in the nighborhood

snow is gone, i just wanted to post this photo. i like it a lot and the place where it is put in the ground is across the post office. i love scripture crossing my path in my daily doings..
psalm 119:105

some yellow

i love those little flowers, just hovering on the ground, but brightly telling everyone "it's spring"!!!


and then of course we can't stay indoors, thea loves to be outside. so we did some more weeding in the veggie patch to be. the three beets have not been used for the past few years, at least not in a respectable way. lot's of dandelions, slender speedwell, and the never stopping ground elder... this one calls for a constant eye and digging up of rhizomes... we will get rid of it!
the beet in the back ground is already set up, the red onions are in and two rows of spring greens (schnittsalat). the lettuce should be ready to start cutting in about 4 weeks! o i'm so looking forward!

on stage

the theater winterthur was hosting the "little mermaid" performed by all the students of "dance center winterthur", the studio of simone, dimtry and julia cheremeteff.


it was a creative show, lots of wonderful ideas brought to life with superb costumes and talented dancers. the jelly fish were definitely a very special part of the show. the music for their dance was metallic, bizarre and fitting...


elias took part in the polka. very focused and self conscious. he was so excited to have found a ballet studio in his new hometown. and not surprising to us he felt at home and quickly able to learn and focus passionately...

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. i know it's saturday but felt like i wanted to share this with you...
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

and then this one just belonged to the one above...

onion-sets and spring-rain

no photo today, just a quick up date on our gardening.
we had a couple very sunny warm days. i was able to get one of my garden beets ready for planting. just in time this morning i put a big bag of compost into the beet. and then got the onion sets into the soil just before the light rain started. now we wait, hope and wonder. and yes i'm sure of them growing mid august should be the harvest...
thea loved to dig in the nice cool and sandy soil, she will be a wonderful helper in the harvest!

spring green

it's getting more green every day, now it's not just my crocs, but all around me too. i love this very intense shade of spring green. it's a bright lime green which will soon turn darker and within a few weeks blend in with the mature looking greens...
i think this bright green is what i really enjoy during spring season. of course there is more to it, but all the little green tips on plants, the young fern which will soon start to peak out from it's "hibernation"...

i'm sure there are more colours to come, the growing and blooming season has just taken it's first step. i'm so curious whats going to grow around our house, in our neighborhood and the near forest! i will keep you posted.

enjoying the city

yes we really do enjoy our little historic city. elias took a tour last tuesday with his class and of course today we strolled through the old city center of winterthur. we got stuck at an artfully carved and painted bench right behind the "stadtkriche".


there was lots of energy going on. after all it was right after violin and drum lessons and spring is here, it's warm and sunny. lots of happy screaming and shouting...

the dogs head was a favorite climbing, sliding down part of the bench.
o and do you see the stonewall in the background... those diagonal "lines" were once stairs. the once climbing up to the clock tower, or steeple for that matter.


an other little detail on the bench, there were also a badger, a beaver, an other dog, the big green serpent, the faces of three little gnomes, and many more things. lots to discover and talk about. lots to let once mind go wild into fairytale land...


and then snack. i love this photo for the blue colour of the clock! matching so well with the san diego zoo shirt...


we love to be part of this city. to see and experience history in our every day lives. there is still a lot to discover, we plan on looking at the church from the inside for a future trip and of course so many more places we have not heard of yet. it's great to think of the romans who were using this city very vividly, there is an old road up the hill, where supposedly you can still see some parts of the stones they put down...

it's oficiallly spring

it's the first spring in switzerland for a very long time. it's the first time around this house, so there is lots to be discovered.


the swing in the back yard is now frequently being swung.


and thea loves to be with all of us, or taking off on her own. she feels very comfortable in our neighborhood, so i really have to have a quick eye...

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

young at art

more and more now, thea is eager to bring lines and dots on a piece of paper...
it is so wonderful to observe how those little chubby hands get a hold of a pencil and then of course everything is good to draw on, walls, our kitchen tile floor has seen sharpie (yes i was not paying attention to her, as i wanted to read an article in the news paper...) and then of course roll pens are super for making lines on once body... as are felt markers for that matter.
i'm very much into letting her discover colours, lines, marks, shapes, even the taste of paint is ok, within limits. but today she sat down on the little desk and i taped an index card on the surface for her to be able to really go with the pencil. here we are, i love it! her enthusiasm lasts maybe for 3 minutes, and that's just great.
i will be reading once more young at art, by susan striker a very helpful book. i learned to step back and just let the little artist do her work, it's ok for her to not do it my way. it's great to go beyond my ideas and expectations. as she is exploring...

the first bouquet

it's warm and sunny outside, the snowdrops are in full bloom and of course naomi runs out there into the big patch of the little white flowers and picks me a bouquet!
thank you my dear, i feel like spring is becoming a reality around the house too, we got a few bulbs a week ago and they are already in bloom...


one week ago...


one week ago..


today!


yes and the little grape hyacinths look so pretty. and look all the magazines, the boys are reading through them almost daily!

the new pj...

i'm so happy having found this pj. it was at migros when i was just quickly browsing through the kids cloth section, looking for a pj for elias. there were not that many left in his size but this one caught my eye. i don't particularly like the print but i like the additional tag which tells me about project of migros-kids-school in india. i'm so happy knowing that the kids in that region have the possibility of an education and don't have to work in the garment industry. of course that's just a drop into a bucket, but it is something which i can decide to support. i'm able to choose what kind of garments i buy and with that i'm letting the industry know what they do or not do is being watched. K-I-D-S.org is one of those organisations who is on the front of changing one place after an other, for the better of society





the school which was built in tirupur is serving 582 kids, it is a day school. at the school are also bathroom facilities and washrooms as well as a medical service. the school runs a school bus which collects the kids of the surrounding villages.


this is a start, i'm still hesitant to buy garments made in the far east... though there are a few labels i know of which do not allow child labor. like switcher, they are part of "fair ware, production" and "respect-code.org", and have a transparent company philosphy.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama




A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

recycling in the neighborhood...

this is the recycling station in our neighborhood. it's next to the entrance to the shopping center. for everyone a very convenient spot, as one goes shopping for groceries, one takes along all the recyclable stuff in the reusable shopping bag...


once more a surprise, arriving in switzerland after having spent 12 years abroad. everything seems neat and clean. even logic as i approach the recycling center.


although i have to say this battery recycling tube was hard to spot. it's a bit too camouflaged, though the kids spotted it and were so happy to tell me of it.

there is more to be recycled, like PET and other plastics, but that's inside the shopping center, right at the entrance to the grocery store. one more thing, everyone is bringing their own reusable bags and little carts as well as bike trailers to carry the "loot" home. even i have a little old shopping cart, it's falling apart but will do for now. the grocery store is not giving out bags. one can buy either paper bag for sfr .30 or a bigger recycled-reusable plastic bag for sfr 2.00.
i have been contemplating about a collection of shopping cart photos... well we will see if it materializes.

more snow

we got some more of the white beauty over night! if you ask me, i have had enough and feel more like it should be spring weather, but as all of you know as well, weather is not being asked what i want!
anyway, i wanted to show one of those little sidewalk plows to you over there in jp, where sidewalks are not plowed....
here in winterthur side walks are plowed and taken care of very well. and this by the city! the machines are really cute and super efficient, i love to watch them work.
the little truck doesn't look that little, but look at the driver, it is a petite version believe me, just about as tall as a men standing beside it, it looks more like a toy truck than anything else. and who of us wouldn't want to play with them...

my moms bread-bag

my parents stopped by for lunch today. of course i didn't remember my mom's "bread tuesday" it did not really click until they walked in the door that i remembered. my mom is getting up very early every tuesday to knead the bread dough. it's a well oiled little process...
as the kneading machine as well as the stone oven is at my brothers farmhouse, my sister in law prepares the "sponge" on monday evenings. this really gets the bread dough going much faster. my mom gets up before 5:30am to have the dough kneaded by 6am as it has to rest for a bit over an hour. i was surprised that 7kg of flour (it makes about 10 loafs) makes the rise within 1h! but of course the sponge does it, as well as rinsing the kneading bowl with hot and using hand warm milk-water.
the oven needs 1hour to heat up, as it is an electrical oven lined with stone (grog, or chamotte). by 8am the bread is ready, still warm and yummy!



that much about the bread, and now what really got me jumping!
i'm just really excited about the bread bag! such a gorgeous print, i love it and i'm kind of tempted to not hand this bag back to my mom...


and so the day went on, we still had some bread left for dinner, and joel got to enjoy some too.
bread, butter, smoked bacon, a few kinds of cheese, a candle lit and good companionship.

weekend in the mountains

no i didn't take the camera along to our sledding adventure... i'm a bit sad about it, as we definitely had some memorable experiences. sledding in a snow blizzard is not an every day thing, at least not for me and my family.
never the less, we will remember saturdays cold and snowy wind, snow all over, not able to see anything or really sled for the first 15 minutes of the down hill ride. yes we had to pull the sleds through snow drifts. amos was crying as he didn't like the sharp wind and snow in his face, thea all bundled up with just her little hat showing from under the blankets, in her seat on the sled...
but it got better and we really enjoyed the better part of the 12km ride. it was fun and by the end sunny and wonderful blue sky with snow white trees and a stunning view of some great peaks of the praettigau, up on the fiderieser heuberge.

then on sunday, the wonderful sunshine and blue sky! thank you p and g for being such wonderful hosts!


i was stunned by the trees lined up on the mountains edge, the morning sun shine letting appear them extraordinarily sharp




our splendid host's home, in the middle of the historic town igis.


it was a brisk morning, and thea enjoyed it on my back!

gone for the weekend

we are taking the train right after the boys come home from school and head into the mountains for some sledding adventures!

an alphorn in the house

a friend of ours was coming home with an alphorn "under his arm". what a unique moment for the kids to try their skill of blowing the so very swiss instrument!
it is not very easy to get a sound, even harder to be able to play a melody... it sounded a bit like a goose... but never the less lots of fun for everyone involved and hanging around the house. of course we took turns in trying it, and laughed a lot! (here the sound of an alphorn trio)

an arm full and a skirt

we quickly stopped by a carpet and curtain shop across the street from our house. the main reason was, to ask them, if they would be able to turn off, their huge brightly glowing neon sign, after 11pm.
my neighbors told me, that in the past the sign usually was turned off at late night. and i really would so much appreciate if this would still be the case. the front desk lady was very polite and explained that it's supposed to turn off at 11pm, so she is going to take a look into this issue. wonderful, there is hope, i will keep you posted. this would be less light pollution, energy saving, and our bedrooms would not be lit up either, yeah!!!
i also asked, if they have a box or shelf with fabric bolt ends from their curtain business. and they did, although usually they don't sell them. naomi and i were guided into a little back room and rummaged through two big boxes.


we walked away with her new skirt...


and an arm full of nice heavy weight fabric. overall we payed SFr. 15.- we both felt like we hit the jackpot.
i'm already thinking of balloon skirt and pillow covers.