At the start of this year I ambitiously declared that I have found a magical way to slow down the time.

Yet 2017 has simply been ramming itself like a charging bull on steroid, and I’m at loss once again on how to make the time stop. With a blink of an eye, it is already March. The weather got a lot warmer, the daylight stayed for a couple of minutes longer each day, and flowers start to blossom; spring is just around the corner.

It is strange to think that just a couple of weeks ago I was trying to ease back into the chilly weather in London, having spent December and January back home in the tropics. And on one of the coldest days of February, we visited the Hackney City Farm.

Being surrounded by friends who grew up close to the nature, I have often behaved like an ignorant city girl in comparison. I remember asking someone, to both his bemusement and amusement, whether the flowers on the flowerbed we walked past were real (they clearly were).

Don’t get me wrong; I love the nature. I really do (except for those crawling insects that come with the nature in the tropics, and maybe snakes. And a couple more weird looking animals). And I have a weakness for cows – I think they are one of the cutest creatures alive. I am just never exposed to them very much.

So imagine my excitement when my friend told me about Hackney City Farm, which was set up for people like me: so I don’t have to drive (not that I can) for hours to see cows and horses and donkeys, and I get to immerse myself in the earthy smell of manure right at the heart of the city.

We agreed to meet right around lunch time so our first stop was brunch at Cafe Frizzante, which was located inside the complex. It being located inside the farm added a nice touch to the location.

It sounds barbaric now that I think about it, but the first animals that we encountered at the farm were this.

Although the food in the cafe does not come directly from the farm (this made me feel slightly better), they try to source all their ingredients from various local and smaller suppliers. The garden cafe has a lively atmosphere and is generally filled with families bringing their kids for an educational day out at the farm.

The food there was delicious and fresh, which explains why the cafe gets really packed in the weekend, and we counted ourselves lucky for being able to secure a table right away.

After brunch, we decided to wander around and check out the farm.

To my utter disappointment, there were no cows. But I got to meet their other equally adorable friends.

By the end of it, I completely forgot the glaring absence of the cows. And I certainly wasn’t the only one being overly excited about seeing farm animals.

It was not the kind of weekend that I would expect living in a city like London. And I absolutely loved it.

If you want to read a blogpost on Hackney City Farm in German, check out my friend Carolina’s page.