{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.

random fall colours

it is random, though not only, it's fall and it's that yellow-red season of the year. i'm happy with the moebius a quick and easy knit. though i did struggle a bit in the beginning, never mind it is what it is and it feels cozy  around my neck, just what i need in the early wee hours of the day.
the brown chicken has been molding over the past few months and i love it's checkered feather dress. all three chickens are giddy, as we picked the grapes in our neighbors garden. they got to taste those sweet berries a few times, when ever i forgot to close the gate. all three were quickly to find the opening and run over for a treat. today is a big feast over there, as many grape berries fell while we cut the clusters off the wine.
in a few days, we the people will be happilyj drinking the sweet juice, and yes i will also be making some grape jelly which will be loved in winter times, on breakfast breads.

the first round

the weather was nice and we went out to get the apples. at least that's what we thought we would...
we did go and we did get some crates, not a lot and there will be more in 3 weeks. the boscop were definitely not all ready to be taken, but that's ok. we needed to collect what was ready and on monday we will get the first cider of this year. in three weeks i'm sure there will be an other load of apples and it will be much cooler too. today felt warm for apple collecting isn't this an autumn activity? it is and autumn is showing itself from it's best side. i like this weather and i enjoy this activity of being outside and collecting what nature has produced for us.

autmn afternoon::o so happy

for a few weeks already a top for naomi was waiting to be done. finally i tweaked this pattern into a blouse. instead of a grossgrain ribbon i was sewing adding an elastic just to the front which works fine. naomi is happy and i'm so very happy with the wonderful "hip" fabric. it was the perfect afternoon to finish this project up and have her try it on. celebrating with a sweet mid afternoon dessert after school.

there is lots of change going on around us. tomorrow is apple harvesting on the schedule for us. we will be out there rain or shine, lets hope for the first one. the harvest will not be as big as last year but never the less i'm already excited for the sweet cider to come.

yesterday up on speer

we took the opportunity of a wonderful sunny day and hiked up speer. it was one of those things we were talking about all summer long and i kind of was not quiet sure if we would be able to pull it off. especially as we had to organize a few things in order to do this. first of all thea had to stay behind, this was working out last minute. thanks to wonderful grandparents. and then the weather had to be nice as the hike included a "klettersteig" which is only safe to do when it's dry.
we have done some hiking this summer though never climbing a klettersteig. all of us are good hikers and have a good tritt", we like good views and a bit adventure and the speer nordface hike/climb promised all of this without having to bring lots of gear.
it started out with a wonderful lush walk up the valley to the last few alp huts, and then the super exciting moment to stand at the bottom of the north face of speer, we climbed it up and loved it all. naomi and amos ahead in high spirits. the view was as breath taking as the climb itself. o yes we will be doing this again, we all agreed.
i'm so happy living within an hours car ride of such stunning mountains! and being able to show our kids the awesome world around us.

{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.

atumn is moving in

with it's beauty, with it's warm colours and i love it. for our morning snack and just some sitting in the warming beams of sunnlight. as soon as the fog lifted the kitchen was flooded with the beaming bliss and  we enjoyed the last piece of blueberry cake which a friend brought over, so very yummy. i can't help but look at the tomatoes on the sill, waiting to be eaten with just a bit of olive oil and pepper, or even cut up and made into a greek salad...

and then there is a needle here and then being knit. i'm already loving this shawl, yes autumn you are expected with open arms and we will be gladly putting on some more wool to totally embrace you. misty mornings will be here in the coming days.

finding once place

as i was so very much loving yesterday's afternoon, crafting, working and being, i felt sort of the opposite today. i don't even know why this is the way it is, there was just not a place i was able to settle and feel at peace and keep going. there was a busy morning with the ladies coming to german conversation group. it was gun it was great we had a few new women joining. then there was lunch time, i didn't even have to cook or set the table it was done by some one else living in our house. so that was nice, but maybe that was it, it threw me off. i was not doing what i usually do around noon time in my house...
never the less it was yummy and i indulged in a piece of dark chocolate to round up the delicious summer veggie casserole.
meanwhile knitting a round now and then, the moebius is growing and love it. listening to moral disorder by margaret atwood. the kids were in and out of the house doing their own things, had questions which i answered and gone again.
there are days like this, without a center without a consistent rhythm or swing. i don't like those days, i feel lost. maybe i need to learn to take those days just as they are, be at peace with them and not fight them? maybe, pondering and writing here helps me to keep still, just for a moment. still, sifting through my photos, still with all the kids in bed and joel making music with a friend, still as our house can be. enjoying it and finding my place in the stillness, in the moment. here and now, i guess that was it for today, thank you for today, thank you for the hustle and bustle and thank you for the questions, the smiles thrown in my directions...

crafting::and loving it

the girls and i spent the afternoon crafting in the garden. each of us was working on some kind of project we started at various times and so it came all together at this lovely tuesday afternoon. warm and sunny, the best moment to take the shirt off and have thea paint. i still like this the best, as it's so quick to clean up and have her not to worry about painting any shirt or blouse. she is all for it and as soon as i suggested to paint, the shirt was off her body.
naomi has been weaving a couple months ago, for one or the other reason she picked her work up today and we figured with all the harvested lavender, which we did earlier in the day, she might work on some special sachet for the summer scent to be stored in.
and for me, i was wanting to work on my granny square project, but i'm not certain yet how to best proceed, so i put the bag with the remaining squares back in the corner. instead i picked up some yarn and started once more a moebius shawl. this time i try to work it in a two coloured patent...

and of course we didn't skip a mid afternoon dessert, o so yummy fresh raspberries from this mornings bike to the weekly market!

monday morning

starting the week with a gorgeous sunrise just a bit before 7am, and for once i was not in too much of a hurry to get breakfast started as to take quick pic...
and then there were the hot peppers waiting to be put away. i got the red tiny ones from a plant in front of our house and also some of the bigger ones. the yellow peppers where from the veggie box. all of them needed to be roasted and pealed. now there is one  jar of pickled hot peppers and a little jar with a trial project of spiced up olive oil. we will see, the boy's i'm sure will tell me if it worked. they love hot food and will be using the oil for all sort of things, i expect them to use drops of it on plain pasta, an all time favorite after sports for both of them.
even the three loads of laundry are hanging in the morning sun, the next thing is the game. thea and i will be playing a round of "zicke zacke huehnerkacke"

{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.

i'm sewing sweets

and not just sewing is sweet, also our afternoon snack. melons and grapes and a big bite of cake which a friend brought over yesterday. is there anything else to sweeten up my day, of course the smile and laughter of the kids. i'm loving it and don't mind at all to do laundry in the late summer sunshine, fresh sheets on the bed, there is nothing sweeter to sink into after a days work is done. though joel is gone for a few days, amos at camp with his school for 5 days, it seems so very strange. it's quiet around the house and some times even still. of course there are still lots of folks humming around the house, as we live in community. there are 7 people with which we share the space. this makes for lots of excitement and fun. for not that many moments of silence, but i do claim them anyway and to sit at the table with company is always good.

my sunny flowers

 there are flowers and then there are my favorite flowers, the sunny ones.
as for the past few days, i enjoy them in around the house as well as on our kitchen table. thanks to my friend k. she is the flower lady of the house, as she as a community garden and loves to plant and cut flowers as you very likely have noticed over the course of this summer, here and here and here and so many more times there have been flowers around me. it has made my summer so much brighter and colourful. yes i am a happier person being surrounded by blooming plants and flourishing people. and both have been a big part this summer.
it has been a cold and rainy day, summer is seizing and i'm embracing once more what's on my table, just for a moment for one more glimpse, loving it and looking forward to autumn's beauty bounty to be poured out.

a few more moments of summer

i'm so glad that summer is back, the days are warm if not hot, at least for swiss standards...
the flowers are still bright in bloom and the bees buzzing, the garden the main "living room" during the day times. and i'm in the middle of my summer project. o it still is fun, and even my neighbor started to crochet this sunday afternoon, isn't that exciting.
so yes, i do claim summer is still with us and with it the spirits of the leisurely sitting and doing and drinking ice tea (for some, i guess it's coffee all year round, even in the heat of summer).
the inner part of my sampler afghan is done, i'm now waiting for friday to come and have blair tell me how i have to do the outer border... o i'm so excited to hold this finished project on my lap.

our trees

our apple trees are have been through a rough season of hale and summer storms. there is not very much fruit hanging, never the less i'm looking forward to harvesting and the fresh cider by the end of october.
joel and elias took a bike ride to collect the fallen fruit in order for the cutting of the grass to be easier, as well as the newly falling apples to collect for apple sauce, dried apple rings, and what ever else we come up, like apple pie, baked apples, caramel apples, apple bobbing....

thank you joel for taking those pics

{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.

green soup & cheese

we had green pea soup for lunch. i know it should have been split pea if i would have asked amos. as that one is his favorite dish. it was just sweat green peas, a batch which grew a bit old and was not very fine and smooth anymore when eaten just sauteed. this was a good solution to those "old" peas. i served it with fresh bread rolls and cheese. since we have at least one sheep or goat cheese on the plate, even naomi is happy again.
we discovered earlier this summer a mild milk-fat allergy which is not severe but never the less not very fun, as she is itching all over. the sheep or goat product are perfect as they do contain mono- or polyunsaturated fat.  which for naomi works perfect. she would have such a hard time to not eat any dairy, this way she has her "baeh baeh" milk or cheese or yoghurt.

the versatile wrap

this has been long overdue, sporting my summer skirt, which i was sewing in a quick couple hours a few weeks ago. it's the "versatile wrap" by make it perfect. i love it, and i'm sure i will make a second one. there is so much ease to this skirt and i feel dressed for every day house and garden work. for this one i chose the middle size, as i was right between the S and M with my measurements. it is a bit too large so next time i will use the S pattern. Naomi liked it a lot and wants me to make one for her too. it was a bit heart braking to tell her, that there is just not enough of this lovely fabric for a second skirt....
though there is about a fat quarter left and this will definitely be worked in something for my 8 year old.

joining the squares

the last stretch of my summer project has started, i'm working on puzzling all the squares together. it's fun and very nice to see how all those little squares are going to match up and be crochet together with this technique.

i'm not so much in the mood of hanging on to my camera at all times, this is why i didn't post yesterday, it might be again like this in the near future. as i decided to just take it as my fancy strikes. lets see what is happening...