Lise-Lotte has evolved to become Lise-Lotte.ca

Flowers & photography~connections & creativity

I started blogging many years ago, and I must say I really like the process. For me this starts with a photograph that I have taken and then a few thoughts that have been on my mind…resulting in a piece of writing to share with you. I look forward to doing this regularly again. Here. I hope you will join me as we have a conversation about the themes of: flowers & photography~connections & creativity.

If you are new here, welcome. If you have visited before, welcome back. I’m so happy you are here!

About Lise-Lotte

Perhaps we should start with an introduction. My first name is Lise-Lotte. It is a Danish name. I am Canadian. My mom was Danish. I don’t shorten my name. My friends don’t shorten it either. I love my name.

I am passionate about the natural world, growing flowers, connecting with the people in my life whom I love, and being a creative entrepreneur. Creativity is a daily practice for me, but not the kind of practice that I had to do when I learned to play piano as a child. I hated practicing piano. Today, my creativity is regularly expressed in photography -often sharing walks in the natural world with the lovely community on my instagram account Greenhouse Hygge.

partygreen flowers

I started growing flowers and veggies over 30 years ago. I started growing flowers to sell 5 years ago. It started with selling my beloved sweet peas at my stand outside the garden gate. It was extremely successful with a little tin and an honest community. partygreen flowers has evolved into a very successful specialty flower business showcasing what is possible on an urban flower farm using organic growing methods. We offer flower subscriptions, custom work and bouquets at The Stand. This is the first season we are offering delivery. Our contactless pick-up at the gate upon receipt of the e-transfer is very popular. We have expanded the growing space with more raised beds. Local customers and flower lovers internationally follow our year round journey on Instagram at partygreen_flowers. Every year, I start thousands of seeds in my greenhouse which is what I am spending my time doing these days. Here I listen to podcasts, CBC radio, and the birds outside.

Greenhouse Hygge, the house of my growing dreams

My mom gave me this greenhouse when she was in hospice. I photographed, wrote and published a book about this: Greenhouse Hygge, the house of my growing dreams has been selling in shops and on-line ever since. You can find it here

Out of the Blue

For 21 years, I was the proud mama to two daughters, born 21 months apart. When my youngest daughter was 21, she died of a brain aneurysm; we were all together when it happened. I had the immense privilege in my life to give birth to her, love her, be loved by her, learn from her, and be right next to her when she needed me most. Being a mom has been one of the greatest gifts I could ever have been given in my life. I am profoundly grateful to have had that. If you are interested in learning more about this amazing human you can go here. In learning how to live with my never-ending love for Ilse, along with the incredible grief I experience in the missing, I was introduced to cyanotype by my sister and her daughter- a beautiful gentle soul, my niece. It let me continue to practice being in the present moment, see Beauty in such small and ordinary things in my garden or on walks- the weeds, seed pods, my Dad’s old glass medicine bottles. As I became more and more involved in this old photographic technique, and explored more – I realized that it is really an exploration in blue and white- Ilse’s favourite colours (I know white is technically not a colour). Her death, the experience of learning to live a life not of my choosing, the exploration of, and experience of letting go, so much depends on the light in cyanotype- leaning into the lack of control and allowing the experience of magic to happen. Well, it all came OUT OF THE BLUE- and so that seemed an apt name for the results of this creative exploration. Since I started selling my cyanotype tea cosies on Etsy, they have travelled all over the world.

Gathering Experiences

It’s crazy to think that I have been a group facilitator for over 30 years. In this role, I have worked with so many different types of groups and settings. I have to tell you that I LOVE facilitation! I love being able to provide experiences for groups that bring them, as a group or individually depending, to a different place of understanding. All my work is in this area is based on experiential learning. Always has been. Gathering Experiences can mean two things in English: collecting various experiences or experiences of getting together. This new venture is really both and I have big plans for this year and the ones to come for this pillar of my business. Currently, I am very interested in developing experiences of creativity: whether making winter wreaths, cyanotype, sewing tea cosies or making gifts from the garden. For more information on up-coming offerings, please subscribe to our newsletter. I will also post them on my website Lise-Lotte.ca under the heading Gathering Experiences.

Lise-Lotte.ca is the umbrella

With all these various entrepreneurial endeavours, and with my values, experience, skills and heart leading – it seemed to make sense to bring it all together.

I hope in the weeks, months and years to come, Lise-Lotte.ca is helpful to you in some way.