# 6 geburtstag

we celebrated r's 9th birthday, what a wonderful autumn afternoon. out in the sun it was georgeous! as you can see we enjoyed some wonderful hazelnut cake, fresh from the vine grapes (my parents have afew plants right in front of their house, so the kids got to cut the fruit).

yes vaccationing in switzerland with family is wonderful.

# 5 bratwuerste and fire crackers

what a wonderful afternoon! out in the woods grilling sausages and cooking chocolate bananas, it was such a perfect adventure. playing with te sticks and firecrackers....

naomi 'survived' a splash into the little brook and and the bike ride home, up the hill was fun for most uf us...

# 3 eile mit weile

das spiel der vergangenen zwei tage...

bereits vor dem fruehstueck wird gespielt und dann mit den groseltern bis in die nacht...

# 2 pigs

i discovered these pigs at my brothers farm...

# 1 waiting for boarding

finaly we arrived at logan and experienced a very smooth check in. then it's time to wait...

we are almost in the air!

almost, but not yet!
all of a sudden i found myself alone, all by myself in the kitchen this morning. it was not planned that way but i take it and enjoy the quiet before the storm.
elias is at a class with it's title "jaws and claws" at the natural history museum with his homeschool friends.
amos at the zoo with his friend a.
naomi tagged along with our neighbor to the arboretum. on such a lovely late summer day (yes it feels still like that, even though autumn officially begun two days ago!) out side is the best place.
i had to convert a rest of a big zucchini into a quick bread, it's already out of the oven now! do a quick run to hatched for a birth gift for the new nephew arriving within the next week. and of course my brothers birthday is coming up and we are even able to be at his house in switzerland! wow, it was a long time since we celebrated with him, but he will get a little something (no i'm keeping it a secret...)
o, by the way, my maternity pants are finished and done, ready to wear. i'm happy, very happy the way they turned out, simple and they do feel very nice.
so, this is enough for today, no photos i packed the download terminal already. the plan is to do a month of daily photos from our time in switzerland......
we will see if i'm able to overcome the technical hurdels, if not, o well!

taking a bath

very often the kids take their bath's with joel watching not me.....
it would just be too much for me to take photos at the end of the day with the kids going wild in the water... but joel is totally up to it, so often he is clicking away and of course there are good things happening!
two samples here!


in the mean time i'm trying to get ready for our trip, half a suit case is packed with gifts. you could find the most curious things in that luggage at the moment. organic fair trade decaf cascadia blend from J.P.Licks, pancake mix from airow head mills, new england salt water taffy, a finger puppet (an egg with a chick appearing...), some fun toys for all the cousins, quiet a few shirts from Life is good! and so on..... not to mentionen, that i also packed a few jars of my own crabapple jam.
yeah! we leave tomro

a saturday in september

a wonderful sunny warm september saturday has been greeting us this morning.
with all kinds of different plans, this was wonderful.
joel and elias soon took off to their music classes. joel takes a group concertina class and elias does once more a fiddle class at cce. (the guy you see is elias's teacher...)
neighbors stopped by to see if we are home for a little visit. this was the perfect opportunity to just the stuck on the deck behind the house, sitting in the sun and having the kids play in the sand box and running around the house. it's good to have time for each other! thank you k, m, and h!
amos had a planned outing with his friend. picnic and treeclimbing event at franklin park! some real climbing with the "boston area recreational treeclimbers"! this does sound good, and especially at such a sunny day as we have it.
naomi and i were digging up some plants from the front yard to bring it to the bnan perennial divide. we like this event, swapping plants and just seeing gardener friends. this time we also got to see and listen to a beekeeper showing us how he handles his beehives. it was fun and we got some blue and white iris roots to put into our yard. will see next spring if the colours are what they are supposed to be.
no photos today, as i was just too lazy to carry the camera along.

zwetschgenwaehe

joel's lieblings waehe! selten finden wir zwetschgen im lebensmittelladen oder auf dem "farmers market", doch am dienstag sind wir auf diese delikatessen gestossen und ich musste einfach einige haende voll posten.
so gab's dann am mittwoch ein suesses znacht....
schon so lange hab ich nicht mehr waehen gebacken, dass ich sogar das backbuch hervor nehmen musste fuer den teig. doch ist es eigntlich sehr einfach 1:2 butter und mehl, dann noch die fluessigkeit. ich benutzte margarine und da bei uns ja die margarine gesalzen ist, liess ich ganz einfach das salz weg. ich gab ein bischen braunzucker dazu. dann gemahlene mandeln auf den ausgewallten boden, die zwetschgen drauf und ein feiner guss, mit viel zimt drin.
die kinder mochten das znacht auch sehr gerne und so tat joel und ich, mmmhhhhhh
ein kleiner vorgeschmack auf unsere ferien! schweiz wir kommen! nur noch 4 tage...

longer evenings...

this is one part of my longer evenings...
the days are getting shorter and this leaves me with some more indoor time, more quilting and sewing, getting ready for our trip to switzerland and of course some quiet blog reading as well as surfing the world.
some more on our big trip and sewing progress within the next days.

pasta

elias was just on time to discover that our neighbor was in the process of making pasta!
of course he had to stay and help her...
i have not been brave enough to undertake this adventure, but watching both of them work seemed very peaceful and promising.
though i went home and kept on working on my maternity pants after a while elias came back smiling with his treasures in hand...
the pasta is still drying and will be dinner for tonight, with just some olive oil and cheese...

post marken

immer mal wieder erhalten wir post aus der "alten welt", jedesmal bin ich ueberrascht wie schoen diese marken sind. diesmal vorallem die aepfel, wir haben da auch bereits andere fruechte erhalten....
oder dann schokolade, die briefmarken haben sogar nach schokolade gerochen, wenn man etwas dran gerieben hat!
die post war diesmal fuer die kinder und einmal mehr ist natuerlich die grosse freude ueber karten und abziehbilder, tatoo's, und sogar eine musik cd fuer den amos.
danke grosi

what a warm september monday

it's in the 80s and windy, sunny and just wonderful.
we went to the arboretum for a few hours, there has work been going on for the past week and we did ask the guy if last week if he will still be digging on today, he said yes. and yes he was there with that wonderful strange digging bark.
i enjoyed the shade, sitting under a tree with leafs fluttering, branches being blown back and forth. in a skirt and bare foot.... it is mid september i have to remind myself but i guess that's just for today, tomorrow will be autumn for real. or can we hold on to these warm days for a week? would be nice wouldn't it....

ein neuer quilt

einige stuecke stoff aus dem schrank und ein yard einfarbige baumwolle mit einem gelbstich haben es mir angetan.... die streifen habe ich vor einigen wochen zugeschnitten vergangenen woche hab ich alle zusammengenaeht. nun auch bereits wieder auseinander geschnitten und neu zusammengenaeht.... wir nennen dies "crazy quilt". ich weiss noch nicht genau wie das endstueck aussehen wird doch die farben und muster sind schoen. vorallem das frosch muster hat es mir angetan purl soho hat eine so tolle auswahl an "fat quarter's". da hat sich einiges angesammelt ueber die vergangenen 2 jahre.
fuer die quilt rueckseite werde ich zwei kissenanzuege von meiner grossmutter auseinander trennen und wieder verarbeiten. bin gespannt was dabei rauskommt und freue mich auf die arbeit.

september atc

working on this one was a lot of fun. the theme is pattern and i took the opportunity to work on it on boston's subways...
i started out with a card, which naomi at some point painted. riding on the subway is rarely boring, but this time it was even more exciting. just sitting there and tracing the stop and go's. some pattern occurred, back home i sat down with oil pastel's and inspired by the lines i coloured freely...
i'm happy with it, and maybe i will do an other one...

a hug, once in a while

yes once in a while my kids even hug each other, just randomly. i love it it feels soooo right!
it usually is one of the things which keeps me going, encourages me in my mothering.
thank you kids!

in the box

the kids developed a new game. when ever we get off the T, they run up the stairs and straight for the news paper boxes....
and here we go, that's the result

dailiness

making it through the day......

there is no beyond, there is only here,
the infinitely small, invinitely great
and utterly demanding present.
-iris murdoch

drawing outside

it's such a pleasure to have a creative neighbor! so often my kids join her with any kind of activity she is doing, thank you a.


a is a very gifted mom, patient with the tools and her steady hand, i like this photo of her working, just doodling away.


and then of course the kids doing their own thing, those precious little hands loving to really experience the colour/paint they have chosen to work with.

drawing

naomi is drawing so much, i'm barely able to keep up with supplying her. the favorite place to draw at the moment is in her bedroom....
it's a huge pad of paper on the floor, so she can sit on it and draw. a big box of creons which she got from a friend and they are really only hers. the boys have to ask for permission if they want to help with the drawings. her favorite subject are people of all sizes and shapes, mostly with long hair.... i guess that's how she looks at herself and everyone else!

holunder gelee

dieses projekt hat sich einfach so ergeben, da ich in unserem schrebergarten den holunder pfluecken durfte.... hatte noch nie selber holunder gelee gemacht und somit googelte ich herum um herauszufinden ob und wieviel pektin ich brauchen wuerde.
da stiess ich auf ein interessantes rezept, das vanilla und whiskey vor dem kochen zuzugeben empfahl.
ich entstielte und kochte die beeren mit wenig wasser und liess sie ueber einige stunden in einem tuch ueber dem kochtopf abtropfen. drueckte sie aus und dann gings ans kochen. etwa 1l beerensaft, 700gr vollrohr zucker, eine vanilla shote und ein guter "gutsch" whiskey. alles aufkochen und fuer 15 minuten simmern lassen. das pektin anleitungsgemaess dreinruehren und nochmals kurz aufokochen.
die ausgespuehlten heissen glaeser fuellen und verschliessen!
ich freue mich jetzt bereits auf den feinen gelee den wir bis etwas spaeter im jahr aufheben um die erinnerung des spaetsommers nochmals wachzuruetteln und in den dueften und farben aufzuleben.

outdoors!

this pas few weeks have been wonderful, so much time playing and learning outdoors! i'm refusing to think about the colder months we are heading toward....
lets just life in the moment and treasure every sunbeam arriving on our skin!
lilfe is good!

portland maine

on our way home from camping at the beginning of the week, we stopped in portland. this city has changed so much over the past 10 years, when we visited the first time. we love to stroll along the harbor and just smell the low tide, get a good look inside a lobster shack and enjoy the setting sun.


of course we had to stop by "life is good" and get some presents. when ever i walk into this store there are memories attached to it, a smile hushes of my face for certain.

and then there was dinner....
flat bread pizza at the "flatbread company", we even got seated outside! it was wonderful, just perfect after our camping trip. some real root beer was ordered and delicious flat breads... the goat cheese with the glazed onions was soooo goooood.

at the lake...

we spent a few days up in main in a cabin at the lake....
great summer weather, surrounded by nature and friends, a lake to swim and paddle, and then of course making music together. there is not much more what could beat this.
naomi was to all our surprise an adventuress canute. of course no one was allowed to help her...
for me it was mostly sitting in the sun an getting some reading done. and all of us arrived at home happy with lots of good memories of one more late summer camping trip.