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 string workshop for elias as well as for thea, and at the end of the day a little concert.

 :: 2. many nice sun downs this week, maybe it has something to do with the full moon a couple nights ago, regardless of it, i enjoyed each night being immersed by "paint".

:: 3. the last hay of the season...

:: 4. fresh pressed grape juice...

:: 5. a little lamp, made by a ceramic arstist i'm so very happy with it

today :: out of doors

up in the sky, it's all wonderfully changing and the clouds travel fast. autumn is in the air, the change is took place within the past couple days. the morning temperatures are in the mid thrities, such a change from last week, when even the early morning was still in the mid fourties! and though it is not liked by the kids, having to ride their bikes to school. mittens are the next thing to grab from the closet...

to my joy, the apples are turning red too. they will be picked at the beginning of next week, after having enjoyed a few more afteroons of sunshine.
with the brussle sprouds, well they look cute, but are not really growing well. never mind, we did our best and i guess the heat and dry summer months have not been good for those vegetables. at least, to my surprise, there are no moths, as this has been the pest of the past years.

i think i will give the brussles an other go next year.

open air

finally it has happened and then we got rained out!
it was fun tough to see the open aire movie theater being organized and set up by the people of our community. it looked good until 30 minutes to the opening. just as we had dinner in the garden, cleaning up our plates, the it started to rain gently. the radar was predicting a few sprinkles and later in the evening a bit more rain... not bad at all, worth a try.

though with all the expensive equipment and a cold breeze picking up, we moved the movie watching into our living room. it was a good decision. still thank you to RaTi for setting up and organizing.

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. cool sculpture

:: 2. girls soccer at twilight

:: 3. just bottle, very cool to have them near stadelhofen

:: 4. still bare foot, though in my sandals to go into the city

:: 5. and enjoying the memory of the dutch painters, painting the swiss mountains...

at the museum

it was somewhat a surprise for myself, but i had the day off!
not one meeting or task to do at a certain moment of the day. i felt so free and took the opportunity to have lunch in town (with the big boy) and visit the museum to see the exhibit "dutch mountains" at the paul reinhart art museum.

 Caspar Wolf, der untere Grindelwaldgletscher, 1774/1777, Kunstmuseum Winterthur Sammlung Oskar Reinhart

it is an amazing exhibit, wonderfully curated and at some point, i asked myself, why i'm even in the museum and not on the mountain!
that's what it did to me, it is powerful to see the paintings as well as the the drawings and prints by Jan Hackaert and  his friend Conrad Meyer. they revolutionized landscape painting in the 17th century together with other dutch masters. 
the two of them had a realistic and modern way of graphic interpretations of the mountains they saw and experienced. they were influenced by the the artists are now regarded as pioneers of swiss alpine painting. the two of them were also influenced by albrecht von haller's poem "Die Alpen".

gathering to celebrate

at the wedding of my brother in law, my men were making music and it was wonderful. so much sunshine at the middle of september, so much joy in celebrating the wedding of joel's youngest brother. and we are happely welcoming his bride into our extended family!
congratulations a & a, blessings and many wonderful adventures are waiting for you in your married life!

the dinner party was on top of the mountain "niesen", in the big fogy soup up there, all in white... it was a big change of scenery, after having spent the afternoon surrounded by the wonderful landscape of the bernese mountains. but it was also special to take the funicular up (except elias, he run up the moutnain in under 2 hours!)
excellent dining with family, which we really don't see enough.

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 leaserly afternoon with friends

:: 2. o such yummy desserts, autumn is just around the corner

:: 3. crafting for my mom's birthday invitation...

:: 4. the robot at the "rock print pavilion" at work....
        https://www.gewerbemuseum.ch/ausstellungen/rock-print-pavilion

:: 5. a visit to the "sehschule". all is ok with T's eyesight.

DIY all-purpose detergent

a couple weeks ago i was making lemonade and as allways with lemonade, there are lots of rinds left over...

it din't feel right to just through them out (as i try to not compost citrus fruit peel, because our soil is already too "sour"). there it was, on my counter was a diy-book "statt plastik" von Jutta Grimm. i checked it out from the library, with no particular reason, i just liked the cover. and as it sometimes happen, this book was on my kitchen counter at just the right time!

so i decide to put those lemon peals to use: i cleaned them from all the white flesh and put them in a big jar with 1l of white vinegar. super easy, just let it sit for two weeks. preferably in the sun, shake it from time to time. meanwhile i had the time to buy curd soap, grind up 50 grams and soak it in 1l hot water. this solution also needed to sit over night and settle, some shaking and making sure that it had the right viscosity.

for the type of simple every all-purpose detergent, i was going to mix up, i needed an old spray bottle. this i found in our cleaning cabinet. then mix 2 table spoons of the soap mixture and 250ml of the vinegar solution, fill the bottle up (at least 500ml) with water and ready is the detergent.

i'm happy, mother nature is happy and if you don't mind the vinegary/lemoy scent, it works just perfect. as we have very hard water and lot's of limestone in the water, there is lots of it to clean at all times...

apples and more blessings

our apple trees are caring lots of fruit this year, just the opposite of last year. there was no apple on the trees last year... but as with mother nature, she plays games with us. it is in general a rich year this time around, lots of fruit, apples, pears, berries of all sorts too.
we got a few buckets of fallen apples and i'm cutting and drying them for putting into storage. everyone likes those sweet treats and those snacks are even healthy!

it feels like a second summer. there was one colder week but the past week and this week too, is up in the eighties in the afternoons (at night it's down into the very low 50is).
i love this weather, it's perfect, it's wonderfull, i feel blessed more than i could dream of. and on top of this wonderful weather, a friend was coming along for the apple picking chore, some fun conversations and doing chores feels not like anything having to do, with a friend helping.

the appenzeller barthuhn...

last saturday was spent with my birds...
i packed three of my young "appenzeller barthuhn" birds in cat crates and went to the "bird-taxing-place". well it was an adventure and i knew in advance, that it might take all day... at least i was not super early and the waiting was interesting, as everyone was alowed to watch and listen to the comments of the specialist. each bird got looked at thoroughly and with thespecialists eye.
i know now, what it means: "nice pearling" or a chicken having a "croked back" and many more points the birds get judged by, if they are good for breeding.

my rooster had very nice pearling comb and good looking feathers, very dense and wide, though his back was croked. he will not be good for the breeding, but still got a nice family to stay with... as his two sisters got good marks and i handed all three birds of to a new friend. a lady farmer with four little kids and smallish farm in the eastern parts of switzerland.
she was very happy to get the chickens and didn't mind to take the rooster too. and i was more than happy having found a good home for my birds.

this gaggle of roosters and chickens are all "schweizer hühner", big and white... a very nice looking crowd. they live at the farm, where the chicken "judging" has taken place last saturday.

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. lots of apples lots of chickens, treats are loved

:: 2. no the lisle is gone, a new project started, from "knitting nature"

:: 3. look at this steel cup, i love it and it is so light!

:: 4. garden flowers in my living room

 :: 5. at christian education class "the bible is a library"

bible cake

back to teaching, finally i'm back to two classes teaching religion (christian education) for 4th graders and on friday a class of 3rd graders.
with the 10 year olds we learn all about the bible and how to find bible verses. it is interesting to see how quickly some kids pick up the skills of finding the asked book with the help of the index and looking for the chapter and vers number. others really struggle as it is not just finding the book, that's really just the start and there it is very different from just finding a page "number".
though we are practicing and i tried to make it as child friendly and interesting as possible. the station in the picutre is a recipe for a cake. the kids had to look for all the different ingredients. and they did so, by finding the bible passage given and in that verse there was the ingredient given, like egg, milk, butter, figs, dates, raisins, flour etc.
of course i baked last night and the kids were able to try a mini muffin. most of them really loved the flavor, it tasted strongly of honey...

single girl and more jelly

it's all sewn together and even a white rim has been added, as the top seemed a bit small to me. the backing is done too, as you see here.
all of it is sitting low right now. sandwiching with the batting would be the next step, though this week is a busy one. there is one more thing i have to get done this week... the elderberries are ripe and ready to be harvested. the shrubs are heavy hanging with big clusters of berries. and i'm so very happy about this, as i love the jelly from theses fruits. the past few years, i missed out to make preserves and i really want to do this, this week. no excuses to be made this time around.

tonight...
yup i got the elderberries and cooked them and straine them over night: