoors. They need extra food particularly in the winter.

Indoor plants in the livingroom, January 7th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Notice the large aloe vera to the left in the above picture? Notice how small its pot is? Yes, right… it needs re-pottering in a larger pot.

Aloe Vera 2018-01-07. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

My oldest and largest aloe vera has again got lots of baby plants at its bottom. To remove them or keep them is the question. I donät need more aloe veras in the flat… I already have four, three of them originating from this large one at re-potting. I’ve also given away a few to friends and neighbours.

Ale Vera in the livingroom, January 7th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The problem with re-potting the aloe vera is that it is BIG, THORNY and HEAVY, I do have an empty larger pot that it can live in. If I take it into the bathroom I might be able to re-pot it. Inormally do this outdoors in the garden as it gets a bit messy. But it is winter and very cold just now. and the warmer season is far way still.

INdoor plants in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

This (above) is how the plantwindow in the livingroom looks when you enter the room and it is daylight.

Indoor plants in the bedroom, January 7th, 2018. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

In the bedroom I keep three white pelargonias for their winter-rest, one put with three figtree cuttings (which are coming along just fine) and one hanging plant in the background which is not that fuzzy when it comes to light.

On the windowsill in the bedroom I have my cactuses and one more aloe vera plus a small aloe vera of another kind.

Cuctus in bloom, 2017-12-30. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

One of my old cactuses started blooming some time in November and the above picture I shot from outside the house on December 30th (easiest way to take a picture of it without having to move it around on the windowsill indoors). New flowers are still coming on it. If it blooms, it normally blooms by the end of February or beginning of March. I got a bit surprised when I saw the flowers now. Wrong season. Not that I mind. They are quite nice. This one also need re-potting. Never got around to it in the warm season.

The small aloe vera in the bedroom window. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Dec

2017

Is this winter?

Saskatoon. Very green leafbuds… Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

Is this winter? I mean, this weather is as far from winter as it can get. Yes, there has been cold days. Yes, there HAS been some snow. But most of the time the temperature is above zero centigrades and it is raining, raining, raining. When you got into the garden and step on the ground it feels like stepping on some spongy material. The ground is SO wet. All these pictures were shot yesterday on December 30th.

The garden is ugly this time of the year. BUT you already see traces of what will come in spring. It is a long time until then though.

Verbena and digitalis. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The giant verbena is still alive even though it is not blooming. I see the beginnings of next years digitalis in several places.

Flowerbed, December 30th, 2017. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

The flowerbeds are really ugly and everything is withering even though some plants still stand.

Ajuga reptans. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

This plant above plant, Ajuga Reptans, is beautiful also in winter with there dark lilac leaves. There was some frost on them when I shot this picture.

Alumroot. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The alumroots look fine also at the end of December. Less colorful, but still alive.

Alumroots. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

We have four different alumroots, each a different color. The above ones are a little bit flatted by frost and the earlier snow, but otherwise looking fine for winter.

Digitalis. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

Next years digitalis have come up in several places.Their leaves are really big. Just hoping they will get flowers in the summer.

Giant Poppy. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The giant poppy did not bloom last year. I hope it will bloom the coming year. It was bought as a ready plant, not sown by seed.

Winter in the flowerbed.Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The flowerbed by the parking looks terrible… But there are traces of plants to come.

Blackberries. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The blackberry bushes have large buds for next years leaves.

Astilbe. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The astilbeflowers from last year have an interesting color…

Raspberries. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

These are the raspberry-bushes in winter. We got almost no raspberries last summer. Hoping for more the coming summer.

What? Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

In one of the flowerbeds I yesterday found this round, white thing. What it is? Probably a flowerbulb of some kind that somehow has escaped the earth… I covered it with new soil today to protect it. Size approximately 5 cms in diameter.

By the birdfeeder. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

By the birdfeeder the vegetation is just unordered…

Climbing hortensia in winter. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The climbing hortensia at the backside of my patio is all naked in winter. It has large buds though for next years leaves, and, hopefully, more flowers the coming year. This year it had three flowers.

Winter snow. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The snow remaining from the latest snowfall a couple of weeks ago, is dirty, but frozen and filled with sand. It will probably stay like that until some time in April… This where the snowplows leave the snow they have removed from the parking. Other parts of Sweden has got a lot of snow this year. But here, just outside Stockholm, very little.

The rhubarbbox. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The rhubarb-box has no rhubarbs that you can see during winter. But they are there… It also houses my neighbours carnations over winter plus her thyme and oregano.

Winterflowers… Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The sedum telephium are still standing, but look awful. The little snow we had destroyed them.

Pansy in bloom in December. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I found some pansies in bloom. Are they supposed to bloom at the end of December?

Flowerbeds at the entrance. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

This is how the flowerbeds at the entrance to the patio from the garden look like in winter (when there is no snow). Not particularly inspiring…

Flowerbed at the entrance. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

But, if you look closely, there are green leaves and and plants coming up here.

The yellow honeysuckle. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The yellow honeysuckle has green leaves where I cut it. Not only here (picture) but on several other places as well.

Beach rose. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The beach roses in the backgarden really look tired. As they should in winter. No leaves, just molten fruits. In spring I will cut down the bushes to about 20 cms heights. Or dig them up and remove them…

Treestumps on the patio. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

These treestumps normally stand in the garden with flowerpots on them. Over winter I keep them on the patio. They are getting old. Nature changes them. On one of them moss has started to grow…

There are more things alive in the garden at the end of December than one might think. Here are some examples.

Oregano

Moss on treestump

Mint

Parsley

Thyme

Oregano

Crocus

Carnations

Lemon balm

Parsley

Crocus

I actually prefer so called green winters to winters with lots of snow and really cold weather. But for the garden, snow is better. It protects what grows there. There might still come snow… But not in 2017…

Dec

2017

Hans Grosin, Hanseman, January 1945 – November 2017

Hans Grosin. Picture borrowed from his FaceBook page.

Hans Grosin, called Hanseman in our youth, was born on January 1945 and died on November 13th 2017.

On Dec 22nd 2017 I read the morning-paper and found a memorial text about my old friend Hans Grosin. On further investigation (Google and the Internet) I found out that he passed away on November 13th 2017. A year and some days since our mutual friend Elge passed away. The memorial text (in Swedish) was about his professional life as a psychotherapist and his house on Gotland (Swedish island).

On our last communication (via FaceBook Messenger on October 14th, 2017) he said, among other things, that he was missing Elge. And that he got tired and had problems breathing just by sitting down. He mentioned his lack of fitness also sometime in the summer and I recommended him to get more exercise. I don’t know what caused his death, but apparently he had health problems.

Hans, Ninna and Elge, 1964. Photo: ©nini.tjader.1964

Hans and I were never very tight. At first he was the close friend of Elge, which then was my boyfriend, and then the boyfriend of Ninna, which then was my closest girl-friend and later became the girlfriend of Elge after she and Hans separated. Complicated to say the least. Hans and I had a very shortlived fling some time there when our respective boyfriend/girlfriend left us for each other. It didn’t last though, but we remained friends.

Elge and Hans, Februari 1963 on the beach in Israel. Photo: ©nini.tjader.1963

In January-February 1963, all four of us, Elge, Hans, Ninna and I, went to Israel. We went there by boat and we stayed at House Bankier outside Tel Aviv by the parents of our mutual friend Channa Bankier (who also was there). That house was our basis during the months we stayed in Israel. We went on to a kibbutz (Gvar’am in southern Israel), where we stayed for a couple of weeks, until we decided to leave the kibbutz and the work and hitchhike around in Israel and visit other friends who also were there at various kibbutzim at that specific time. We then split up in pairs. It was Elge and me, and Ninna and Hans.

Hans on the beach February 1963. Photo:©nini.tjader.1963

We returned to Sweden some time in the spring of 1963. By that time Ninna and Elge became a couple and Hans and I went different ways.

I’ve been in contact with Hans on and off over the years. Elge and Hans remained friends and had a business together for some time. I spoke with Hans around the time that Ninna died, and later tried to teach him how to use his computer (he was very un-technical) at his home, then again communicated on and off via FaceBook and around the time when Elge died. Actually FaceBook created more communication between us all the last couple of years.

Now he, Hans, too is gone, just like Ninna and Elge. Of us four only I remain. And then a few others of the friends from then. That feels strange. That is the nature of things though when you get older. One by one they disappear.

Dec

2017

Flexible sofa daybed from Ikea

Flexible sofa daybed. Photo: IKEA

Ikea recently announced a very flexible and useful sofa daybed. Here in Sweden it will be introduced on Feb 9th 2018 and according to the information be sold for two years. Which means you don’t have to rush it to get one if you want one…

Flexibel sofa daybed. Photo: IKEA

I totally fell in love with it.

On February 9 th 2018 IKEA and Tom Dixon announces DELAKTIG: An open ”platform for life”, based on a frame of aluminium. The idea is that DELAKTIG will challenge design-conventions in the furniture branch and welcome everyine to add functions of their own or totally change it.

IKEA and Tom Dixon have also designed add-ons which complement the platform. The add-ons can be combined in several different ways. Add armrests and a lamp. Add a table and new cover for the back-pillow. Change position of the armrests. Change the armrests. Add more pillows. Or change the cover.

Salestart: February 9th 2018
Salesperiod: 2 years

soifa, daybed, furniture. ikea, tomdixon

Flexible sofa daybed. Photo: IKEA

This one would be the perfect sofa-daybed-guestbed in my livingroom as I see it.

Of course I need to see it in real life, sit on it and feel its materials, see the colors in reality, before I make up my mind. But on pictures it looks just perfect.

Flexible sofa daybed. Photo: IKEA

I like the simplicity and clean lines of it. And I like the flexibility.

Flexible sofa daybed. Photo: IKEA

If I get this one I have to get rid of the KARLSTAD 2-seater i presently have (which I recently had the cover cleaned for SEK945 as it was really dirty). I know selling used sofas online is a more or less dead market and you get next to nothing for a used sofa, if you at all manage to sell it. But to get a new sofa in, the old one has to go.

Sofa daybed. Photo:IKEA

It comes in light grey, dark grey or blue and in various sizes.

Sofa daybed. Photo. IKEA

Download the IKEA_pressmaterial_DELAKTIG_Tom_Dixon_9feb_2018 in Swedish for more details, ictures and prices here.

Dec

2017

Xmas decorations

Xmas decorations 2017. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

Xmas decorations… It is that time of the year again… approaching Xmas. I don’t actually do Xmas. At this very dark and gloomy season, some lights and colors and decorations really are needed to brighten up your immediate surroundings though. All the lights are important. I have lights along the railing of my patio (no picture presently), and the neighbour and I also have light on the inside of the fence from my place almost unto the parking (no picture of that either).

Xmas pillows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I brought out all the red pillows and all the xmas decorations from previous years and went ahead and started to place them.

Tree in a paperbag. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The small xmastree in the paperbag was also brought out. All ready with its decorations from previous years. Just had to take it out of the bag and connect it to the electricity.

Amaryllis in the bathroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The fake amaryllis were placed in the bathroom. Fake flowers are the only kind I can have in the bathroom as it has no natural lighting. These fake amaryllis actually look pretty natural. I have no real amaryllis this year which I normally use to have. I simply lack space for more flowers and plants.

Xmastree with lighting. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

The housing coop also put lighting in our little firtree out on the lawn where you get in from the buses. That ugly yellow plastic-tube holds the electric cable… Will be dug down into the earth under the grass in spring they say. It was too late in the autumn to have it done before this Xmas. That tree is actually a live tree with roots and all. So it will stand there for years to come, provided it survives.

Entrance hallway. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The entrance hallway got an update with another door-curtain (the black and white one needed cleaning), a red pillow on the chair and a fake xmas flower on the small shelf on the wall. Enough for Xmas decorations, right? The carpet/doormat inside the door is there the year around and not specifically for Xmas.

Xmas decorations. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The opening from the hallways into the livingroom got the star-curtain with lights plus the big red balls. Previous years these have been placed in the livingroom window. This year there were too many figtrees in the way to place them there. The opening to the livingroom got them instead.

Xmas decorations in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I normally have a star with light in each kitchen window… Not this year. There are too many plants in the kitchen-windows this year. I managed to squeeze in the electric candles of the one above though.

Candles on the kitchentable. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The candles on the kitchentable have been there since summer. They will stay there for some time still. The picture above was shot before I threw out the three remaining orchids. Those are now gone as I got really tired of them.

Advent candles in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The advent candles also took their place on the kitchentable. I also changed the cloth on the kitchentable to a red one.

The supermoon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The first of advent coincided with the appearance of the supermoon. I went to Xmas-luncheon with the board of the housing coop (I do the coops web which qualifies me to participate). When we left the place were we ate, the moon was there, just in front of us. It was hard to take a picture of it with the iPhone and all the surrounding lights… I looked for it also when I got home but by then the moon was hidden by the clouds. The next opportunity to see a supermoon will be by the beginning of January they say.

Star in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader,2017.

In the bedroom window I have one large star with light. That is all. No other Xmas decorations there.

Star in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I love that large star that covers the entire bedroom window. It also gives a lot of light when it gets dark outside. Everyone can see it from the busstop on the other side of the road when it is lit…

Lightbomb. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

When preparing all the seasonal decorations I noticed that the “lightbomb” (picture above) got a problem. The filter between the metal that holds the cord that burns had crept up and out of the “lightbomb” and actually kind of “melted” … I removed it and the metalpiece that holds the burning cord no longer has a filter between it and the ceramic bulb. How safe is that I wonder? The bulb is filled with lampoil. Can it explode when burning? I’ve place it on a ceramic plate just for a bit more safety and never leave it unattended when burning (as you shouldn’t with any burning candles by the way).

What did I do in the livingroom?

What I did in the livingroom you can see below. I will still adjust a few details in the livingroom, but that is all. By January I will be fed up with the reds and go back to my normal color theme of grey, white and black… (Reload page to sort the below images differently).

Pillows

The small Xmastree

Candles

Pillows

Dec

2017

New in the livingroom

New in the livingroom. A new curtain. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I do not use curtains all that much. When I do, they are usually all white without any patterns or colors.
But… the last time I passed by IKEA I fell in love with a textile I saw. Black and white with a graphic pattern on it. So I bought it.
I bought 2,840 cm of the textile. I didn’t remember the exact height from ceiling to floor so bought more than I needed. It is called INGVILL and is 100% cotton. Total cost SEK139,16.

At first I intended to use it in the entrance hallway, but re-thought its placement and tested it in the livingroom.
And liked it. So after a few seems at top, sides and bottom, and some ironing, the livingroom got a new curtain.
And I love it.

I still have enough left of it to sew a pillowcase as well.
A cheap way to renew the livingroom.

The natural light this time of the year is very poor and almost non-existing which makes it really difficult to take pictures the way I prefer. The lack of light also kills plants. The one closest to the door to the patio is gone after I shot the above picture. It just died.

Detail of new curtain in the livingroom. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

Nov

2017

My figtrees

The oldest figtree. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I’ve written about my figtrees before. Just have to write about them again. The one above is my oldest figtree. It has been cut twice now.

Figtree cutting May 20178. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

My figtrees live outdoors on the patio during the warm season and I bring them indoors when autumn and cold comes, but before the frosts. My oldest figtree has a tendency to grow in the “wrong direction” which makes it take up too much space. Particularly when it is indoors. Had I known how easy it is to take cuttings from it and grew new figtrees, I would have done it earlier.

According to the expertise figtrees should be kept dark and cold but not freezing over winter. As I do not have such a place to store them, they are kept indoors over winter with extra special plant lights.

First time I cut it was spring 2017, some time in March I think it was. Image above is from May 20th 2017. That is about the time I planted the cutting in a pot of its own. Originally it was two cuttings but one of them died.

Planted figtree cutting, May 2017. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

End of May was also the time when the older and larger figtree moved outdoors.

The larger figtree. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

To begin with I placed it under an umbrella to protect it from the strong spring sun. The year before I didn’t do that which resulted in burned leaves that quickly fell off.

New branches on the old figtree. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Where the old figtree had been cut, new branches and new leaves grew out pretty fast. The old figtree lost a lot of leaves at the beginning of the summer. That was expected. Happens when it has been indoors all winter and not losing its leaves to any great extent (which it normally should).

The oldest figtree had two figs on it when the tree moved outdoors. Not edible… tasted really bad.

The new, small figtree came along fine and new leaves and branches grew on it.

Above is how it looked on august 8th 2017. Just like the motherplant it has a tendency to grew sideways…

The older figtree woke up as late as the end of August and then started to grew new leaves and branches. A bit late…

Sometime in October it was time to move the figtrees indoors again and give them extra lighting. I thought that October could not be a good time to cut the big tree and make new cuttings, but I took the chance and cut it anyways. I needed to make it smaller to be able to store it over the winter.

Moving indoors of course meant losing some leaves now and then. Figtreeleaves are beautiful.

By the middle of October the older figtree had plenty of small new leaves and branches growing on it.

The cuttings from the older figtree also grew and got roots on all of them. They are four cuttings. I would never have thought that it would work to take cuttings in October and get roots on them as fast as I did.

The older tree got one fig… I doubt it will be edible …

As the roots on the four (4) cuttings grew larger and stronger I decided to plant them all by the beginning of November.

All four cuttings were planted in the same pot. We are now on November 30th, and they seem to have survived the move to the pot and have only lost one small leaf so far. And they have all new leaves too.

The older and larger figtree is coming along fine and just grows and grows and grows where it was cut… It has grown a lot since I cut it.

They are all alive and thriving. Just hoping they will continue to do so and survive this dark period indoors.

Nov

2017

Frosty morning

It was a frosty morning yesterday and today. Today I managed to go out and catch some pictures of the frost as I was up and about much earlier than usual as I had to meet the guys who are installing a radon sucker thing in the house-ground just under my bedroom. Had to give them access to measure where the floor is and to check from where to take electricity and to provide them with water as that side of the house doesn’t have any outside water. I used the time before they arrived to go out shoot some pictures of the frost. As much as I dislike winter, cold, snow the frost is still beautiful.

Here is some of what I saw this morning. Reload page to make pictures re-sort themselves.

Frost IS beautiful.

Oct

2017

The chaise longue is now gone

The chaise longue is now gone. Sold it on Blocket.se and it was paid for and collected on Friday past. It has now gotten a new life in Norrköping.

I bought it when I lived at Vårby Gård where I had a larger livingroom than here. It is very comfortable, but too short to sleep in (except for short whiles in front of the TV). I bought it with white cover. Later, after I moved to the present flat, I had a new lightgrey cover done and bought from Bemz. Bemz does covers for Ikea furniture in lots of qualities and colors and patterns. Ikea no longer makes this model of the Ektorp chaise lounge with an arm rest. They already didn’t when I wanted an extra cover for.

The last couple of years I’ve on and off considered selling the chaise longue because it took up too much space in the livingroom. And now I finally got around to putting it up for sale. It took a couple of weeks before I had a buyer, but in the end it went out the door and I could make the changes in the livingroom that I wanted to do.

My livingroom became an entirely new room without the chaise longue. So much new space… So airy…

The fitnessbike also got a new placement which opened up the entire space in front of the bookcase.

I placed the fitnessbike at the spot where the smaller chair (Ektorp Jennylund from Ikea) used to be. Also from here I can watch the TV when on the bike. (That is important as it is SO boring to be on the bike).

The chair is in a much better place now and I can also use the foot-rest the way it is supposed to be used (instead of having it hidden more or less under the sofa-table by the TV). This became a very inviting spot to sit.

I had more plans for moving the furniture around, but I won’t do that just now. I am presently happy with how it turned out now with the chaise longue gone.

A bonus with this change is that I got better space for the plants that live in front of the livingroomwindow over the winter season. The largest aloe vera, which for a couple of months has been living in the bedroom, now has been moved back to the livingroom and placed near to the floor in case it would fall over (it is very unstable).

Gustav (the neighbours male cat) came in briefly on Saturday and stopped in the door looking very disturbed. His chair was not where it used to be and there was a fitnessbike there instead, and the chair was moved… He ran out fast. He, like most cats, does not like changes. He has been in with his owner after that, and that went much better. In the end he will accept the change.

Even in the evening the larger plants are now visible instead of being hidden behind the back of the chaise longue. Both the aloe vera and the figtrees have special plant-lighting to enable them to survive winter indoors with poor light conditions.

One of the reasons to get rid of the chaise longue was to get space for an eventual guestbed… But I won’t place a guestbed here after all. On the other hand, if I move the fitnessbike, there is good space there for an inflatable guestbed in that spot.

I’ve also moved around a lot of the lamps and lightings to get them in better spots. Having good light in all corners is important. I have one smallish table too much and one floor-lamp too many. Presently I don’t know where exactly they will end up. I also suddenly have too many cushions as there is no chaise longue any more to put some of them on.

I am happy with this change of the livingroom. It feels so much more inviting now than it did before I got rid of the chaise longue.

Oct

2017

Plants & Words

This seasons #urbanjunglebloggers assignment is Plants & Words (#plantsandwords).

I don’t really “do” words in that way. Particularly not together with plants or about plants either. I don’t like having words on my walls, no matter what they say. I have always avoided having them. But I have one poster on one of my walls, the one above with only words on. It hangs just above a picture with summer flowers. So in a way they are plants and words… or?

I do plants though. And this time of the year it is pretty over-crowded with plants everywhere in my flat. Above is in my bedroom window where the pelargonias from outdoors are resting over the winter and some figtree cuttings are sprouting roots in vases. In the window aloe vera and cactuses.

The kitchen windows are a jungle of plants. I keep moving them around presently to find the best solution. Some of the plants that have been outdoors over summer have been moved indoors. Some survive it, some die when they get indoors. Like the myrtle tree in the left window. It didn’t survive getting moved indoors so that window already looks different than in the picture. One of my rosemary plants also died when moved inside.

In the livingroom window the figtrees (two of them) take up a lot of space. Also here I have changed the look since the picture above was taken and the pelargonia got a new owner in town. This spot is changing (see previous blog post) all the time.

But combining the plants with words? No. Not really. Just two posters in the whole flat that have words on them. The one below is Russian about May 1st. What else it says I have no idea. As I don’t understand (or read) Russian it is not so disturbing to have on the walls as something where you can actually read and understand its content. It is a dark spot so no plants would survive there.

So plants and words? No. No words in my space. Plants though I’ve got plenty of…

Oct

2017

The livingroom window

I have one window and one door to the patio in the livingroom. The livingroom window has a double marble windowsill. The window is west-facing out to the patio. I use that window for various flower pots that change over time with the seasons. Less flowers in the summer, more in the winter and a varying amount of pots in spring and autumn. In the autumn I move pots indoors before winter comes which adds to the number of plants there. In the summer I move pots outdoors which reduces the number of pots. In short: what is in that window change over the seasons.

To get more space for pots and plants I added a sideboard a couple of years ago. Over the cold season I also use some elevated plant-stands in front of the window for some of the larger plants, like the figtree for instance. Under the sideboard I keep the bird-food and some garden utensils that cannot be kept outdoors.

Here are some pictures of how the livingroom window changes over time.

The red oxalis was just coming awake after winter and looked a bit decimated here.

In June the red oxalis looked much better. Here I also had moved down the Stephanotis Floribunda from its hanging position as it got too heavy to hang in the window after repotting with fresh earth. The fig trees by this time were outdoors again.

The red oxalis kept on growing after being re-potted. And so did the Stephanotis.

By the beginning of August my two stephanotis switched locations. The one that was here was moved to the kitchen and the one in the kitchen was moved to the livingroom. The largest Aloe Vera which used to sit in the corner of the window was moved to a plantstand in the bedroom and the large corokia cotoneaster which used to be in the kitchen was moved here instead of the aloe vera. The red oxalis just got bigger and bigger…

When autumn approached plants started to move indoors. I also managed to sell my large red oxalis. One plant less. The two figtrees moved inside and so did the Australian wild pelargonia and the muehlenbeckia. The Australian wild pelargonia didn’t like to come indoors though and more or less died just a week later. So, it went into the trash. The Devil’s Ivy went into the bedroom to make space for the muehlenbeckia on the ceramic plantstand. The plant-light was put into one of the fig-tree pots and helps them survive the darker season indoors.

When the Australian pelargonia went into the trash I moved one of the white pelargonias to that spot. That was only temporary though until Ulla came to visit and brought it home to her flat.

I then moved the smaller fig-tree up onto the side-board, but it got a bit crowded there.

I didn’t like this (above) at all. Too crowded. So re-arranged again by removing the stephanotis and moving the medium-sized aloe vera closer to the window. Also the muehlenbeckia got closer to the window. The removed stephanotis presently rests on a stool in the kitchen. That’s a temporary place for it. I really don’t know where to put it at the moment. So, below is how the livingroom window presently looks. That’s OK so far. Airy enough.

As the chaise longue is up for sale presently, and some people are coming to check it out on Friday, I might change the look here again. If I get rid of the chaise longue I can re-think this corner and make it less crowded.

Oct

2017

Between the rains…

Between the rains I check the garden for the latest developments. Autumn is here and it is a busy time. The garden has to be closed down and the patio emptied of pots and other stuff.

The color are changing out there and there is not much left to take care of.

It starts to look empty on the patio. I haven’t covered anything up yet, and the carpets are still there, soaking wet after the rains lately. Pots on wall and floor and other spots are either gone for waste or indoors. Other stuff is slowly moved from here to the storage on the other side of the house.

So, any work out there has to be done between the rains. We had 33 mm of rain the last couple of days. Emptied the rain-gauge yesterday and it has rained another 5 mm since.

The sweetpeas on the patio are still in bloom and sprouting new flowerbuds. It was NOT a good ide to plant them together with the cobea in the same pot. It just looks messy. I will never do that again. On another note, I will never again grow sweet peas. They have a nice smell and the flowers are interesting if looking really close on them, but… too much work to get them from pea to flower and in the end, how they grow just looks messy.

The cobea, which the sweet peas share a large pot with, is in bloom and has lots of flower buds still not opened. It is a pity that it blooms so late in the year. But this year, at least it blooms. Other years it didn’t even get that far. It is an annual plant so new plant has to be planted every year if you want it. You cannot plant it until end of Mya, beginning of June as it is very sensitive to frost nights. Planting it that late is one of the causes for it blooming so late. It grows a lot in one season though. It has never been this big previous years. This year it has thrown itself over the plank and down on the other side and onto the wall there as well.

The leaves of the climbing hortensia at the backside of the tall plank on the patio are getting more yellow for each day and will soon fall off. The dark green leaves mixed with them is the cobea form the patio.

The cobea is also climbing on the wall and is presently at the top of my bedroom window. Look closely for the flower buds all along its loop.

The cobea flowers on the backside of the patio-plank are pale… There has been a shortage of light and sunshine the last week so they havenät yet developed their darkblue color. They look very strange this pale…

Fascinating flower…

The honeysuckles (two old ones) have grown a lot this year and are climbing the bow as they should. The sundriven lamp there I will take down soon. No point of having it there when there is no sun as it doesn’t charge then and doesn’t have enough power to light up when it gets dark. The smaller sunöcharged lamps in the garden I took into storage last week as they too had stopped lighting up.

The old orange honeysuckle has a new flower… in October…

The echinacea at the outside of the patio is looking really tired after the rains and are more or less finished for the season. There happened to be a couple of minutes of sunshgine yesterday when I shot these pictures, but it was just a couple of minutes… Rains resumed later in the day.

The echinacea flower is interesting even when wilted. Before the top of it dries (how can it dry in these rains?) it is really hard. When mature and dry and ready to spread its seeds it all falls apart.

The double anemone hupehensis (höstanemon in Swedish) in the same flower bed is still opening flowers. It is always late in the season and this year it is taller and generally larger than ever before. I hope it continues like that also next year.

Also the hostas are changing colors in the autumn. Big as they are they will wilt down totally and disappear. And (hopefully) come back next year. They always start over from scratch.

The Virginia Creeper is also changing colors and the leaves are starting to fall off. Iäve had it for at least 3-4 years by now but it started to really grow just this year. I am confident that it will continue like this also next year.

The orpine at the flowerbed by the entrance to the patio is at its most beautiful state just now and has opened theri flowers. A bit late this year actually… The bumblebees and bees and all theri relatives are missing out on the flowers. Most of them have retired by now.

The Amelanchier alnifolia, which we planted in replacement of the mirabelle tree which was cut down in October 2015, has come along just fine. The birdfeeder has new food waiting for the birds. Some of the birds are back, but not many yet as it hasn’t been all that cold yet. Wet, but not cold. I have taken away a lot of the messy plants in the flowerbed on this side of the bush. What is left will be left over winter and then we will see what comes up next year.

The flowers in the flowerbeds along the plank are still in bloom.

The dark plant in this flowerbed (which I’ve forgotten the name of) will probably have to be reduced and partly moved elsewhere or it will kill the astilbes.

The above flowerbed was created this summer. The plants there, three alumroots/heuchera and some other plants, are coming along just fine. We moved them all from another flowerbed.

There is a lot wilting down in the garden presently. But two large pots I’ve kept in the garden, the red basil for the bumblebees that are still awake, and the giant verbena which both still have lots of lilac flowers. Not all is dead yet, but soon will be.

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The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

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