postcards from London #4

lot's of hot city time, it was for us in London. This vista is seen from the greenwich observatory. a wonderful place to go, i assume even nicer if the meadows are lush and green. bit this picture really sums it up, how pretty despite the hot weather london has been for us.

we frequently took advantage of the many free museums, like the natural history museum with all it's dinosaurs and beautiful bird exhibits. it was fun to see all the ichthyosaures and pleasures, contributed to mary anning.
we all enjoyed london a lot and staying with our friends made the last week unforgettable. thank you to all the B's, opening your house for us!

taking the train to victoria station, hopping on a coach there which brought us up north to edinburgh. that's where we were the past two days and more tomorrow...

postcards from London #3

we went to #2 willow rd, the home of ernö goldfinger. a wonderful place and a the heampsted heaths near by. swimming ponds and a wonderful park just across the street from the house. if you have a chance and like architecture, take a tour, it is fantastic.

and later in the afternoon, there was a visit to the tate modern, focusing on the "materials and objects" rooms, an other exciting place which we liked and might go back tomorrow, as there is so much more to see...

postcards from London #2

the tunnel near waterloo station. such an exciting place to walk and talk and enjoy, especially with our teenagers.

an honorary guard for the king of qatar, unexpected and very exotic, if you ask me. and look at that "indian", standing right in front of me...

postcard from London #1

running up the monument stairs and enjoying the view.
we are staying with friends in London and spent the first day in town. it is hot and it is wonderful to be with an old friend, i have not seen for many years. thank you n and p for hosting our family and showing us your home town!
today's photos are all by joel


i will try to keep a few postcards going over the next weeks, trailing our vacation as we explore and enjoy foreign territory...

 looking up the stairs

and then looking down from the top (can you spot me?)

single girl week ll

those lovely flowers have been on our kitchen table all week long and they so much go together now with the summer quilt i'm working on. that single girl quilt is making good progress. and i'm glad as for the next three weeks we are out of town, taking a kind of longish vacation out of country.

all the small pieces are put together now and the inner quarter circles are cut and some of them attached to the circles. i like them and look forward to some more sewing when back from london and scottland.
but for now, this is it. i walk away with a good feeling and with a bit of hesitation, as it is a lot of fun piecing together those little slivers of colorful fabric. some of the older fabrics i love for the things they remind me of. then there are some fabrics i collected from friends and others are pretty much new, fat quarters i just happen like and order at one or the other opportunity.

and then there is that trip to london, just about when thinking of it, i picture myself wandering the isles of a fabric store...
we will see what i bring home, maybe some liberty of london fabrics? that sounds kind of cool to me.

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. black berries without thorns

:: 2. true camomile, very lovely and nice smelling

:: 3. jam cooking done
 

:: 4. putting the camomile away and knowing it will be used for healing

:: 5. vacation, finally it's all here and the time is happily spent in the water

apricots and more jam

i visited my parents and their neighbor has an apricot orchard. the fruit are just about now ripe and ready to be eaten. four weeks ago a big hail storm hit the orchard and there is lots of harmed fruit. i don't mind and we all like apricots, especially the local ones. my dad and thea went over to the farm store and bought 1kg, thea didn't even wait until they were home, she tried the fruit and absolutely liked it. within no time there were four apricots eaten. we quickly decided to go over again and buy a lot more to cook jam and eat as much as we liked.
it turned into a 2 hour jam cooking adventure, my dad and thea cut the fruit. and together with my mother we cooked and addes this and that for different flavors. one batch was with oranges (damaged ones from the little store in town) an other batch was mixed with peaches.

and for the pleasure of using up old fruit, we cooked a batch of old banana and overly ripe kiwi. with that one, we added a little bit of williams (pear "brant wine"), just for a jinx of flavor. i liked it fresh from the stove, and we will see later how it will taste when cold and on a buttered bread.

lots of green

it's all so very green. i didn't expect it to be so very green in the middle of july. the heat of summer is upon us and for a while now, rain has been super scarce but still, nature is abundant with all it's deep greens...

:: the poppy after it's lost all the red...

:: 2. the grapes, at their growing stage. lots of sun is still needed.

:: 3. the little sweater is just being taken out and finished up, in it's bold green.

:: 4. green beans being harvested and their ends cut then quickly boiled and frozen for the winter.

:: 5. kiwi skins, the kiwi was cooked into jam. o so very yummy.

grain harvest

on our bike ride to visit family yesterday afternoon, we came across this spectacle. the grain was harvested and we stopped. we watched and enjoyed to see the big harvester at work. and for all who live in the us or canada or any other big flat crop country, you might just smile at our swiss grain harvest. that's how we do it here, the grain farming is done in small batches i guess even tiny, in this case. but the farmer bringing this crop in is happily feeding his animals with his own grain. i like the small scale farming and how the cycles are kept small and in place. the little system still seems some what in place. it's an organic farm also keeping the pics on the field, having a herd of scheep (though now, they are up in the mountains, being herded by dogs).

a little bit of calm and seemingly the order of the world being in order...

i'm well aware that the world is not all in order. not the bio diversity, not the political realm of it all, no it's all in big turmoil, but i enjoy the moment of not thinking beond what i see at the one small moment this sunday afternoon.

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. such a beautyful summer bouquet. i loved to start the week with these flowers on my kitchen table

:: 2. making time to sew, not a lot really, but some

:: 3. all week long, summer sky and this for the last week in school

:: 4. the tomatoes are doing just fine, a bit late, but healthy

:: 5. and a tree full of apples, promising a bountyfull harvest

a run to maag

it has been on my list, well not really, because my father in law did all the special recycling of our house. so far i have been managing the street pick up and when my father in law stops by while on his way to "maag". finally there was my neighbor asking me, if i have some stuff to bring to the second hand shop as well. and yes of course i had a few crates of material ready and while in the car, we also took all the recyclings along, things like 3 old not anymore working scooters, an old sun chair, different plastic and glas items and a few bundles of paper (that, we usually put on the curb side every other week).

it is kind of fun, loading a "shopping"-cart up with all the stuff and throw it into the respective bins. it is easy and the people are super friendly, helping with carrying and sorting and handing me a big knife to take the fabric of the metal frame, as i can recycle the metal for free and that way i just have to pay for the fabric... well such a pleasant experience. recycling is fun!

and even some bits of creativity above the bins, telling the recycler where the stuff has to go...

summer :: in full swing

it is so much summer now, the last few days in school for the kids. for me it's the running in the morning. i collect a few stems from the grainfield, some lovely wild flowers and my day is on, to a wonderful start. yesterday thea and i spent a moment in the city and decided, that we needed to have an ice creme. it was very hot, sunny and just the right moment to be cooling down with an ice creme from the little booth at steinberggasse.
the fun thing with that ice creme booth, we had to roll the die, both of us ones and the dots we rolled were the price we had to pay for our ice creme in the cone, as that was, what we wanted. thea had vanilla and for me was the dolce di leche sounding deliciouse.

summer vacation are booked and the rv is waiting for us. yes london we come and soon there after we take the night bus to edinburgh. with a wonderful 2 weeks rv-ing around schottland.
all six of us for some days and then it dwindles down to just the girls with joel and me. but that is fine too. i'm very much looking forward to spend time with just my little family.

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 trip up to rellerli last weekend

:: 2. jumping with ice creme
 

:: 3. the first tomatoes of this season, in our veggiebox

:: 4. starting the "single girl" quilt

:: 5. jam cooking, a little pass time of mine...