I’ve been going out to the balcony almost every day for a few months now. This is my way of easy contact with nature – because I can’t always get out of the city center and go somewhere into big nature. You have to plan it, decide a direction, prepare some water to drink at least for me and my son. Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed it’s too hard. I dream of a garden but luckily we at least have a balcony. Even two! One in the front, and one in the back.

This year I really wanted the balconies to be green and ‘wild’ like it used to be when I had more mental space for it. So I try to remember to water it, it turns out to be quite crucial. The lack of watering is the main cause of failure in the years when it was difficult for me to remember about one more thing to take care of. Now I make it easier for myself by putting an empty bowl in the sink and it fills during the day – when there is little suds in it, I use it for watering. I remember one year when the nasturtiums grew so beautifully that they covered the entire balustrade and hung down another half a floor. Pure wonder! This year I also sowed it and I really hope for a similar effect.

I hope for the insect visitors so we have a lot of meadow flowers growing here – from a few years ago and new ones this year. I’m really looking forward to them, the first ones are already starting to bloom. We also have a few bushes – a surviving Buddleia Davidus planted last year, a blackberry, a small rose from Sweden… Oh, and the lilies keep surprisingly well for several years! In spring I planted a few fresh bulbs. They look so exotic in the balcony, so different from geraniums, etc. This year I also planted pumpkins and a few sprouted – I don’t know what we’ll do when they grow bigger but oh well. I also bought a few wild strawberry bushes. In years when we only had one or two plants, my son would eat all of the fruit, but this year he even shares some with us.

Anyway, once I water the plants, I tear off some wilted flowers, sit down with a cup of tea (in the front balcony – the back one is too small to sit there) and look around. I usually look out for insects and birds, glance at the sky, the street or the tenement house opposite. It makes for a nice story – that even the concrete city center is full of life. It’s a story of the closest neighbourhood – children are walking through the puddles, someone looking for change for the parking meter, men from the garbage truck who come to collect glass containers. Sparrows have a nest under the gutter, someones’ cat walks around the opposite roof, and familiar bees come to my flowers. I think I know them, apparently wild bees usually fly for nectar near their homes. Sometimes I see a ladybird or a caterpillar, I spot a spider’s web. My son imagines that dwarves live under the pumpkins, and sometimes he builds something for them (pretending it’s their constructions). The wild strawberries are finally bearing fruit, the cornflowers have sprouted even though I thought the downpour had washed them away!, and the clover has bloomed. Life happens. Might seem small and insignificant but it’s real, too. Life from the balcony.

I made these observations into a collection of mixed-media artworks. It’s collage combined with linocut. Some are finished, I’m still working on some other, and keep some more ideas in my mind. I feel that it might be a longer project as I enjoy it so much. Take a look into my shop – some of the pieces are available there already.

I think I’ll write another post focusing a bit more on the visual part of the project but I hope you enjoyed this brisk visit in my balcony!