Krakow Botanic Garden

When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy,
there is always the garden.
- Author Unknown

Posted from Munich

A Fresh Start

Last year our garden had a pretty rough year. We had just created most of the flower beds, we got hit with a very dry April, then some violent, plant-shredding hailstorms before settling into a damp, slug-infested summer. Also, by the time mid-May rolls around each year, the trees in our central park area beyond our garden fill out and turn the garden into a mainly heavily shaded area that poses its own challenges.

When choosing plants for the garden, we decided to go mainly with shade-loving, forest dwelling plants like lilies of the valley, bleeding heart, hosta lilies, elf flowers and the like. Nearly everything we put into the ground last summer died fairly quickly given all the aforementioned points. When fall came, we thought about pulling out the lifeless sticks that were the remnants of our garden but I suggested to wait, to see if anything came back this year.

And wow did it! Nearly all the plants we put in that were perennials are back this spring and gorgeous! The roses, the forget-me-nots, they are growing beautifully this spring. Encouraged, we have decided to add to the collection and fill it out with even more perennials this spring. I guess a little patience goes a long way in gardening.

Posted from Munich

More Spring

M. was off in NY this weekend so I had a 'me' weekend. What did I do with it?

Went to the hair salon of course! The roots were looking quite bad so something needed to be done. Better now!

Other than that it was mostly just taking care of the usual business. I hadn't been home in two weeks since the great construction episode and was excited to see the apartment again now that the dust has settled. We had one of the remaining pieces of furniture show up while I was away - our USM cabinets for the living room. They look pretty chic!



Since the weather forecast looked nice for today I bought a bunch of pansies yesterday to put into the garden. Our little crocuses are peeking up now and the leaves of the daffodils and tulips are getting big. The afternoon was sunny and warm - perfect for some early spring gardening. The yard is tidied up and the pansies are in.





***Warning: My overenthusiastic gardening is sure to doom us to 6 more weeks of winter. I don't need a groundhog to tell me that.***

I even managed to get my taxes done today - well for Switzerland and the US. Still need to finish Germany.

I had dinner for one and now I am winding down with a movie and a glass of red wine. Why does the weekend always go by so fast?



Posted from Munich

Tool Time

After two (long) years of discussion, M. and I bit the bullet and went on a 4 day home improvement marathon last week. It took some orchestrating but we got 3 days off of work last week, hired some general contractors and added our own blood sweat and tears to the mix and voila! We have a new and improved apartment.

We put in new kitchen cabinets, had the dining room light wired and hung, had the whole house painted (with colors!) and cleaned up the enormous mess that this work all caused. We were quite pleased with the work by the contractors - they were scheduled to be here Wed-Fri and finished off a little late on Saturday afternoon as a results of some, er, surprises.

Exhausted, we barely had time to enjoy the results of Phase I before it was time to head back to Basel but I really love how it came out. Now we wait for Phase II - the arrival of two pieces of furniture (an entertainment center and a USM cabinet for the living room) that will complete our furniture set up. After that it will just be some finishing touches (some pictures on the wall, new duvet covers, curtains, etc.) to complete Phase III and go back to just living. Just in time for garden and BBQ season...

Some pics:

Two-Toned Living Room (really needs that entertainment center!)



New Kitchen Cabinets from Ikea (Ikea is a 4 letter word in our house)



Our new dining table lamp



Mint green bedroom



And a little touch of spring - our garden is ready for winter to be over:



Posted from Basel

We're Open for Business

I got back from the US yesterday morning and while our slug restaurant (aka our flower garden) is closed for the season, M. surprised me with a bird feeder out on our back porch. I wanted one the last couple of years and now we finally have a sweet one. The birds are tentatively checking it out and I suspect in a few days we will start to have a good clientele. Now if I only knew what kind of birds there are here.

Posted from Munich

My Roses

The end of the roses is near but they look spectacular today!

Visitors

We had some visitors from the States this weekend. A colleague from my last project in Washinton DC was in Munich for the weekend with her husband and two friends. Another couple joined yesterday as they are in town to pick up their new BMW to bring back to the States after vacationing in Mallorca for a week.


We made the required visits to the Hofbraeuhaus on Friday night, joined for some sightseeing yesterday, and had a nice Italian dinner last night. Good times for all! M. even treated all the Americans to his favorite tradition - stinky pickles from the Viktualienmarkt. People were laughing at the site of the 6 of us walking in a line all eating huge messy pickles.


Fortunately the weather is very nice this weekend. It has really been a cold summer and lately rainy. I've been dressing like it is October instead of July.

Our garden underwent a bit of an overhaul last weekend. M. pulled all the plants that weren't making it and we weeded the whole thing. The clown flowers are gone and replaced with lavendar. It looks nice but overall I think the garden is a little haphazard. There was no master plan and we've added and removed in a trial and error approach to what works for our garden. Most importantly, we enjoy having the garden and working on it. I think it will still be some time before we have it really figured out though.











Now off to the mountains for a short hike!

Posted from Munich

Slugs, Aphids and Hail

Growing a garden is not without peril. After our thunderstorm on Saturday, we got hit with another one on Sunday, this time with hail. It lasted a good 15 minutes and when it was over, all our plants were squashed, flowers and leaves ripped up. Everything that was still alive then sat in an ice pack for a few hours. We just finished raking up and cleaning up. We'll give it a week to see what recovers and what doesn't make it and then its back to the drawing board. The sure survivors right now look like the clowny petunias. Figures.

Long Weekend

A four day weekend is a big treat and for once both M. and I could take the full time off together, relax in Munich and enjoy 5 nights in a row in our apartment. We hadn't made any special plans but that was exactly the plan. Thursday was rainy and cool so I took full advantage and completely dismantled the kitchen. Everything was washed and scrubbed, the floor was polished and the cobwebs removed. All out of date foods were sent packing. For several glorious hours our kitchen sparkled and gleamed. Then we got back to the business of living in it.

Friday I made a long overdue shopping trip - for me! I revitalized my wardrobe including accessories. I finally got a new handbag, bought a couple of must haves from the MAC counter, found two new pairs of jeans and some summer shirts and shorts. The only thing I struck out on was shoes.

Friday night was date night. oooOOOOOoooooh (think cheesy 80s sitcom laugh track)! We had a gift certificate to a lovely Thai restaurant called Yum. The food was outstanding and the company wasn't bad either. I even got all decked out. We need to do this more often. Unfortunately after a couple of Mai Tais and a generally care free mood, we were greatly annoying our neighbors as I tried to teach M. how to say 'walrus'. We decided that lately we look like walruses and M. was pointing out that we shouldn't eat so much. If you have your very own German, ask him to try to pronounce that word. Go on. Comes out something like Vale-rooz. After repeated attempts to show him the right way to say it, he had pretty much nailed it, but the face contortion he had to make to say it the right way was hysterical. At least we thought so. WAL-RUSS!! Our neighbors took the opportunity to slide over a table.

Saturday we made our weekly trip to Seebauer and Toom to deposit our paychecks and cram a few more things into the garden. M. left for a bike ride and I stayed behind to plant my poisonous shade garden. We have a shady or partly shady yard for the most part. The plants that like shade are mostly all deadly but quite pretty. The thing I like about the shade is that it makes the garden remind me of the woodsy Connecticut area where I grew up. Dappled sunlight is pretty and I like the smell of the forest. We have this in miniature in our backyard. I'm not so sure about the plants though. They all look so fragile.



Saturday night was pig out BBQ night. Wallll Russss! I can't figure out if BBQ is so special in Germany that you have to OD everytime you do it or what but when you have a BBQ and invite two other couples over the one thing you can be sure of is that between everyone you will BBQ some of everything anyone can think of. Cheeseburgers, sausages, chicken, schweinenacke, lamb, turkey, speck, etc. Yes, all on one night, all on one grill. Oh, and there are sides as well. Mayonnaise seems to end up on everything too for some reason, closely followed by ketchup and senf. Wal-russ!

Sunday was kind of lazy. I finished a few more hours of garden work. I tried some lavender in the sunniest patch of the garden. It is one of my favorites so I hope they make it. All in all the yard looks great. We have some pests that have invaded - we've been slimed!! My poor dill plant was completely chewed up. Others have bites here and there missing. Gross!


This was a little dill plant a week ago.

Sunday night we made our first trip to the beer garden. We double dated and it was the perfect night for it. We were by the Isar sitting under huge chestnut trees. Some beer, some brez'n and a few good laughs was the perfect way to end the weekend.


Posted from Basel

Roses of My Own

It's a four day weekend and the weather is cold and rainy! Glad to see holidays are the same everywhere.

My new rose bush seems to like it though. The first flower is coming out.

Posted from Munich

I Have A Crush

This weekend we went to the Allgäu for the birthday party of one of M.'s cousins. They live about 2 hours from Munich, where all of M.'s family is from, more or less. It was an excellent party and the family was a hoot. My German was fairly useless though, as many were speaking the Swabish dialect. I couldn't keep up with the dialect or the party though and called it a night before the last of the hard core.

The next morning, since M. was somewhat indisposed, I offered to drive us back to Munich. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the Allgäu region, but it is absolutely beautiful. The hills roll and the greens are vibrant against a powder blue sky. In the distance you can see the gray and blue and white mountains. At night, the stars are brilliant. Truly a fairy tale landscape if there ever was one.

And what was oh so much fun was driving this!! Z4 3.0 si Coupe...if I don't ever have kids, this is going to be my baby. I love how people just moved out of the way when they saw or heard me coming. mwhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa!



I didn't take too many pictures unfortunately but the horse farm in the family has a bunch of little ponies running around. One was born the night before we came and trying to walk around on his wobbly little sticks. They keep inviting me to come ride; I need to get my stuff here and take them up on it.



And now the requisite garden shots. We had a busy garden day on Sunday. Planted some more herbs and are giving a few roses a try.



The bulb garden is just about in its final death throes. I will miss it - it really was pretty but time to start thinning out and replacing.



These tulips were so tall and the flowers so heavy that they were bending to the ground after awhile.



The lilies of the valley are just coming out now.



These were a mistake. Now they are called clown flowers by everyone in the building. They all laugh at them. I don't have the heart to pull them out though.

Have a good week! It's a short one and I'll be back in Munich on Wednesday!
Posted from Basel

Survived

And look who was here to welcome me home!









We are finally getting some much needed rain too - you can see in the pictures the damp, dark quality of the light. Hope it keeps up for a few more days.

I don't know why I didn't really notice these trees last year. They are everywhere in Basel and Munich. I was trying to guess what they were. My first guess was something that has died out in North America since they don't look familiar. Maybe an elm? After a little more research I found out what they are. Do you know?





Posted from Munich

Expat or Gardener?

This blog used to be about being an expat. More often now it seems to be about my (our) garden. This weekend, it is about both.

I wonder sometimes how fast I would high tail it out of here if something were to happen to me and M. Would I board the next plane, stay until the end of my work assignment, consider staying longer? After over a year here, I feel sad to think about leaving my life here. Whenever I have a weekend to myself, I take have the opportunity to check my independence and comfort level with my life here since it's important even if I am in a relationship.

I arrived last night at the airport in Munich and rode the bus in with a colleague from work. We chatted away until I got to customs, then I switched to German with the border patrol. No issues. I went to the rental car stand and picked up my car, a BMW 1 series, which I fondly or mockingly call "The Sneaker". As it turns out, it's a fun little car to drive.

I took it for a test drive and reach about 160 km/hr (100 mph) but people were still flying by making me look like I was standing still. But this car has good pep! 6 speed manual and a nice sun roof - perfect for this weekend.

This morning when I got up, I decided to head out and do all our normal Saturday morning errands. First stop, the metzgerei. Gruss Gott! The friendly butcher welcomed me in and his colleage helped me with my order. I ordered all in German (shyly) and (amazingly) got everything I wanted. Hackfleisch, schweinfilet, schinken (100g) and allgau bergkase. The women sent me on my way with a smile and a wink.

Next I went to the veggie guy and got some fresh white asparagus and a few other veggies for some pasta sauce. A short stop and Tengelman and the grocery shopping was done for the weekend. I made a pit stop at home for some blueberry pancakes and then headed out for round two. The garden shop and the hardware store.

After a few hours, I stocked up for the garden work and made my way to the wine guy. As soon as I walked in he said, You're the American! This is probably my favorite shop in Munich- fair prices for great wine and no matter how long it's been, the owner always remembers me and sends me on my way with some extra goodies from Italy.

I headed home and the only incident was in the garden shop Parkhaus. Not sure what I did but a woman was yelling at me. Seemed that I may have been causing a traffic jam while waiting for a spot to open up.

I spent the afternoon in the garden working away (pictures for M. below) and just as I was finishing up, L. and B. rang the bell and invited my up for a BBQ. They live on the top floor of our building so we sat out on their porch, ate too much and had some beers.

A report came in from M. He managed to finally eat at the Weber grill restaurant (the best porterhouse he ever had) and will soon be getting us the beer can chicken gadget I suspect as his friend ordered the beer can chicken and it was supposedly amazing. I'm not quite sure the details but somehow he managed to get the waiter's Weber grill waitstaff shirt because he kept saying how much he loved it. I can only imagine the scene. Silly foreigners.

Tomorrow it is more gardening and another neighbor invited me to a BBQ. I didn't even need to do all this shopping today! Now it is time for bed. I wish the weekends weren't so short.

For M:

First, watch out for all that fatty American food!

Second, don't forget the Shake and Bake (sounds like I am contradicting #1).

Third, here is the garden after today:

Bamboo Week 1 & Bamboo Week 2.











I'd say he filled out quite a bit already.

Here is the herb garden. The plants were very stressed when I transplanted them. I gave them a good watering and we will see how they feel tomorrow. There are some seeds planted for the trellises in the background.


And here's the yard with the new lights. They aren't too bright but I think make a nice border. We may want to buy a second package.



More pictures after tomorrow!

Posted from Munich