{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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

tiny crochet

i have been trying different tiny crochet pattern lately. originally the inspiration sprung up when i was seeing those wonderfully crochet covered stones.. i did wrapped some rocks while we vacationed this summer, though i did not have the correct floss to do it, never the less the result was fine and a good first attempt. i bought some floss on tuesday and am working on some fun patterns. how it will be wrapped around a stone, i'm not sure yet as it is rather big and has those pedal like pattern which i have to work onto a smooth roundish surface... we will see, it might turn out very different from what i had in mind. i do not mind that, it's trial and error and trial and success, it will work after a few attempts, that i'm certain.

the photo of my summer vacation crochet around the stone trial...

late summer is early fall

it's already cool over night and in the morning we need to wear our cardigans until the mid morning. some how it was too quick, the weather has changed and i'm  not there yet, we did have a gorgeous summer some really nice hot days and i could have taken a few more of them. though the harvest is still going on and the chickens love all the fresh scraps. carrots just harvested, salad just cut, the summer bounty is going strong and we love it.
my house mate is delivering fresh flowers frequently, o how wonderful this is. it's a big sign of appreciation to me. i'm not sure she is fully aware how much joy those fresh flowers mean to me. every week a new bouquet in the kitchen and sometimes even a second one for the living room. thank you k

granny's blocked and played with

i could not stop myself after blocking the squares....
of course i had to play a round of puzzling with all those big and small squares. and quickly realized, that i wanted some more really small squares. those ten little rectangle and squares in the bottom pic are very small and will fit into so many a gap, i'm sure. though now i'm even more curious of how we are going to join them all. i'm sure blair has figured out the best technique for this summer project, though i have to wait until friday. i will wait and will train myself to be patient, yes i will.
i'm sure there will be much more playing around for finding the right spot for each of the squares. thea is already clameing the blanket to be hers... i'm not sure yet, if i'm able to give this one away just like this.

the girls and joel and all of us

went to a big family gathering for a couple days. it was logistically not possible for all of us to go and enjoy the mountains, the o so large family of the clan. but never the less joel and the girls enjoyed it a lot. hiking and liking the running and chasing of the ball and i'm sure that fountain was not just run by....
naomi was so happily telling me of her cousins and more distant relatives, some of them we rarely know and see. i'm glad we are part of a large network of lovely people and next time, i so much hope we will be able to all go together.

as i was at home and spending some lone time and some one on one time with each of the boys (as they had different activities and school to "run after") i was pondering and thinking of how it will be, soon enough, when the house is getting empty again. i know it is still far away, though it is tauntingly soon, as elias is already 13 and not coming home for lunch anymore through the week... even naomi and amos, both are gone once a week over lunchtimes, the rhythm is changing and this is ok, this is new and for me a process to get used to. i will embrace meal times, who ever many people sit around the table and share a meal together. best times are when sitting and eating and laughing together.

{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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

lightning last night

last night was so much going on and we did not hear anything, it was all lighting and a most spectacular show going on for a long time. there must have been lots of energetic storms storming on far away up there in the sky. joel captured a few of the flashes, this one i like best...

granny square week 14

so here we go week 14 rectangles. fun for a change to not make squares.
it's an easy assignment, with a little bit of a tricky start. thank you blair for showing us exactly how to start out.

in my kitchen

 over the past few days, has been lot's of hustle and bustle,

:: baked, cooked, brewed and flowers arranged

:: found the wonderful ice tea from teekult to be the perfect drink of every day and occasion

:: made tabouli two times already

:: ate the cherry tomatoes by the dozen

:: baked summer zucchini bites for lunch and dinner and take along lunch too

:: hunted down some big fat flies and trapped the little fruit flies next to the fruit bowl, with success!

:: savored the wonderful loaf of zucchini bread with some nice slices of tom (the soft white cheese...)

:: made moussaka for the first time in my life. as the bounty of eggplant is going over board

:: spent the moment of enjoying a meal mostly outside, behind the house under our chestnut tree. i know this is not really "in my kitchen, though for this summer i adopted the place to be my kitchen as well.

:: could not really get myself around to bake bread, instead one of the kids has to quickly run across the street to the baker. how wonderful is that, in this summers heat.

:: the coffee machine has been on too, for some wonderful fresh iced coffee. though i have to say, i'm pondering to cold brew again, as it has been fantastic when i did. here the place which inspired me to do so

:: absolutely love the summer veggies, splurging on tomatoes and green beans, being able to put some away for the colder season of the year.

:: and even more loving it, when some other folks use the kitchen for baking and cooking. when i'm able to just sit down and eat with everyone around the table, savor each and every bite, thank you friends of the house!

the weekend is over

yes, indeed the lovely summer vacation days are a thing of the past. back to school this morning...
i'm not yet able to let go of the lush weekend, the fun we had with my sister in law and her family, o how wonderfully sweet is their littlest girl, just 4 weeks old. absolutely able to relax and sleep under the big tree, in the middle of the action in our back yard.
amos has come back from music camp on saturday and yesterday was a big concert in the city, a matinee at the "musikfestwoche winterthur". (the program is still going on for one more week...) we were all impressed by the exciting show they put on stage. so much enthusiasm and work was put into it. so much fun and excitement was sparkling. of course we don't get to hear 50 drums, jembes and percussion instruments at one. such a group of enthusiastic musicians it really warmed my heart.

and of course it was hot and the pool was used all afternoon, in and out and "blindekuh" and o just loving such a weekend full of summer.

{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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

out for breakfast

the cafe around the corner has  been a wonderful addition to our neighborhood. we have been a hand full of times guest's at the cafe melange, a super child friendly place and 2 minutes from our door. as we were just three for breakfast today, we decided to go out!
yes, go out for breakfast is not a usual, though it turned out to be fun and wonderfully simple, especially for me.
having a raspberry muffin and a coffee latte for breakfast is definitely a mid morning kind of thing to do, as i  do appreciate at least one big mug of tea in the earlier hours of the day. that has happened at home, when the kids were still sleeping...
i love summer, home with the kids, lounging and enjoying the moments of quietness as well as having time and space in our days for what ever crosses our minds, today it was an easy one for me!

granny squares week 13

i found it a bit tricky to get those whirlygig squares the way i wanted. for some reason i felt the topping rows should also be facing up, but that was just not to accomplish. i know that the topping stitches technically can't face up, as they are hocked into the front grain of the dc's. but in my mind they should have been visually different as it turned out.
by the third one, i started to like the the look of the square. though even more i like the texture of this square. the "stand up" rows of the opposing colour is cool. so i'm working on a few more of these squares. thank you blair for making me do things i would not just do on my own.
it really has been a fun summer project working on the afghan sampler and i'm so very much looking forward to work all the squares together!
o yes, and have a look at the flickr site, with all the different squares...

fun, it's still summer brake

over the weekend, having fun in our backyard, we are still very much feeling summer and the middle of brake time, though really it's the last week. school starts next monday, so lets have some more fun this last week!

{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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

in my kitchen :: loads of summer crops

there is so much summer in my kitchen. lots of zucchini and what ever the summer harvest brings in. i love summer mixed salads, lots of leafs, cucumber carrot and then of course the "kapuziner kresse" a kind of nasturtium is especially beautiful to look at, but also yummy to eat. i have a few plants in the front of the house, this makes it easy to quickly get some "salad decoration".

with all the eggplant, the last "gmues box" (veggie share) had a big chines kind in it, and as the weather has been really nice we have been grilling in the garden. marinated and grilled eggplant as well as bell peppers and zucchini have been a staple. there have been sausages and good pieces of meat on the grill too and some creative pasta salads. getting rid of left overs this way has been very successful.

the ratatouille has not been a favorite with the younger crowd at our table, never the less we just took the left overs along to visit our friends. and yes they loved my left overs, good for them and even better for me.

and then it was sunday early afternoon, no one was really very hungry, so i decided not to cook. instead i got all the stone fruit together i had in the house. there were nectarines, apricots and frozen prunes from last summers harvest. it should not be a crumble (though all of us love it, i wanted to try something new). once more i got the book out "rustic fruit desserts", a favorite of mine and yes of every one around my table. it was to be the stone fruit slump, very  much like this one, wonderful, easy and a big hit. i savored it with a latte, o so yummy.

 

i will be gone, seeing my sister and her family for a couple days, though there will be {this moment} on friday...

being sporty

we enjoyed a wonderful community bbq in our garden and then of course we had to put our bodies to work... almost everyone joyined the fun bare foot soccer game. it was wonderful to also have a few youth from the neighborhood playing along. in those moments i'm getting excited. not just to be community with the people who choose to live in our house and the neighboring "laebesbaum" but also to include the people living on the block into actively doing things together. it just so much builds trust and creates joy in our way of life.

then today, as we originally wanted to go an a trip with the train, maybe to the zoo or what ever the boys would have wanted to do, there was rain in the forecast for most of the day. first of all we all didn't get up as early as we wanted, it was to cozy in our beds and the books kept us in bed til mid morning...
over breakfast we decided to go bouldering at the block, in town. it was wonderful, lots of fun fur all of us, as well as some inspirational people moving up the walls. more sport is going to be watched... of course we can't totally stay away from watching some of the olympics going on in london.

granny squares week 11

i have been working steadily on those granny squares, usually i ended up with more squares then requested, but that's ok. lucky me as i realized a week ago, that blair was also skipping a week, i was going strong this past week. i did crochet a few more also (though not shown), the sampler project is moving along fine.
this was week 11 and the popcorn square was lot's of fun. i especially like the third one with the really nice looking white 3rd row...

i'm starting to wonder how we will put all the squares together. it will happen, i'm sure, but never the less i wonder and am very curious how my sampler will be looking.

{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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

guess, the 11 year old got a new reading device for his birthday. o what a happy boy we have today.

1st of august :: retrospect

what a fun evening, on a hill looking over the city of winterthur, gathered with friends, enjoying all the fireworks the kids and joel got in the morning at the rikon factory. it was a little bike ride and lots of fun for them, very exciting to spend some of their savings on celebratory fireworks. booms and crackers and wonderful magic matches as well as a big 2 minute volcano for me. thank you joel for remembering.


the evening was gorgeous, a wonderful sunset with even better lit clouds, joel captured it well::