Another obsession I’ve picked up recently is gardening. And since we don’t have a garden per-se, we’re using our balcony as the gardening playground. In the photos, you can see the making of a self-watering container for our balcony, which will allow us to leave for the weekend (or for 2 weeks) without worrying too much about our lettuce and herbs.

https://picasaweb.google.com/stauciuc/OurSelfWateringPotsMakingOf?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Ingredients and tools used: 2 long plastic pots, 2 empty cans of beer, one pair of old boxer shorts, one 0.5L plastic bottle, one throw-away plastic pot, knife, candle. Oh, and then soil, home-made compost, and seeds, of course.

I never could have imagined five years ago that I would one day be crazy for picking mushrooms…and yet it happened. I don’t know if it was our godparents, or my obsession with sustainable living, or simply forest being so…everywhere in Finland, but the fact is, mushroom picking has become one of my 2-3 recent obsessions. As Lore might testify, I’m not able to have a normal walk through the forest anymore, without having my eyes slip in all directions looking for them.
They’re just like drugs, you see: you find one, and you get all happy and excited; but then you want to find more, and you get anxious if you don’t find any for a while; and then you find again, and again, and in the end you have some real trouble leaving the forest.
…This and the last weekend I got a pretty good fix. The hapero was good, the tatti was good, but by far the best part was the kantarelli.This yellow-orange guy has a great taste, virtually no inhabitants, is easy to store and is a pleasure to find. And find I did!