Cracking sunset and flowering corn.

Good evening folks!  The weeks keep zooming by.  I can feel the summer holidays approaching and the air is starting to buzz.  Hopefully the summer will fully hit us here in Berlin soon.  Everyone is waiting for it!  Despite the grey sky and the rain there have been some lovely clear skied adventures nonetheless!  You must forgive me if this post seems a little bit distracted, but I am writing whist simultaneously watching Germany play against Algeria in the World Cup.  I am not usually a big football watcher, but occasionally (especially during the World Cup, even though I know what a terrible company FIFA apparently is) I do enjoy it.  Let's begin with some of the happenings at the beginning of last week.

-  Last Monday evening we cycled to the Tempelhofer Feld.  My oh my it was a very beautiful evening with a wonderful sunset!

Cycling with our shadows!

 This is the community garden on the Tempelhofer Feld called Allmende Kontor.  That evening there were people sitting in all the nooks and crannies built in the garden.  Many times I was ogling a nice flower and then noticed a couple of faces sitting drinking beer just hidden behind.  It is a really great place to go for an evening beer and to watch the sunset.  Can you guys see the sunflowers in this photo or are the amazing rays of sunlight blinding you!?

-  I visited another community garden similar to the Prinzessinengarten on Moritzplatz.  This garden is called Himmelbeet and it is in Wedding right by the U-Bahn station Leopoldplatz.  It is a sweet little garden!  They even have beds that people can rent for a season.  As we were approaching the garden we heard faint sounds of a jazz band playing some tunes.  And we got closer to realise we had caught the end of the Himmelbeet Sommer Fest!  So we sat and enjoyed some nice music and then had a look around.  I was super impressed by all their kohl rabis and mangold!

-  Ok, so the last thing I want to show you guys is the flower that one of my corn plants has developed!  What does this mean?  Is this going to become a ear of corn!?  I am so excited!  People have told me it is not possible to grow corn successfully indoors without sufficient grow lights and whatnot.  I really hope that I can prove them wrong.  I am super excited, but also needing to contain my excitement in case it doesn't work out so that I'm not too disappointed.

I gotta dash guys and girls.  People are starting to throw firecrackers in the streets (football game related even though it's half time) and every time one goes BANG I jump out of my skin.  So I hope you all have a great week and thanks for reading.
..love..

Succulent update.

Here is a short succulent propagation update.  This weekend I decided to pot some of the succulents that have been growing from their leaves.  The leaves have been sitting on a soil bed for months.  Sometimes I mist them with water and sometimes I don't.  They don't need any particular care I find.  Not too much sun and not too little.  What they DO need however is a whole load of sweet sweet time!  :)

-  Here is the soil tray with lots of different succulent leaves on it.  I don't know what half of them are called.  I should probably look into it.

-  I know that the little succulent I planted in the right jar is called a money tree.  The one on the left is some kind of Echeveria but I'm not that sure.

 -  I love planting in jars.  Makes every plant look super cute and hip!  Like it could be some kind of cool accessory.  I mean plants are cool and hip anyway but in jars even more so.

That's all for this week.  Short and point-y!  Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good week.

..love..

Pillow Clouds.

After last week's heatwave this week has felt a little bit colder with quite a few storms that brought in a real chilliness with them.  Although this evening was a super mild and beautiful evening.

-  Let me begin with my nasturtiums.  Their stalks are just going crazy, growing wild twists and turns in all directions.  I had to take a photo of it from below as the leaves are pointing down.  It worked quite well I think.

My nasturtiums look good, but I went for a walk in the Comenius Garden today and all the nasturtiums there are already blooming.  I cant wait for mine to bloom so that I can make some nice salads with the nice orange blossoms.

-  Look my tomatoes got bigger!

-  So I've started taking pictures of balconies around Berlin that I see and like the look of.  Especially in the summer you can see greenery sprouting from even the tiniest balcony here.  Some are more intriguing than others of course.  And some are just absolutely wild.  Like this one that I found whilst cycling around Neukölln yesterday.  These lilies are in danger of falling off of the balcony.  They are absolutely huge...I don't mean to toot my own horn but I really really love everything about this photograph.  The second balcony photo I took today also in Neukölln.  Also of plants that are hanging over the edge of the balcony.  Not as wild and crazy as the lilies but still very interesting textures peeking over the side.  I think the leaves on the right are belonging to some courgette or cucumber plants. 

(contrast and Instagram filter Rise)

(contrast and Instagram filter Rise)

-  This evening as I was going for a little stroll, I found out that yesterday and today were the open garden days in Potsdam and Berlin.  And I missed it!  I did manage to do a short visit to a small garden here in Rixdorf.  I had no idea that the alleys I went down actually led somewhere.  I totally forgot that I was in Berlin.  That one little alley has the view and the feeling of a small village somewhere in the countryside.  Wow.

That's all for now guys.  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a great week.

..love..

34°

It is HAWT, HAWT, HAWT!!!  Best thing to do when it is this hot in a city is to spend the whole day close to water, and keep those thirsty plants watered.  That's exactly what I have been doing.  Dunking myself into a lake and then going home to water my plants in the evening.  Although they get thirsty, they seem to enjoy the sun and are really shooting up into the air.

-  Here are some shots of my corn.  It really has grown a lot in a short amount of time!

Photo taken on the 25th of May, 2014.

 Photo taken on the 8th of June, 2014.

-  My cherry tomato plant now has teeny tiny tomatoes growing from the flowers!  LOOOOK!!!

-  Today I've been finding loads of little black balls everywhere.  They are tiny.  I thought they were some sort of terrible aphid egg that were lying around getting ready to release those terrible bastards upon my plants.  But these little black balls are SEEDS!  Yes, yes, my miner's lettuce is seeding.  I am saving as many of them as I can find.  They are super small.

Black seed in the middle of the leaf.  Get out your magnifying glass!

-  This weekend was Karneval der Kulturen here in Berlin.  And although it is not plant based I definitely want to share a picture I took today whilst wandering around.  A stilt troupe.  This lady was a crane or a stork.  She was sprinkling confetti.  And I love confetti.  One of the other stilt people sat on my shoulder and had a rest.

To finish off, I gotta say that this week hasn't just been brimming with success.  I had to get rid of my monster cucumber plant yesterday.  The reason being...APHIDS.  I know I could have treated the plant in loads of different ways to get rid of the little critters, but I didn't want to risk having an infested plant indoors so close to all my other plants.  I'm ok with having to let go of my one thriving cucumber but I wouldn't be ready to get rid of all my plants because of the mean green eating machines.  I really would love to know how the aphids got here.  I assume it was through one of the plants I was given from a friend's garden.  I have learned my lesson now.

With that I say goodbye and thanks for reading.  I hope you all enjoy the real beginning of the summer sun wherever you are!
..love..

Catch up.

This is going to be a big catch up post with lots of pictures!  I've sighted my first tomato flowers and I went to Paris for the first time in my adult life.  My last memory of Paris was being over taken on the road by a bus full of nuns that were all waving at me.  Now I have made new memories that will be in my mind when I think of Paris.  Here we go...I'll start with Paris!

View of the street from the 6th floor.

 Restaurant across the river from the Notre Dame and next to the bookshop called Shakespeare and Co.

At the flower market on Allée Célestin Hennion.  This shop had really big blue and purple hortensias.

The shop owner's coat matched the flowers!

Le Louvre...it was such a beautiful day.

This is no specific building.  I just loved the balconies with the plants on them.

 What is a post about Paris without a picture of the Eiffel Tower.  Here is a picture of it in the distance over Parisian rooftops.

I love the rooftops...and with this last one I said goodbye to Paris and hello to Berlin again.

-  After that brilliant weekend in Paris, I came home to find my tomatoes flowering!!

Cherry tomato.

 Kumato tomato.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading and see you Sunday.

..love..