The forest and the ladybug apocalypse.

It's been a wonderfully outdoorsy weekend!  Lots of walks and really feeling the autumn right now.  Not much has happened with my plants at the moment.  The seasonals are on their way out and my chili pepper plants are just growing along fine.  In fact I have discovered a little pepper on one of my serrano chili plants!  Photos to come soon!  But right now I just want to share some pictures of my weekend.

-  On Saturday, we got on a bus out to East Berlin.  We went to Müggelheim which is where the Müggelsee is.  We walked in an impressive forest, which from the top looks out over one of the lakes.  The day started out really foggy.  It was crisp but not that cold.  The colour pallet of the day was mainly brown, yellow and grey.  It was beautiful.  I know I have been totally overusing the word autumnal, but it was super autumnal.  That's the only way I can describe it.  Here's the view on the way up through the forest.  There is a downhill mountain biking course through it!  There were some guys mountain biking down the course.  They were pretty fast and were jumping off ramps and stuff.  I was impressed.

Once we had made it to the top of the "hill", this was the stunning view we had over the smaller Müggelsee.  (It's called the smaller lake although it is mahoosive!)

-  Sunday, the weather was completely the opposite to the weather on Saturday.  I woke up to the sun shining and a cloudless blue sky!  We went to the Hasenheide, which is a park in Neukölln just across from Templehof.  Over the course of the day it got really warm and people were sitting in the park topless!  Really crazy when you think that it's already the end of October!  There was one thing that was really bizarre about today...there were soooooo many ladybugs flying around EVERYWHERE!  Every minute there was one landing on me after another one had just flown off.  I wonder if this is a common thing for October and that just like there is that one flying ant day, where ALL the flying ants EVER come out, that there is also a flying ladybug day.  I really enjoyed the ladybugs' company though and I managed to take this really cool photo of one about to take flight!

And here is a photo of two ladybugs flying in the blue sky!  It just looks like there are two black dots in the air, but they are ladybugs!  I promise!

-  After the Hasenheide I continued my journey home and popped by the Comenius Garden which was buzzing with people enjoying the sun.  The trees were just über-vibrant and full of colour!

Anyway, it was a perfect day for soaking up some autumn sun.  The paths were covered in crispy orange and yellow leaves and accompanied by the leaf crunching sound of my feet, it was just glorious.
Thanks for reading and I hope you all have had similar autumnal experiences!
..love..

Seasonal changes.

I'd like to welcome autumn to da house!!  The skies are blue, the sun is shining, and the wind is blowing!  With this change my bedroom gardening season is rearing to end for my summer plants.

- I still have some tomatoes that are staying strong with fruits ripening up.  Some of the tomato plants would look really really naked if it wasn't for a couple of wilting leaves and a few ripening tomatoes.  But that is all part of its course, plants grow, ripen and die to make space for next season's plants.  Here are some tomatoes I harvested a couple of days ago.  Kumato (top left), cherry (top and bottom right) and tiger stripe (bottom left).

- There are a couple of plants that are not rearing to an end.  Those are my serrano chili plants.  One is even starting to flower and everyone knows what that means!!!  Potential chili peppers!!!!

- Even my kohlrabi's are still holding on!  They didn't end up growing into actual kohlrabi's.  I think it's because I haven't put them in a pot big enough.  They are in a hanging basket and the stems are a beautiful foggy purple colour, and that's why I won't get rid of them...because they are pretty!

- Here is a distant view of my garden window.  You can see I have significantly less plants.  One of the reasons gardening is so wonderful is that you really can see and feel the seasons changing with your fingers if you don't otherwise. 

- For a finishing touch, here's a picture of me in my favourite place.  Of course you know it...Tempelhof!  A couple of weeks ago there were hay bails all over the field.  They had stacked some of them into pyramids, which we used as jumping platforms!!!  It was so much fun at the time...until I got home and my whole body was an itchy mess!!

Anyways, thanks for reading...and I wish you all the very best of the start of autumn.

Autumnal ..love..