More blossoms

A few days ago, the meadowsweet "Grefsheim" started to bloom with its small white blossoms - I can see it from our kitchen-door and it looks so lovely! Since the forsythia is still blooming too, then it makes a nice assortment with the 3rd bush -Thunberg burberry "Harlequim" with its dark red leaves.
Oh, I love this time of the year - every day, there is something new in the garden!

Tulips - part I

Tulips are in full bloom right now. Only a few, very late tulips, are still waiting to show their beauty. The days have been moderately cool and cloudy and thanks to this, the tulips seem to last longer.
Normally, I choose the flowers to my garden based on the colour. Namely, I do not like yellow flowers (they remind me of dandelion, which, unfortunately is an unwanted and uninvited intruder in my garden of which I will never get rid of...); so I mostly pick pink- and white-coloured flowers, some red (especially roses and peonies), but not yellow. However, yellow tulips are an exception. I have quite a few of them and they are beautiful. I even bought one quite expensive yellow tulip... which blooms indeed nicely!
I know most of the names of my flowers. But with tulips, it's different. Many of the tulips were here before I was here. In the first years, I bought some tulip bulbs from the fairs and didn't get the name with the bulbs. Later years, I, of course, have kept all the names, but among tulips, there are still quite few who's names I know.
These red tulips and white-red tulips are very early tulips. Both of them look lovely, especially when there are no other colours and blossoms in the garden, yet. During first Spring, when I had time, I found them boring, but within years, I have started to love them more and more, especially the red-white tulips, which develop their colours within days - they start being very pale, then adding pink colour, then red and finally even yellow in the heart!

These yellow tulips have been in my garden for about 2-3 years. They are called "Akebono".

Those pink tulips are in one of my roses bed. I know roses and tulips do not fit together well, but as roses start to bloom relatively late, then I wished to have some colour in this part of my garden before, too... So I ignored the rules and put some tulips bulbs in there... However, I'm not completely happy with the colours. I have white and pink tulips there, but the pink colour is quite pale, so maybe I'll change it soon. This tulip is called "Pink Impression".

This tulip is called "Pulse" and looks quite nice together with hazel tree "Contorta".

This tulip must be "Pulse", too, having yellow barberry "Maria" on the backround.

Mother's-Day-Weekend

The weekend was extra-ordinary lovely:

1. On Friday, I went to the big gardening fair "Luige Laat" and couldn't resist of buying a lot of summer flowers (I know, I know - I have to cover them for the nights, because it can be freezing...). I planted them to summer-pots and the garden suddenly looks so colourful! Just amazing - I can enjoy Spring and Summer again (it feel especially wonderful this year - because last year, I couldn't do that because of my heavy pregnancy).

2. On Saturday afternoon, Erik made sauna and we went outside to sit, on our small terrace of the garden-house (the photo above). The sun was setting, it was quiet and you could feel how Summer is going to be soon here... no words were needed, it was so romantic. :)
3. Both on Saturday and Sunday, the weather was beautiful. After quite cold days earlier this week - it finally got warm and sunny again and I could even take some sun (although just for 20 minutes!) to get a bit of tan, and I and the boys spent lovely time outside on a blanket. The boys explored the grass and Fred found out that it's much better to crawl on the grass than somewhere else.

4. Sunday morning, I was woken up with beautiful anemones which Erik went to pick up early in the morning from the local forest. It was Mother's Day. And I'm a mother of 4... I also got a rose "Lavender Dream" (see photo below), I'll be excited to see its first blossoms.
5. Today morning continued to be good - the boys didn't wake up before Kert's alarm clock rang at 7 a.m.! I think it has never happened before!

Yes, it was an extra-ordinary good weekend! I wish there were many like that...

Spring in my garden - Vol I

For about a week, we had beautifully warm and sunny weather - and many early spring flowers are now in blossoms: early tulips, narcissuses, bluebells, early primroses. More and more colours in the garden - lovely!
Unfortunately now, it's cold again, so it will slow down the growth of the flowers, but I'm sure it soon goes warmer again and I can enjoy even more colours in my garden!

The bluebell:

Red early tulips:

Early primrose:

2 moms for 6 babies

The days are continously sunny and nice. It's good to take walks with the boys. Yesterday, it was a historical day, when Maarja - another mom of triplets - joined us with her children; so we were out with 2 triplets' prams. I think you do not see such an appearance often. Luckily the children slept most of the time, so we didn't need to deal with 6 crying or angry babies at the same time!

Later, the boys slept in the garden and we could have some chat with Maarja. Sure there's always a lot to talk with her and we never have enough time... it would be nice to get together without 2 x triplets one day, but I doubt this day ever comes! :)

PS - My boys made a late-birthday gift for me: yesterday they slept until 7.30 a.m.!!! They tried to wake up at 5.20 as usual, but I somehow managed to put them back to sleeping positions and they slept for 2 more hours. It felt so strange! I think the bad days are over, for now, and I can enjoy our lovely days together again - me fresh and boys happy!

Outside

Spring has definitely arrived. The grass is getting greener, the days warmer and all snow has melted away, finally. Yesterday, I took the boys to the garden - on the grass - for the first time. I want them to get used to our big rottweiler Tony (who is very friendly, but of course there have been no 3 babies in his territory before) and vice versa. First try was successful and noone cried! :)

Today, in the morning, I noticed the first hepatica! Wow, it came unexpected! Just yesterday, I was in the garden working and I didn't see any, and today morning, it was there! This is so nice, finally the nature starts to wake up. So far, I've had only snowdrops, snowflakes and crocuses in the garden.

When the day is sunny and quiet, we go for walks. Thanks to Maris, a wonderful friend, we have a red cool pram to walk with and for the kids to look out to the world. They like it very much! Often, we ask our neighbour-boy Glen and his mom Aune to join us.

1st of April - Spring Signs and Fools' Day

The 1st day of April brought a nice surprise - I noticed the VERY FIRST snowdrop in my garden! Is Spring really on the way now? The boys were fooling around on Fools Day':

Spring is in the air...

Today, it's the first Spring day outside. The temperature is +7 degrees, the sun is shining, the air smells really spring-like, the birds are singing and the snow is melting... Yes, all this HAS TO create a great mood! I took the boys' prams outside to the garden (I cannot walk with them, yet, as there's too much snow) and stayed outside myself for a while, too. It has been a long winter and now it's really time for Spring to arrive - I'm looking forward to the new gardening season and all the colours what nature brings. There are no Spring flowers in the garden, yet, but I have had lots of tulips inside the house - first, it was Women's Day, when I got tulips from Erik and my brother and then, it was Erik's birthday yesterday when he got some more tulips - so I can enjoy the Spring colour inside the house right now! :)
The tulips on our dining table on Women's Day:

The tulips on our dining table on Erik's birthday:

And some photos of the boys, too:

Spring in our garden - primroses

The time of blooming primroses has passed by - most of them bloom in the end of April and the whole month of May, and some finish in the beginning of June. In my garden, there are 7 types of primroses:

1. Drumstick primroses "Alba" and "Rubin" (kerapriimula, Primula denticulata)

2. Primula vulcaris (varretu priimula)

3. Primula cortusoides "Primadiente" (kortuuspriimula

4. Bird's eye primrose (pääsusilm, Primula farinosa)

5. Primula juliae "Sneeuwwitje" (juulia priimula)

6. Primula rosea (roosa priimula)

7. Japanese primrose (jaapani priimula, Primula japonica)

I can add photos only for the first 5, since the Primula rosea didn't bloom this year and the Japanese primrose I purchased just this Spring and the blossoms were too little to get a good picture.

The rest are here:

DRUMSTICK PRIMROSE

PRIMULA VULCARIS

PRIMULA CORTUSOIDES "PRIMADIENTE"

BIRD'S EYE PRIMROSE

PRIMULA JULIAE "SNEEUWWITJE"

Spring in our garden - Tulips

It's time to give overview of my gardening hobby again. I can't believe it's June already - the first summer month. But let me watch back, to the Spring - when the days got longer, sunnier and warmer, and more and more Spring flowers came out from the ground and started to bloom. It's always the most special time in the year - to see colours in your garden... Last Autumn, I put quite many new tulip bulbs to the ground. They have bloomed nicely during this Spring, and this post is therefore dedicated to the tulips. I must say that I do not know the names of most of the tulips which were in my garden before 2009 - I just didn't write down the names... and some bulbs I bought from different markets which weren't labelled. But anyway, they look nice, don't they?

The very first bloomers among tulips on my garden are those 2 small tulips - red and white-red tulips - which names are unknown to me. But they make the early Spring very special:

The next bloomer is this yellow-red tulip, which I've bought from a fair and don't know the name either. All these 3 tulips grow in the south part of my garden and this is also one of the reason, why they bloom the first - they get a lot of Spring sun:

These tulips are the most expensive tulips in my garden, which I've ordered through post. They are called "Akebono" double-tulips and bloom a few weeks later than those shown above:

I love the colour of those tulips, which make a very nice composition with the nut-tree Contorta. The tulips are called triumph tulips "Pulse":

Tulip called "Pink Impression":

These are double-tulips called "Monsella":

Just a small star-like tulip, which I've got I-don't-know-where, but which is nice anyway:

The red-white tulips which bloom late, but are the oldest tulips in my garden and look very nice:

The darkest tulip in my garden, "Queen of Night":

One of my favourite tulips, double-tulip "Drumline", blooms actually right now they most beautifully (the photo is a few weeks old):

I'm not sure the name of this tulip, but it blooms right now as well:

The white tulip called "Weisse Berliner":

Another tulips which name I do not know, but which has been in my garden as long as I remember:

Tulip called "Portofino":