My cousin has this lovely cottage allotment in Marjaniemi, Helsinki.  They bought it last September so this is their first summer there. I guess this cottage allotment is a kind of Finnish thing. It allows people to enjoy village lifestyle in a city. Fantastic idea and it's great that the tradition is still alive after 100 years. For example Marjaniemi allotment was founded in 1946. 

All the houses are app. 33m2 and there's garden around each house. Not too huge yet bigger than a balcony, so there's space for trees and for your own vegetable garden. 

Next step here is to paint the cottage in blue. Actually you can find the exact colour in one of the pics below - it's the tone of the post box.

This is how it looked in September 2015 click click.

Sakura - Enchanted Garden

 Now it's going to be a loads of pics of blooming branches! There's been a Sakura happening at ELTE Botanicus Kert (botanical garden of the Univercity) in Budapest. The weather's been so sunny and warm for the whole week, but during the weekend it's been cloudy and partly rainy as well. Actually it didn't matter at all - now the garden felt so fresh. Here are only a part of the photos I took there - got totally enchanted with all those colours.

Went there in the morning and there were already plenty of people who all looked so happy and delighted by beautiful flowers and blooming trees. It's amazing how strong effect gorgeous gardens have on human beings. They make us smile and feeling happy.

"The many great gardens of the worls, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."

- Thomas More -

Urban Garden - Blooming Everywhere

One of the most beautiful seasons - spring! It's blooming everywhere and the city looks like an urban garden. 

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming."

- Pablo Neruda -

Urban Garden

A friend of mine has a pretty nice rooftop terrace in London...

Marjaniemi Cottage Allotment

Marjaniemi cottage allotment offers a village life-style, close to nature and a social community belief connected by 100 years of history. 

Living with naure is a central concept to the Finnish way of urban life. Having the possiblity of being close to nature in the very heart of the city near home has been part of finnish urbanity for nearly a hundred years. In recent years, the cottge allotment idea has undergone a renaissance as more and more city-dwellers become aware of the possibility of having the countryside on one's doorstep without necessarily driving a long way to a far-off summer residence. 

Marjaniemi garden alootments was founded in 1946. There're 305 gardens in total, each with a small wooden cottage about 33m2.

Who says you can't grow grape vine in Finland?!!