here for you!

a new podcast and a new season of swapping

dear reading friend,

as promised I write to you as ‘hooray’, finally after a two month hiatus there is a brandnew podcast Episode 67 ‘the grief beast visit’ uploaded to my yarnchix channel with a Tarot Knit Oracle as well as an early autumn visit to my garden for the knit reportage. This season I will take you along to places that I love to go to sit and knit from time to time as a reportage series and why not start with the garden- a true happy place.

Whilst filming the reportage yesterday morning, I realised I had this long and curving love-letter about my garden awaiting to be published for a while now so that’s the deal here… I am celebrating the joy of autumn gardening on all my channels (“wenn-schon-denn-schon”= German for and whilst we are at it!) and feel so lucky, so priviledged to have a garden space to go and grow. It helps me process my mind swirls of constant busy thoughts. Giving me tasks when I feel lost, it regualtes my nervous system for me.

From a high summer garden, with many dhalias lost to the slugs this picture shows the one type that managed to survive and which was bumble bee beloved all summer through, alongside my favortie purple basil plant…

Here, sunlight floods onto my arm, hand and the back part of my garden in the background of this held bloom. This image shows off the special kind of light bouncing of the plants seen when sitting amongst the green in July. A highlight of this small plant paradise along a busy road in Berlin/Wedding. It has been the second summer of tending to this patch, after having moved garden-spaces from the other side of the hedge to here. I now have a deeper connection with my direct neighbors, after the move there was a shuffle in the group of who gardens where, and our corner crew likes to share food, share harvests & seeds, we share song, giggles and tears. I feel lucky to be in this group in general, and my patch feels safer now then ever.

To have settled in this part of the garden, amongst my friends from areas in the world full of difficult shifts, borders and politics, who also do not have an easy stand here in Germany either, considering discriminations & aggressiosn that constantly seem to become more hostile. I understand it must be important here, in our garden, and as a group to be protective of one-another, to create a safe place. And, by working alongside and letting all the plants take over we are shifting and sharing soil space… land, without borders.

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There have been climate crisis that have thrown group members into the monumental truth of earth and its shatterings. We talk about it, maybe because we realise this is a communal place where we try and make our differences already, and gardening together is our starting point. People in this group lost their dearest and pieces of home in Heimat further away when the earthquakes struck . We hold space and let the wilderness go (who cares if this year it does not work to tend to the land?), whilst they travel, try and help where they can, try and have time to learn this grief. There is respect and care and even the small gesture of listening can make a difference, or weeding and planting the home-ly seeds whilst they cannot, so to keep the grass from the patch for a bit longer. I mean, why not try and lend a hand?

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This autumn again I am struck at the beauty of the group, of hearing about their different homes here in Berlin, of places unusual and important, of living arrangements , of safety and/or freedom… of new jobs, new routines, of a medical situation and how there is help on the horizon and beyond that as a group we simply love making planting-plans. Clapping our hands for the joy of deciding, well next spring we will plant a field of corn. Her seeds from home will become the towers, my fire-beans can climb, and then in autumn we shall host a Maiskolben Fest. Bean stew can fill those who don’t munch corn. We will boil a big pan and eat the corn-on-the cob we grew together, and this time it wil be certain. The squashes stolen by someone (we do not point fingers when we dont know who)… we all get a anger sprinkling our eyes and we determine : no pumpkins next year, they just wander away… hey.

A friend starts to smile when she sees our frustration is shared, because it’s just so un-fair. Watering, weeding, caring has made us connect to a patch together. Sometimes I wonder who is taking care of what or whom. Could it simply be that our community garden is taking good care of us?!

and well, next up our common dream for chickens:

Let us see what the fox says about that.

Things to be happy about

today I joined a plant-swap event plantsswap.berlin in the Kiez Kapelle at Prinzessinnen Garten Kollektiv and though I did not understand it was house-plants swapping, I did bring seeds and managed to swap some of them with two others - connecting to a new plant party community was delightful.

On Saturday 28th September it was the worlds fastest KAL and I had so much fun knitting #tanoshitanoshi by Julia knit.dein.ernst

I made these five little button adornments and am so excited to keep this project in mind for all things stashvent. On that note;)

Stashvent 2024 opens its doors, and with the payment of a small fee of 20 Eur you can join our annual swap of count-down calendars made up from stash yarns, carefully selected and prepared for one another in our cool yanrchix podcast community.

Last year was a huge success, and it helped me immensely to learn how the registration fee makes it feel more set.

It creates a commitment to

a)make sth with love & care from stash

b) double check for moths etc and freeze/bake to ensure moth-free-ness

c) send it with recorded mail so our swapee does not have to stress/ send with good time.

In 2023 I realised it has been a mountain of communication work every year and it feels good to receive recognition through the payment. My effort/my idea being seen. Especially as every year I end up replacing lost parcels and it becomes a little nervous dance towards the end the responsibility can be big :) Thank you to my friends who then help out with extra minis, it truly is a community effort!!!!

This year I have had an idea of something as a token or thank you for joining in, so I am sending everyone a letter with a small gift to welcome them to Stashvent 2024.

I just love snail mail.

The newest patreon postcards have been sent, and that was so much fun to riso-print and write to you.

Colorama forever :)

my newly swapped avocado plant, pinga, lavande the bear (original Woollenhearted) who is slightly fallen over, and me say many hugs and hellos from our Sunday to yours. We hope you are well and that maybe the Tarot Knit Oracle card from the podcast has been as thought-provoking, grief-processing and help-full to you as it has been to me.

many hugs,

stay safe!

Love, Mimi