Garden of Eden, Part 3

Wow!!!!

Great photo - if I say so myself. The flower is so amazing that it wasn't hard to get a terrific shot of it.

Very close to our house, there are some lands owned by the city of Espoo, where you can rent just a little piece of land in order to cultivate something. I had seen the sunflowers - which are really one of my ab fave flowers in the world!! - from the car window and that's why I took my camera along on this walk.

When we got to the plot, there was an old man working on his garden - they were his sunflowers. I said hello and asked him if I could take photos of the flowers. I'm not sure he understood, he seemed not to be a Finn but he of course understood because I was holding a camera and motioning towards the flowers. So I climbed into his plot and took the photos, thanked him and left. He had quite a lot of different things growing there. I think he grows food for himself there. Quite a nice hobby for a pentioner.

I have a magnet on my fridge that says "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need (Cicero)". I have both. I have been collecting books my whole life and have five bookcases absolutely overflowing with books. And we have a tiny garden. However, I don't really work on it - no time. Ooops, I'm not supposed to say "No time". What I meant was that it's not high enough on my list of priorities...

I also recently heard that an old Chinese saying is "The only important thing in life is gardening - and even that's not so important". I love that!!! If I get stressed, I'll try to remember that. It helps one to not take oneself too seriously.

Sunflowers of course also always remind me of Van Gogh because of the amazing painting. Van Gogh is one of my fave artists. If you haven't seen his paintings live, make sure you do, it's a whole new experience. He really packs on the paint; it's so thick!! What a genius. Wow!

Yellow Lady

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I found this interesting blog today called China Trip. I find it interesting because I spent two years in China (around 1999-2001). But what I found unusual in this blog is that Kendo gives quite a detailed report about his extensive night clubbing in China. What's more, he claims that night clubs are a good way to get an idea of the level of economic development of a country (I'll bet he's a business student). Check it out!