spring fever

Spring is here and as always, I am so excited to get out and grow things! We’ve had unnaturally warm and sunny weather in the past few weeks and the balcony is already coming alive – sorry US readers, I’m just telling it how it is. We had the never ending winter last year!


My seed order has arrived and I’ve started most of them. This year I will be growing tomatoes (a personal variety from a friend of a friend’s garden in Spain), peppers, lots of salads, sugar snap peas, spinach and kale. That’s the plan anyway. The hardy herbs, mints and strawberries are waking up from their winter sleep too.


New on the list this year are flowers, I will be trying violets, nasturtiums and snapdragons to brighten up our little space. The calendula seeds I mixed in here and there last year have survived the winter and this little guy was the first splash of color to surprise us a week ago.

To start seeds I have three ‘classes’ of plants: Some are started indoors and kept inside until the end of May. These are the delicate tomatoes and peppers as well as some flowers. I have set up my DIY light box again, which has served me very well in past years.
There’s also a little poly greenhouse on the balcony (just a shelf with foil cover) which acts as a cold frame where I grow the salads, kale and some flowers. Others such as the peas and spinach can be started our in the open directly.


There’ll be updates on this little balcony garden frequently throughout the growing season.
What are you growing this year?

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hiking

I’ve taken up hiking with a few friends. Being outdoors and in motion feels cleansing after spending day after day, week after week in front of a computer screen.



We’re only taking little, easy trips right now, breaking in our boots and getting in the flow of walking regularly.



The more I work, the more I realize how important physical exercise is for my well-being. It’s always hard to balance my office job, my business (I guess you could call it two businesses now with the shop), my other hobbies and my need for rest. I could work all the time really, because I know my goals and am ambitious. If I didn’t force myself to listen to my body, rest frequently and get outside to exercise I’d get ill from exhaustion within a month. Hiking is a bit like yoga, it has its own rhythm and works wonders to calm and focus the mind.



On this trip we were in the woods for about three hours. We set out quite late and the air was cool and fresh, lovely golden evening light streaming through the trees. I got worried we wouldn’t be out of the woods until the sun set but we made it, happy and hungry. I did nearly fall asleep over my pizza in the restaurant we stopped in on the way home. Guess I have a way to go before I’m up to a full day or week trip!

outdoor weather

We’ve been having very warm and sunshiny weather for the last two weeks and it really feels like summer already, so we had a few friends over for May punch with sweet woodruff and strawberries and to have the first barbecue of the year.
The May punch (I know it’s not May yet, but the timing was good this weekend for everyone so we were a week early) turned out really nice. I have sweet woodruff growing on my balcony and froze the leaves for two hours before letting them sit in white wine for another 1-2 hours. The strawberries add sweetness and the punch smelled deliciously of the sweet woodruff.
Everybody brought along something and we had lots of salad, tomatoes with mozarella cheese and mizuna leaves from our balcony, feta quiche and garlic butter.

Grilled feta cheese with pepper puree and dried tomatoes (soo delicious).

It was warm enough to sit outside and talk long after dark.

I do hope spring makes a comeback, but I quite liked this summer preview as well.