Mom, will this chicken give me man boobs?

[image source:robynharding.com] (Yes, it is the author's webpage)

First of all, what's up with this book cover? I swear it is as embarrassing as having a blog called "My life as a Tiny Plasticine Penis"!

I passed this book to Bär, who started reading like 6 weeks ago, and still wasn't done by yesterday (book is due today, and I hadn't read it yet). And we both concluded it is very embarrassing to be caught reading this in public. So he ended up reading it during lunchtime, I read the book from my lap and we both used brochures to cover the book when out in public.

Robyn Harding, author of other creatively named tomes like "The Journal of Mortifying Moments" and "My Parents are Sex Maniacs" writes about how she tries to raise an environmentally conscious family. The book is full of oxymorons, as Robyn points out in the case of buying greens. Is it right to buy an apple from New Zealand (the family is in British Columbia, Canada) because Down Under has more prime growing conditions and harness better renewable energy? Or better to be a locavore (buy and eat local)? Or how they went to EPIC Vancouver, ostensibly to learn about sustainable living, but ended up buying healthful food that they don't need and bringing back lots of brochures.

Robyn also points out her own "green" failings in a hilarious manner. She calls herself "light green" in how she tries to be environmentally conscious, and reminds others to do the same, yet delighting in long baths and long distance flights while hating public transport.

Didn't drive Ms Daisy

Instead I drove Missess Chrysanthemums and some weird plant I am not sure what is its English name. The backseat was pretty crowded :D

Mutter instructed me to come last Samstag to meet them at the garten because Tante S (who is a Trader) was going to the nursery to buy flowers to give her biggest clients. She knew that I was forever buying pots, and to discourage thieves, I always buy them really big and heavy, so I can only carry one or two at a time.

My backseat passengers

In return for her discount at the nursery, I drove her Chrysanthemums back to the garden, where they will wait to be transported to her clients' place.

Back to the drawing board

I have a policy of not talking about Arbeit as much as possible because I don't want to have the censorship board come after me. Besides I have found out by very bad experiences on why and how it is a bad idea to be identified by your blog content. 

[source: ijustdid.org]

But anyway Arbeit sucked so much yesterday, that when I got into the car yesterday, I told B1 I was going to train as a McDonald's staff. (Ok, that was until this afternoon when the ladies reminded that I would have to clean the toilets. So I am back to aspiring to be a dungeon mistress). I started chanting lines like "Do you want fries with that?", "Good morning Mdm, welcome to McDonald's!" in a super cheery voice.

He said "Why don't you go and work at *censored* since your friend is already a manager there?"

"Good morning Mdm, do you want a latte with that?!" I shrieked.

Anyway it's pretty bad. I decided it is time to re-examine my storyboard for ideas to do coding on. Like I told Mr Bear before, he ought to code small games to understand better how to do android coding than go full bang and then hate what he did. So I decided to follow my advice. 

I am now listening morosely to free music that people post online to collaborate with developers. Maybe now I can develop the game I wanted to make. Or maybe add a new simple game to Burgerstacko.

Handmade - baby coat

This was what I made as a 13 year old for class. I was very stubborn and not very wise, because I bought the turquoise quilted cloth I liked very much even though it was not big enough for the pattern. There was a orange quilt I saw which was big enough but I was insistent. I then obviously ran out of material to make the sleeves, and was severely marked down.

Should have made a sleeveless vest...

I kept it for years to remind myself not to be impetuous and somehow it got lost in the years since. I found it while rummaging through my cupboards while packing the remainder to move to the other new apartment. Unfortunately it was not in a good state and B1 was so "urgh"ed by it, he insisted I throw it away.

Penthouse Farmville - Starting the Farm

Despite the fact that there are thieves and juvenile delinquents hanging outside my apartment (can't blame them, the view's great with a nice breeze), I remain very determined to cultivate my container garden. In fact, my Christmas present from B1 was a bag of soil, 2 portalucas, 2 pots of zinnias (now dwindled to 2 zinnias), 2 pots and 2 lime plants. My non-fiction reading now includes gardening books. B1 jokes that I am doing a real-life farmville, after I told him my new year's resolution of cultivating a vegetable garden. Perhaps I am very inspired by Onkel H's garden, when I visited him und Tante H last year and saw their grapes and other plants.

The apartment is E-W facing, so there are two places to do my little farmville, namely the long L-shaped area outside my place (which is suspectible to naughty people with thieving hands and thieving birds) and my very tiny balcony. However on top of the aforesaid problems, I have the added complications of extremely high humidity and less than 4 hours sunlight on the L-shape side due to the high wall.

It's a wonder that my interesting in gardening has persisted so long, seeing how fickle and un-green-fingered I am. I am still learning how to look after the plants, and my casualties have dwindled. So far, I have murdered 3 pandan plants, 1 strawberry, 1 lime (technically it was the thieving birds who rob the plant of its leaves), 1 potato plant, and 1 chilli plant.1 beautiful lemon basil was stolen from the L-shape side.

These are the survivors that I am starting with in 2013:

Bought grown from the nursery behind my mother's garden

2 limes (blossom drop!), tomato (now 2, after I cut out the subplant into its own pot, suffered from blossom drop!), chilli (which refuses to flower), edamame (no flower, maybe too young yet), orchid (lost its flowers already, read that I should cut down the branch to 2nd joint, but it seems too late as the branch has browned).

Those I am growing from seeds and cuttings

sunflower, cherry tomato, pandan (from Mutter's cutting), sweet potato leaves (Mutter's cutting from her garden), loads of aloe vera, cactus, spring onions and leeks.

The spring onions and leeks are an experiment based on an article I read from reddit (see Nibblezware Feb 2013's magazine for the link). They seem to be surviving pretty well on water, which I must remember to change if not mosquitoes will come and rape me and B1 in our sleep.

I remember very fondly of the sunflower fields we saw in Germany. I know their national flower is the cornflower, but sunflowers will always remind me of Germany. And missing Füssen, I decided to grow sunflowers from seed. It's been 4 days, and finally 1 of the seedlings decided to germinate. I was very delighted and carried the entire pot into the house to show B1. The insufficient sunlight is posing a significant problem. Sigh.

[updated!!!]
All new posts related to my garten will now be posted at a different kind of PENTHOUSE. The link is also available as "PENTHOUSE" tab.