I fully agree and hope I didn't give you the impression, I did vote for either of the two parties in the current coalition? Obviously i didn't, I'm neither rich nor old. Nor am I "center right", what ever that means in a time where conservatives constantly try to imitate actual fascists. I'm used to not be a part of the represented electorate but what gets to me this time is the blatant corruption and ignorance. At least back in the day conservatives got a little creative and tried to make it look like they acted in the best interest of their voters. These days they can get away with anything so they stopped giving even the slightest fuck...

I don't have the words to express how sorry and how embarrassed I am to be represented by these absolute moose turds of backwards oriented, fossil fuel powered, reckless, power-hungry, greedy and lobbied-into-oblivion band of corrupt bootlickers. Just never forget, that most Germans that I know would love to have the true North closer by our side while the world goes apeshit.

Ah ok. Makes sense, thx.

Briefly flew over it, was in a hurry.

I'm love the idea and all but can someone eli5 why Norway - Montreal and not to somewhere in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia? Wouldn't that be just as good and quite a bit shorter/cheaper?

Great picture and great details on the little critter. However, because it has these great details and because I work with mozzies professionally, I wanted to let you know, that this is no inland floodwater mosquito (depending on where you are these are usually Aedes vexans) but quite certainly a common house mosquito from the Culex pipiens species complex or a sibling species (Cx. torrentium, Cx. quinquefasciatus). Love the photo though.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, and Ukraine for anyone wondering.

Hey friend. First of all: breathe, you'll be just fine. There's nothing pathetic about feeling overwhelmed with the state of the world right now. I've recently bought a little allotment garden myself and have some experience with balcony gardening before that. Let's break everything down to a few basic steps:

1. Look up your hardiness zones. This will give you an upper and lower threshold of the climate you're working with and determine when to do what during the season. One starting point is plant maps but once you get started, you'll find an abundance of resources. Select your crop accordingly.
2. Familiarize yourself with your soil. Depending on your plot size neither fertilizer nor compost will be an instant solution so it's best to learn to deal with what you have. Heavy soil with lots of loam may be prone to water logged conditions, sandy soils hardly keep any water at all. There are plants that can deal with either situation. Select accordingly.
3. Light and shade. Whether you have a lot of shade or full sun, there is a crop for you. Just again, select for what you have not what you wish you have.
4. Try things, buy, plant, observe, just get your feet wet. Here is a simple example from my plot: I'm in Zone 8a, have mostly heavy soil and full sun. So stuff like rhubarb, some peas, beans, marigold, horseradish and cale mostly work right away. Carrots, Tomatoes or potatoes may need some more support but this can be as simple as adding some sand to make the soil a little lighter. If something works: great, let it bloom, collect seeds, profit forever. If not ask yourself if you can easily fix it or if the crop just may not be suitable for your garden. Just relax and see where it takes you.
5. Context. Don't stress too much over fertilizer or soil improvement or all of those very expensive things. A well selected range of crops, a proper composting routine, a good source of manure, mulch and biodiversity supporting structures will ultimately bring you much further than any store-bought "quick and easy" solution. But it will take time. Look into concept like permaculture to see how you can link different parts and components of your garden. Not everything is applicable everywhere and at once but you'll get there. Just stick to it and while you let your little experiments grow, read, read and then read some more about plant selection, long term (organic) soil improvement and also preservation (you'll want to know about that as well at some point, believe me). Last note: Maybe as a starting point, to keep things neat and easy to handle, draw some inspiration from square foot gardening as it provides a very manageable, little plot with great yield. Best of luck on your journey and keep your head up.

Congrats! Cute little birb, quite surely a blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). If you can, try to disturb them as little as possible during the few week it takes for them to raise their offspring. As long as the parents are zipping in and out, they likely find enough to feed their young and don't need any additional support. Blue tits will only eat seeds and nuts as adults and mostly during the winter. The chicks need small invertebrate prey like insects and spiders. So other than offer some meal worms, there's not much you can do. Once you see the fledglings hopping around your balcony, some seeds may be fine but stick to smaller stuff like poppy and avoid the big and heavy stuff like sunflower or peanut until winter. Here's a bit more background if you speak German: https://bremen.nabu.de/tiere-und-pflanzen/voegel/voegelnhelfen/27691.html

Have grazing animals on natural meadows instead of artificially sown lawn and you'll not only have the trimming taken care of but also support a variety of plant and animal life under your panels. Sheep and bunnies for example are ideal for the job, don't you think RamRabbit :-)

This article from last November lists the first 83, not sure who the new additions are. https://earth.org/83-countries-join-call-to-end-fossil-fuels-at-cop30/

https://youtu.be/jYQ0B1exOCY