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| MyBalcony - Spring Flowers in Winter! |
I noted in an earlier blog that one of the first things that struck me on my return to Zurich was spring. It had been a while since I’d really experienced spring and I was enchanted by the flowers everywhere, the cherry blossom, the budding trees… I’d somehow forgotten what this season was like. There is a kind of spring in Egypt in the sense that it starts to get warmer and warmer, but it’s not really dramatic and it’s more a slow transition into summer. And sometimes it’s not even that slow a transition.
I was wondering how long it would take me to get fed up of the clouds and rain when I came back to Zurich, but I was extraordinarily lucky and the weather has generally been sunny and warmer than usual. There have even been days where I’ve been able to sit outside on my balcony.
When I arrived back, two of my friends were just about to go on holiday to get some sun and I had to double-think for a moment. I couldn’t really understand how they could be saying they were missing the sun when the weather was so good, but then I realized that I’d just come from months of sun in Egypt and hadn’t had to suffer the cloud and cold of winter. I appreciated the current sunshine, but had lost the perspective of what long weeks of grim and grey rain and sludge can do to your soul. I’ve already started to take my dream for granted!
Lots of people are posting photographs of cherry blossom on facebook; I don’t remember that happening in previous years. Even I have a photograph (not on facebook) of the cherry blossom that I can see from my balcony. It really is stunning. It brought back fond memories of my trip to Japan!
Anyway, seeing all these signs of spring inspired me to focus first on planting out my balcony– my reasoning being that the sooner I got it all done, the more time I would have to enjoy it. I get a lot of pleasure out of this because I like trying to grow plants, and this is something I don’t get the chance to do when I’m in Egypt. It’s just too hot and sandy over there for any kind of pot plant to survive.
Oerlikon has a market on Saturday mornings – it sells mostly fruit and veg, but there are also a number of stalls selling cut flowers as well as plants for the garden or balcony. It seemed that many people had the same idea as me, though. On two occasions, I’d just made up my mind which plant I wanted to buy only to find that the last one had just been sold to someone else. This is Switzerland for you – they are always shopping early, and you can’t afford to dither.
I’d forgotten that one of the supermarkets also held a garden section outside during the spring and summer, so on spotting it I went there after the market had closed. All in all, I spent two Saturdays doing this and several journeys back and forth to carry the plants, containers, and soil.
Of course, just one week after I’d planted it all out nicely, the temperature plummeted and we had three days of snow! It’s like this every year – you think that winter is over, and then it hits you with one final surprise burst. In a way, it was quite nice to get the opportunity to see some snow. Some of the plants now look a bit sad, but I think they will recover.
I am hoping that Sechselaeuten (Monday 24th April) will mark the end of winter. This is a festival in Zurich (the afternoon is a public holiday) where they burn an effigy of a snowman (called the “Boeoeg”) on a pyre. The sooner the snowman’s head explodes, the better the forthcoming summer is supposed to be. Apparently there have been some controversies over the definition of the head exploding – if only I could have done my philosophy dissertation on that! Anyway, I’m hoping for a quick explosion of the snowman and a good summer this year.
Lots of people are posting photographs of cherry blossom on facebook; I don’t remember that happening in previous years. Even I have a photograph (not on facebook) of the cherry blossom that I can see from my balcony. It really is stunning. It brought back fond memories of my trip to Japan!
Anyway, seeing all these signs of spring inspired me to focus first on planting out my balcony– my reasoning being that the sooner I got it all done, the more time I would have to enjoy it. I get a lot of pleasure out of this because I like trying to grow plants, and this is something I don’t get the chance to do when I’m in Egypt. It’s just too hot and sandy over there for any kind of pot plant to survive.
Oerlikon has a market on Saturday mornings – it sells mostly fruit and veg, but there are also a number of stalls selling cut flowers as well as plants for the garden or balcony. It seemed that many people had the same idea as me, though. On two occasions, I’d just made up my mind which plant I wanted to buy only to find that the last one had just been sold to someone else. This is Switzerland for you – they are always shopping early, and you can’t afford to dither.
I’d forgotten that one of the supermarkets also held a garden section outside during the spring and summer, so on spotting it I went there after the market had closed. All in all, I spent two Saturdays doing this and several journeys back and forth to carry the plants, containers, and soil.
Of course, just one week after I’d planted it all out nicely, the temperature plummeted and we had three days of snow! It’s like this every year – you think that winter is over, and then it hits you with one final surprise burst. In a way, it was quite nice to get the opportunity to see some snow. Some of the plants now look a bit sad, but I think they will recover.
I am hoping that Sechselaeuten (Monday 24th April) will mark the end of winter. This is a festival in Zurich (the afternoon is a public holiday) where they burn an effigy of a snowman (called the “Boeoeg”) on a pyre. The sooner the snowman’s head explodes, the better the forthcoming summer is supposed to be. Apparently there have been some controversies over the definition of the head exploding – if only I could have done my philosophy dissertation on that! Anyway, I’m hoping for a quick explosion of the snowman and a good summer this year.
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