Falling in love all over again...

with life in the Netherlands.
To backtrack...many years ago, in my student years, I had an hour long commute to my summer internship and job. I had picked up a Teach Yourself Dutch book and cd and became quite proficient at small talk. As I was in Washington, DC I occasionally crossed paths with Dutch speaking persons who were absolutely enamored with my mangling of their native tongue.

The first time I set foot in Europe, I came into Edinborough. You never forget your first, and it was October 2000, and it was magical. It dumped rain and the sky was alive with greys and blues. I was here to deliver training to the European team who had come in from the contintent and everyone treated me so very well. The German gave me a Mozart chocolate and the French speaker and I connected via Spanish as their English was awful. I vowed to return.

I came back for the December holiday season in 2000. I had a route of the 'basic' European countries, doing Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Spain was comfortable, like a cousin whom you share enough with (my US Spanish tends to lean toward Central America), and Belgium was friendly and warm. However, Amsterdam was everything and more.

When I had the chance to return to Europe, it ended up being Germany for so long. To escape, I'd drive over the border for the day, either to Belgium or the Netherlands, in particular for my plant purchases in the plentiful Dutch greenhouses.

If you would have given me a choice of anywhere to live before moving to Europe, the Netherlands would have been in the top three. Knowing what I know now after 7+ years here, it would still have a place there.

And before the expats over the border errupt--I realize I have my rose-colored glasses on for this one. I had two European colleagues in Germany who were both property owners in Amsterdam (one Spanish, one Irish), taking advantage of the 10 year tax credit for foreign workers. When asked which they preferred, living in the Netherlands or Germany, both pointed 100% to Germany, which surprised me immensely. Their reasoning: the Dutch tend to be closed communities and can be prejudiced, pompous, and cold. One of them ended up marrying a German, so I guess that clinches the case.

In any event, I still visit the Netherlands when I can swing a trip. This go round, I went to Amersfoort. As the Netherlands was playing Japan in the World Cup, there was plent of orange on display in the windows:

This white cat came out to greet me when I stooped down to get a photo. I was tempted to take it with me, but thought better of it since I still had Berlin and Brussels to go. ;-)

The kind folks of Amersfoort must not get so many tourists. They graciously halted on my side of the street when I shot random photos, like of this 'American' store.

This one--I need to inquire with my Dutch colleagues. I saw a few rucksacks strung up with the flag. My guess is that students had taken or passed exams, but feel free to enlighten me on this one:

Thoughts on Berlin and the German language

Visiting Berlin is always an odd experience for me; I wonder if I had lived in Berlin rather than on the Western side, would I have liked DE more? Visiting there, I see a few things that I find to be universal to DE--old men picking plastic bottles from the garbage bins, students trying to hustle a place on someone's weekend group travel ticket, and the same chains like Rossmans, etc.

The part that always baffles me...when I go to Berlin (and anywhere else in DE) I attempt to live the culture and rough it out in German. In Cologne (near where I was), the constant irritation was that people would switch to poor English, even when my German was passable. I ended up in plently of conversations where the German person was speaking to me in passable English and I was responding in passable German. Back and forth we went, German/English/German/English.

In Berlin, no one ever switches to English with me, we carry on in German. In some ways, this slightly baffles me, as a major city where they get plently of English visitors and obviously English skills are there, why they don't automatically switch over like they do in Koeln.

One theory: my crappy German is an unfamiliar blend in Berlin. In Koeln there are certain words, phrases, and styles of speaking, and a local can pick out an English speaker after very few words. So there is less hesitation to convert to English, because one knows quite clearly that someone is an English speaker.

A colleague had once mentioned to me that it was clear that I had my 'German education' in the Koeln/D'dorf region, just from the words and sentence constructions and speaking style that I used...

A second theory: Another (Cologne based) German colleague had mentioned--the German mentality is that the best foreign speaker should automatically yield. So if a German speaking English and an American speaking German get together, whoever is the better speaker dictates the language of conversation. Often, the Germans speak better English than the English speakers' German. Therefore, the language conversation should be English in these instances. If a super foreign speaker of German is with the German group, then the conversation flow should be in German.

I was at a business meeting at the Ritz Carlton last week. Since it was the Ritz, I was curious to see how good their English was, so when I needed directions to a DM or Rossmans, I asked in English. I thanked her in German and she answered me in German and then looked at me, as if surprised that she had just slipped into German. Their English is of course, quite good, but it seems very 'school-ish' rather than having any actual expereience.

From Berlin to Brussels

I had the opportunity last week to do a professional related activity (endorsed by work but on my own dime...long story). It involved travels between the UK (Stansted), Berlin, Brussels, and Paris.

Since I was doing this on the cheap, I was doing my best to be clever. After much hemming and hawing, I couldn't beat 25 EUR (that includes 1 checked bag + all taxes etc) from Berlin Schoenefeld to Brussels (main airport), on EasyJet.

the ugly? Not sure if you can read the time in the top right corner of the photo--it says 06.02. Yeah, 6 AM I was sitting at the gate. The gate closed around 06.30, so my (tired) self was at S'feld at 05.30, having already checked in online before leaving the UK and just needing to deposit the bag. I was in good company though, with plently of other cost conscious folks on that bright and cheery AM:

From standing into the self-checkin, bag-drop (not check-in desk--and be warned, if you stood in the self-check-in line not having checked in, they sent you over to the 'regular' line) then standing through the security check line, it took about 45 min or so--so plan to be early...

If you must travel between Berlin and Brussels, I don't think you can do it any cheaper. Lufthansa has a much more civilised flight running at 11 AM or so--for 400 EUR one way. You can get clever and book a roundtrip (with the (illegal?) intention of not taking the return trip) for 200 EUR.

Your other option is a 7 hour train ride between Berlin and Brussels. When I was pricing, that was running over 100 EUR and taking 7 hours. The negative on that one--it's a transfer after 5 hours-ish in Koeln, so you cannot get a real night of sleep and substitute it for a hotel night to cost justify it.

There is a final option, to take the later EasyJet flight around 1930. It won't be quite as inexpensive as the early AM, but it will be your second cheapest option.

If you take the early AM EasyJet flight, a few options out to S'feld, check here for the latest options. The train takes just under 30 min and starts around 0500, add on a few minutes to walk from the train station to the airport terminal.

Your other option (my preferred) book a room at the InterCityHotel Berlin-Brandenburg Airport. IF you book in advance, you should find a room around 50 EUR on hrs or expedia or on their own website. You can take the train out on the night before and then take the 10-15 min walk over to the terminal in the morning. Breakfast at the hotel is 12 EUR and it was too early anyway so I skipped it. Internet is charged at some exhorbitant fee so I skipped that too.

There are some superb walking paths if you walk toward 'old S'feld' (follow signage for the Holiday Inn). You can walk many miles on new paths next to fields, quite nice. In addition, the hotel offers free public transport tickets, so you can come out a day early if you'd like, because you can get back into town with their ticket for no cost, if you don't mind the 30 minute train commute. Recommended would be the regional express train rather than the S-bahn.

From the boat - harwich to hook

Travel becoming civilized again...for 53 GBP (63 EUR/78 USD) I get a private room with clean sheets, a hot shower with free shower gel and a full-sized towel, free tv (watching the first eviction from UK Big Brother) and free wireless internet (using my tiny mini pc):

The nice thing about ferry travel is that you can bring whatever food and liquids along which you can carry. After taking my two law exams this week, I'm relaxing this weekend, before gearing up for work stuff in Berlin starting Monday morning. I brought along plenty of food to avoid the overpriced ferry food costs, including strawberries from my garden, a tiny bottle of wine from M&S, and a hunk of cheddar to go with the wine:

If you want to take this trip, book online at Stena, or use their Irish site if you wish to pay in Euros. You'll get a better deal if you book at least a few weeks in advance. On either side (Hook or Harwich), the train station is on site, so it makes it a nice launching point into NL or the UK.

The additional nice thing--check-in for the 23.45 ferry opens around 20.15 and closes around 23.00. So you're free to come at the beginning and to sack out to try and maximize sleep time for the 07.45 NL landing time...or come towards the end to maximize your visit in the UK.

If you're coming via train in the UK, it's easy, take Anglia Rail to Harwich International station.

I have a busy trip coming up--Berlin, Paris and Brussels. I'll give posting a try, where I can find free internet. :-)

the latest from the garden - strawberries

I'm having pretty good luck with strawberries this year. Here's how things have been looking on the balcony. Lapsed time from the first to last photo of this strawberry was around 10 days:

I'm not sure why more people don't grow them in any available space here as the UK weather seems particularly suited for them and they're relatively maintenance free once you get them going.

three years and eight months

is the length of time i need to work in the UK before i can apply for permanent residency here. (it's five years, like in DE). once i have that shiny sticker in my passport, i can then immediately apply for naturalisation, after taking a few additional steps.

while i could speak of the cultural benefits of integrating into a society by holding a passport for it, i imagine the biggest benefit will be for my travel partners...

last night, we came back on the late flight from Bilbao on EasyJet. The late flight which was supposed to arrive back at 22.35 took off 40 minutes late, so we didn't go to Stansted until after 23.00. (Granted, it did allow us an extra glass or two of Spanish wine and time with our friend there, so there are worse places to be delayed.)

Then, I was well in the back of the queue of whatever intra Europe flights were dumping transatlantic passengers into Stansted at that hour...while they had two people to work the desk for a queue of over 100 in front of me, plus at least another 100 who then came after. there were a few additional queues open on the EU side to cover the hundreds arriving there.

in looking around my queue, the passports were a variety of american, canadian, new zealand, japanese, israeli, and indian. i estimate that the average american tourist gets questioned three minutes upon arriving to the UK, nevermind this melting pot of passports where some of the questioning went on for 5-10 minutes.

my EU travel partner waved from the opposite side of the customs gates, he would pick up the baggage and come back....thumbs up.

he waves from the other side with the baggage...yep, i'm still here.

we inches along painfully--and thankfully i didn't need to catch a bus. it was at this point that i started to calculate how long i would need to get a British passport...then i started to calculate in my head the number of weeks....and then number of days.

total time spent in the queue? -->1 hour, 10 min

The rooftop garden update - strawberries, peas and potatoes

I've been busy studying for these 2 exams I take in around 3 weeks, but I took a chance to pop outside for a few update photos for you. Here is the strawberry patch, in front is the grow-bag from last year, and in the back are four planters which are baby strawberries which were runners last year from this main planter which I planted in smaller pots and then replanted here at the beginning of the season, in the green containers in the back:

I had no idea how they would perform since it is year two for them (which should be impressive!) but they overwintered on a very cold and snowy balconey this year. So far I've been very impressed with their performance thus far.

Here is a close-up for what they're up to:

And a super close-up of a strawberry on one of the first year plants:

(Please be ripe before I head over to the continent for a week in June...pretty please!)

On the front garden, if you put your back to the strawberries and face the street, you'll see potaoes, garlic and peas. I decided to do potatoes again since they did so well last here here. I had done peas before in DE and I love fresh peas, but it was an experimental year, since I know they like cool temps and the balkon is geared to hold in heat.

To try and give the peas a fighting chance I laid the 13 plants out long ways, next to the wall, so that they avoid sun until the afternoon where they get some partial shade as the sun goes over the building. In addition, I then put other plants (particulary the potatoes) next to them, to provide protection against the sun for their pots, as well for the plants themselves as the potatos are pretty leafy and spread well to soak up full sun exposure:


Here is Slocombe standing in 'her' pot of garlic, checking out the peas, so that you could see the long way view of the peas against the wall, sheltered by potato bags.

My rooftop garden is one of my absolute favorite things about my flat and about my life here in the UK. While container gardens are often limited in comparison to unlimited ground space, I have the advantage of unblocked sun (when we get it!) and concrete walls which retain heat. So the end result--while people on the ground have frost, I don't--so I get a fuller growing season than 'regular' allotments on the ground.

Advertising in Germany

I'm not trying to get back into the misogynist eggs debate again, however, I know many people at home have visions of Germany with snowy alps or the sleek glass structures of Berlin...

so to present a different view, this was my corner of DE, taken on a previous trip back. This sign was on a public street pointing down the driveway of this auto related business. This street has both residential and commercial enterprises on it.

Can you imagine an auto fix-it place in the US having such advertising?

Back in the saddle

Sorry internet, I've been a little slow in posting. My seasonal allergies have been horrendous this past week. I find myself writing a bit less as well as I seem to be more involved in UK outside life than I was in DE. However, I was in DE recently for a wedding, so plenty of fodder now...

New friend Ian and I took the overnight boat from Harwich to Hook of Holland and then drove Mr. BMW through Holland (with a very long lunch break/tour) to arrive at our destination in Podunk, NRW in the afternoon. As I knew it was Himmelfahrt, I was in no rush...this was new friend Ian's first (and last?) trip to DE, so you can imagine how impressed he was driving through he Ruhrgebiet to arrived in a closed Podunk.

I kicked off the interactions with the Hotel Frau auf Deutch, having had to knock on the kitchen door to find her in the recommended 10 double, 4 single room hotel. She was pleasant enough, here's the key, here's the room, etc.

H: And what about the car? (We parked in the town square in front of the hotel which was covered with bott's dots so that you knew where to park. I saw signage, you could park there excluded 0415-18.00 Sat and 07.00-18.00 Wednesdays)

Frau: You can park in the spot behind the hotel (there were two tiny spots next to the building which were reached via a one-way alley). The kitchen worker, she leaves at 18.00.

H: oki doki

We decided to move the car at 18.00 and then take a stroll around. Her car was still there at 18.00, at 18.15, and at 18.30. As it was Thursday and there were plenty of other cars in the Square as well, I said F it, since we're going out anyway at 09.00 on Friday morning.

Friday morning, we head to breakfast at 08.40. As always, breakfast for me is a coffee fill-up and maybe some bread with cheese for the pocket, for later.

Frau: Is that your car!?! (gesturing to the square with 20+ cars parked.)

H: Yes, the GB plate is our car (wondering when the 'good morning, can I get you tea or coffee' would come)

Frau: You must move it immediately!!!

H: (I may be getting soft living in the UK, but I lived in DE long enough to play this game, and it wasn't hard to get back into the saddle....knowing very well I'm legally in a free parking zone...seeing the moving van on the other side of the square but no paper signage posted and thinking--someone F'd up here, but it wasn't me. And knowing that it would blow my schedule to go through the myriad of one way streets to get back behind the hotel, just for 10 min.)
H: The hotel parking space, it was not free at 18.00. (insert solid stare here.)

Frau: Yes, the girl, she left late. (Not mentioning that 'the girl' obviously reports to her.)

H: We leave at 09.00.

Frau: (cluck, cluck, mumble mumble)

H: (insert German disinterested shrug which says 'not my problem.)

Frau: Grrr....ok, but you must move at 09.00.

H: That's fine. And where shall we park later when we return in two hours?

Frau: Behind the hotel, the spot will be free.

H: Supi!

Frau: Tea or coffee?
I purposely wait until the church clock is chiming 9 before moving the car at this point. Some random person drives up and takes the spot. I wonder if she is now going to bark at him?

--2 hours later we return. Sure enough, the spots are both full. Back to the square I park, and march inside.

H: Haaaaaalo! Where should I park now?

Frau: (frownly) Goes to window to see who is in spots. You can go over there, the boat club parking.

H: (irritated and wondering as this is plastered all over with signs to not be here illegally, and with a lockable gate...having visions of being locked in on Sunday morning when we need to leave for our boat).

Frau: (marches off to bark at whoever parked in the spots, I hear the German tirade and two minutes later someone scurries out to move their car.)

(Heather not surprised.) At this point I can only giggle at such interactions since I no longer live there and acknowledge them as cultural differences in how things are done. :-)

How do you know that Heather is supposed to be travelling?

The volcano is disrupting air travel again.

I smartened up after the last go round, however. This time I'm taking the car on the ferry from Harwich to Hook to get into Germany. It's the reverse of the route I took when I moved here.

I'm looking forward to doing a little shopping in the Netherlands and Germany since I'll have the car with me.

In addition, Mr. BMW (the temporary pool car, as we wait for our 'real' car--Mr. Polo 2), takes diesel. We'll take advantage of cheaper diesel prices on the continent and fuel up upon arriving and leaving.

old habits die hard

it's funny, i find one always carries the remnants of where they grew up, no matter where they go...

in law class this week, we're reaching the final 5 classes of our year long adventure. we had our half-term national exams in january (which thankfully i passed), and now there are two more exams plus a portfolio for june.

we were told to get our portfolio in for easter, and suddenly the laid back students whose attendance was sporadic at best have now disappeared.

the teacher is taking role and says, 'mrs. x'.

the girl next to me asks me, 'who is mrs. x?'

in america i'd say, 'that's the african american girl who works in town C'

i know it's not right in the UK to say 'african american', so i'm stuck.
in my region of philadelphia, to say 'black' is not the most appropriate. most appropriate would be 'african american'.

uhhhh.
uhh.
that's the girl who works in town C?

seatmate 1: who?
seatmate 2: ohhh, the black girl?
heather: aaah, yes.

it's funny how a term which flies over here would potentially cause issues in, or not be the best in the phillyland area...

Grounded

I've been missing in Blogland for a few days; I was burning the midnight oil studying for a work certification test which I was supposed to take next week, in the US.

British Air tonight cancelled all flights tomorrow, regardless of what comes of the continuing ash saga. On the one hand, I'm a little annoyed having spent all the time in preparation, including taking three days of vacation, on the other hand, the test is regular and will be offered again and I'd rather not fall out of the sky.

From what I've been reading on the internet a lot of people are a lot worse off, missing one-time events like weddings and funerals or having to travel thousands of miles by car to get somewhere or sleeping in airports. I'm still at home with a bubble bath and a glass of white wine on my agenda this evening and no alarm to go off at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

This air situation has been unfolding over here day by day, so I've been carrying on with the assumption that I would travel, although being 90% sure that I wouldn't. Slocombe was deposited at The House of Treats on Thursday as planned and I had all laundry done and everything fresh eaten from the refrigerator. In some ways, it's been a blessing as I've been taking advantage of the time since the cancel to get some things done which are a lot easier without a little furry person around, like shifting plants between the front and back terraces.

Still on the agenda for tomorrow...
-more work in the garden. I've been planting the tomatoes, peas and beans outside in their final homes for the season.
-possibly painting the kitchen and bathroom ceilings. this would be much easier without Slocombe in attendance and the weather here is quite nice during the days, up to 18, so the doors can be left open all day, sans cat.

Slocombe the cat's garden update

Dear blogging world,
Tappity tap, Slocombe the cat here. Someone took Thursday afternoon and Friday off from work as the weather was so nice, to have study days. I convinced her to take a few breaks to work in the garden though...I thought I'd catch you up on our rooftop garden activities.

Here I am ruling over my strawberry kingdom:


Here someone moved those little seedlings to their own pots and put them into these trays so they can go out on sunny days and come back inside when it's too cold. You're seeing bean and pea plants here:

Someone bought two catnip (or catmint in UK terminology!) plants. I ignore these plants regularly, unless someone breaks off a bit for me. When she moved them into larger pots, a little wore off onto her gloves:


Here I am guarding the little shovel while someone takes a coffee break. Sheesh, must I do everything around here?!?

Here is the final view as it now stands, prior to sweeping up the loose dirt. Looks good so far. We have strawberries, potatoes, garlic, catnip and my grass, and one chilli pepper outside, as well as the tomatoes, beans and peas in small pots awaiting bigger homes.

Easter in Essex

When I lived in Germany, there was a definite need to get away for the four day Easter weekend as the stores were chaos on Thursday and Saturday due to being closed the other days. Without family in Germany and with friends away, four days off wasn't such a great deal when everything including the museums was closed. I guess it's always nice to be able to sleep in and read books though.

Here in my corner of the UK, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were considered 'normal' days. Sunday everything was closed. On Monday, many stores were open.

I took yesterday and today as study days, I have a work certification exam coming up. However, I nipped out for some fresh air today. It was cold and windy, but the showers held off:

Beyond the green grass and some daffodils and impatients in town, I cannot see so many signs of spring, so I had to take a photo of the one I did see:

This fellow was crossing the path, so I tried out my 'close-up' mode:

It's still chilly here, though. I saw dogs out on their walk wearing coats and people in hats and scarves. (Tapping fingers) Can't wait to be able to jump into the full swing of gardening.

The answer to the quiz

Thanks to ian in hamburg and LuLu's Bay for playing along. The couple I met explained to me that they were Hungarians.

Hungarians with German as their primary language?

But of course! They explained--> Germans of Hungary

Seedlings

As you may remember, the seeds were started around St. Patty's day. Since then, all five containers have sprouted, so off came the cling film:

Here are the tomatoes enjoying a sunny day:

There is also oregano, basil, hot peppers and lettuce.

The living room window faces the same direction, so that one has been comandeered as well for seeds:

There are lots more tomatoes and peppers, and some seeds for New friend Ian's garden which is a shady and cool patch of land. So he gets eggplants, peas and brussel sprouts.

Unfortunately 'someone' is not so pleased that her window view has been displaced by all of these planting things. As I came home the other day she was sneezing upon arrival, so I knew she was up to something. Not sure if you can see the destruction of the furry wonder:

It appears that someone has taken to uprooting the seedlings. Or it's been raining all week so we haven't been outside for her to get enough greens. :-(

Today's quiz - guess the nationality

Whenever I'm in the US or the UK, whenver I hear someone speaking something other than English, I tend to inadvertently tune in. Then I end up purposely tuned in, trying to guess what they're speaking. Here in my corner of Essex I occasionally hear German speakers, actually more often than I hear American English speakers here.

In the late evenings I often stop by Tesco on my walks around. It's a great time to shop as the store is virtually empty and the late night markdowns are superb. I noticed a couple doing 'the circuit', which is a path through the store stopping at the various locations where marked down goods are located. I short circuited the path and worked backwards and we overlapped in the meat/cheese/dairy markdown corner.

I could hear them speaking softly next to me. He was reviewing the instructions on one of the packages with her, explaining the English text to her...in German.

My curiousity got the better of me so I had to ask in German where they were from, and we had a short conversation then. The husband asked, 'Oh are you from Germany?' But of course you'd think that, hearing my stellar accent. That, or he was playing the odds that Germany is the biggest exporter of German speakers. Could be either. ;-)

Today's quiz: Guess where the German speakers were from?

Possible clues:
1. I would estimate them to be around 60 years of age.
2. Everything in their basket was from a marked down section. They were buying ingredients so they obviously had full cooking facilities, so not tourists and on a budget.
3. It was around 20.30 in the evening. My corner of Essex has high flyers who commute daily to London for silly money as well as locals who work in trades in Essex, it's a big mixture who you'll see in Tesco at that hour.
4. Their spoken German wasn't terribly foreign to me.

Any questions? Or take a guess...

Slocombe the cat in the rooftop garden

Slocombe has her own special corner in the rooftop garden near the door, with two pots of grass at an appropriate cat height:

The grass had planted itself into a corner of a pot and she started to nibble on it, so I gave it a dedicated area and it has flourished. However, I have no idea how grass managed to plant itself, four flights up...but it makes SC happy, so ok, it is a productive member of the garden.

Not one to limit herself, she decided to investigate and give the 'volunteer' garlic greens a little taste as well:

The outside garden so far - strawberries!

The main reason I bought this flat in the UK is probably because of the roof terraces. When I lived in Cologne I had a beautiful ground floor flat with a fenced in back garden but being inside the courtyard it was too shaded and wet in rainy DE, nevermind the city rats which ate anything I managed to get growing.


In NRW the Balkon was great but I was maxed on space. Everything had to be planned and studied and even then there was only room for two people at one time due to my plant maximization. :-)


So here I am absolutely delighted at the amount of outside space I have. Even moreso, I've been surprised and pleased of the heat capture up here. Last year my top plants weren't the zucchini or cucumbers like in DE. Here, my top producer were the peppers, in particular the hot variety. I grew them on a whim and they thrived on the hot concrete stones next to the wall which absorbed the heat during the day. It may have well been Spain up here some days. ;-)


This year, I experimented with overwintering my strawberries from last year. In DE my Balkon was standalone and uncovered so the winter items took the brute of the cold and wet weather. The only thing which could withstand the winter was my lavender bush. Here, I took a chance on the strawberries which produced runners last year. I set them into any spare pots I could find and moved them into the sunniest sheltered corner.


Then I bit my nails when they got repeatedly covered in snow, that it would do in their fledgling roots in the tiny pots.


As I work from home, I make an effort to break away from the pc at least once during the day. Now that the weather has been warmer, i try to go out for 15 minutes around mid-day to take advantage of it. After a week I've been able to get the strawberries re-potted into their homes for this summer and to start some seeds under my makeshift mini-greenhouses (re-purposed plastic food containers).

I did lose a few small plants to the winter weather, but all of the strawberry plants here (excluding the ones in the red bag from last year) are my 'first years'. In total I have 10 baby strawberry plants and the three from last year who are already getting new leaves in this warmer weather. Don't they look simply divine?

Spring cometh

Now that I've lived in the UK for a year and experienced the weather and a summer of gardening, I'm a little wiser this year of what I should plant where and when.

I am very lucky being on the top floor with unblocked sunlight that I think I'm getting the full brunt of spring a little bit earlier than people with houses, they still have a bit of a wet frost on the ground in the mornings.

Also, as I'm taking a trip to the US next month and need to have the second in commands doing occasional watering, I need to have things in a position of being as self-sufficient as possible, rather than saddling them with the extra care of seedlings...

On Saturday I started my first seeds for the inside kitchen windowsill:

And today, here are the first to action:

I didn't mark the containers, that's part of the fun for me. I have five containers out:
1. oregano
2. basil
3. hot peppers
4. lettuce mix
5. tomatoes

I've now devised little cardboard stilts in this container to keep the leaves away from the clingfilm as it does get rather warm in the sun. In the meantime I'm getting the outside area ready so that once they're a little larger and it's a little warmer for certain, I'll be able to plant these outside.