Staycation when summmer came

Oh dear, I love staycationing. Who says you have to go somewhere to vacation? I love Stockholm, I love our apartment, and I love slow mornings when the sun rounds the corner of the house and the rays land on our bed as we slowly slowly wake up. It's the best.

For the full four days of vacation I was planning to harvest a bunch of dandelion leaves (to make Kimchi), and a heap of nettles and ground elder leaves to blanche and freeze in little cubes.* Did I manange to do any of that? No. Instead I lounged on the balcony, went on a mini road trip that planted us in a strange industrial area and to the place abandoned bikes go to die (or in a best case scenario get a second life) and spent time with my darlin' and our friends. We barbecued for the first time this year (Chuck steak, bacon wrapped asparagus, roasted red bell peppers and grilled garlic, oh maan, delish!) and had one too many waffles/pancakes at Sandra's birthday pancake-bonanza. We had deliscious fika (several times!). We met Madelin's new kittens (O - MY - GOSH!! Cuteness overload!). We biked in the sunset I also repotted some of my plants and have moved out almost all the crops that need to be outside to the balcony. We watched several bad movies (I have a thing for 80s movies. I think they are my favorite genre, really) and generally staycationed real good.

Now I'm back at work, busy as ever but with a super important steering group meeting behind me where I got approval for our project plan go ahead! YAY!

How was your weekend?

*I'm planning on doing a post on edible weeds, if that would be interesting at all. It is my newest obsession! Free yummies for all!

**Photos are all from either my or Christopher's Instagram (he's @banjodjango)

Zucchini + Cucumber

Zucchini flowerbuds

Zucchini plant

 Cucumber plant with little tiny to-be-cucumbers (I love the squiggly "tentacles" that help the plant climb!)

Wild Chives

I was out walking with Miriam during the weekend when I happened to see some mysterious looking grass. Curious as I was, I picked up a leaf of "grass" to smell it, only to notice it smelled distinctly of Midsummer. Chives! That delightful leek that goes so well with sour cream and pickled herring! Well, this was great I thought and I planned to harvest some chive-bulbs to have on my balcony. Today I did it!

I had to dig deep so as to not just cut off the stems from the bulb, which proved difficult as there were a lot of pine roots to dig around and the earth was very heavy and clay like. But eventually I got the little bulbies:

They're already spreading a lot of roots so I don't know if they'll survive the move, but one can always hope, yes?

 More digging and in the background your can see our house! The Holmair Residence is on the floor one below the top floor! The view is In-cre-di-ble!

 

Have you ever harvested wild bulbs? Have any tips? Ever cooked with wild chives? Let me know in the comment section!

See you around!

Gifts in Spring

The best part about growing my own plants for summer is that I have a bunch of extra perfectly healthy plants. I will by no means be able to keep all of them as my space is limited. However, these extra seedlings are a great gift for a hostess with the mostest! Plant them in little terracotta pot or if you lack the terracotta pot, do as I did: put the little seedling in a plastic bag, wrap it around the roots and tape it together with some decorative washi tape: Tada! Instant great gift! And who doesn't like presents that get greater and greater with just the addition of soil water and some TLC?

A new green inkling

My mother has always been a passionate gardener. She’s always grown gardens that, it suffices to say, make the neighbors green with envy. Ceaseless blooming, succulent crops and the most intense green you could imagine (in her garden, not on their faces!).

I am not. Good with plants that is. I do not paint my neighbors faces green with envy. I do not do the ceaseless blooming and succulent crops. And “the most intense green” soon turns the ever boring yellowing of dead crops at the touch of my hands.

But, alas, a weakness is a weakness until it is not. I have now managed to get two following seeds to grow:

Tomato x2

Cucumber

Zucchini

Passionfruit

Chili

Spinach

Chives

Physalis

Koriander

Parsley

Carnations

Mint

It is just about the best thing ever when things start popping up from the earth. It is like magic. Green magic that’ll make my neighbors green with envy.