spotted these pretty flowers in a neighbour garden, and aren’t they a thing of beauty?
they’re orbea variegata, also known as star flowers. it’s a succulent with cactus-like “leaves”, but the flowers were what drew me to them — they grow around the edges of the plant in the winter rainfall season, and are just striking.
i’ve recently gotten my hands on a few specimens to plant in the garden, for further investigation… :P
lots of new birds, rain, video dinners with friends, a short caravan trip to hike around alentejo and check on our favorite coast, new succulents, lots of walking… and so much chinese studying.
a good month by all accounts, but i think this year is finally getting to me. :( slowly, tiredness settled in and it felt like my energy was barely enough to keep up with work and studying for the exam. i tried to squeeze in some walking everyday, but everything else just felt like too much.
we should be in bielefeld right now, but obviously our annual october pilgrimage to the city that doesn’t exist didn’t happen this year. i don’t remember the last time we’ve spent the last weekend of october home. i miss the long drive from the netherlands to germany and back, the autumn colors, the abendbrot & kastenpickert, the walk to the zoo, geeking out about postcards… and above all, the friends we only see once a year and always on this weekend with the extra hour.
good traditions are not meant to be broken, and i hope we can resume this one next year!
lately i’ve been making a lot of posts about the garden… sometimes it feels like the only thing interesting going on around here, since we still don’t go out all that much. so here’s another green tidbit: we have a grasshopper! it’s actually the second generation of grasshoppers we have in this particular mint vase, which they seem to be very fond of. they’re super camouflaged and i only noticed it by chance, when suspicious droppings started to appear all around the vase…
i looked up and whoa! there it was, the color just as green as the mint it had been eating!
at this stage they’re called nymphs and have not yet developed wings. they eat a lot though, and mostly stay around the plant where they were born. one day, they’ll molt, shedding their skin.
they do this a few times, becoming bigger with each molt, and finally spreading those wings! it might not be the cutest pet out there, but it’s still interesting to see it grow and change…
…even if it means we have to share the mint! :|
july was perfectly summery and nice. we spent 2 weeks of it up in braga, in my old university apartment. it felt strange to be back and i still don’t quite love the city… but some things have changed, and seeing it now as an adult also feels different. definitely an interesting experience!
this month we had lots of catching up with friends and family outside, lots of walks (trying to get some more movement in my sedentary life), tomatoes and chameleons, postcrossing’s 15th anniversary (!!!!), my brother’s new puppy…