Agnes Dorotea's photostream  

We went on holiday in June to one of my favourite places in the world: the island of Hvar in Croatia. I took this from the terrace of the house where we stayed.

Two reasons why I've been away from flickr for such a long time: Sofie, two and a half on the left and Agnes, 4 months, on the right.

The same hortensia as in this pic . With some editing done by my husband Odd Viggo. Makes me think that hortensia changes as much as people do in their lifetime during a brief Norwegian summer.

I was so eager to capture this rather infrequent visitor in my garden and not too happy with the result.

Part of the afternoon had waned, but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and rarest quality. Real dusk would not arrive for many hours; but the flood of summer light had begun to ebb, the air had grown mellow, the shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf. They lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense of leisure still to come which is perhaps the chief source of one’s enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour. From five o’clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such an occasion as this the interval could be only an eternity of pleasure.

from the first chapter of "The Portrait of a Lady", by Henry James (1843–1916)

For me, this chapter, together with its preceding lines, is one of the most memorable openings of a novel. I have so often pictured the scene in my mind, and it was brought back to me when I first visited the Gulskogen garden in Drammen, Norway. I know the original scene takes place in an English country garden, but this will have to do for me, for now.