Heat Aid

The past couple of days, the weather has been rather boring, and I have been thinking back to early June where it was almost too hot to stand. I've been wishing the heat would return.

We spend a nice Saturday with coffee and chocolate from Home, a trip to the market,  building figures in the sand, and drinking watermelon slush and relaxing on the balcony.

It looks like my prayers have been answered and that summer is finally retuning this week.

Community Garden

Only a five minute walk from our place and we'll find ourselves in this little (almost secret) green haven. It is hard to believe that this community garden is in the middle of the city. It is so quiet and peaceful here.

Recently we meet with John and Lisa to toast in the summer on a Sunday afternoon.

Balcony

Our balcony is looking really good at the moment. We have some new additions to the plants that made it through the long, cold winter. We've bought lavender and strawberries while picking up some extra soil for our flower boxes. I've had my share of herbs. Even though they are practical to have around we ended up having so many lice in them three years ago. It was so much work to try and get rid of them I am not sure it was worth the trouble considered what we got out of them.

So this year, we have once again used the flower boxes to make a little meadow. Last week, I put the seeds in the soil and thanks to the good weather conditions there is already lots of little green sprouts popping up. I post some pictures later, when they have made it beyond the baby step.

Random shots

Just some random iPhone shots from the past couple of months. At the moment this is the only camera that goes everywhere.

Seasons Green

One of the best things about this time of year is all the fresh seasonal greens. Right now we enjoy asparagus season and the fact that the German strawberries came a bit early this year.

Currently I let Fleur help me do the shopping and she is very good at it. This also means that sometimes we come home with more than planned. Once in a while she really picks up stuff where I think, "well, why not." Like when she showed extra interest in the rhubarb and I thought, "well, it would also be nice to make a rhubarb tart for saturday when Tina comes to visit." And so I did. Rhubarb tart with pistachio frangipane and vanilla ice as topping, and there were so much rhubarb that Fleur also got some compote from it as a kind of thank you for the good idea.

Saturday Morning Ride

Since the weather is acting so nicely these days, one of my new favourite things to do on Saturday morning, is taking Fleur for a bike ride to The Bread Station. For the past month we have gone and sat there, eating a croissant and having a coffee while watching dogs passing, cyclists riding, and people queuing for the bakery. On the way back we usually hit the playground for at least an hour.

Last saturday I decided to pick up the goods instead (Vincent is back from Armenia and doesn't really enjoy a bike ride or getting up early in the morning). It just so happened that the nice sidewalk in front of The Bread Station has been ruined by a big, ugly scaffold. It is still possible to sit there, but no way as nice as without. Luckily the bread and pastry is super delicious as always, but I guess we'll have to pick up the bread and go somewhere else to eat it for the remaining part of the summer.

Britzer Garten

While my dad was visiting we took advantage of the good weather and went to Britzer Garden for the afternoon. Even though we live fairly close it has been years since my last visit, but I have always wanted to go in the spring to see the tulip garden.

Britzer Garden in its entirety was much bigger than I thought. I realised that last time we really only saw a fraction of the place. This time we walked from the main entrance all the way to the back, and I could really see, that the garden has a lot of different things to offer. There is water, places to picnic, big green areas, flowers, animals, playgrounds, food and even a train that can take you to distant parts of the park.

We came at the end of the tulip season, and had in been a week later most of the tulips would have been gone, so in this sense we were quite lucky. The tulip garden is rather small, but it was super still beautiful with all its colours and different types of tulips.

I hope that we manage to go later this summer. I found out that there is a water-playground and it would be great to bring Fleur and see what flowers are in season then.