on top of Alvier

last saturday we went on top of alvier. starting the day somewhat early, but riding the train with friends, a thermos of tea and coffee for joel, makes it work...
the weather forecast was ok, the day turned out to be perfect, especially on some steep up hill the clouds came in handy to provide the perfect condition for us,  not to broil under the july sun.
and then, i should really not say a whole lot, as the pictures speak for themselfs. it's never doing justice to try to explain what we experienced and how it felt to hike up 1800m and afterwards down 1500m...

spectacular vistas, sitting up there enjoying some cheese and bread and top it some dark chocolate, and the best friends you can have at my side.
my heart is just filled with all the thankfulness there is, and a big loud Halleluja! is all i can sing.

and then there is lots of sillyness with those two.....

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. bex, such a pretty waiting area at the train station

:: 2. and hello, back home again

:: 3. spending almost hours, watching the chicks

:: 4. of course cold chocolate drinks with whipped creme and fudge sauce....

:: 5. while the other boy is working for two weeks... bike courier for a hardware store, he likes it!

jumping is fun

and that's what elias was doing the past two weeks!
he went to a special camp, taking an adventure on all by himself. it all started last summer, when he signed up for a sports test to become a para trooper....
well there is not too much to say about it. if he decides to do something, of course not just any odd thing, it has to be some kind of challenge or full blown adventure.

he went to training camp for two weeks and just as we came home from our little hiking vacation, we were able to see him "jump and fly".
watching him carve out some special paths in his life is exciting. not that we haven't been on a different road already with our oldest (dancing and loving it for his life, having to give it all up....)
it has been so good to see, that he is not easily giving in or up for that matter.
it is encouraging to see a young adult manage and enjoy what he does and it makes me hopeful as well as curious what is going to happen with our other three children. not that there is already an end to see with this one, more than anything else, this seems like a great launch in what's to come.

fauna and flora

just a little addition to our vacation in the mountains. the fauna and flora was special too, it added a bonus i have not even been thinking about, to the adventure...

i will not get started about the rock formations, they have been spectacular and once more i'm impressed by the folding technique of the alps!

in the mountains

heading out and about just a week ago. it was finally time to go and we even let the girls alone at home, to have lunch with my dad. naomi was in charge and she was the last one leaving the house on saturday late afternoon, to hop on the airplain for romania.
joel and i left mid morning to make it all the way up to le derborence by public transport. we enjoyed the moment of going and leaving everyone and everything behind, just two little packs and a plan to hike the "tour des mouverans", we did our own 4 day tour and of course we had to top it with a white-blue-white day on top of "dent de morcle", which was really exciting and just plain perfect to do.

the first day was a nice if not to say a bit on the hot side, but up at cabane rambert, it was super nice and the view was breath taking. good to sit down and enjoy a great meal. meet a canadian couple over dinner and enjoy a good laugh about all the french being spoken around us. yup, it's very french, we were warned and yes it is only french around the mouverans. very french!

every day a new view and the weather was at it's best. mont blanc and later also dent de midi, well many more mountains and valleys i really don't know all of them, but i absolutely enjoyed each and every one. there was nothing else to do then to stare and look and take it all in, over and over again. the second hut was the cabane fenestral, a wonderfully, new renovated "hotel" without running water at all. the fact that there was non potable water available for washing and cleaning my teeth was nice, though in this hut the rainwater has been used up and that was it. so either no "körperhygiene" or use bottled water...
well no problem, at least not for joel, he walked down to the lake, went swimming and hiked up again. to be all sweaty again... i preferred to just sit and read and enjoy and be... guess we were both ok.

the hiking was not super steep or hard, it was plain nice and so much time and still, exactly what i, what joel and i needed. the plain nothing ness, not a person wanting something from us. we frequently were not reachable and that was good too. we don't need to be available at all times.

up with the ibex on top of grande dent the morcle.

views from near cabane la tourche, a pretty place and high above st.maurice. the last evening before we headed once more back up, very steep to cross over the cole de perris blancs and down again to pont de nant. it was a super hike, up and then down hill. usually i absolutely prefer the up hill hike, but this time, the down hill was just spectacular and it also was in some miraculous way easy on the knees.

some wonderful days, recharging my "batteries" and this all within a half day by train and bus from my own home. wow switzerland is small and it is pretty and it is so diverse, the landscape can change it's character within moments.

yup, i guess we do live in some kind of fairy tail land... (smile)

summer vacation :: we come

it's a the day before everyone travels to an other destination. the whole family is "running" away from the city and and it's busy life. school is done by today and summer vacation has finally arrived.

Elias has been gone for a week already and loves the sky dive training camp as much as he is challenged by getting up at 6:15am every morning.

Amos heads to a youth camp in croatia, camping and swimming with friends.

Naomi will be in Romania to do a week of volunteering with her group of Royal Rangers, in a poor neighborhood. And lucky her, she will be able to visit our long standing friends, a family we shared a house for a couple years. They are back in their home country and Naomi can go and see them!

Thea is looking forward to spend a good week with her grandparents, and they will go and visit Elias at his camp... all super exciting.

finally Joel and I, we head out into the wild. the bernese alps in the valais. 4 days from hut to hut, getting started in derborence. we hike the "tour des mouverans" a not very highly frequented tour, it should be this way, wonderful solitude and the purity of nature itself. that's really all we are looking forward to.

i will be back late next week.

banana-grapefruit jam

naomi arrived home from camp with her school, at the end of last week. she also took home all the leftover bananas...
well it was about 3 pounds, rather brown speckled bananas then anything else. what to do, as not a lot of people in the household like banana-bread. i looked through my collection of recipes and found a banana-grapefruit jam. this sounded delicious and two days later, while going to the grocery store, i added three pink grape fruits to the basket, not having looked the amount of banana compare to the grape fruit, i ended up to not have the opposite amount of bananas and grapefruit.
well, never mind, lets just twist everything around, as with jams this is absolutely possible. and so i did, half and half and adding sugar and some orange juice to it.

an hour later, i was the happy mama, putting 8 jars of freshly made banana/grapefruit jam on our pantry shelf.
at least that's what i was thinking. it wasn't that easy, it didn't get thick the way i planned it. on to the next step: back into the pan and a second cooking is going to be done tomorrow!

the new chicks

a couple weeks ago, i noticed that one of our white swiss chickens was broody. as i didn't have enough on my plate the past two months, i could not pass by this opportunity to have a natural hatching. i was quick in finding a breeder of "appenzeller spitzhauben" and talked with her and two days later thea and i went to pick up 10 fertilized eggs of three different breeds. we were super excited but needed to place our "swiss miss" into her own corner (out of the laying box). she quickly settled and we were able to exchange the eggs.
happily and full of excitement, we waited 19 days and soon enough the first two chicks hatched. what a big event, so small so new to this world. soon thereafter an other few and two days later we now have 6 healthy little chicks with a wonderfully caring "mama".

of course they are being watched by all of us and the kids friends and neighbors. it is the attraction in the neighborhood, as most people have a moment to stop by, just before summer brake is coming around the corner next weekend.

i'm challenged to keep up and organize the hen house according to new family plans...
those little ones are already jumping quiet a bit and luckily the other 5 hens are very curious but not aggressive at all. there is an other little obstacle to overcome, one more hen is broody and i can't get her out of the "mood", well i try my best from keeping her out of the laying box. it feels like i'm chicken herding all day long, we will see if i master the tricks to get the hen house in order before we leave for vacation next weekend...

metamorphosis

it was exciting, a couple weeks we found two beautiful caterpillars on our fennel plants in the garden. in order to be able to observe the caterpillars as well as their metamorphosis, we decided to take them into our "butterfly garden". a vase with fennel greens was put in the "cache" and the caterpillars grew, they loved their food and thrived. of course, we knew, they would not take very long anymore to transform, as the animals were already quiet big when we found them. still it is wonderful to watch the process and check in on them a couple times a day.

and one morning, there was just one caterpillar left...
the next morning none. two chrysalis were hanging, nice and neat tied to the top of the cache with two threads. the transformation process is in full swing and we watch those two chrysalis change in color, just slightly.
and then one morning there is a fully grown, beautifully unfolded machaon or so called common yellow swallowtail (schwalbenschwanz, in german). it's all super exciting to watch and experience. letting the butterflies go and watch them as they ascend into the air.

it seems so close to me, as our oldest boy, never mind, he is definitely not a boy anymore...
as our oldest left for a two week sky dive training camp. well he was super excited and i'm sure he will enjoy every moment of it. and yes to my own surprise, i didn't feel strained or anxious nor did i want him not to do it. much more, i was so happy for him and felt a lot of joy, noticing how he is shaping his life, and making decisions on his own while i stand by and just observe and watch. of course there where moments of me wanting to help and support and make sure he has packed everything for those two weeks, but that turned out rather poorly. so i left  him alone and i guess that's what i have to learn. let go of any of my ideas and helps for him. i guess my part can be in prayer and emotional support from afar..... steps which i have to take and i want to embrace.

let him fly!

summer-fest

our garden has seen many celebrations in the past few weeks. the most special and very dear to me has been this past saturday. our international summer-fest.
lots of planning, decorating and high expectations while a team prepared for it. we have had this summer fest for a few years now and it has been succesful and lots of fun for all people involved. not just planning is exciting, as we never really know how many people will show up.
but this time, the weather seemed nice enough and turned right at the moment, when we had set up everything and in a jiffy we were able to rescue the paper napkins....
luckily table decorations were water proof and after 20 minutes of hard rain and some hail,  we took the paper table runner away. it still looked good enough and what wonderful happening, when the families we invited showed up, one after an other, many people made it out into a bit of an uncertain weather, to celebrate 10 years of the kids club mikado.

super special and so much excitement for many a grown up. and of course especially the kids, letting balloons fly, with post cards attached, for the finder to send back and we will see who's balloon made it the furthest.
a big birthday cake was ready, lots of desserts to top the wonderful main course, which was organized as a pot luck. that big buffet is a high light, all the yummiest food from around the world. just a dinner at it's best. and with the great food come the even greater people. mothers with their children and this year more fathers have come, which is wonderful to see.
looking at all the photos and closing my eyes for a moment i taste and smell the wonderful flavors of food and one moment more, i hear the voices and see the happy eyes, telling me the stories of their life. there is really not much more then thanking the Lord for all this people, and them, joining me and loving how friendships form and grow.

and so i love wednesday mornings, with all the work they bring to my weekly routine. it is good to learn together and study german with a group of eager ladies, wanting to understand and be heard.
it's all worth it.