Spring is definitely my favorite season. It's not too cold anymore, not too hot yet, and everything is coming back to life. It's the perfect time to be outside, move a bit and clear my head. I enjoy strolling around, listening to birds or simply just sitting on the bench and looking at the river.
We live in such a nice place and we are lucky that we can move around with almost no restrictions. And let me tell you that this weekend we moved a lot! So far we have walked almost 50000 steps in two days and we are still planning to go for a short walk in the evening.
Today, we walked to a community garden in the city next to ours. We took the touristic route and spent almost an hour walking in a forest and next to the river. We didn't talk much, just enjoyed the moment.
I haven't visited any other community gardens before, so I don't know if this is a typical one or if it's somehow special. In summer, there are herbs and veggies that you can collect and now there are some flowers too. There are some benches, and I've seen many people coming there for lunch as it's a nice and quiet place. I haven't seen that many people last year who would come there to get some produce.
Let me show you around!
There is actually nothing that you can take from the garden at this time of the year but it's still a pleasure for the soul to be there.
This year we are so lucky with the weather and I feel like we have much more flowers in April than we used to have before.
I was surprised to see that many magnolias lost their flowers already and I was lucky to come across this tree as it's a bit in the shadow of a building, so it's still blooming.
April is the busiest time of the year for me as we have year end activities at work, so I usually miss magnolias because I don't go out that much as I'm exhausted and happy to be finally in bed but this year my husband keeps taking me out and I must admit that it feels good and I'm less stressed than usually.
I have noticed that there are various shades of magnolias. This one is the deepest pink/purple that I have seen. I would say that it's my favorite!
There were flowers that were completely opened but they were out of my reach, so this is the biggest one that I could get to...
There is also a small bee hive in the garden, so there were quite a few bees flying around. They seemed to be very busy and I was lucky to catch this one little worker...
I remember my grandma having dozens different sorts of tulips in her garden. She would let me pick some and bring them to my mom. These days I don't pick them up anymore but I still love looking at them.
This is a Calabash tree that produces huge fruit that looks like butternut squash. When I saw it for the first time a few years ago I thought that the squash was attached to the tree and that it was only sort of a crazy decoration but then I learned that it was fruit of this tree! I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know how it taste but it's definitely on my list to try!
The cherry blossoms are the prettiest little things!
Daffodils are typical symbols of spring for me. There are plenty of them in gardens right now and there are some with really nice colors and patterns too! This yellow daffodil is the one that I remember from my childhood.
And now to the herbs in the garden..
This plant had a sign which read 'cumin'. I'm not so sure though as I remember cumin plant differently. But it's maybe a special sort that I don't know. Anyway, they are so cute and vibrant!
This is a baby purple sage, look at the soft purple color - so pretty! I can almost taste the pasta with butter (vegan of course) and sage. Yum!
I must admit that I thought this was a rosemary plant, but it's lavender! I also touched it to be sure and yes, it's lavender 🙂
You can see the new baby parts of the plant as they are bright and shiny...
Do you know lovage? It's also called Maggiplant because the plant's taste is reminiscent of Maggi soup seasoning. If you haven't tried it yet, make sure that you do! It's so good!
You can eat the roots, leaves as well as the seeds. It will grow much taller and it will have dark green color.
This little plant is called Adonis, or Pheasant's eye if you want. I don't think it has any use but it's simply pretty to look at 🙂
I can't wait to go back to the garden in a few weeks and see the progress of various plants.
We spent some time in the sun and then we walked back home. We found a bench with view of the river and sat down again. It looks like we were sitting more than walking but it's not really true 🙂
We had some snacks while we were watching that crow in the back (on the ground). It was kind of jumping from one side to another, and we didn't really understand what was going on until it took off and left us wondering.
Then it was really time to go home and get some rest before another working week.
I hope you have enjoyed your weekend too!
Thank you for reading!
Cheers!
Martina