Decluttering the Kellar

The thing I miss most about the US right now is having a garden. This was a bit sublimated when we had the roof terrace, but now that we have been here in our 3rd (4th) floor apartment for over a year, the cellar is a bit crowded with all the pots and garden things that used to be in active use and no longer are. One of the things that we did this year was till an area at the kita because they wanted to start a garden. We also gave them a few of our pots for the back area and I enjoy seeing them put to use.
There are actually "Kleingarten Kolonies" here in Berlin, but they aren't the community gardens that I am used to in the States, leased at a nominal fee and actually used for gardening. The ones here seem to be permanent temporary summer residences, usually with a building taking up much of the square footage and where Germans sleep and grill and live during summers (electricity, water and satellite dishes seen on the roofs). They range from 6,000€ to 34,000€ and really are not possible if all one wants is to raise some tomatoes. If we actually stay in Berlin long-term and don't get a small place back in the US for summers, we will probably start looking at one of these.

(crosspost to other blog)

Keukenhof

After we flew back from Birmingham and Eastercon, we packed up the girls and the bikes for our annual trip to the Keukenhof.

We generally stay in Leiden, which is relatively close and at a hotel which has a great pool for the kids. This time there were horses and ponies (a dam and foal of each) and the girls really enjoyed petting them.

Once we were at the Keukenhof, we did our regular wandering about and enjoying. this time, I allowed T2 to slip in the water while we were hopping across the stones and we then needed to spend quite some time with the German in the Men's room drying her pants and shoes: we bought some Dutch shoe house shoes for the children and T2 spent the rest of the time wandering around in them. T1 chose a pair in a Tulip pattern and I stared at them for a long time, wondering whether I should get myself a pair.

I asked the German, he said" If you like" and T1 said, "Go ahead, get it".

I didn't and now I regret it. Next time! The flowers were in better form than last year: one of the interesting aspects of always going on Easter vacation is that since Pesach/Easter is a movable holiday, the blooms we see vary quite a bit. We were too early for the strawberries, though, which I was sorry for. Seems odd that even though we have had some record heat, the strawberries are a bit behind in their normal season.