Balcony Garden Goodness

Man, I have not been great about showing off our balcony garden this year. My last update came from when we first planted our seedlings, whereas last year I wrote about the plants almost every week! And though that may be overkill, I think it's time for a long overdue progress report on the tomatoes. Here goes.

We replanted everyone pretty early on this year to make sure we would only have to do so once, meaning less stress on them throughout the season.

Tomatoes ready for potting (the containers degrade over time so they just get plopped into the dirt like that. So genius!)

Herbs

The mess that is our balcony at the end of winter

Having learned over the past two years how giant tomato plants can  get, we placed each into their very own, very large pots. Which looked slightly ridiculous to start out with, I must say.

 Oh, don't mind the ridiculous amounts of empty beer bottles (mostly left over from Thanksgiving!) hanging out there...

Since it actually starting getting sunny and warm here last week - the weekend felt like summer! - we finally got to put the little fellows outside to soak up some much-needed vitamin D. Some of them benefitted immensely and sprouted happy new leaves; some of them...are lagging behind. And making me sad.

Everyone else is doing pretty good though (except the marjoram and rosemary, which never came at all. So I just replanted some new seeds a few days ago and have my fingers crossed that those will result in something! I love me some fresh rosemary...) and I'm quite proud of all of them.

Two sorts of peppers and a random bean plant that a coworker gave me

Two sorts of flowers looking all quaint in a teapot

And my new faves: the pipe planters - how cool are they? The left one has ranunculus, which grew that tall in one single week! And one one the right has more fun flowers.

Micha thinks flowers are a waste of balcony space - there'd be only tomatoes up there if he had his way - so I realized  that these pipe planters were the perfect solution to bring some flowers into the mix without taking up any tomato space. Not bad, huh?

Well, here's hoping those tiny little plants start basking in the spring weather - which is intermittent at the moment - and pop up strong and healthy soon. As always, I'll keep you posted.

Travel Thursdays: Our Island Paradise on Siquijor (I)

Welcome to part 4 of the trip that only lasted three weeks but will take a million years to recount... You can find our Philippines vacation part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 over here.

The first thing I have to say about our next destination on our grand Philippines adventure, the island Siquijor, is that I became convinced that it would be my favorite place in the Philippines (or anywhere really) the minute I found out that it was pronounced "si-kee-whore." I mean, come on!

Anyways...after four days on Alona Beach, we were ready to move on to Micha's top destination for our trip, Siquijor. It's an island (oh, you know, there are only about 7107 of them there...literally) about 40 km south of Alona, right above the biggest island in the country, Mindanao (where you're advised to avoid, according to both our countries' travel warnings - don't worry, Mom, we did!). Micha had read about Siquijor early on in our planning and it was the one must-go place on his list, due to its small circumference - which you can motorbike around easily in a day - as well as its secluded white sand beaches. And can I just say, holy crap was he right on that one! It was everything we expected and more.

But first, the ride over. We were hesitant to take another ferry, which would have meant taking a tricycle ride to the main island of Bohol, getting a ferry to Dumaguete and then to Siquijor town (like so), then taking another tricycle to our resort (which we'd booked the day before), so were pleasantly surprised when fate stepped in and offered us another option. In the form of a bubbly young German girl named Chantal (who just so happens to live in Berlin and with whom we just so happened to have had brunch with two weeks ago!). She was traveling with two other girlfriends and they all happened to be going to Siquijor the next day, too and managed to find themselves two fishermen who agreed to take them. And with two more of us on board, the price per person would be less than the ferry ride. Needless to say, we were sold.

Please excuse my extreme unattractiveness in this picture. I was miserably seasick the entire time (a cruel irony indeed for someone who loves the ocean so much).

Despite very rough seas and huge waves that even forced our captain, as I like to call him, to turn off the motor every so often to wait one out, we were stoked to get to ride a traditional island bangka instead of a boring, stuffy, and packed ferry. The journey took about two hours - scenic, chatty ones for Micha, nauseating ones for me - after which point we landed...here:

It was pretty much as in-the-middle-of-nowhere as it looks. Luckily, our fishermen were as unbelievably kind as everyone else we'd met in the Philippines thus far and not only did they help carry our bags to the (strange excuse for a) beach...

Micha with our practical backpacks

One of the fishermen with Kesha's not-at-all practical rolling suitcase!

they then led us up the strangest path, through a tiny village...

...past some goats, roosters, and the silliest I'm-gonna-bark-at-you-but-not-stand-or-even-sit-up-to-do-it dog...

...and then even negotiated a ride for us with pretty much the only person in the village who had a (very tiny) half-truck-half-car thing. Which the five of us and our ridiculous pile of bags somehow managed to fit into for the whole 30-minute journey to the other side of the island.

We were truly an odd site to behold

But when we arrived at our destination, Coral Cay Resort (the website does it absolutely no justice), all wonky stomachs and sore tushes and banged heads were forgotten as we walked up to the hut we would call home for the next four (which we promptly changed to five) nights:

Missing from this picture: the dog who thought our terrace was her home. In her defense, she was kind of right.

The girls, as we called them, checked out another resort but then headed immediately back to ours (with the same super sweet and accommodating driver) because really, whose idea of vacation can surpass this wondefulness?

 And there wasn't only our kick-ass hut to fall in love with, there was also the kick-ass bar/restaurant...

Handy for both beer drinking and computer time

With an accompanying stellar view

And delicious fresh fish

...and the most perfect pool area I've ever set foot in.

Ok, if I go on any longer, it will take you another three days to read this post, so I'll stop here for today. But for my eventual next post, let me just say this: I had read in my guidebook (I swear by Rough Guides these days) that Siquijor had, and I quote, "some of the best sunsets in the world."And you guys, THEY WERE RIGHT!

Inspired By...

...a framed succulent garden that would compliment my newly green balcony just perfectly.

Photo by Jane Austin McKeon

...sweet treats made sweeter with the addition of a bow. What a precious idea!

Photo & DIY by Victoria

...absolutely everything in this lovely little living room. From the gorgeous gray sofa to the clever bike storage, I'm swooning over it all.

Photo by JoAnn

...colorful striped flower pots--because I can't get enough of fun colorful accessories for my balcony garden, if you haven't noticed.

Available at Beautiful Spaces

...a casual yet stunning gallery of family photos. I'm minorly obsessed with gallery walls, and this one is so simply yet so beautiful, I'm tempted to recreate something similar in my own home.

Photo by Claiborne Swanson

Image credits: Framed succulent garden via Poppytalk | Apple Pie a la Bow via A Subtle Revelry | Small cool living room via Apartment Therapy | Marie Lines flower pots by Beautiful Spaces pinned by Sally | Family photo gallery as seen in Vogue via Apartment Therapy

My Weekend in Pictures

This weekend started off with a Friday evening trip to the new Zara Home store in Steglitz where I was on a mission to find some glasses to fancy up our bar cart with. Lucky for me, Kerstin had a few items on her list too, so she met me there and we both spent a bit too much money on some lovely home goodies before finishing off the night with an asparagus dinner (my first of the season!) with our menfolk at Oderquelle.

Oh the choices!

Naturally, I had to put my loot on display right away the next morning. But for the whole setup, you'll have to wait for a separate post (said with an evil grin...).

Much better to display than our usual Ikea glasses

Saturday we spent visiting Micha's mom and grandma in the 'burbs and we were all slightly overwhelmed by, but oh-so-grateful for, the sudden summer-like temperatures that came our way. Hooray for spring!

After some unsuccessful rug shopping - where we found not a single decent rug but instead a whole new set of Sekt, white wine, and red wine glasses - we spent Saturday evening on the balcony with our grill and a nice bottle of rosé (and beer for Micha, of course :).

Grilled fish = perfection. How did we not figure this out sooner?

No weekend is complete without at least a little baking fun...

On Sunday afternoon we picked up our friends, Sara and Christoph, and headed out of the city to Glindowsee for some sunshine, beers, and a dip in the literally ice cold waters (but man was it refreshing!).

After which, we hoofed it over to Baumblütenfest in Werder, one of my favorite parts of spring. It's basically a big (and often slightly out-of-control) town party to celebrate spring, righ when all of the fruit trees that line the streets and cover the yards are in full bloom. 

The best part, though, isn't following all of the drunk teenagers to the fairground area, but climbing further up the hill and strolling casually through all of the giant backyards, sipping on homemade fruit wines - they make everything from strawberry to rhubarb to black current wine - and then sitting down in one of the gardens to let the sun and wine slowly sink in as you gaze out over a view of the Havel river. Spring at its finest.