St. Margaret’s Home, Montreal, 1933, via Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum Commons on flickr.
At the time of the photo, the house — built in 1845 — was a small hospital run by the Anglican Sisters of St. Margaret. It still exists today and is called Notman House for photographer William Notman who lived there in the late 19th century.
I really covet those plant supports between the windows.
Gardener and 100-year-old pruned yew tree (Taxus baccata) at Ellinge Castle, Skåne, Sweden, 1927, by Mårten Sjöbeck, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.
The castle still exists as a conference and events center. There are two shapes on the Google satellite map that could be the same yew.
On Monday, we went downtown for lunch and a stop at Stuttgart’s Markthalle or indoor food market. I also stuck my head in the stylish home goods store that occupies its second floor and discovered that it was having a 50% off sale on Christmas ornaments. So I bought five of these little trees, which I had coveted earlier in December.
At the same store, I also picked up some forced daffodils (1.90 euros). I liked the bright yellow plastic pot that they were already planted in, so I just dropped them into a little glass vase with some shell chips.
Two of the buds opened up overnight. Very early thoughts of spring. . .
To see what other garden bloggers put in vases yesterday, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
Happy New Year to all!
The Advent market of Hellbrunn Palace — just outside of Salzburg, Austria — is open from late November until Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, our guided city tour, which included a 15-minute stop at the palace grounds (otherwise closed during the winter) was on Christmas Day.
However, the absence of any other people among the remaining structures and decorations made it easy to appreciate the lesson of a simple good idea plus repetition.
The market areas in the two entry courtyards of the Baroque palace were set within “forests” of 400 cut trees and 13,000 red balls, according to one website.
The palace was (caused to be) built by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Markus Sittikus, between 1612 and 1615. Its 148-acre park includes a section of trick fountains and a pavilion built for the filming of The Sound of Music.
The Prince-Archbishop used the estate as a pleasure retreat during the long summer days, always returning to Salzburg for the night.
I hope, wherever you are today, that you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season!
Lovely, compact Salzburg makes a good Christmas travel destination, as long as you realize that almost everything will shut down at about 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and not reopen again until December 27. Do your shopping, as well as visit the fortress and other museums, on the 23rd. The two Mozart homes are open on Christmas Day and the 26th, and the guided tour companies are running on those days as well.
Be sure to make dinner reservations for the 24th, 25th, and 26th well in advance (a few weeks out). Our hotel had two good restaurants, and they were so fully booked for Christmas Eve that the hotel was not providing room service that night.
However — this year, at least — the big Advent/Christmas market in the old city center was open through December 26 (although it closed early on the 24th), so it was easy to get a lunch or an early dinner of sausage and gluhwein.
Also, Austria is one of the very few European countries that still allow smoking in restaurants and bars. Ask about it when booking or look around for ashtrays on the tables before sitting down if you want to avoid that sort of nostalgic experience. (Two of our three dinners were in restaurants without smoking.)
Rainerstrasse and Markus-Sittikus Strasse, Christmas Eve.
enclos*ure 