Hello

Hello world and welcome to A Garden Gone Wild.  

My name is Catrina.  I am a garden-food-and-adventure-a-holic.  

This is my new blog that focuses on my much loved addictions and highlights the happy parts of life like a new garden, (un)expected adventures, culinary experiments and science-related awesomeness.  

A little background:  I moved to Berlin, Germany in May of 2013.  In the summer of 2014, I decided that I needed a garden outside of Berlin, because too much time in the city was making me crazy.  I needed a place to be alone,  a place to express myself and a place to dig holes and rip out weeds to get all the aggression out from being a foreigner in the bureaucratic republic of Deutschland.  A nice plot on the edge of town in Brandenburg an der Havel ended up being the ticket.  However, life situations changed and it wasn’t really my garden (my name was not on the lease), so I am leaving her behind (with a sad, sad heart) and transplanting myself to a new garden (but not before stealing a bunch of the plants that I lovingly cared for and giving the too snarky neighbors the middle finger).

The new garden, like my life, has gone wild and needs a whole lot of work and a whole lotta love.  Luckily, I enjoy a good challenge.  The next weeks, and months and years will be spent growing into the new garden – finding a new variety of peace in a new space. As an added bonus, it is 10 minutes away from Spreewald, a UNESCO biosphere, where one can kayak, swim, be a tourist, hike and be paddled around a literal “riverforest” while enjoying pickle-flavored schnapps (it’s a local specialty, haha), so there will be plenty of opportunities for exploration.  

This transition is happening during my first time actually alone in Berlin.  Actually, this the first time that I have ever been truly alone in my life.  I had always had at least cats or someone who was a car-ride or bus-trip away, despite being in a big ole’ city, my social network is smaller than ever.  Coupled with the fact that I am pretty terrible at people, my social interactions are limited to cashiers, people yelling at me when I cross the street when the light is red and random tourists who asks for directions.  Sounds pathetic, but I am finding that it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I like my own company.  I have a lot of goals that I want to accomplish this summer and it is actually nice to have some time to reflect, something I have not done since the chaos began.

One of my main goals on this endeavor is writing more.  So, here we are at A Garden Gone Wild where I you can find recipes, garden info, tips and tricks, DIY projects, and a riveting first-hand account of my efforts to tame the new garden and figure out how to live in Germany without a German.  

I hope you will join me on this adventure and share your tales of your life adventures, too. For now, I will say thanks for stopping by and that I hope you come back soon!

Wishing You the Best,
Catrina

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