Friday 24 August 2012

Odense Blomsterfestival 2012

Sidste weekend var jeg, som det efterhånden er fast tradition, på besøg hos familien Hittemis i anledning af årets Blomsterfestival. Billederne fra de to foregående år kan ses her: 2011 og 2010.

Temaet i år var Nordiske Børneeventyr - primært Astrid Lindgren, Thorbjørn Egner og H.C. Andersen, men også Selma Lagerløf havde sneget sig ind, så jeg.  Og det var bare intet mindre end fantastisk!  Kom med på en lille fotosafari, og husk at tage til Odense næste år i august (nb - jeg modtager ingen blomster til gengæld for denne reklame, men det kan der snildt laves om på :-)

@ N ~ yes, we're at it again. The annual Flower Festival. This year's theme was Nordic Fairytales and it was wonderful. All the characters from the fairytales we (in this corner of the world) have been brought up with were there, surrounded by beautiful blooms and lovely flower compositions.

Ready to be spammed with pictures?


The swans are, of course, from "The Ugly Duckling"
by H.C. Andersen who actually lived in Odense, the
very city where the Flower Festival takes place

"Thumbelina" with a gigantic butterfly made
up of various Campanula flowers (I think; I'm no expert)

Campanula ("bell flowers") nestled
at the foot of the tree

They do this every year,
and I just love the way it looks

This caravan was covered in crochet

- even the flowers were crocheted!

Oh yes, we like!

This is from the H.C. Andersen fairytale
"The tinder-box" (original title: "Fyrtøjet")

A witch lures a soldier down a hollow tree
in search of a magic tinder-box. In return,
he can take all the money he finds - but it's
guarded by 3 dogs.


Here's the ugly old witch :-)

Down in the hollow tree, there were three chambers.
In each chamber, he met a huge dog.
This is the first one - it guards a treasure
of copper pennies

...and it has eyes as large as teacups!

This is the dog in the second chamber -
it guards a pile of silver coins.

...and its eyes are as big as mill-wheels!

Then, finally, he went into the third 
chamber. And there, on a pile of
gold, sat the most enormous beast of a hound

- it's eyes were as large as Runde Taarn, 

There is no such thing as
"too many flowers"

A different fairytale, the 3 robbers from 
"Kardemommeby" by Thorbjorn Egner

It's not just in one location;
there are displays all over the city center

They even had fir trees - decorated with little
bells. From H.C. Andersen's "The Fir Tree",
about a little fir who yearns to become a 
Christmas tree, brought into the living room, 
decorated and admired by everyone.

From "The Emperor's new suit"

Another version of "Thumbelina"

Karius & Baktus (by Thorbjorn Egner)
 - the nasty little guys who like to
 build their home in your teeth, love
candy and hate the tooth brush.

From "Nils Holgerssons magical journey
through Sweden" by Selma Lagerlof - he travels
on the back of a goose

From Astrid Lindgren's "Simon Small" (original
title: "Nils Karlsson Pusling"). In the photos below,
you can see the scale of the furniture a bit better.

I love-love-LOVE the flower carpet!

Look at this bed -

the "bed linen" is made of hundreds of cyclamen!

See the little girl standing under the table?

I persuaded my friends' daughter to pose
(just to illustrate the scale)

I have over 300 photos from the weekend.... 

Will spare you the rest, and fast forward to Sunday. The Flower Festival opened on Wednesday and Saturday at 5PM, they started taking down all the flowers from their various locations around the city. Everything is gathered on the square in front of the city hall, and Sunday at 9AM, the whole lot is put up for sale. And we queue up :-)



These two beauties are going home with me!
(I don't know if you can tell from the photo,
but they're quite big - I could just about lift them)

Not just mine, I hasten to add! This is the
"loot" of 3 people. But it gives you a
better idea of the size of my dahlias.
Little Blue Car is a gem, by the way - 
oceans of space for carting flowers!

Bonus: the local vendor of the "Hus Forbi Magazine"
(magazine sold by homeless people) had decorated his
canine companion

I do like it when even the homeless go all in on flowers :-)

I am enjoying my "staycation" immensely. Not feeling very rich this month, so won't be going anywhere. The new garden takes up much of my time - lots of hedges to be cut and weeding to be done (there's grass underneath them that's almost as tall as the hedge itself). 

The patio is finished and now we're working on a sort of stone "wall" to support it (a bit difficult to explain, but the patio sits a bit higher than the rest of the garden, and there is a slope down which will, eventually, be supported by rocks. Photos to come, when it's finished). There will be some kind of fence as well, to give the illusion of privacy. As the garden is basically nothing but the aforementioned hedge (which isn't very tall) and bare soil (my future lawn + flower beds), one is very much "on display" when sitting on the patio. I don't mind it, but it will be nice to get some more plants in.  Next year, I think. I have to do it bit by bit, as $$$ become available.  Doesn't matter; a garden should take its time to evolve. It's just a bit difficult, sometimes, to find out what to do first.

I've also seen a few friends in the evenings, and the other day I went on a guided walk in a plantation half an hour from where I live. It was quite spectacular and if I get round to it, I'll do a blog post about it.

Tomorrow is another little outing, and then more gardening. Not as virtuous as I sound, probably -  I only do a little bit at a time, and there's plenty of time for naps in between! (Today was a record day; two 2-hour naps, and I have a feeling I won't be having any problems falling asleep tonight. Ahh, the joy!)

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