Flowers are for remembering.

Lots happened last week and with no proper internet access there was no blogging possible.  What I wanted to talk about is death.  What I always like to think about in the event of death is that that little light has burned down but another one gets lit somewhere near or far.  Yes it is a little bit cheesy and sometimes hard to think of it when one is emotional, but it does make me feel better.  What also makes me feel better is stunning sunsets and pretty flowers even if they are linked to going to a graveyard.

Cycling towards a sunset through the woods.

Flowers are for honouring, celebrating and remembering.
Thanks for reading and see you Sunday.
..love..

Easter Adventures.

It's the EASTER HOLIDAYS!!  It's exciting to have a very much needed break from the daily grind.  My family is visiting me from the south of Germany and yesterday we went to the Pfaueninsel on Wannsee.  The weather was perfect.  And we went on a short ferry ride to get to the island.  The island is a nature reserve with an abundance of beautiful flowers, a rose garden and free roaming peacocks, pheasants and other birdy things. 

Our ticket to get across the tiny bit of water over to the island.

A posing peacock.  There were people feeding him.  We didn't have anything to feed him with so my mum threw a stone in his direction to trick him.  At first he fell for it and turned around and started walking towards us with his epic plumage trailing behind him, he then looked at my mum's grinning face and cawed (more like meowed) at her in disgust.

 The great view of sail boats on Wannsee on our way to Pfaueninsel's aviary.

Today was again an absolutely lovely day.  We spent it in Potsdam.  The weather was as excellent if not even better than yesterday's weather!  We walked around the Park Sancoussi.  Things were a'bloomin and there were A LOT of tourists.  But we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We sat on a bench in the Sicilian Garden and ate our grapes and strawberries in the hawt hawt sunshine.  We then went on a small Easter egg hunt.  I happened to have 3 small chocolates in the bottom of my bag, which I hid around the Sicilian Garden.

 The flowers that are planted in front of Schloss Sancoussi.

A ginko tree starting to put out its teeny tiny leaves.  At first we didn't realise that these were ginko trees.  Super super super cute!

 So that was my Easter weekend in a nutshell.  Hope you've had a wonderful time with family, friends, or even in alone.  All that counts is that it was enjoyed.  Thanks for reading and see you next week.

..love..

Remebering Sunday on a dreary Monday.

Yesterday was a beautiful new Sunday!  The Sahara dust has settled and the sun made an appearance.  It was a lovely walking day.  All the trees are blooming and the little leaf buds are starting to shimmer a wonderful fresh spring green.  I wish Sunday could happen again.  I'm not feeling this grey and dreary Monday...but in remembrance of how wonderful yesterday was, here a picture of blooming trees.

More excitement from Sunday is that I've spotted my first little bean pods on my bush bean plant!!!  Eeeeek!!!  Already!  Madness!  They're tiny and very cute and hopefully will become big and strong.  I realise that in this photo it is like looking at one of those pictures of Where's Wally? but once you spot it you can't look away (well, at least I couldn't)!

 I photographed my peppermint plant.  It is just exploding with growth.

And also, my new favourite one of my photos, is this coriander.  I just thought I was taking a quick photo of it to put up on here but when I look at it, it is beautiful, and I have no idea why.  Maybe because I have been using lots of coriander in cooking recently?  It is one of the best tastes in the world.  It is definitely the best fresh off the plant.  And coriander is sooooooo easy to grow that everyone should have a plant.  Seriously you'll never look back to the days when you had no fresh coriander.  I should start a coriander appreciation society!

And with that I say goodbye and wish you all a great start into the new week.  See you at the end of it.  Hopefully I will have successfully completed my mission of finding miners lettuce (winter portulak/postelein in German), echinacea, and jalapeno pepper seeds for planting.

Thanks for reading.
..love..

Propagating succulents.

Back again!  I missed last Sunday's blog post because I was busy travelling back to Berlin from London after a wonderful weekend seeing friends.  So finally, here is an update on my propagated succulents.  Look at them!  They are growing little plants on them.  I really did not think that this would work at all.  But I guess all you need is a little patience and time.  

It is soooooooooo exciting!  Also new on the gardening front, I had a bit of an Asian culinary week last week and bought round rice paper to make summer rolls along with udon noodles and lots of fresh vegetables to stir fry.  And decided for the first time to try cooking with lemongrass.  It is a wonderful herb.  I put the lemongrass that I didn't use into a glass of water, and look at these new roots growing!

I LOVE PLANTS.

..love..

Scotch bonnet rebirth and Garden Betty blog.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to prune my scotch bonnet pepper plant as it had quite a massive bald spot in the middle of its really long stem.  At first I thought, oh dear I have definitely killed it now.  But I was patient, and I waited to see what would happen to it.  And sure enough, there is new growth sprouting!!!  It is super exciting!  

 Full frontal.

Aerial view.

Since last week, all of my repotted seedlings have been doing nothing but growing!  Look at those bush beans in the left hand corner.  They are growing like mad!

I have discovered a new gardening blog that I absolutely love right now.  It is written by a woman living in Los Angeles, California.  It is about growing vegetables, raising chickens, cooking, and about all of her extreme sport adventures.  It is a really beautiful blog that has given me a lot of inspiration.  From her blog I found out that you can eat the young pea plant shoots like salad or in stir frys and that nasturtium pods can be used to make capers.  YUM YUM YUM.  Gotta try it all!  Whoever likes looking at beautiful pictures of nature alongside gardening and chickens should definitely check out Garden Betty's blog.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/2012/05/how-to-grow-green-onions-without-dirt/#more-4418

Hope you're all having a wonderful Sunday.

..love..

Repotting and a sprung spring

So yesterday was my big day of repotting plants.  I bought a 20 litre bag of soil and began the messy but wonderful job.

Here are my beans, peas, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber.  My cherry tomato seedlings are still teeny tiny and look a little ridiculous in their big buckets!

These are my various tomatoes.  The yellow pear tomato seeds I saved from last year's tomatoes.  And the kumato tomatoes are kind of an experiment.  I saved the seeds from a store bought kumato tomato.  I'd like to see if they will end up bearing fruit or not. 

I didn't repot my chives, but I just wanted to show how great they are doing!

At the end of February I sowed some peppermint seeds in an old yoghurt pot with a transparent lid (great for keeping seeds warm and moist).   They are finally sprouting!  And they are absolutely tiny little seedlings.  Looks like a very small and very cute forest.

So spring has definitely sprung here in Berlin and one thing I love about spring is the abundance of beautiful flowers that you can buy.  I received these tulips as a gift, they are so beautiful and super photogenic.

 

I hope you all enjoy a springful Sunday!

..love..

Succulents and seedlings

My tupperware greenhouse is doing really well already.  My cucumbers are shooting up, tomatoes, beans and peas are also starting to sprout.  Even my papaya seed is opening up revealing a little white shoot.  I took this picture on Saturday.  Today is Monday and everything is even BIGGER!  I guess it has been a really sunny weekend and being inside a tupperware box on a sunny windowsill is perfect for plant seedlings!

view inside the tupperware box on Saturday the 1st of March

 view inside the tupperware box today the 3rd of March

Today I went to visit the Kakteengärtnerei Matk in Lichtenrade, south Berlin.   They specialise in cacti and succulents which they sell to big shops like Bauhaus.  They had a HUGE selection of different cacti and succulents spread out over 5 or 6 large greenhouses.  It was wonderful.  I left with these two beauties.  A Pacchyphytum oviferum and a Sedum pachyphyllum.  They are really beautiful.  I could have left that place with a lot more succulents but I restrained myself.  What I liked about my purchases is that they look like juicy grapes, and I LOVE grapes!

..love..