red currents and rainbows

i was invited to pick red currents in a garden near by. of course i had to do this, i love all kinds of berries and those wonderfully sour berries lend them self's for fruit tarts as well as jelly, like no other berry. within less than two hours of picking, together with thea, i was bringing home three buckets filled to the rim. so here i am, baking and cooking a storm. i love it and delight in all of the work.

and one more wonderfully orchestrated storm, rain and the colourfull bow while it lasted! such a strong promise.
i'm just so plenty thankful for my days.

{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.

potatoe harvest

the potatoes have been growing and we enjoyed to observe thea's bucket. time has come now to bring the "big" harvest in, so we dug them up yesterday. and o what a wonderful surprise, there were a good handful new potatoes, still "mama" potato was there too. an interesting observation by thea. it has been a waiting and learning experience for her. not pulling and not digging, but waiting and just observing the plants.
we did it and today for lunch we cooked thea's potatoes, all of us were allowed to have some and we all praised them and thea's generosity to share with us.

the experiment was successful and maybe we will do jerusalem artichoke next season...

rain and it's all pink

we have not had rain for a while. yesterdays morning shower were such a welcome gift. not just for plants and shrubs and trees, but for thea too. she found a "new" pink umbrella in the closet and is all happy with it!
of course it's pink and it's best put to use by the little lady of the house.

and then i love my pink geranium at the front door. it's not a simple geranium, but i "met" it at the market, the perfume geranium, a wonderful flower and it's scent is not super strong, but interesting.
we will see how i'm able to tend this plant. so far it has been doing well and there are many buds on the plant.

klangwolke :: 750 Jahre

our little city is 750 years old, we got the right to be called a city in the year 1264. of course this is to be celebrated. we celebrate throughout the whole year. this past sunday was one highlight, the reinactement. the austrian embassador was handing over a replica of the certificate and seal. speaches were given and music was played, horses paraded by, well a wonderful sunny afternoon celebrating history is a good thing and even enjoyable.
the "musik wolke" though interesting and with a high level of artistic and technical detail was excellent. though i realized myself, i'm not trained to "just listen". it really has been a good "show", though it was hard to keep focus as we humans are so trained to be visually stimulated.

i'm glad i went and enjoyed the spectacle and that the kids took part in it too.
and yes there even was a bag piper, not really traditional or usual for switzerland. maybe i still underestimate the close relationship to our european neighboors on the island...

at constance

 here a few more pics of our trip to konstanz last week. it was wonderful and we all got a glimpse of the cities history. visiting the rosgarten, which is a history and art museum, many interactive little teed-bits for the kids are fun to listen and watch. a good chunk of time was also spent at the landesaustellung to the church council to constance. we all liked to learn so much with the audio guide. thea and me went a bit slower without an audio guide, but interesting little discussions about pieces of art and crafts. we also strolled through the "mittelalternutzgarten", such an interesting place and inspiration for me to get a few more plants into my garden, be it healthy herbs or plants to dye...

an other stop was the game and comics store seetroll... amos had a wonderful time browsing in that location. an excellent bistro was "eugens", wonderful pastry and good coffee. the kids enjoyed a delicious ice creme, somewhat a must for such a sunny day in a lovely city.

of course the picinic at the lake had to be an other stop on friday. we all enjoyed each other and looking up into the trees, while drinking lemonade, we spotted many bird houses and even a bat box. seems like a lovely city for birds and bats, very friendly and welcoming to all!

{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 kimono's

there will be a few new babies in the near future, and what better and cuter to bring along to the first visit... i just had to start those little kimonos. they are quick and super cute. i still had the paper pattern, put away from way back then.
and o my, am i waiting to meet those new tiny people joying us in our walk on this earth...

some planning

there is some planning worked into our days, though really it's not very clear what joel and i will be doing for the 5 days we have to our self's in the middle of summer! we will be biking, hiking or climbing in switzerland, but where should we go and it's a back and forth about biking to a good trail head or having to make the decision of not bringing along the hiking shoes and clothes while biking...
well there are definitely many wonderful peaks and or ridges in the alps we would love to hike. it feels like we would need many more "couple a days" to get us through our list of wanting to. so never mind, looking at an alternative lodgings guide is helping us in making those decisions.
and since my brother in law has offered us, to use his/their tandem, there is one more option we are considering...

the garden tour...

a tour around the house...
there are really just a few corners and i try to get plants in around my house, though it's shady in many places, some growth is here and that brings me joy. the leek has not been growing well, the slugs have liked it and some of it i harvested and we have eaten it. one i left there, standing tall and i'm looking forward for it to open up in full bloom!

i love raspberries and have now  some in the front of the house as well as in the back, i wish their foliage would be stronger, though the berries ripen quickly and not just we people like them, but i have the observed how the chickens have become courmee's!

the little daisy like flowers are lovely and do well, wonderful yellow and white dots on a couple corners are so refreshing. in the front beet there have been some striving succulent of the type hen and chickens. some how i didn't catch one particular plant which is in full bloom...

and once more i try basil in my straw-bale garden. o those slugs! i'm hunting them.... maybe the basil will survive and strive, i'm still in hope.

our violin recital

it was recital time, yesterday afternoon. the violin players in our family felt so ready, it was hard to wait. for thea it was the first time playing at such a formal setting, she loved it and did great. absolutely enjoying her stage time!

so good to see and hear the kids, all three have improved a lot and seem to enjoy their music making. our teacher is a wonderful person, very encouraging and supportive. loving in her approach to teach, but firm and clear in stating the goals. i'm so thankful for karin, she has been a source of enthusiasm, especially for naomi.

as you might have noticed, our little barefoot girl, she could not be convinced to put her sandals on her feet, but they had to be placed under her chair. so there we go, with her favorite sunday dress, hair done by big sister naomi, she played haenschen klein. naomi in her own confident way playing with piano accompaniment was fun for her, "the piano was a bit slow"...
and of course elias was all excited to play with karin and they both played together very well, the bach double, i enjoyed to see, to my surprise, amos on stage too, he got asked to be the page turner...

wonderful to be one team.
and thank you to karin mazenauer, who has been helping us along with many wonderful lessons.

all photos by joel

{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.

frauen stadtrundgang

so here i am, reporting you about the wonderful "frauenstadtrundgang" of last night. it's the newest those ladies have put together and it's super exciting, "8400 - vitodura packt aus". wonderful to see little reenactments and lots of history being taught so lively no one will forget.
we wandered through the city and met a few interesting characters, starting with meeting vitodura and listening to the architecture of "city hall" and of course how one was able to walk into the city through some old city gates. they all got torn down in the mid 19th hunderts. it makes me a bit sad, there would have been many more historical buildings which would be very interesting to see and experience.
we met a french revolutionary soldier, as napoleons army was stationed in winterthur to free the city from zurich...
and how the industrialization was influencing the every day life as well as the aristocratic/feudal families. there were a few very strong and influential women involved in our cities well being. one of them else zueblin-spiller was one of them and she really moved many lives into better social standing.
the end of the "rundgang" was at the rosegarden, looking over the city, just wonderful and a perfect june evening has been enjoyed and i feel like i'm so much richer with the little bit of knowledge about my town and it's people before me.

the june heat

it's just the beginning of june, we are not used to such heat early in the summer. i absolutely enjoy it!
summer is wonderful, since we have returned from boston over 4 years ago, i miss the hot summers. though it does seem, as if we have a good hot summer before us. i'm so very happy and hope the warmth will stay.
i have been running by, this little corner of wild flowers and enjoyed it every morning. and i love it, every day more. the more the more the heat is beating from above, the bleached flowers with the blue of the cloudless sky is such a wonderful sight, i wanted it to share with you.

it's summer and i love it!

a long, lovely weekend

a wonderful long weekend it was, we spent it at my parents and did so by biking there and back. a wonderful undertaking, a bit of a challenge it was, for naomi and me, as well as amos. joel and elias have been riding this way many times already, though for the rest of us it was a first. a good first, we can say, a bit hot, as the whole weekend was very warm and super sunny, just plain wonderful. i love the summer s heat, and here in switzerland it is dry heat which is easy and enjoyable. lot's of leisure time, any cool and refreshing drinks and desserts was just such a wonderful thing for all the kids (and of course me too).

playing and whip-stitching....

picnicking and being family. the elder flowers are all in full bloom and so we also picked a big bucket of them. some of them will be dried to be used during winter times and an other bunch was soaked in sweet cider, those are steeping now for liquor. i'm looking forward to this one and am also very curious how it will all work out.

the evenings are long now and wonderful to sit and enjoy behind the house. a good time to watch the moon!