Easter 2011

The V. and I were having some coffee today and were just saying how quiet it is .. it's the Easter holidays and most people are somewhere.. especially with the wonderful weather.. We just realised that we actually don't spend Easter here so much that we have not taken notice of this wonderful empty city. There were parking spots everywhere and you can have a choice of the best seats in your favourite coffee shops and restaurants! So just so I can remember it -  this year 2011 Easter.. we enjoyed a quiet lunch and afternoon in Ffm.

We started thinking about our last Easters.. one of the best we've had were with friends L and N in Belgium... we even missed the time change.. so on the way to the church, we met people who were shaking their heads mumbling "oh they had the wrong time???!! ". To save the situation we decided to hurry and go to the Cathedral instead.. at least I was able to get some personal blessings from the Archbishop or Cardinal of Belgium.. hmmm not sure now..

Just an update - the seeds i am trying to germinate for my garden are doing well. I will be transfering them soon ... hopefully this week, so I can use the pots for my next seeds.. These are coriander seeds, sweet basil, tomatoes, celery and bell peppers.. ..

This is our front garden, do you see that green bush on the left side? This whole area was covered with snow last winter up to the height of that bush.. amazingly the plants made it.. I got some beautiful tulips this year... I planted them last October and I think a lot of them turn up..

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Project Garden

Was watching one of those shows in the television and they featured about Guerilla Gardening in Spain. Basically it is gardening in public spaces.. places that are normally left in the city..and a few people in Madrid I think decided to make use of the land and planted some vegetables.. This got me inspired to make a small vegetable patch in my garden. If this works I might turn out the rest of the space into a real vegetable garden. Well let's just see how this goes.. I am at the moment in Munich so there is nobody watering my plants and I just hope they are not dead yet especially those I was leaving to germinate..

 A treasure we found buried deep in the earth.. I wonder what this thing is? Just pure concrete!

 phew! this wasn't any easy work

 And some of the seeds I am trying to grow.. which me luck.. they are coriander, sweet basil, peppers and tomatoes.. when I left they were sprouting so I hope that continues.. and that it is not as warm as it is here there back home.

Summer 2010 in my garden

This year's summer turned really faster than most summers - I was quite busy with boring things like studying and the weather drastically changed to autumn somehow in the middle of it. Nevertheless I still did see summer happening in my garden

I was busy again for third time making my red currant and raspberry jams. My little garden was so good to me again even though I really did not do anything unusual.

It's so much fun to harvest them, but cleaning the stems are not that easy!

If you think this is a lot! These were just left overs. But now almost end of September. I only got 3 more jars left! Unbelievable. I never really tasted them until we got invited to a dinner by a friend and realise - wow, they do taste good!

I also planted some sweet peas and amazingly they are really growing and I am still harvesting them till now. They are soooo good. I eat them sometimes just out of the pods when I leave them a bit longer so the peas mature a bit. 

The V. and I had monstruous sunflowers last year ( the pictures got lost sorry) that The V decided to get a package of seeds called mini sunflowers that should grow the tallest about 20 centimeters. So I planted these sunflowers which I thought did not really look like real sunflower. The seeds germinated and I transfered them in the garden, patiently waited for it to grow and realise at the end - wait- these sunflowers are not the same as those  in the packaging. The pictures are entirely different. They turned out to be real sunflowers looking like this

Some weeks later, I saw a little weird looking yellow flower that did seem to look like the one from the package- yup the mini sunflower. From 20 stems of proud looking sunflower - a little weird one sprouts quietly. 

La

Can you spot the little sunflower that does not look like a sunflower? Sometimes a package of weird looking sunflowers could bring some wonderful surprises.

Just saying hello

Just talking to a friend a while ago and realised that in 2 weeks it's December. Time flies indeed....


We still don't have definite plans for Christmas and New Year's, but one thing is for sure we will stay here in Germany. Just don't know if we'll  go to friends or if our friends will come here and join for one of those holidays.. Nevertheless I am looking forward to the 3 week holiday - hurray!

And speaking of holidays next week, we have a long weekend. Since I work in an international school, we also celebrate the American Thanksgiving. So it's Thursday and Friday off for me and we plan to visit my cousin and her husband who lives in an American base down South. So looking forward to visiting some family and enjoying the weekend which would probably mean a lot of eating and turkey.


To brighten this gloomy, gray November days I decided to post some pictures of flowers we had in our garden last summer.Aren't they beautiful?

Hope to see them bloom again next year. We planted some of them from seeds and they turned out really well.



Well that's it for now and see you in my next post. Have a great week everyone.

These flowers are called sneezeweed, aren't they pretty? The bees love them. Kayni a blog friend, asked about it so some of you may want to know it as well.




Well that's it for now and see you in my next post. Have a great week everyone

See how the garden grows

The V. and I have done a few work in our garden and one of them was to trim and prune the roses. Well we really didn't have any idea about it. So I asked the kind neighbor in front who I thought was an enthusiastic gardener. Well it turned out she doesn't like roses but since she's really a lovely lady, she brought us a book about roses :), then The V. researched in the internet and there we go, cutting the the branches. The V. suffered lots of injuries because those thorns are really dangerous. In the end we pulled out some of the roses too- too much thorns. Well I think we've done a good job because they are growing again (whew!!)

I planted some of the bulbs last year and here they are --lovely daffodils. I wasn't too lucky with the hyacinths .. not much grew :( and I am waiting for the tulips - well if they survived The V's giant feet :) while pulling out all those unwanted rose bushes!
The forsythie is lovely and blossoming without me having to do anything with it. Such a lovely sight, this time of the year!
And here are the red currants and raspberries which I am not sure if I did the right job of cutting and pruning. I have a feeling I cut too much branches that the raspberries are now so looking healthy :( (bottom picture) The red currants seem to be healthy though. Well let's see how it goes with the harvest this summer which of course will be documented. :)

tidbits

I really don't have anything new to blog about but The V. is watching one of the movies from www.ovguide.com and my sister who I regularly chat with, this time of the evening is not online. So here I am.

Anyway, a funny thing happened the other day. My neighbor came and wanted to trim her hedge but was having a hard time cutting a part of it from her side so she ask me if she can come to my side and trim it. Of course I said she can come over. Well she didn't just cut that special corner but she started trimming the whole side. Even my part of the hedge! I didn't know what to say.. I just said thank you very much. At the back of my mind I was wondering if I should offer them a drink (there were 2 of them), chit chat more with them or just go inside and re-treat to my corner. Now I think I should have ask them if they want a drink. But my living room was in chaos because I just went to the grocery and bought a lot of things and they were all over! Oh well :( Moral of the story - always keep the house clean! Nevertheless, I chatted with them about plants and neighbors and work, etc. etc. I have a feeling older people like kindergarden teachers :) they always liven up when I tell them what I do. It probably reminds them of their grandchilren.

Speaking about children, we went to the castle nearby for a field trip. We took the train and the bus and my colleagues were so amazed with me! They were thanking me for organizing the whole trip. They thought I really know my way around the city with train time tables and bus connections. I told The V about it. This is the second time this happens. In my previous job - the ex colleagues also thought I know my way around whenever we do excursions with the kids. Well do you know how The V reacted? He laughed so hard!!! He said his famous bulgarian quotation " In the world of the blind, the one eyed person is the king." What a supportive (meaning sarcastic) husband :( ! Well can't blame him, do you know that I don't even know my right from my left. And north, east, west and south as well. But I do check online everything and do the necessary arrangements for a trip.

Red currants

When we bought this house, one of the things that attracted me to it is the garden we have in the back. Although we live in the middle of the city, there is nevertheless a small garden included in the house. What made it more exciting is that I saw some kind of bushes planted. Since it was still winter there were no leaves to see which kind of plant they were. The owner then told me they are raspberries and red currants. Wow! I got so excited, I am like a child when it comes to picking berries and all. I used to just pick ( or should I say steal?) red currants and blackberries from our neighbors. Now I have my own to pick. Let me tell you it's not as delicious as I remebered it to be. I used to not get enough of them (probably because it's not mine) but today I picked about 1.5 kilos of red currants and ate probably about at least 250 grams of it!! And there's still more of them out ripening on their stems.. what shall I do with them? I plan to give at least some to my colleague but I don't know what to do with the rest. She told me I can make a jam out of it. I haven't really tasted a red currant jam ever. Have you or do you have any tips for me? It would be a pity to throw these yummy red currants. I do get some help from all the birds gulping them each time. But there is just too much of them and less birds and people to eat them. The V. wants to have the red currants uprooted after summer. He thinks we should plant there something more special than red currants. The raspberries are not yet out but I think they are yummier than red currants and I know a number of people who would willingly get them fresh from me :) oh by the way, it was also a bit of hard work picking these berries, now I know why they are a bit expensive when you buy them.