weekending

joel was gone for a few days last week. and the week went by so super fast, sunday afternoon approached rather fast and though we all were looking forward to have him back, all of a sudden he is back and embracing all of us again.
a quick decision of "lets have desserts in the garden", it was so warm and sunny and i couldn't help, but we needed to go out of doors. it wasn't just us people who felt like that, but the chickens too!

we spent some wonderful moments together reconnecting and sucking in all the sun we could. i was knitting on for A's scarf, so fun and super quick. it's now all finished and the boy is happy. for me it's on to the next project, i should decide how to quilt that target quilt, which i put together this past summer....
i will and it will be fun, but it takes a lot to make me sit down and get started. it is somehow a brave thing to start sewing, it's in a way deciding to do it this one way and that is it, no looking back, no changing away from it, that is scary for me.
but i will get started!

the week through the lens

it has been on the back burner, i have not been taking a lot of photos for a while now, and that should change. so i put the "hand made" lens back on the camera body and got started this week. it touched me in a special way, as i wander and have the camera ready be it in the kitchen, or living room table... this enables me to see with new eyes and i like it. we will see if it sticks, it is a start to a new friday review of what caught my eye. there is to be said, that i was inspired by erin boyle and her blog "reading my tea leaves". she does a wonderful job and it is so inspirational to have a look at her photos...

:: 1. the last of summers flowers

:: 2. the box of ping pong hands at the front door

:: 3. something new, i absolutely love the mammut vest

:: 4. something old made new, for a friend

:: 5. falls bounty in the kitchen, when it's a foggy outdoors

autumn leafs :: singing

autumn, the colors, the garden, nature at it's latest and last time of the year, to bring out all it's life and strength. telling me stories and making me smile and be still in awe and wonder.
the running is great in this season, it is just right in temperature and great for surprises of sun rays and fog playing games. leafs turning their color and leafs dancing, just for me!

we are preparing to sing at church with the "kantorei" and an ad hock orchestra, on sunday morning the 18th of december. it will be antonio vivaldis magnificat. there is still a lot of work to be done, but we already get a little taste of what it will be. it has some wonderful passages, rhythms that challenge me, half tones not that easy to stay on with, whilst the soprano sounds next to me. though it is really wonderful that i'm able to carve out the time for the rehearsals and spend a few wonderful evenings singing. the season of long evenings indoors has arrived and it is perfect for this time of the year, to involved with singing, laughing and working with my whole body.

fire in the livingroom

a leisure sunday afternoon, raining and cool, perfect for a fire in the living room. our fire place is not very practical at all, and the heat is disappearing out the chimney in a whim. never the less it makes for a good moment of making the fire, enjoying the moment of light and warmth....
there was lots of wood splitting done by amos and wax melting by joel. wicks twisted and all of it put together and dipped in the melted wax.
the result, a handful of fire starters. exquisite ind hand made, well working and a wonderful afternoon of working together.

such moments are filling my motherly sole with joy and thankfulness. just being and doing and enjoying it all. as a result there is even something to look at and be happy about it.
it hasn't been all easy on such afternoons, with teenagers in the house. they much rather would love to sit in front of the screen and play what ever game is on top of their list. or just hang in their rooms and listen to music, watching you tube movies. but instead, we got a meal prepared by elias, while amos and joel were working. a yummy pot of pasta and sauce bolognese, comfort food for all with good conversations and laughter.

outdoors :: painting

thea wanted to paint and it was somewhat nice outside. at least it was not raining and i absolutely prefer for her to paint out of doors. there are a few less risks in regards to paint on places i really don't want any of the pink or what ever her color of choice is at the moment.
so we got ready behind the house and she got to mix her colors just the way she wanted to. great fun and i liked it. a quick run to the camera and some pictures got taken.
it is funny, how i sometimes forget to carry the camera around though in colorful moments, even running around the house and fetching the camera was fun. it is exciting to take pictures of paint-mixing-trays, as much as it is exciting to observe the painting process itself.

and i have to hold back, just let her work, let her choose and decide...
usually she doesn't want to stop painting, different this time, there were two pieces left "for you mama", great i jumped right in and grabbed the paintbrush, while she lingered and played with the swing.

i love the garden and be outdoors, even if it's a bit chilly.

the week :: through the lens

it has been on the back burner, i have not been taking a lot of photos for a while now, and that should change. so i put the "hand made" lens back on the camera body and got started this week. it touched me in a special way, as i wander and have the camera ready be it in the kitchen, or living room table... this enables me to see with new eyes and i like it. we will see if it sticks, it is a start to a new friday review of what caught my eye. there is to be said, that i was inspired by erin boyle and her blog "reading my tea leaves". she does a wonderful job and it is so inspirational to have a look at her photos...

:: 1. a new little project, simply a winter shawl

:: 2. loving the look of this boarder girl

:: 3. bitter sweat as autumn is

:: 4. the birthday book, thank you friend

:: 5. and one more orange, on our front steps

all orange :: for me

as in the past, i have no clue, how my family and friends come up with a theme color for my birthday!
but this year as in the past it's all composed wonderfully in a shade of one and the same color. all orange, for this year and i love it.
a wonderful breakfast dinner, all prepared and ready, by the family...
my sister in law visiting with her daughters was a nice surprise and catching up with her lifted my spirits. a neighbor walking by, i quickly invited her over, as she usually is in a gloomy mood, she was surprised, that i invited her in for a cup of tea and dessert. and left the my kitchen in much higher spirits. these are the moments of yesterday, which were very life giving.
as well as one more family with a gang of kids coming in mid afternoon, my parents and elias coming home after work with a big hug for me. life is full and rich and i love the bounty of all it has for me.

the boarder girl

there goes our little boarder girl...
for a few weeks now, thea is taking to the board. it's an old home made super heavy wooden board and she loves it. of course she has no idea how a light weight, well wheeled board could roll, i guess that's why she is still super happy about this one.
fine with me, it's not as fast and a bit slower in falling, maybe, just maybe in mama's mind, though that seems fine with me.

usually she does need a helmet and wrist guards, but as it was sunday afternoon, on the way to the bus, it didn't even occur to me, that she is missing her safety gear.
anyway lots of fun and laughter down and then pushing her up the street.

and maybe that would be a fun thing, her birthday is coming up and a penny board could be the kick she would love!

nut butter

for a long time i had a bag of peanuts in the freezer, and long planned to make peanut butter. i also made a batch a couple months ago. it is a bit tedious, as the nuts have to be roasted and the ground up in our kitchen blender. the trick with the blender is, that the nuts (doesn't matter what kind) have to be dry roasted and no other ingredients added before grinding/blending.

the last time, i was struggling with the grinding/blending process and got a super dry batch of peanut butter. this time was very careful in regards to shelling the nuts and tried it with a mix of cashews and peanuts roasted and just nuts. the grinding went well, no trouble at all and the sea salt i added just when it was smooth and oily. with some irregular pulsing, maybe that made it....

and now, i'm looking forward to the peanut butter lovers smile and big eyes, when they try out this batch of home made "butter"

late in autumn

the sun is warm not very warm in regards to heat, but warm in light. mid afternoon rays are so perfect and the light has a special force to it. soft and comfortable, though still strong and delightful.
it seemed as if the morning fog was leaving it's touch behind and the rays were soaking it all up. i guess that's what it really is, but never thought of it while looking at it on autumn days.
we enjoyed a wonderful sunday afternoon above the fog line in the sun, leisurely reading, sun bathing and taking all the light in which we were able to.
i felt a bit like frederick the field mouse....

eggishorn and more

to follow up with my post from yesterday, of course we hiked a bit more...
a good and steep one 1800m climbing in elevation, a bit ambitious but lots of excitement. up to the fiescher- and aletsch glaciers.
we started out a bit quickly, as we wanted to extend our stay at the hotel for one more night, but could not. so we had to pack up all our belongings and carry the two backpacks on our tour. we both were glad, having packed light... the next surprise came with the very kind bus driver, he told us about the just newly built hanging bridge at aspi-titter. it was super impressive and just awesome to walk on it and look down into the 120m deep valley.

in the shady spots there was still a fluff of snow from the day before. a wonderful solemn path up and up, the best weather possible, pure joy and thankfulness. not just for the surrounding but also for my healthy body going strong and working just perfectly fine.

the fiescher glacier is retreating fast and that's what's left of it, meandering brooks with ice cold waters. it is still pretty tough and while talking with my father in law, he hiked the same path 30 years ago, he could tell me how much more present the ice still was. for geeks.....

i could not stop joel, he jumped right into the märjelensee.....

on top of the world, at least that is how it feels to stand on the eggishorn and look at the aletsch glacier with eiger, mönch and jungfrau at the horizon. on the last picture you can make out the matterhorn, just follow the glaciers medial moraine.
of course we talked about the hike joel did with elias and his friend 5 years ago to monte rosa cabin. it was spectacular and a bit higher. i'm so thankful for my dear man who loves to hike and plans the routes carefully, has his maps and gps along. we discovered once more, what a well working team we make. and even our fitness seems just about at a similar level. we will do it again, rather sooner than later.

a bit more about this week, we call it our autumn-hiking days. as we took the cabel cabin down the mountain, switched trains a hand full times until arriving at home at my parents. my mother expecting us with a big plate of spaghetthi, falling into bed and enjoying the following day full of nothingness. we could not sit still longer but hiked a bit more.
it presented itself as a logical following up on the hike up into the sky to "wander" from my parents to joel's. this was a more or less flat/hilly "wanderfreude" from hosenruck to wila on an other sunny october day this week. 30km...

holzerspitz - gandhorn

starting out with a few days of being away from "our world", diving into a slow world of hiking. we really didn't prepare a whole lot for what we could should wanted to do. at it turned all out well. a simple hotel in fiesch was the base and the wonderful train system across switzerland let us do what we did. with two smallish backpacks leaving home last saturday afternoon, after the three younger kids have left the house to be at their place and camp of choice, joel and i hopped on the train.
we were just exhausted and knew we would have the time and place to just be. the two of us didn't need to plan too much, with a few ideas where to hike, we chose the destination with the weather forecast basically being the pointer. the upper wallis valley, fiesch was chosen, with one hike in mind, in the area of the binntal, a nature park in south-western switzerland.
it was a fogy day but this didn't stop us, we headed out and up the holzerspitz and on to the gandhorn, high up, towering above binn.

while the sun was out early, it submitted to all fog, while we were up on the top. though i really didn't mind. it was plain wonderful, just the two of us, no one wanted anything from us and we were not even able to be reached, a good thing, once in a while.
taking the camera along, (just the small one, canon G16), we had fun and loved to be out and about.
toward the afternoon, on our way down, we left the fog and some snow flurries behind. and soaked in all the sun rays there were. as well as the wonderful views down toward binn.
a wonderful day almost alone...

here the description on hikr