Wallenstein Gardens.

A spring walk in the gardens with the family.

My mum.

My sister and her baby.

Mr. Antimultivitamin, my sister’s boyfriend.

See the face there?

A white peacock.

I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen magnolias. I forgot how utterly stunning they were.

There were some giant fishes in there.

Reflections. Love them.

More magnolias.

I’m not sure what she saw in there, but it must have been intriguing.

I’m pretty sure she wanted to go fishing.

But then she gave it up and just posed for more pictures.

I’ve always liked how colourful peacocks are.

Eda.

I think it’s time you met the youngest & cutest member of this family.

Her name is Eda. [edʌ]

She’s got the greatest ears ever.

She can ride a tram like a pro.

She can pose.

And she’s just the cutest puppy in the whole wide world. ♥

The time of lilacs is upon us.

If you know me at all, you knew that this post has been a long time coming.

My favourite flowers. ♥

Yet another food post.

In April, I had lavender & pink pepper chocolate for the first time ever. It was really good.

Guacamole dip, veggies and M&S nachos.

Carrots, kohlrabi & celery sticks. Healthy & delicious – win/win.

I tried the Spiced Passionata at Costa. I love all things spicy and this really hit the spot.

Nibbles!

Eggs, sausages, portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon and a spot of brown sauce. It doesn’t get any better than that.

And some of my current M&S favourites.

Pork & Bramley Apple Sausages. Try them — because you can actually taste the apples and they’re delicious.

Farmhouse paté. We don’t really eat paté but this one was gone within 24 hours of buying it.

Oh and kippers! I love me some kippers.

Kippers with a raw carrot & fennel salad.

10th April – 1st May.

April 10th

Linden tree.

April 17th

Golden chain

Linden tree

April 24th

Golden chain

Linden tree

Really? That’s all you did in a week, tree? How disappointing.

May 1st

Linden tree

Well that’s much better.

+ bonus lilacs

I check on them every day now. It won’t be long. They’re my favourite flowers and I can’t wait to have them everywhere in the house. I wish they would last longer.

It has begun.

There’s this cherry tree in a car park near here. I can never get enough of it in the spring.

I love sunny mornings.

There are some leaves on the old chestnut tree as well now.

Tiny local market.

There was an organic & farmer’s market here on Saturday morning. It only happens twice a year here (ugh) and this spring I could finally go. There were only about 20 stalls there but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. And they had some really interesting stuff; we bought a surprising amount of things for that small of a market.

Fresh garlic. I really love the smell and taste.

Mead. Haven’t had that for years!

Honey products. They had some interesting cremes and tinctures there.

This is what we call a busy square around here.

Spices.

Mmm, baked goods.

Fingers crossed for better weather next time!

Mixit.

I do love it when there’s some deliciousness in the post. This time it was two muesli mixes and an absolutely scrumptious rice pudding with red berries and an assortment of nuts and dried fruits. We get this stuff from Mixit (unfortunately, there isn’t an English version of the website). However, they offer a rather generous variety of muesli mixes and what’s more, a large variety of ingredients which you can use to make your own, customised muesli mix! I have to say I rather love this feature.

A handful of my customised muesli mix.

They also have some new chocolate bars so we decided to try one of them. This is a bar of of chilli con pecan chocolate (dark + white chocolate with a spot of chilli and and orange). It is, of course, heavenly.

It doesn’t really look like spring yet.

This was a foggy Wednesday morning at about 6am. April 10th. Looks more like November, doesn’t it?

This is my favourite linden tree. No leaves yet. But next week is actually supposed to be quite warm so maybe there’s still hope.

Everything is still very grey and bare.

And, just to make a point: this is April 11th, 2011.

Easter 2013.

This year’s Easter was even more bland than it usually is. It was cold and dark and there was a lot of snow. Neither me nor my little sister felt like doing many Eastery things. It didn’t feel like spring at all. We watched a lot of Harry Potter and kept taking photos of that bloody awful weather.

How very December of you, March!