The Sculpture Park in Finland

Several years ago I traveled in Finland and visited the city of Lahti. The city of Lahti is considered the gateway to lakeside Finland. The waterway that runs from Lake Vesijärvi provides an opportunity to get to central Finland. In summer, hikers and cyclists enjoy the beauty of the natural parks.

Not far from the city center, on a hill, there is an unusual Lanu Sculpture Park. I was surprised by the fantastic landscape of the park. In Lanu Sculpture Park (area 20 hectares) I got acquainted with the work of the Finnish sculptor Professor Olavi Lanu, his twelve unusual sculptures, installed in 1992.

 

 

 

 

Professor Olavi Lanu created his sculptures using natural materials such as stone and concrete, tree trunks and branches, mosses and lichens.

 

 

An arboretum is a tree nursery. There are many plant species in the southern Finland area. These are willows, oaks, pines, spruces and birches with dark red leaves, maples and lindens. Also lilies of the valley, Solomon seals, primroses and mosses are presented. I enjoyed the journey and the beauty of the lake combined with the stone sculptures.  

Have you been to such parks? What do you think of stone and concrete sculptures?

 

Multicolored Garden, July 2021

Summer, July and colors. When I go out into the garden it is motley and multicolored. Blue red yellow silvery and of course green in all shades.  Despite the intense heat of +30 +34 C (84... 87 F) for the second month (!!) the plants are all alive and blooming. Of course, it's all about watering and feeding.

So let's talk about colors. I want to show you the silver color. It's Cineraria Maritime that grows as a border plant and in flower beds of my garden. I usually cultivate Cineraria Maritime as an annual decorative foliage plant, although in other climate it is a perennial. I love it has beautiful, separate leaves covered with silvery felt underneath.

 

 

Dahlia shows a bright yellow color this year. I planted it in a tub and it grows and blooms perfectly. The bright yellow flowers look good in the evening. 

 

 

 

For a long time I wanted to have cornflowers in the garden and kept forgetting to buy seeds in the spring. When I bought the seeds of red cornflowers I immediately imagined how they would look in the bed. (They are on my desktop now :-)

 

Roses show delicate pink colors. One of the ordered roses was supposed to be white and climbing, but now it turned out to be a red floribunda rose. Since I thought it would be a climbing one I decided to grow it in a tub for this summer. I will transplant it into the ground in the fall. 

Have you ever had such cases when, instead of the ordered (bought) rose, you received another variety?  

 

 

Blue and purple flowers are always welcome in the garden. There are not many plants of these colors. Clematis 'President' didn't let me down, blue large flowers adorn a rather modest place in the garden. The Carnation blooms with purple flowers, I really liked it and I decided to multiply it next year. The light blue Delphinium is too high this year.

 

 

The hostas are too large this summer. They apparently like the hot weather very much. In addition, snails hide in hot weather and hostas look pretty.

Reygrass (Arrhenatherum elatius) grows well without watering in such weather.  

White Astilbe rounds off this multicolored show. It grows next to a thuja,  that was planted last autumn.

I'm sitting in a gazebo with a laptop, finishing my post, it's hot again + 30C, now I need to take a cold shower! Of course, this grasshopper is hot too:

 

Bye for now.

What colors appeared in your garden in July?

 

After Heavy Rain

In the previous days the weather was very hot and I was waiting for rain. And the other day I woke up at 3 am by thunder. I got up and went to the window. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled as if directly over the roof of the country cottage. Heavy rain poured right through the window. I immediately closed the window because I am very afraid of lightning. 

Then I fell asleep again and got up as usual at 7 am. The air was fresh and clean, and there were drops of rain on the grass and plants. I brewed coffee, added milk to the cup, and went to the garden with a cup of coffee. I drank coffee and looked at the plants. Why not take pictures of the plants after a heavy rain? 

Campanula medium and Pelargoniums 

Poor white peonies

My veggies in raised beds, lettuce and parsley

Roses withstood heavy rain well

In the afternoon, the sun again heated the air to +26 C and I moved into the shade of the gazebo with my armchair. The forecast does not promise heavy rains in the coming days. It's good that the tanks were filled to the brim with rain water.