Balcony battle

Today felt like a perfect summer day!

Without an alarm clock I got up at nine, which is a feat for me. The mission, after some shuffling around the apartment, amazed at how early it was, was to go shopping for plants. About a week ago I realized, that my dear forget-me-nots were infested with aphids. First I just thought it was disgusting. Then I realized they were harming the plant. Then I realized that they will probably spread to all of our balcony plants.

After trawling around the internet for advice, I decided on my first plan of aphid-attack: I combined 100ml vegetable oil and a teaspoon of dish washing liquid (organic) and added one teaspoon to every cup of water I filled my spray bottle with. When an aphid gets sprayed with this, he should be suffocated: the soap breaks up the oil, which then makes the water stick. This helped a little bit, when there were hoards of bugs and they were easy to see. Then I trimmed the forget-me-nots, in hopes of getting rid of the badly affected leaves. After a few days of hunting aphids with a spray bottle, I realized I was never going to get rid of them all like this. More googling suggested that there are herbs and flowers with scents that repel aphids: sage, spearmint, coriander, anise, chives, radishes, tagetes and petunias, for instance. I also found mentions of tomato plants repelling aphids, and then entries about aphid-infested tomatoes.

So today my mission was to go to the Boxhagener Platz farmer's market to shop for plants. I found mini-tomatoes for the balcony (€2 each) and I bought orange tagetes (€0,60/each) and something that looks like a nettle with white rimmed leaves, that the saleswoman said gets rid of aphids. After a gözleme at Boxi and a Milchkaffee at Intimes (Boxhagener Strasse 107) with A, I headed home to pot the plants and clean the balcony. I trimmed the forget-me-nots until they were practically bald. We also bought a bright yellow plastic cup at the Euro store, because aphids love yellow, and if I fill it with water there's apparently a chance they're stupid enough to just kill themselves.

I'm terribly excited to see if any of the tricks work. Finger's crossed the aphids don't eat all our sweet peas or kill our courgette plants by next week!

The Blossom Festival revisited

The Baumblütenfest in Werder, Brandenburg, is one of my favourite annual festivities around Berlin. Werder is a little town about 40 minutes south of Berlin, known for it's orchards and it's fruit wine. Last year our friend S, who's from close by, was our travel guide and made sure we got the optimal experience. I was so impressed and had such a good time that and told everyone that they HAVE to go there next year. As a result, this year friends, and friends of friends, wanted to come along and in the end a group of 15 boarded the train at Alexanderplatz.

The fruit wine from Werder is reputed to be particularly strong – and is probably the reason this Volksfest is so popular. Avoid the crowded main festival area and schlager fever on the island, and take the Panoramaweg to the top of the hill. Along a stretch of village road there are endless rows of food and home made fruit wine stalls. Private residents set up beer gardens in their yards and the atmosphere is great. To make the most of it you should buy a bottle of local rhubarb wine (about €6), get plastic cups, find a seat with a view over the river Havel and get tipsy!

Summer enough for Freiluftkino

Freiluftkino is one of my favourite things about Berlin summer, and now the season has kicked off!

A was sure it wouldn't be too cold to FINALLY see the 2010 Banksy film, Exit Through the Gift Shop as it was the opening film of the Freiluftkino Kreuzberg season last Friday. When we found our way in between the buildings on Mariannenplatz we were warm from cycling and it was still not completely dark. We could see rows of beach chairs parked in front of a hoard of green, plastic, garden chairs. The outdoor cinema in Kreuzberg is definitively smaller than Freiluftkino Friedrichshain! We grabbed fold-up beach chairs and found a nice spot in the centre. Typically for Berlin, people arrived late and when the announcer finally got to introduce the film it was already dark. Smartly we'd brought a blanket, but it didn't stop the cold air beneath the chair from soaking through the fabrics and onto my back. By the end of the film I was pretty cold, but hadn't even considered leaving: the film was funny and good, poignantly asking the question: "what is art?" – depth that I hadn't expected.

A chilly May first

I've suffered another spell of unwillingness to write. From the beginning I wanted to keep a blog about how we are settling in Berlin and what new, lovely things we discover about life here. When we moved to Ireland five years ago I never jotted down a single thought or epiphany I experienced in my new country. But lately it has felt like I'm not stumbling across new things in Berlin anymore, but rather like I'm happy with what I have already discovered. This is my life now.

Still, life has not stopped. Since Easter, when I last updated the blog, summer has arrived. At least for a Finn this is summer – it has been over +20°C most days and we haven't seen rain in weeks.

First of May was chilly and the riots were sparse. I guess all the commotion around closing down Liebig14 and Kunsthaus Tacheles has kept the activists busy and when May came around, they too wanted to take it easy. For the first time we dared venture to the annual MyFest in Kreuzberg, but the icy wind and the hoards of people put a damper on our spirits. We went home and waited for warmer weather!

Boxhagener Platz prepared for rioters on April 29th.

MyFest is not about rioting, it's about eating and drinking in the streets of Kreuzberg!

Easter Sunday brunch

Our first ever Easter Sunday brunch was yesterday, and we had such a great time. Today we keep having a great time by doing absolutely nothing, ignoring the sunshine and eating leftovers: rhubarb pie for breakfast, chocolate biscotti and mac'n'cheese for dinner :) What else can you do on a Monday, when everything is closed? Maybe plan next year's brunch! Or what we're going to do the next time it's sunny again, and we have nothing to do... Maybe go to Teufelsberg or Müggelsee... One day.

Easter sun waisted

It's been insanely sunny and warm in Berlin for the past week. Today was +22°C and full-on sun! I, on the other hand, was baking biscotti.

On our last Easter in Dublin we got invited to a traditional Polish Easter Sunday breakfast with our friends. Not knowing what to expect, we were so impressed by this tradition: a four course meal with mimosas, wine, beer and vodka in the morning! The sun was shining, there was plenty to eat, the company was good – we had a great time.  Ever since then I've wanted to have a similar Easter tradition, so we'll try to launch it this year by doing a super chilled Easter Sunday Brunch: mimosas, brunch, music - and sun on the balcony.

However chilled I always plan our parties to be, I can't help but stress a little. I want to make all these great dishes, have a lot of food, enough to drink, and a respectably tidy house – somehow this is not as easy as it sounds. But tomorrow should actually be under control, as long as we keep cooking tonight; egg salad with chili (!), tomato and asparagus quiche, mac'n'cheese, bulgur salad, lemon squares...

I'm looking forward to having those mimosas, for sure!

Chocolate pistachio biscotti (makes about 35)
500ml organic wheat flour
4 tbsp dark Fair Trade cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda + 1 teaspoon salt
OR 2 tsp baking powder (soda is hard to find in the shops here, or I'm looking in the wrong places...)
200g Fair Trade dark chocolate, chopped; half finely, half chunky
200-300ml peeled pistachios, chopped
4 eggs
350ml granulated sugar
+1 egg white

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, pistachios and the finely chopped half of the chocolate together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they're light and fluffy: when ready, the whisk should leave a trail on the surface for a few seconds when lifted. Add the other ingredients, also the chunky chocolate, and beat until they're properly combined – try not to overwork the dough.

The original recipe suggests you turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface to divide it into three equally sized pieces and shape them into logs. I found that there was no way I could work the sticky, gooey dough into anything, so I spooned the dough to the shape of logs onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. It really doesn't have to be that pretty – just not too flat, since the dough will melt in the oven. Brush the logs with egg white and sprinkle with sugar, if you like.

The Latin origin of the name 'biscotti' means "twice baked", so these biscuits literally are baked twice. First round for about 20 minutes, or until the logs are just firm to the touch. Take the logs out of the oven and let cool for another 20 minutes. When cooled off, cut the logs into 2 centimetre thick slices. Arrange the slices, laying down, on the a baking tray and bake them for another 10-12 minuter, until the biscotti are firm and dry, then let them cool off again.

Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the biscotti will keep for about a week.

Obsession

I have developed a new obsession – I suspect it is to counter-balance all the excessive partying and beer-drinking I've been doing lately.

Last week we sowed the seeds of sweet peas, courgettes and garlic chives to grow on the balcony this summer. Now I'm obsessed. It's been a week and tiny little heads of green are beginning to sprout. When I get up in the morning it's the first thing on my mind, I have to go and look. I can sit and stare for minutes, sure of changes and growth.

I still want to buy a few strawberry plants and flowers, and was promised a few chili plants by friends who over planted. I am hoping to give them a few courgette plants in exchange.

I think this grandma hobby allows me to party and act like a teenager for a few more weeks, while the sun is shining and we're waiting for the crops...

April 13th – sowing.

Six days later things are finally happening!

Today, eight days later.