during the last weeks i have been quite busy … working while being indoor & spending as much time outdoor as possible … but now here are some impressions for you of what i did:

taking earth day (about two weeks ago) as the motive to start celebrating earth, nature, again this year. spent a warm & sunny afternoon at my favourite gardener’s, planting bantam corn & enjoying the sun & the greens.

another sunny day, another trip to the baltic sea, taking a walk at the beach, climbing big rocks, harvesting seaweed, visiting friends in their garden.

coming back to hamburg the city is greeting us with wonderful weather. springlike temperature, sunny & warm. i found stinging nettles, dandelion, goutweed and leafs of the lime tree in our and our neighbours’ garden & next to our house! & what a beautiful sight out of our kitchen window: the cherry tree is blowing

after too many cold & grey days & weeks – i really don’t like winter … february seems to be the hardest month … yearning for sun & warmth – today the sun is shining, sky is blue and it feels quite warm outside! i took the chance to finally disseminate the chickweed seeds. nothing to see right now, of course – how long will it take?

it has become quite cold here this week and i hardly manage to collect enough wild herbs. i bought chickweed and orach seeds, which both can germinate in spite of the low temperature, but it needs some days with 5° celcius or so to disseminate them ….

good luck, there are some other sources for greens … i buy crates of spinach and curly kale at the central market. and there is still something growing wild, waiting for us to harvest:

today we made a trip to the north sea, friedrichskoog, to collect kelp there. did i say it is cold here, in the city? well, i was at fault: at the coast it is even colder, icy, with an ice-cold wind blowing. the water is frozen and so is the seaweed. covered with snow and ice. but it is there, and it is really delicious!!! we spent there less than half an hour due to the chill, and our hands and feet were almost frozen thereafter, but it was worth it as you can see above. i am sure we will come back there! thank you very much, brigitte, for this excursion!

another green staple in winter: blackberry leafs! this is what my son brought home today:

three primary life forces exist on this planet: nature. animals. and human kind. we are the earthlings. an impressive film about us earthlings & “speciesism”.