The first casualty

After three cloudy days, the sun came out and shone brightly. The sky was clear blue and there was not a dark cloud in sight. In other words, it was a great day to be at the garden. It has been a week since we planted the main crop. Pete and I have been dropping by the garden when we took our walks during fine weather. The seeds that we sowed haven't shown any signs of growth yet, the seedlings that we planted have been surviving and the weeds have kept out.

But today, when I caught the first glimpse of the garden, I could see weeds invading the vegetable beds. Also, dandelions have sprouted all over the garden. Not a good sign. That usually meant I would have my work cut out and that I would be spending a fair bit of time on my knees as I pull out these pesky invaders.

Then, as I inspected my pumpkin patch, I discovered one plant missing! My mother-in-law, who usually comes with us on Sundays, told us that one day when she was at her garden, she saw one of the plants dug out and tossed aside. She believed that a rabbit had dug it out and gnawed at it. She tried to plant it back again but the roots must been too damaged so it didn't survive.

Rabbits! Another unwelcome invader of our garden. I know that they would come into the garden. They've left behind lots of poo all over and I noticed that they have been nibbling on the wild chive plants that I have at the corner of the garden. I think they've been eating my lavender too. The lavender plants should be nice and tall by now. Instead they are stunted and still so small.

We have had some problems with the rabbits last year. They ate some of the pea shoots and the peas themselves. But they hadn't given us too much problems then. This year, I feel like they could be more brazen. There are more rabbit pellets this time and they have been attacking more of our plants - and they haven't even really started growing yet.

Also, our neighbor last week went over to our side to patch up some holes in his fence. He also wanted to prevent the rabbits from getting into his garden. Pete and I have planned to build a better fence with a snug gate and covered with chicken wire but we haven't managed to start yet. Looks like we would need to hurry and get this done as soon as we could before more of our plants get ruined.

my pumpkin patch

a close up of a healthy pumpkin seedling when not attacked by rabbits

Yay for spring!

Spring is here to stay. After a long and cold winter, the weather has been kinder to us. For more than a week, it has been relatively sunny and warm and the days have been getting longer as well. The sun rises at around 5am and will not set before 8pm. Because of that, there have been more activity outdoors. More kids are out playing at the playground, playing football and rollerblading along the bicycle path. More people are also cycling to get around the city. People have also started BBQ-ing as well. The city is alive again.

People are not the only active ones around. Nature has also come alive. The brown twigs and branches of trees and shrubs have started to be covered by fresh, green leaves. Some trees and bushes take longer to turn green. Some seemed to have grown a whole new crown of green leaves overnight. The trees outside my classroom, for example, are now so green and lush, when it was all brown just a few days ago.

Flowers have also sprung up all round the city. The common wild ones are the brilliant yellow dandelions. They have started sprouting first. I can also see daisies but they are still small and cute. Planters around the residential areas have also been filled with colorful pansies - yellow, purple and red. They are such cheerful flowers and they make me smile when I see them.

More and more birds are also up and about. It's really lovely to be woken up by the chirping birds outside the window. I can spot more species of birds now, though I haven't learnt their names yet. More cats are also venturing outdoors. I spot them as I walk to school or to the stores.

Because of the nice weather, Pete and I have started our walks again. It's a favorite time for me since its a time for us to chat, enjoy the scenery and have our exercise at the same time. I would put on my jacket when I start but halfway through the walk, I would have to take it off since I would get warm. Even when it's not sunny like today, we would work up a sweat. It's rather nice to feel a bit of heat and to sweat again. It's back to twice daily showers for us and best of all, no need for body lotion since my skin is not dry anymore.

I love spring!

Year One

It's been a full year since I've made the huge step of moving here. I left behind my loving family, wonderful friends, loyal cats, rewarding job and a peaceful home to join my husband here, where I start with nothing. I have to learn a whole new language, adapt to the culture and literally find my bearings here.

Was it easy? I have to say "Yes" and "No". The first few weeks I took it easy. I left everything to Pete. He brought me around. I simply followed, opening my eyes wide to take in everything - the people, the places, the culture. Observing. That was the easy part. What made it easy was Pete. We are so lucky that we both speak a common language ( English, of course) very well and so it was easy to understand each other. He was always with me, explaining in detail every question that I had.

Also, since we established our relationship while we both were 9,000km apart for most of the time, being able to finally live together was wonderful. We stayed close to each other all the time and we held hands everywhere we go. We still do, so I guess the honeymoon period is still not over for us.

But after awhile, it started getting harder for me. From sharing a home with my parents, siblings and cats, I now share it with just one other person. The quiet was a bit hard to adjust to. I only have him to talk to when previously I would chat with my sister, be nagged at by my mum and fend off some attention seeking cats. But on the up side, the remote's all mine! I can watch whatever I wanted but the problem is the programs are all different. I missed all my food shows and they kept showing reruns of programs from way back in 2005. I missed MY cable tv!

I would listen to the radio in the kitchen as I cook. That's another big difference. Pete helped me set it to the Gold channel. Just like back home, they would play the oldies from the 60s - 90s. However, again here, they kept playing the same songs several times a day! I miss the radio channels back home.

Apart from having to adjust to this country, I also had an added stress - adjusting to married life. We had to adjust to living together. Just as how I had to adjust to living with just one other person, Pete had to adjust to sharing his apartment with me. He has been living alone for many years so it wasn't easy for him either. It was a bit rough in the beginning, but we have a lot of respect, patience and understanding for each other, not to mention that we love each other to bits. Whenever we faced issues, we would talk about them calmly. Sometimes we would talk about it over a couple of days until we finally work things out. That makes us understand and love each other even more.

Also, back home, I have lots of friends and I would hang out with them very often. Sometimes we would hang out until late, even. Ad no matter which of my friends I hang out with, we would have a lot of laughs. I'm not saying that Pete isn't fun. On the contrary. We share the same kind of humor and we would make each other laugh all the time. But it's not the same here since it's costly to go out to eat or watch movies. Pete is also the kind of guy who is happier staying at home than being out and he hates crowd. He does bring me out sometimes so that's fun but I have become more used to staying home now. It's fine by me since it is very comfortable at home. The weather outside could be too cold.

The weather! Another thing to adjust to. It was spring when I first moved here. I found it a bit chilly sometimes but I enjoyed spring and summer immensely. I also enjoyed the fall since I got to layer my clothes. Winter was awesome when it snowed but when the low temperatures felt like it was going on and on and I kept falling sick, I wished for the warmer weather back home.

On the whole though, it hasn't been too bad. Sometimes I would have bouts of homesickness. Then, I would either chat with my family or friends or just send them messages. I also enjoy meeting up with Pete's sisters and friends so we have been relatively social here. I also enjoy learning Swedish. My eyes light up when I learn new words and I feel a sense of satisfaction whenever I speak proper Swedish and am understood. That always surprises me since I think my accent prevents people of understanding me.

All in all, it has been a great first year. As I sit here and think about what I had gone through, I think about what was it that made me do it. How could I have simply left my old life? What was I thinking? Well, for me, the answer is simple - nothing. Just as how I worked out in the gym for hours everyday when I wanted to lose weight, or how I would wake up at 4am every weekend to train for a marathon. I would not think about it because the more I think, the more the doubts would creep in. I didn't allow the what-ifs to sneak into my head. After I decided that this would be the best thing for me, I summoned every ounce of courage I had and said goodbye to my old life.

Courage and faith. I had faith that things would be ok. And they are. I love it here and best of all, I am loved here too.

Ayam Masak Lemak - the smell of home

Whenever I start to feel like I'm missing my home and family, I would cook something that my mum would cook for us, something traditionally Malay. I had a whole chicken, fresh chillies and a can of coconut milk so I decided to make something that the whole family loves - my mum's ayam masak lemak. It's chicken cooked in a spicy coconut gravy. We have some fussy eaters in the family but everybody loves this.

It's a very simple recipe but the result is a very delicious dish that goes so well with freshly cooked rice. The first step to making this dish is frying the chicken pieces. While the chicken, which had been marinated with turmeric powder and salt, were frying, the smell was heavenly and it really took me back home. That's the smell of my kitchen whenever my mum cooked for us. My mum is such a great cook and whenever we smell chicken being fried, that meant that we were going to be in for a treat.

That smell also reminded me of all the times my mum got me to help her fry chicken while she prepared the rest of the ingredients or finished cooking other dishes. Funny how I didn't think to learn the recipes while she was cooking. All I knew was my usual tasks of frying the chicken or cutting up vegetables or something menial like that. Now that I'm away from home, I always have to rely on calling her to ask her for her recipes.

That reminds me too, of the time I asked for one of her recipes and the recipe I got was "$0.50 of cumin, $0.50 of coriander..." She's so cute! But I guess that's how it is with the older, experienced cooks. They don't really measure ingredients accurately. They go by feel and straight-forward eyeballing. Such experts.

But her recipes work for me, though I might have to adjust the quantities a bit. I'm only cooking for two while my mum is used to cooking big batches to feed all of us at home. Anyway, this recipe is quite foolproof, I think. I'll share the recipe here both as a way for me to remember it and also for some of my foodie friends to give it a go. Do try this. When the rice was cooking and the gravy was gently bubbling away, the smell in the kitchen was divine. It drew Pete into the kitchen several times to check on the dish, just as how my siblings and I would sneak into the kitchen to nick pieces of the chicken before the dish was done. We both couldn't wait to tuck in and with clean, empty plates after, you can bet it was a good dish.

Ayam Masak Lemak

1 whole chicken cut into 8 pieces
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
Oil for deep frying

Marinate the chicken pieces in the turmeric powder and salt and fry them in batches just until the skin browns a bit and the chicken is half-cooked.

5 - 8 fresh red chillies
1 large onion
3 large cloves of garlic
3 tbsp oil
1 lemongrass
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 big can of coconut milk
1 cup water
1/2 a small cabbage, cut into smaller pieces
1 chicken stock cube
Salt to taste

Blend the chillies, onion and garlic. In a pot, heat the oil and fry the chili mixture, lemongrass and the turmeric powder until the mixture is dry (about 8 mins). Add the fried chicken, coconut milk, water and cabbage. Stir well and allow the mixture to boil. Add the chicken cube. Once the chicken is fully cooked, taste the gravy and adjust the seasoning by either adding more salt or water. Serve with rice.

I added carrots to mine 

Let the planting begin!

By the time we both felt healthier, the days have gotten warmer and sunnier. Temperatures have been hovering between 8 - 15C daily and there have been more sunny than windy and cloudy days. After many many months, we finally started planting in our garden.

Last Sunday was warm and sunny and so we went to the garden with my mother-in-law. She has been putting more work into her garden. She has already started planting a week before. She planted potatoes, onions and strawberries. This time, she planted carrots and beets. We only planted potatoes, onions and carrots. I was supposed to plant the first batch of seedlings but they died so I have to wait maybe one or two more weeks before the next batch is ready for transplanting.

We have already plotted out our potato, carrot and onion beds. Pete helped to dig out deep trenches for the potatoes while I worked on a row of carrots next to him. After planting the carrot seeds, I carefully placed the potatoes into the trenches and filled them up with soil. At the same time, Pete planted the onions. The beds are side by side and they are quite close together, so we kept on stepping on the newly planted beds by accident. It was then that I knew I had to put some markers on the ground so we know where the beds are and what were planted.

After all the planting, I looked around the garden and found that the strawberries I planted last year have survived. I thought I lost them since they looked so dead at the end of last summer. Luckily I didn't pull them out to throw them out. When I checked them out, the leaves looked healthy and green. My mother-in-law had lots of wild strawberries in her plot. The previous owner grew lots of them and the garden was overtaken by the hardy plants. She dug up some and gave them to me so I could plant them in my garden. I planted them next to the existing plants.

Again, the strawberry bed looks inconspicuous so I made a mental note to remember to either buy or make markers for the plants. We both, again, accidentally kept on stepping on the strawberry bed. I better remember the markers or there'll be no plants left after we stomp all over them!

Yesterday was a holiday and it was another great day to be at the garden. In the morning, I made sure I have the markers ready. Instead of buying them, I made my own using bamboo sticks and washi tape that I use in scrap booking. I also used a label machine since I don't have water-proof markers.

When Pete and I got to the garden, we used garden string and bamboo sticks to mark out the individual vegetable beds. Then I stuck the markers into the ground. The garden looks better now and it made it easier to find our way around the beds.

When I was about to mark out the strawberry bed, I found two healthy looking rhubarb leaves peeking out from the ground. Again, I thought I lost them! I planted them last year but they didn't look like they were growing well and shriveled up. But they proved me wrong. Wonderful! I planted another rhubarb plant at another location but it has been buried under the compost heap. Hopefully we would find another pleasant surprise after we've cleared the compost off it.

'morot' is Swedish for carrots...no points for guessing what 'potatis' mean

Second batch

Since my first batch of seedlings died on me, I started again last Sunday. I still have lots of toilet rolls left and so I made more pots. I planted more cabbage and broccoli seeds. I didn't plant cucumber seeds in these pots. In the first batch, the cucumbers were the only ones that didn't grow seedlings at all, so this time I planted some in proper plastic pots.

I put them on a tray and placed the tray in a clear plastic bag. I poked small holes and then tied the bag up. It is to be a sort of a mini greenhouse. I left them in the balcony but then I moved them into a dark, warm corner in the living room. My seedlings in the first batch had thin, spindly stems and my mother-in-law said it could be because I put them in the sun. That made them grow towards the sun and made them grow long but thin. So let's see if this works better.

I haven't actually lost all of my seedlings. I planted some pumpkin and butternut squash seeds in a cardboard container. The container used to hold tomato purée which I emptied and washed. They were bigger than the toilet roll pots and I figured would fit the bigger seeds better. It took a long while before I found any sign of growth there. Day by day, I would peek into the plastic bag to see if anything was happening. I even opened up the bag to check but...nothing.

Last week, though, I thought I found something green in the soil and true enough, when I opened the bag, I found two strong leaves finding their way out of the soil. I planted two varieties of pumpkin but only one had seedlings. I thought the other one wasn't going to grow but a few days later, I found seedlings there as well. The butternut squash seeds haven't grown yet. They might grow, or not. So a few days ago, I planted more seeds. Just in case. We'll see how this batch will turn out.

Sick of being sick

I haven't quit this blog. The main reason I haven't been writing much here is because I have been rather under the weather these past two weeks. Pete and I have been falling ill these last couple of weeks. Actually we have been taking turns to get sick. When one of us fell ill, the other would be ok at first but will succumb to the same illness within a couple of days.

That was what happened two weeks ago. Pete was very ill with fever, clogged nose, sore throat - all the symptoms of a very bad cold. I thought I would be ok since we have been eating healthily and exercising regularly, but I fell sick as well. This time, I felt really, really horrible. I felt like cutting off my head or just my nose. Both my nostrils were clogged and it was so difficult to breathe. It was impossible to sleep so I was sleep deprived as well. So it wasn't surprising that I had terrible headaches.

I think we took two weeks to feel good enough to get back into our daily routine. I didn't go to school nor did I do any reading or studying. I also didn't really take care of my seedlings. I left them in the balcony and maybe it was too cold for them and they started to wither. By the time I remembered about them and tried to save them, they were gone.

I don't know why I have been getting colds very often. I wasn't sick at all during winter but the last two months, Pete and I have not been in the best of health. Maybe my body needs to adjust to the weather here. These last few weeks, the weather has been quite unpredictable. It could be a chilly 3C in the morning as I walk to school and then when school is over in the afternoon, it could be a sunny and warm 15C. Maybe the fluctuations in the temperature makes it easier for me to get sick. Pete is also puzzled that he has been sick quite often this year. Maybe he's been getting sick because of me.

Anyway, I hope the weather will be better soon. We really don't want to fall ill again. Both of us have quite important stuff to do ahead of us and we would like to be as alert and healthy as we can be.