Avocado experience! - Tip - Part II

New tip for the avocado experience!

TIP - The skin of the seed needs to come out completely! Or the upper part is going to become like a shell and will not let the plant to grow out of the seed.

Found it in this video:

What I'm reading now

Check my Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Mizinha

My 2016 reading goal: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/5402722

Last garden activities of 2015

The year 2015 is almost over. Is incredible how fast it went by!

Now is the the time to think about what happened during this year. Make a balance of what we got and what we wanted to have. Think about what we learned and what we wanted to learn... And think what 2016 can offer us!

In other hand the gardener must think about what are the tasks that should be accomplished in the garden before 2016... What were the things he wanted to do in 2015 that he didn't do and now he has two weeks to make it happen!


So my last garden activities for 2015 are:

• Remove the summer bulbs. Because I want to change the garden organization I need to remove the summer bulbs if I want to use them next year. What I read is that you remove the bulb from the earth, let it dry and packed in a dry place... let's see if it works!

• Finish the stone path. I don't think I will finish it but at least all the stones would be in the right place.

• Buy a small garden house to store the garden tools. All my tools are in the patio and doesn't look that nice.

• Check the house plants for yellow leaves and clean the leaves with a moist clothe.

• Bring the plants that need to be protect during the winter inside.

• Eat the cornsalad. Is the only thing I can eat in my garden now!

• Buy bird food.

• Cut branches. 

Being sick at home

Is so nice to have a day at home and not go to work.

I have a world of things I would like to do. Things that are in my to do list for ever waiting for a little extra time to be done.

But when you are sick things are not like that!
Head hurting plus nose running plus sleepy eyes equals zero capacity to finish any task.

So the dream of having a day for my projects is gone and I'm being forced to enjoy a day for my self!

I'm sited outside in the garden drinking a cup of tee and is, I think, the first time I just spend time here like this...

The Luffa seeds are here

Luffa seeds are here and I almost can't believe it! 

As I wrote in the "Seeds of Luffa by Post" I send a letter to a random lady on Facebook that was offering to send to random people some seeds of Luffa and I hopped to get an answer.

After a very stressful day at work finally a very good reason to be happy!

First

I got seeds from a plant that is not so common in my country or here and many people don't know about it. 

Second 

We shared seeds! 

Companies like Monsanto don't want us to share seeds.

They try to pass laws that forbids the seed sharing. If that isn't evil enough they try to only sell hybrid species so you can't use their seeds to create other plants

I think people should share seeds, plants without limits (of course not plagues). A plant shouldn't have copyrights attached to it. 

Third

The nice lady that shared this with me doesn't know me...  was just a random person that went on a Facebook group and asked who wanted seeds of Luffa and posted her address.

I send her a letter with a postcard, two euro coin for the sending costs and a envelop that she could use to send the seeds with my address on it.

I have to say I didn't had so much hopes to receive something. Shame on me! I should have more hope and be more trusty of people.

Fourth

In portuguese we have a saying that is like this:

"Fazer o bem não importa a quem"

This means something like "Do good things doesn't matter to who"... And I lived the result of this life style yesterday when I was overflowed with joy when in saw that letter? 

I'm very thankful for this wonderful world and wonderful people that live in it!

Now I have to think in planting this, they need allot of warm and I'm living in Germany (that doesn't happen around here very often). Maybe I will planted inside! Need to research a little bit about this. 

I could also take some seeds to my mom, is warmer there.

After this I'm with the seed sharing bug!

DIY Advents Calendar - Poetic Style

I learned about advents calendar when I moved here. This little tradition of preparing a little surprise for each day of December until the 24th grown on me,

I decided I would do an Advents Calendar for Carl even if he didn't want one... 

If you wonder if my boyfriend would maybe read this and see his surprise in advance... don't worry he doesn't read my blogs... I guess no one does :P

The idea was that I would make something by myself and he could keep it later.

Because I'm always complaining that we don't have any decoration on my apartment walls I decided to make some wall Art! Romantic wall Art :)

1st Step: Pick the Poem

I searched for the perfect verses that I wanted to work with. It needed to be special because it's going to stay in our wall for a while.

I wanted it to be a Portuguese poet and the verses would have to be in Portuguese.

So I picked a poem from Fernando Pessoa

"Quando te vi, amei-te já muito antes.

Tornei a achar-te quando te encontrei.

Nasci pra ti antes de haver o mundo."

"When I saw you, I loved you already long time ago.

I found you again when I met you.

I was born for you before there was world."

2nd Step: Prepare the base

What I did is to put the white papers that I was going to use on the table and tried to paint the base for the calligraphy. I used watercolour paint and did just random (very fast) "art" work.

´

3rd Step: Calligraphy

Just tried to write in the paper one or two words with different types of calligraphy. I'm not an expert but I think I did a good job.

4th Step: Check if you didn't miss any part of the verses

Checked!

5th Step: Roll it up

Done!!

Hope he loves it :)

What you guys think?

Seeds of Luffa by post

I'm a member of a facebook group for Portuguese speakers on facebook (I'm Portuguese) and one of the ladies is planting Luffa in her garden and she promises to send seeds to people that would send her a letter with a envelope and a stamp for her to send a couple of seeds to us!

I'm going to try it out! 

I hope that she sends me some seeds and I get to plant some vegetable sponges in my garden!