self portrait III

i have done these feet photos before, here (it's not only my feet, thea's and some other people too). for some reason i love to take photos of my feet. not any particular reason. it's a fun perspective of myself. looking down at my feet. it strikes me every time, the cloths i wear and then the bareness of the toes...
just so, a bit of me!

2 hours :: "barfussweg"

walking the "barfussweg" around the nollen was our saturday afternoon doing.
we walked away from the house in a thick fogs with the hope that the sun will come out and burn away all of the mist in the air. it did as you might be able to tell from the photos taken. lots of fun was the word on the "weg". starting out with the glockenhaus was wonderful, where else do you get to ring so many bells and i love that ringing the sound as it travels all across the fields and through the apple orchards. hearing it and not seeing it, as the fog was still thick.

of course some of us could not withstand warming up their feet in fresh cow paties... it really didn't need a strong teas for naomi to step right into it and of course the teaser had to follow! ha!

walking through the wet grass, and some especially constructed paths with all kinds of materials, like cork, glass, small and large pebbles, wooden planks and much more. wrestling on a soft wood chips pit was fun too and then the high light, walking through a mud pit.... lots of fun and no one slipped. yea!

the foot washing station was fun too, cleaning once own feet and helping the others in one way or the other...
such little adventures are wonderful, this one will carry me through this week, as fall vacation approaches quickly. the kids too are so ready again to have two weeks off. there are plans in the making for a bit of traveling. i'm looking forward to it and the fact that we hope to go south for a week is particularly promising.

my feet

i'm trying to get a few photos of myself. starting with my feet...


we will be out of town for a few days, taking a trip to visit friends in the catskill's of up state new york! it will be hot up there as much as it has been in the city by the sea. though we will enjoy visiting this community of friends which we have not seen for over one year. and the landscape is so nourishing and wonderful to just sit and enjoy. i will let you know how much we loved it once more, when we are back.

taking a hike together

it is not that often that we all together head out on a sunny cold afternoon for a hike. but if we do, we enjoy it. frequently the discussion get's started by joel, the boys are in disagreement about joel's idea, the discussion goes on and together we try to figure out how to make it work for each family member.
most often, those conversations gulp up their time and at the end we find our self's very close to the initial idea...
though that's ok, it makes us all feel like we had "the say" (at least i live in that illusion) and as soon as we leave the house behind us and climb up into the woods or hop on the train to bring us a bit farther out into the country side, we do well together.


of course there are more discussions on which path, or much more which "not path" to take. this time elias got the compass and a whistle in his pocket and navigated around us... it was a lot of fun to see him disappear and hide, as he ran up steep and hard to travel terrain under his feet.


the rest of us mostly stayed on track and i really enjoyed the pattern of shadows and sunshine in the woods.


discoveries are an important part of such hikes. this time it was a high seat, the hunters will be using such seats, they are about 25 feet or so up in the air, accessible by a ladder. not to hunt, but to count animals, wild boars, foxes, deer etc.




after the first half hour of not seeing elias he showed up with this very cool branch, which had to be carried up a steep snow covered mound and unloaded by a tree...


such sights are rewarding. what a silhouette.
of course a big choir of angels was being made into the untouched snow, and they had to sing a few songs too...
(yes we all sang out loud and loved to soak in the warming sunshine)


on the other side down the hill.
they called it "fuedli-schlittle" (literally bumm-sledding)
lots of laughter, lots of joking and lots of snow all over and lots of happiness coming home to a cup of hot cider with whipped creme and caramel sauce!

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a moment or two

a moment of peace and stillness.
i do treasure those minutes after lunch, when all the kids are in their rooms. with a cup of tea and my feet up, next to the radiator. a few rays of the early afternoon sun lighten up the space around me. i'm even able to read a few words and meditate on them...
and it is still quiet around me, wow!

a bit later an other "noise" got me up, on my feet!"

Sin City, here we come!

After being pampered at the Page RV park (fast WiFi, indoor pool & spa), we were in for a contrast when we camped at Lake Powell's Lone Rock area: Pay ten bucks and park anywhere you like on the beach. Turned out that our spot was preferred by tons of German speakers. At least three neighbors on the left and right were either from Germany or Austria: "Hehe, ve camped in ze German row". Some of them we had met before, others we were about to meet again. Small world. But the beach was nice: Beautiful sand (easy to get an RV stuck in it though) and a straight walk into the water. And sun, of course. Lots of sun.

The next three nights were spent at the Grand Canyon North Rim. After realizing that it was 14 miles and 6000 vertical feet to the bottom, we (E & J) scrapped plans to hike down and overnight there, and opted for a more modest hiking regimen down the North Kaibab Trail, which was very nice.

The next day brought an impromptu stop at the Pipe Springs National Monument. The night was spent at the Sandy Hollow State Park in Utah. This is one of those "recreation areas" which is basically a playground for adult gasoline-junkies: Sand buggies, ATVs, jet skis, power boats and BBQ grills. Not really enjoyable, but we made the best of it. It was really quiet at night and the stars were spectacular. Also, since it is a man-made reservoir, it has nice cliffs where one can jump off boulders into the clear water. I goaded/bullied/teased Elias into jumping off of one that was standing at least 12 feet above the water. Awesome.

On the way back to the highway we drove by a development that had all the streets, trees, parks, even cast-iron benches and old-fashioned street lights, as well as dorky anglo-phile street names such as "Abbey Road", "Canterbury Street", "Windsor Parkway" etc. The only catch? Not a single house was yet built, save for the lonely "model home" on one corner. So we decided to have a little fun and drove through it as if we were visiting someone. We even tried out our fake British accents (which Amos is getting pretty good at) and got lost a little bit. We thought of renaming the neighborhood "The Stock Market Downs" or the "Recession Estates" or putting a $1 bid on a lot.

Anyway, our next target was Las Vegas, but before we got there, we visited the "Lost City" State Museum for yet more Anasazi history and archaeology, and drove through the "Valley Of Fire" State Park. Pretty.

Vegas is Vegas. Ah well. Exciting for an evening or two, and then we want to move to saner territory again. Yesterday we toured the "Circus Circus" complex, stumbled into the Adventure Dome, and each of the kids got to blow a quarter on a mindless game of chance. I hope they got the point. Today we're hounding again for FREE thrills such as the MGM Grand's lion habitat. More on that later. Perhaps with pics, but don't hold your breath. WiFi is atrociously sluggish again.

courageous

elias has been sailing all of july, he loved it and learned a lot. ton's of knots, lot's of words i don't understand...
it has become his summer life, being on a j22, being on the water. he could not stand to have dry feet anymore, and so he dangled his feet in the sea (of course with the shoes on, as he was not allowed to take them off). thank you staff of courageous sailing, you do such a great job in teaching the kids life skills, as well as sailing.

enjoying::lots of water

the rheinfalls are the largest plain waterfalls in europe and it took us just a 40 minutes train ride to get there.
it is a wonderful place, just above the falls is the castle "schloss laufen" where we started our tour.




a short walk along the banks of the rhein was a good spot to swim or just dangle the feet a bit in the cool water. the weather was hot (37 Celsius) and the cool water was just so inviting that we could not resist. the boys and joel jumped from the bridge. first it took them a moment to go but after the first time, they were just jumping one time after another.

in the vineyard

 

last saturday as we visited my parents, we also did a quick work trip into the local vineyard. my dad had to install a new wire in order for the nets to be pulled over the vines later in the summer. it was the kick off of summer weather, o such wonderful sunshine and warmth, bare feet and the smell of fresh cut grass in the air we walked the quick way over and did our work. once more i realized how much i love the work with my hands outdoors!
maybe one day i will be a farming girl again, it's back there in my head...

sometime i'm glad to have taken the camera along, this time it definitely was fun. o that hand of my father, it has to tell many stories, working all their life and still going on. every day lots of cows have been milked, apples picked, insects inspected and bugs plucked from potato plants, held many times our little hands, taken us along on walks around the farmland.
it's good to see through the lens, many times i started to ponder, looking at pictures taken. a good thing, this time too, wonderful memories and a wee bit more understanding my dear father.

treading the good earth

it has been saturday afternoon and evening, when joel and i were bringing the good earth from the driveway around the house to the chicken pasture to be. we both got blisters on our palms and saturday afternoon was hot, there was lots of sweating going on. but it is done now, about 50 wheel barrows have been dumped on the empty patch of not really any thing yet. we didn't get to spread it out evenly or smoothen it yet, that will have to wait until a moment can be stolen away to do so. and then the grass seed, everything should be out before the cold hits, in order for the seed to germinate before winter hits...

the fun part was on sunday afternoon, when i noticed that the girls spent long moments to tread around in that uneven patch, they both loved the feel of the cool soil and could not be stopped to feel the good earth. it was then as it dawned on me, that good earh must feel great is somehow soothing and fun to walk on. of course then i also remembered how much i liked to run up and down the field, when my dad plowed and dug up the harvested fields. finding all kinds of lively beings crawling and looking to dig down again into the dark. in autumn when the the plow went through, the steam was rising from the warm soil, as the air was already cooled down. seeing the bare feet on the fresh earth made me once more happy and thankful, for the space we do have around our house in the city. thankful for the opportunity our kids have to connect with the very earthly matter we live from.

hot coco and more cozyness

 

last saturday i had the opportunity to quickly stop by a local thrift store. i still don't know why it took me two years to discover the place... very well organized and a neat kept place. not to expensive missing the really old stuff. never the less i found some moca cups with saucers and they had to be put to use over the weekend...

yummy hot coco was made from scratch, a dash of nutmeg, a dash of cinnamon, a dash of clover powder was added to the coco powder, honey and milkd. well the result was a cozy afternoon with cute cups filled with the so very yummy warm brown drink.

as we sat and played games and talked and enjoyed each other, of course there had some stories to be read. as well as some stitches knit on a new pair of socks for my very own feet.

and the fire had to be observed and loved and and tended. all this made for a lovely sunday afternoon and evening. those moments are good and keep me going through the rougher ones we definitely also have in our days.

at the water

we did not have big plans for yesterday's afternoon. take it as it evolves and so we ended up planning a little trip to the river toess. not far from our house, just about a 20 minute bike ride over across the little crest and down to the river bend. upon planning friends called and also joined us, this has turned out super nice. the kids loved the idea of having a few more hands to help with the digging and swimming. the shovels and pick ax was a fun plus, not to get sore finger tips while rerouting some of the water and reshaping a little island. naomi our water lover was in the water before i even could dip my feet!
and o my, was that water cold, she and her friends didn't mind...

i had to take my little summer project along, the "hexagon english paper piecing". i really enjoy it more and more and bringing it along, to sit out in the sunshine at the river was perfect. my hands where busy while i was enjoying a wonderful time with a our friends. thank d

what i love now

there are some thing's closely related to springtime, which i love and treasure right now. and other things don't depend so much on seasons, but i still love and enjoy them. also am i trying to focus a bit more on the bright side of life... and spring is a good season to get started with this undertaking.
i realized a while ago, that i often don't do justice to the kids request of wanting to talk or explain something to me. i often peck on the folks around me, if they don't do their chores on time or to my liking, what ever it is, i really want to change this attitude and be more encouraging and supporting of others. lets see, here is a start:


::the first blossoms in and around the house
::the strong spring sun


::started a new knitting project, "three sisters scarfs"
::sewing one more table runner
::watching thea ride her like a bike around the house


::listening to amos playing boogie on the piano
::enjoying a cup of tea with feet up
::having a good evening with joel practicing on the bass


::working on some forest contributions to "forest, for the trees"
:: tutoring my neighbors daughter with her english

the pink in all of them

it was one more perfect early november day, or shall i say warm autumn day, as november is usually a bit cooler as today was.
thea had violin lesson and we headed out without coats, just a little shawl around the neck did it. she even felt hot!, still sandals on her feet, though i was wearing closed shoes. the afternoon sun is still strong and the light perfectly warm and so gentle. we had great fun to play with our own shadows mid afternoon and carrying a bouquet to my friends house, as she celebrated her birthday.

when i flipped through my photos of today, i noticed the pink link in all of them, funny, it didn't oqure to me at the time i held the camera in my hand...