holiday in the Mediterranean

Island of Brač, Croatia. The sun, the sea, the pebbles…

I was prepared to find some pretty little gardens with lots of flowers. I was right.

What I wasn’t prepared to find were all the hungry cats and kittens.

I should have brought bags of cat food!

I know that it is questionable how much tourists actually "help" by feeding stray animals in countries without an established spay and neuter program.

But would you have the heart to walk away from these little ones without sharing your snack with them?

There was one lost soul in particular that touched my heart.

This thin little cat with some older mouth injury, obviously unable to hunt for anything, found us one night on a terrace, watching the starry sky. When I volunteered to do the hunting instead and went to steal some cheese from our roommate, I told her to wait a little and she understood and waited. She seemed too afraid of people to come closer, yet also aware that they were the only source of food for her.

On the last night of our stay we heard some funny noises outside our bedroom window. Silky Soul said it was the aliens coming to get us (we had just watched the movie The Fourth Kind), but it was this little girl who finally found us and lied down to rest on a table beneath the window. I was touched. The next day when we loaded the car, she hid underneath it. I gave her the last meal I could share with her. She sat down at the edge of the road and watched us get in the car. She looked sad and lonely. I cannot get her out of my mind. Her serious, big eyes. Her little mouth, half-open all the time. The ribs under her skin. The way she looked up to the sky at a bird she will never be able to catch.

gardenless gardening inspiration

Recently, when reading a post about how balcony gardening gets contagious on the balcony gardening blog the 6×8 garden, I remembered some photos that I took in the past during my travels that have inspired me with how much can be done with just a little.

Barcelona, Spain:

Krakow, Poland:

Madeira, Portugal:

Since I became part of the community of fellow gardenless gardening bloggers, I have found inspiration also with the urban organic gardener, especially his former fire escape garden, he offers good practical tips.

In his own words, Anything’s possible!

I have also enjoyed exploring ideas about roof top gardening or parking strip gardening, and I fell in love with the subversive concept of guerilla gardening. If you have 2 spare minutes, do not miss this touching video about a very special guerilla gardener.

A piece of good news at the end, renovation on our house is finished, the weather is warm and sunny and our balcony fully inhabited again. Sadly, now my old camera is on strike, so photos next time…

two days of (some) sun

We were lucky enough to get two relatively bright days last weekend. This spring is very cold with flooding rains in our part of the world, probably due to the effects of the Icelandic volcano. We loved it when the eruption gave us several days of clear blue skies unpolluted by airplanes. We hate it when it gives us weeks of cold, wet weather. So, with the little sunshine that we did get, all other plans were put aside and we set out on a trip to Arboretum Šmelcovna near the town of Boskovice, then continued to the town and visited the old Jewish cemetery.

Silky Soul says this picture reminds him of a zen garden.

I think a zen garden is a great place to rest.

life on Silky Soul's office balcony

Silky Soul’s practice in the centre of the town has a little balcony facing the inner space surrounded by ugly grey buildings with just one tall tree in the middle. Quite a dreary view.

So, Silky Soul decided to add some life to it. As the rays of sun never reach this corner, here is what we furnished it with:

hostas and heucheras

coleus

begonia

fuchsia

Perhaps it is no surprise that we were not the only ones who noticed the difference.

They probably chose the most natural looking spot in the long sight but what would you do? Some people warn, Pigeons are dirty, overpopulated and spread diseases, get rid of the nest, again and again, before they hatch. Others say, We should be thankful for at least some sign of nature, we want everything our way, clean and aseptic, but it is us who messed up the animals’ natural environment … Silky Soul tried to get rid of the twigs repeatedly but the birds keep coming back with so much determination I think they have overpowered him by now. To me they look quite touching. Will keep you posted.

life on the balcony

I have never had a garden. My first opportunity came six years ago when I moved into a tiny flat with a small balcony. I wanted to grow everything! Soon I had to own up to what seemed the sad reality of little light and little space. The balcony faces west and any possible sunlight is shaded by tall birch trees.

Over the years I have come to love shade-loving or at least shade-tolerating plants such as fuchsia, begonia, coleus, fern…

…and my absolute favorite - hosta.

Apart from many plants I have also collected three cats in the meantime. They are all rescue cats adopted from a shelter or directly from the street. I have tried to create a trauma-healing haven for them (and anyone else who shares the flat with them, including myself). The balcony is adjusted to their needs, so there is a climbing tree, a net all around the balcony, and a cat flap in the balcony door.

Since the beginning of this year we have been blessed with the presence of Silky Soul who has become my partner in gardening, cat loving, meatless cooking and endless conversations about the mysteries of Life. He is the one who has encouraged me to create this blog and provides me with more and more ideas on how to make the world a better place to be.

You may have noticed by now that in my opinion nothing looks better together with plants than a cat or two (or three).

Second to them is a Buddha statue which I don’t have. (Photo taken at the Upaya Zen Center, New Mexico by Ottmar Liebert)

One thing to never have around plants is a kitchy plaster gnome, of which I have two (balcony size).

And how does the balcony look right now?

All the plants, all the cats, the cat climbing tree and the net had to squeeze inside our tiny flat; a new façade is being put on our block of flats, and the balcony is completely empty now.

I hope that all of the afflicted will survive this inconvenience and we will soon be able to get back to our normal balcony life.