{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.

public transport practical

that's what we did, amos a couple of his schoolmates and me/joel chaperoning them around the canton of zurich. the group put together a travel itinerary and we tried to stay as close to their planned day trip as possible. riding on winterthurs city bus #3, taking many different trains, the elevator at the rheinfall, the "polybahn" in zurich, of course a number of trams and the big ships on lake zurich. it was a fun group to travel with and even with the weather not being super nice, more like the opposite, we all really enjoyed it. i'm glad my boy got to travel a long day around with public transport and doing this for schooling. absolutely and very important skills have been added with this project. and once more i'm proud of the public transportation system in this land, we call homeland.

the "glingeling"

she had been wishing for a "glingeling" a long time, called up people and then her godfather heard her wish!
thea is riding her red bicycle for a while now and was missing the sound of a cool "glingeling" all the while, this is now history. we hear her riding and squeezing the giraffe from far away, from out of sight, there is that shreeking sound of the giraffe being loved! thank you godfather b for being in tune with our not anymore so little bicyclist.

the granny squares week 2 & 3

i have been working a bit on this summer granny project, it's exciting to have the sewing machine back from the doctors office. it was a major job the mechanic had to do and i got back the machine running smooth and easy again. a wonderful gift to me. while the machine was gone, i realized how much i missed it. not that it's taken very long, not even 2 weeks, though i noticed, how often i wanted to sit down a quickly mend a pair of paints or finish up the pajama pants and then of course get started with the many little squares for the granny summer project of this year.

it was here when it all got started, and i have been cutting and putting together many squares. a fun undertaking to utilize the scraps and give them a purpose, at least that's what i'm hoping for them.
this spring i also got a little envelope with many liberty print scraps, a nice addition to all my fabric scraps. it spices up the process a little bit and of course i love the newbies in the mix.

so here i am there is more to come, trimming and puzzling together the big picture will be the next step. just to not forget where that little inspiration came about...
there was last summer's granny square crochet project, i loved it and wanted to find something for the summer 2013. not certain where to find a "work a long" project, i decided to just do my own. it is definitely not as cool as to work with others, though the inspiration for right now is big enough to get things off the ground. jolene at the blue elephant stitches has put a tutorial up on her blog, "granny square quilt blocks", that's where it started all for me with this summers grannies .....

red and rhubarb

it is summer and red lupines are just so beautiful.  they don't keep very long after cutting, though for 3 days i enjoyed a bit of heaven in the living room. a friend is bringing me regularly bouquets onto our kitchen table, i'm so blessed, thank you k for delivering flowers into my house, without me even having to order!

and then was there that delicious idea of combining linzer tart with rhubarb. of course i had to try this recipe out as rhubarb is one of my favorite treats in this early summer season.
it turned out to everyone's liking, even joel who's favorite dessert is the classic linzer tart (with raspberry jam). he was very skeptical about the rhubarb idea, though he helped himself to seconds and that has been reason enough to know that he likes it too.

besides, the rhubarb lemonade was a nice add on. after cooking the rhubarb with some brown sugar, and letting it drain for a moment, there was that wonderful lemonade. great in colour and even better to taste!

{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.

the sewing school

a couple weeks back i got the sewing school book for naomi. she absolutely loves it and got started right away. there is something to this book, just super easy and exciting to pick a project, get fabric and accessories together, find the pattern and start the real work.
mama has a big stash of crap fabric and notions to pick from. this is of course an other fun moment, digging through all the piles of it and finding just the right fabric for her ugly doll.

a few hours later, the next day, the doll got all stuffed and had to pose for me, together with the girls. i don't now who was more proud, naomi or me... the finished project looks very good, a wonderful present for naomi's little cousin j who turnes one next month.

eating together around the world

our annual "neighbor-fest" has been in the back yard through the late afternoon into evening. lots of dear friends (o my over 100!) and their friends, neighbors and all their families. very international, o that is the best about it all, a few swiss folks came too, thank you for coming... and then there were people from turkey, macedonia, albania, serbia, bosnia, irak, egypt, eritrea, somalia, greece, turkie,  germany, burma, austria, peru, a wonderful bunch of people sitting together, eating together, talking and laughing together. it's good to be with friends

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.

thank you

we got a big surprise parcel! o yes how wonderful is it if friends think of you and not just think, but even go out to purchase a few lovelies and send it across the atlantic, to gift us!

thank you so very much you three over there in the new world, we all totally love mail even better parcels. and this one was super special, a latin workbook and cd for amos, origami paper for the crafters, lots of stickers and a long wonderful letter. a special post card and of course i got the best of all treats, 2 1/2 yards of yummy fabric. and this is super special, as a&a picked the fabric for a certain purpose... (the sewing machine will be picked up from the doctor this afternoon!)

although i have to admit, there is one more project right now waiting to be continued, before i get started on that other one. hey and that michael miller's dog speak fabric, it must have been picked by those two lovely ladies i can't imagine anyone else in my circle of friends picking this ;)

{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.

week 1

and now

 

 on tuesday at the market i got myself three peonies, wonderful still closed ones. it was love at first sight and i just could not resist. the oak branches i collected on my way home. riding the bike with trailer along mattebach bike path...
and now, today the three peonies are in full bloom, they could not look more gorgeous, it was money spent well!

nothing more to say, it's summer her and i love to hang laundry behind the house, take it down two hours later all dry and smelling of sunshine. it's good, the heat and the lightness of a morning, woken up by a strong sunbeam stroking my face!
listening to the birds, the chickens being loud and raising their voices too, as they want to get out into the sunshine. i love summer, and that is now.

on the table

besides flowers, this time lupins from my friends garden...
there is frequently delicious food on our table. our life has been taking place mostly in the garden and with it also our meal times. it is the end of asparagus season in switzerland. we love green asparagus and the yoghurt sauce recipe is pretty simple and fabulous, pared with grilled tilapia and whole rice.

yoghurt-asmparagus sauce
250 gr green asparagus cooked, keep heads and cut the lower parts into 3mm slices
250 gr greek yoghurt, add some mustard a bit lemon juice and a finely chopped shallot, thinly sliced radishes and chopped parsley, mix well. add cut asparagus.
1dl whole creme whipped, add some salt and pepper to season.
use the asparagus heads to decorate.

 

and then there was an other project being conducted one afternoon... joel got out all the tops of bicycle bells he collected in his youth. there is much to do with them, arranging, rearranging and even some tuning was done. lots of fun, not just for joel but the kids and i loved to listen and look and get involved as well.
we will see what will happen at some point, there are lots of ideas floating around, xylophones, wind chimes of all sorts, putting them up on a board for what ever fancy strikes! i'm sure they will be taken out again, or maybe be forgotten by most of us, though not by joel.

family matters

it is such a blessing to live close to our extended family. biking for 1hour is all we need to do (or for that matter a 20 min. train ride) and we are with loved ones... the kids love to visit their cousins, and it is the case that this family is also having a nice little garden with a trampoline, which makes it even more attractive for them. we adults sit and talk and share and eat and drink and enjoy to be with people we don't have to explain who we are, how we work as we share so much of the past with them.

it is a strong support and recourse of strength to have a big extended family. it is our physical family as well as the fact that we share our faith in christ. this makes it even more valuable and so it happens, that we sing together and the deep understanding in the basics of life, are bringing me so much joy.
it also is freeing my mind, and maybe that is the best of all. there is no pretending keeping up the guard, it is acceptance and understanding and feeling at home.

i'm thankful for my extended family

late peonies :: lomely sandals

it was a  sunny weekend, lot's of time was spent doing work in our garden, sun bathing and loving the out door time. we went to visit joel's broth and did so by bike. all of us riding and loving it. of course the boys went ahead and rode much faster than the rest of us, though that's fine and they should really love the speed it's definitely a thrill feeling the wind in my hair.
the peonies are at their last few days, wonderful pink and such a wonderful colour in the lush green of an early summer garden. the red currents are coming in well, and the green is so strong, the berries will be plenty this summer. o yummy red currents, their tart taste will be once more lovely, ready to be eaten in month or so.

and of course it's bare foot weather again!

{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.

sunshine :: enjoyment

it seems to me, that there is just so much to gain from those days right now, so much warmth and bright sunbeams. i'm soaking all of it up and sit on the steps, just sit and loving it. warmth on my skin, running bare foot and watching the plants grow in my straw bale garden. i'm taking care of them as they are my babies, watering, shielding them from the slugs (and guarding the tiny plants from being completely eaten in the morning...) o the slugs, i don't like them, they devour just about anything there is. no regards of colour or texture or age. though the dish with the beer is helping tremendously, sorry slugs, you just should think for a moment and leave this little garden of mine.