The lovely trees we couldn't live without!

In one of my early blogs I mentioned that when we bought these grounds, they were an abandoned wine-yard. In fact, around 1890 a family of army officials built a house across the street and our ground were the 'quinta', the farm, they had. On these grounds a wonderful wine was grown; it is said that the wine from here won several international prices, even.

A hundred years after the building of the original house, another house, our house, was built in the quinta. There was nothing here, really: a broken down pig-dwelling, a broken down ruin of a greenhouse. And the patio. The patio was, and still is, under huge trees, Cassias and Pittosporums, in the middle of the grounds. Perfectly placed so you see the palaces up on top of the mountain, get the afternoon sun in the winter and the afternoon shade in the summer. There was a type of iron structure to train the branches of the trees to form a sort of a gazebo, a protection and a shelter. During the years, however, the ground was not kept, for various reasons. We loved - love - the patio. And we still don't quite know what to do with it. (I put up different pictures so you could see the immenseness, the dimension, of the trees - cassia still without leaves).

During the years of abandon, the tree swallowed some of the iron, lifting up the structure, almost like saying that it was unnecessary (which you can see in the pictures). We have had these grounds for over 20 years, and the patio still looks the same: the iron structure inside the tree. We had the rest of the structure metalized and painted, and the tiling of the floor redone. But the basic structure and the idea are the same.

This is the time of the year when it is obvious why this variety of the pittosporum is called 'lily-of-the-valley-tree' in Finnish. The scent is intoxicating, sweet but not overpowering. Any little wind brings some of the flowers down. We sweep the patio a few times a day, and soon it looks like it has never been swept. Actually we sweep all year around: when there are no flowers, there are the leaves, as the pittosporum ALWAYS has leaves, which means it changes and consequently drops some ALL YEAR AROUND... Frustrating, but worth the effort. So many of our clients have slept and napped in the shade of these trees. So many younger clients have found these the perfect climbing trees. They give protection to the guest house from the winter winds and the summer sun - and house the birds that sing so beautifully in the mornings.

Do you have special memories/thoughts about these trees and the patio? Please share!