If you see those garbage loads after Whitsunday, you know that we had a nice weather situation over the weekend and that people enjoyed their pizzas in the park over the long weekend. I often think that a deposit a couple of Euros should be introduced on pizza packings and that pizza shop should be forced to take them back and recycle them. It should not be the case that this kind of dirt should be removed by society. On the other hand there are a lot of bottles bought with a deposit in this heap of garbage, the buyers do not seem to care.

But there was something exciting about this morning as well: the clematis has open her blossoms the first time this year.

During my wonderful long weekend in Berlin there was a mixed type of weather, so to speak. Hours of sunshine took their turn with heavy rains. The sunsets in these weather conditions to me are much more interesting than in a pure high pressure situation, the light colours of the sun form a beautiful contrast with tose of the dark clouds. And of course with those of the roses in the largest tub on our roof terrace.

There are a lot of opportunities to sit on the terrace and to enjoy the sun. But there are disturbances, especially the cries: “It is raining the seat covers have to get inside!” On these occasions the seats which just have been made comfortable have to be freed of their covers to protect them from the rain (even when I thought that they were weather-proof, but my beloved wife states that they are not). And when the sun shines again I hear “Beloved one, could you please take out the covers again?”

Our cats do love the rain breaks.

Just recently our tomcat Linus was gone, now it is the turn of our flora. This weekend our oleander disappeared from its hibernating spot on the landing.

But of course stealing is out of the question. Probably a neighbour took the plant as he thought that it was put there to be disposed of, thereby misunderstanding the situation.

The terrace season has begun about 3 weeks ago, during our Toronto trip the plants have grown strongly. And the weather had been such that sitting outside in April was quite feasible.

And BBQing has started as well!

Now, after start of daylight saving time, spring may come. All plants are on the terrace (apart from the oleander, which will be brought outside after Canada at the earliest as it is quite delicate). You might discover some blossoms already and today our new terrace table has been delivered, which I am only able to photograph next weekend unfortunately. Of course I will put up the image as soon as possible. Now it only depends upon the weather if we will be able to start BBQing officially (for one of the jour fixes on Thursday Hanna did some sausages already as far as I know). Hanna’s climate killer is ready in any case.

Cat content in the image below is just by chance, by the way. Spot the Cat!

While my beloved one was in Toulouse, I hung up three baskets with bulbs and hibernated plants on our roof terrace. Our neighbours across the courtyard were out in the sun as well, hooray, the open air season will start soon.

Roses, clematis, wine, the Chinese lantern and the dipladenia are outside already as well, the bulbs that started to grow in autumn turned out to be irises and are already blooming quite beautifully. If I were able to photograph I would add an image as well. Soon Karsten will finish the gas heater on the terrace and the the only thing blocking the first hours on the roof is the ruin of a table, as we did not manage to get a new one.

By the way, here is a good tip against the greenfly: let 5 bags of peppermint tea brew in a pint of water and then sprinkle the roses with it… my greenflies fled immediately. I hope they stay where they are now, if not the procedure will be repeated in 3 days. This was a recommendation from the flower shop. And, oh yes, one now may start to apply fertiliser to the roses.