in water

The story has begun with an empty port wine bottle
about 13 years ago. I loved it so much, that I've filled it
with water and put a stem of the Devil's Ivy therein.
After that, I couldn't throw away any beautiful wine
bottle and I kept growing Devil's Ivy in water (the
mother plant in soil was dead - I forgot to water it :/).


images I took 2 years ago (from my old gallery)

Meanwhile I put simply every green thing in water,
regardless either they need much water or not. I simply
have to try it. It's a joy to see the root growing in water
and it only needs little to no care at all.


on my windowsill (a photo collage): jade plant, box tree,
cinquefoil, rose and a plant I don't know the name of

flowers

Today I felt like bringing flowers into the house again
after taking a few days break and enjoying the flowers
outside instead. So I bought some flowers and while
riding along the bikeway I saw so many beautiful wild
flowers (no, they are not weeds, as long as they are not
growing in my own garden ^_^), that I stopped a few
times and collected them.

At home I immediately put them on the vases. I wanted
to use my other lovely vases than my beloved turquoise
vase. But somehow I always end up using it, as I rarely
have enough flowers to use other vases with bigger mouth.
I love it's narrow mouth, as I can arrange the flowers
(almost) the ikebana way. And the green vase is great
for small flowers (it's only 10 cm high), even if I don't
really like it. Now I hope they will turn my mood a bit
better than the weather did the last 2 days.


Which arrangement do you like better? :)

I'm going to the choir session now. I miss singing a lot
after the Easter break (last week we didn't sing, but
took some new group photos, as we have new members).
I'm going to enjoy it tonight :)
Have a wonderful week!

visitor

I was just back from the homeopath (I had a hay fever
attack last weekend) and went to the garden, looking for
overlooked weeds. I saw the peonies are having buds.
I'm excited and looking forward to see them blooming.



And look who has visited me (again). The cat lives in the
neighborhood, but she visits us a lot. Sometimes she waits
for us on the door and scrapes on the door. Once she was
even trapped in our basement, my neighbor told me.



She is such a lovely, cuddly and calm cat (but didn't really
like to be photographed - she always jumped away *lol*).
She has completely turned me into a cat lover :)

bindweeds

I went at 8:30 am to the garden. Actually I wanted only
to water the new planted ones. While watering I took
some photos. These are from the front garden, which is
looking beautiful, even if the tulips are already wiltening.
The roses are having small buds (I still need to cut them
- didn't do it at autumn), the aubrieta are just gorgeous,
the peonies are growing,... I love the colors there.


Does anybody know, what are those plants in front of the tulips?
Weeds or shrubs?


The part with the cotoneaster is looking better now. I've removed
some dead branches a few days ago. Does anybody know the name
of the shrubs underneath?


Does anybody know the name of the bush on the right?

But then moving to the back garden, I saw weeds all
around (of course!). And of course I couldn't just let them
stay there. So suddenly it was almost 1 pm as I went
upstairs again.



My weeding focus today: Convolvulus arvensis.
Remember me digging those roots last Saturday?
Those are the roots of those bindweeds. I think, if I'd
digg in the soil of my tiny garden, I'd find a dense network
of root. Yukk!! I should replace the soil thoroughly with
fresh, 'uncontaminated' soil, but I don't have the money
for that. So, my work today was like a drop in the ocean.
Nevertheless I thought, fighting is better than doing
nothing.

While weeding I have to think of life. How life is just
like weeds. Sometimes you have to fight, but sometimes
life just won't go the way you want it goes - you have to
let go and live with it. (Gardening) Life is never boring
for sure ;)

a link

Just wanna share a new link, which will accompany me
in my journey the next weeks.

Have a happy new week, friends! :)

garden time

I rarely looked at Etsy the past weeks. Just now as I
take a look at the homepage, I saw one of priscillamae's
pillows under the new listed items. I love her pillows.
Not only because of the portrait on it, but also because
of the quote on the backside. So, I quickly made this list
of items to match her pillow - all about garden and more :)
A click on the item will bring you to the listing in a new
window. Enjoy and have a lovely Sunday evening!

items by lulubugjewelry, trudette, Sigmosaics, priscillamae,
staroftheeast, thevintagebelljar, gingerlilydesigns, catherinereece,
joojoo, oliveandollie, lillyella, JKphotography

my saturday

Yesterday I only worked in the back garden the whole
day. In the end one can only see, that I've planted the
red currant tree and some strawberry plants. I've been
working around 10 hours on that blank spot actually.



The previous tenant had put a sandbox on that spot.
So, it was already quite free except of some weeds.
But those weeds have deep spreading root. So, I tried
to take all the roots out. What an act! They were so
deep and easy breaking, I don't think, I got them all.
Besides they are everywhere all around *sigh* My
neighbor thought I was crazy to do it by hand. Oh well,..
maybe I overact, but this act does help me to know
more about nature and it's like a meditation ;)

While digging I've also found some grubs. First I thought
they were caterpillars. So on Wednesday as I've found
them for the first time, I immediately covered them
again with soil. In the evening I did some research in the
internet and found out, that they are grubs of chafer.
Oops!! I wanted to plant the red currant exactly on the
spot where I've found them :/



So yesterday I tried to find them again. But I only found
two of them and two pupa. I'm not sure, if they are cock
or summer chafer grubs. According to the description and
the movement of one of them, they should be summer
chafer grubs. But the other one could only move on the
side - so two different types? I can't see the difference.
Well,.. anyway I let them in the pot saucer over night.
Maybe a bird or a hedgehog would find them tasty (even
if I had a bad feeling about this). And the red currant..
I've planted it on another spot after digging thoroughly
as you can see on the first photo :)

edit: I just found this photo. I thought, I should share ;)

being a mom

As a mom I am often in doubt, if I'm a good one. I often
asked myself, either I've been too afraid of too many
things, making my boy less confidence of himself, either
I've given him good examples not only in everyday life
(my chaos is certainly not a good one *sigh*), but also
in the value of life. Either I've been spending enough
time with him, either it's fair to let him do something,
etc. etc. I realized, many of my questions were based of
the Indonesian and German cultural diversity I've
experienced in my own life. That on top of the general
insecurity and perfectionist in me of course.

For nearly every job in the world one can learn it before
doing the job, but not for being a mom. Where is that
manual for the child?? I was so desperate sometimes.
And with the child housework suddenly turned into big
questions - e.g.: why cleaning, when it's dirty again the
next minute? Or will the mountain of laundry ever turn
into a hill? My parents had a housemaid to do the house-
work, so I never needed to do it (it's not an argument
though - my sister is very good in housework).

Or cooking! Even if we had cooking lesson alternating
with the woodworking lesson at the junior high school
(guess, which lesson I loved most..), I think, I've only
have cooked 2 or 3 times in Jakarta. I never had interest
in cooking. Only in eating :P My mom was and still is
a good cook. She must had tough times with us. Every
time she asked us, what we wanted to eat the next day,
nobody came up with an idea. If she then suggested
something, the answer was always no. Poor mom - she
often had to cook different meals to satisfy the other 4
family members! Compared to my mom I have an easy
job with my one and only boy.



Today I'm so proud of my son. He cooked some tortellini
for lunch for us and baked the foccacia for the dinner all
by himself! No help from me except for taking the hot
baking tray out of the oven. The idea came from himself
and I wasn't worry for a second or standing around to give
him advice (I was too busy ;)). Boy, he's spoilt me - what
a lucky mom I am!!!



This was the reason, why I was busy: our 'new' wall
system. It's 2nd hand from the thrift store for 83 Euro
incl. transporting and assembling. It has some scratches
and dints, but I'm so happy about it, as the living room
is full with unmatched furnitures up till now (you can see
two shelves on the glass door). And it reminds me of the
feeling as I've visited my grandpa in Holland for the first
time in the 80s.

Last not least.. you've got to watch this video. I'm crying.
It's so amazing in just every way. She is so amazing! Watch
the reactions of everybody before and after. SO touching.
Now really bedtime for me and I'm wishing you a Happy
Weekend!!

7 things

7 days have gone by since my last post. Somehow my
mind was in a quiet modus. Even if I wanted to share
many thing with you, I was not able to put it in words.

But now, 7 things to share:

1. I worked in the garden with my boy lately. We filled
3 more buckets with weeds (this time from the garden
on the back part of the house), but still no end in sight.
I should work in the garden each day to get it done, but
my old body didn't want to (I need to do more exercise!!).
I sometimes only collected the dandelions from the garden
- looking nice to the other flowers. Weed or not weed they
look beautiful to me.



Yesterday I cut rose for the first time in my life. I've
heard often about it's difficulty, so I've read a pile of
books before I started. I hope, I didn't do it wrong.
The front garden is starting to look better now :)

2. I think, I'm more relaxed lately. I let the boys made
some breads without worrying too much as I would have
done otherwise. I helped them only with the dough at
the end phase. The perfectionist in me must have gone
a little bit ;)



3. Two spontaneous speedy actions lately (got the idea
and done it within a very short time): I've moved the
furniture in my bedroom around and made a new cover
for the swivel chair. It went so fast, that I didn't even
thought of taking photo from the very beginning. I was
surprising myself!



4. I've organized my reader lately and unsubscribed
some blogs, because it became too much to read. I often
opened my reader and more than 200 posts were
waiting for me! So, I practice myself in selecting. Not so
easy.

Two of my favorite blogs lately are Zen Habits and
Goodlife Zen. I forgot, how I've stumbled upon Brian
Kim's blog, but I found it worth a read. My journey is
still going on and these blogs provide me with food for
thought.

5. Have I told you, that I love comics? First I was just
following a link in a blog, as I suddenly discover more
interesting things along Jon Klassen's site itself:

• crazy dumbsaint
• the Flight
• Copper and the-making-of

A great video, made by Jon Klassen and Dan Rodrigues.

6. If you haven't done it yet, there is still a chance to
win a bookmark from Elizabeth (she will pick the winner
today) and a Kreativlink's journal in Megan's blog
giveaway.

7. I'm going to color some egg now (my son is coming
back tomorrow :)).

Happy Easter to you, who celebrate it :)

weekend

It has been a great weekend so far.

I've been in the library yesterday and got some books
for inspirations. I then enjoyed the good weather in
the city and met some old friends by accident. At home
I worked in the garden - weeding. I thrown away three
buckets full of weeds!!! Some weeds are too pretty to
throw away actually..


left: weed - cardamine hirsuta; right: corydalis

Today I decided to make bread. One of the book I
borrowed yesterday was Brot by Richard Bertinet.
It's a great book (yes, I was that messy making the
bread as shown in the book or actually even messier,
as I made a mistake by taking the wooden board as
my work place *lol*).


left & right: pages from the book

I've chosen the olive oil dough, although he has
suggested to start with white bread dough (the one
as shown on the cover e.g.). I was worried, I would
fail again like I did as I made the baguette months
ago.


left: recipe from the book, right: my dough (the smaller
one on top was the rest, which I scrape together from
the board ;))

To my surprise the dough was doing great!! It rose well
while I was making the filling out of ground meat (it's
not part of the recipe in the book - only my creative
cooking ;)).


left: before, right: after baking

The filling on top was too dry afterwards (next time I
should let the filling rolled in the bread), but nonetheless
the bread was a great success - crispy on the outside and
inside it's so soft. Mmmmhhh.. SO yummy! I just couldn't
stop eating them...


left to right: I just couldn't stop eating :)

A change I noticed lately: in this short time of 2 weeks,
where I started to use tablecloth again, I can't see my
table 'naked' anymore. Funny, since I didn't use table-
cloth for about 14 years!!

>> Don't forget, if you wanna win a surprise from me,
the game is still open, as no one dare to guess yet ;) <<

I'm wishing you a lovely rest of the weekend and a great
start in the new week!

yellow

Yesterday I was sitting in the bus and thinking about
furniture and home decor (yes, I've been browsing
through ebay again.. and I've found out, that at least
this seller do care about her photos - a pleasure to
look at, aren't they? I felt like I was at 'home' ^_^).
About why I'm so into vintage lately (up till now they
made me feeling sad looking at them - not a feeling I'd
prefer), why I'm attracted to the 60s-80s style lately
(aside of all the influence from the vintage items on
Etsy and those trends in the home & decor blogs). I
then noticed the yellow canister underneath the seat
next to the door. The color made me happy. It awakes
the vintage feeling to me. I wondered why (I know,
I'm questioning too much lately ;)).



I remember, that yellow was my favorite color as I was
in elementary school. It was a certain yellow. Sunny
yellow (it's what I associate the color with. Which one**
do you think is it on the picture above?). Not too red,
not too green. Not too cold, not too warm. Simply a
happy-making yellow :)

I also remember the yellow runner on my parent's bed
in the new house. I think, it had a slight touch into
mustard, but could be, it was only my slant memories ;)
My sister, my brother and I often played nine men's
morris and other board games on it. Or we just sat down
there and watch tv. What a cozy feeling (even if it was
actually made of synthetic material, so I didn't like to
touch it - it made me sweat -, but it was so cool to have
a piece of carpet in hot Jakarta *lol*).

Back to now, I'm still in love with yellow, even if it's not
the color I'd wear. Duh, I just remember, a bright yellow
tee was the first cloth piece I've bought in Germany and
everybody was feeling shone by me *lol* I also had a
bright yellow umbrella keeping me accompany till it was
broken (even then, I couldn't throw it away immediately
after those 7 years together.. how sentimental!). I guess,
yellow is always a part of me, like the sun shining in my
heart (I only need to recall it especially in 'cloudy' days,
right? :)).

Some more yellow things, that makes me feel happy:
sun (of course :)), mango, lemon, banana, dandelion,
brass, gold, canary, chick, raincoat (or any other coat,
like a choir friend wore on Monday :)), mailbox, that
logo with the two golden arches ;) (it's often a place,
where we went to eat, if we were somewhere we didn't
know well and I have to say honestly, that I sometimes
need junkfood *trying to look innocent*),...


You can see some of the yellow things I've noticed today
here (oops!! it's already so late - so, I mean yesterday)
and some more on the other side.


**) I feel like I wanna play (must be the side effect of
this afternoon, where I went to the Math exhibit with
my son's class ;)). I'll send the first two of you, who left
a note on the Flickr side at the right color patch, a
surprise each :) So, please click on the first picture and
leave a note there, if you wanna play.