{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

from apples::to marmalade

a good morning.
i was sitting at the kitchen table, pairing apples, all of them little sour and wormy fruits....
the kids in school, just thea climbing on the bench and consuming one apple after the other, she really liked them a lot. and there was our friend m having breakfast and starting his day.
it was such a good thing to be working and talking with a friend, about the going on's in our life's, in our community house and the weather of course!


after pairing and cooking the apples with some water. i put them through a "passevite", in english you call this a food mill.


for marmalade (jam or jelly) i use 1.5kg fruit and 1kg sugar or "gelierzucker", known as gelling sugar in english.
o yes and then i wanted to add something to the plain apples, so i soaked raisins in rum. and half of my marmalade is no a speciality...




when i was standing in the store to buy labels for my preserves i was just in the mood to get round labels. ha! i like change and doing things just a bit different as in the past.

sunny morning::the ballon was flying

our friend t has a passion for geeky stuff!
yup, this time he was working for many months on a high altitude balloon. there was lots to program his gps, his celly, the camera. as you can see, those things finely had to fit into the magic box. the balloon was expected to get up, about 100'000ft high! just thinking about this got my head spinning.


a latex balloon was filled with helium, it's diameter was just a bit over 2yards.


it was a spectacle, some neighbors showed up too, our kids were thrilled and so excited about this. t is great, he included as many of his friends as possible to get that balloon up into the air. and the weather was just perfect for this undertaking, a sunny, not too windy but clear morning!


there it goes, the red ball is the para-shoot for the "golden box". this was needed as the balloon was expected to pop and the box will then be falling down to earth with tons of photos, the gps will send the signal to t's celly and he (with all his friends) hunted the box down in the afternoon.
yes the balloon rose it's expected height of 100'000 ft (30'000m) and yes the box fell down. it landed unharmed (the para-shoot worked) in the middle of an alpine meadow.
here a few more photos

apples::from our trees

it's the first time that we can harvest fruit form our own trees. although that's not completely true, the trees belong to an older lady who asked us, if we wanted to harvest the fruit and keep it.
of course i could not say no! i had to jump onto that exciting adventure. it is not that easy though, as the care taker of the trees (and land) is the lady's brother in law and he is very old... you can see, it is not just fruit we will get, it is a whole story and with it people which we will somehow be taking care off a little bit. but that makes it even more special and isn't that exactly what life is! caring for each other, living relationships in our every day life.
it takes us about 10 minutes by car to visit the lovely spot where our 5 apple trees and one cherry tree is rooted. on a slope with a vineyard across the street, and the very exciting view of a medieval castle...




mid morning, still for a moment, what a landscape, and breath out again!


there is that castle, we heard voices, there must have been a few kids playing in the courtyard. we will be going to visit and inspect that place, maybe next time when the other three come along


it was once more eyeopening, toddler are such a great help to pay attention to little "lowly" things. in this case it was little autumn crocus flower, with it's latin name: "colchicum autumnale"


and there the so brightly shining red berries of the mountain ash. every year in late summer those berries are bringing some kind of magic into our world.
we will be back to this little spot of land a many more times this fall but i hope for many more years to come.

her favorite::the drawer

first i was fighting her off, i didn't want her to spill oil on her cloths! i didn't want to take the risk of having to clean up a vinegar spill on the kitchen floor! i didn't want to have her drink from the cooking wine! i didn't want to spend energy and time on having my eyes on her handling the glass bottles!

but as you see with your own eyes i caved. she loves that drawer with all the oils and vinegars, the different liquids i need in the kitchen for cooking delicious meals.
and i'm fine, now that i know it is not the world end when she drinks a big gulp of olive oil. the experience made me believe the glass bottle, holding the "balsamico de modena", is strong enough to slip out of her hands onto the tile floor and not brake (this happened at least a dozen times), i do not have to dive all across the kitchen to catch it...

i have been able to change and not be on edge about this drawer. and i'm thankful for it, it makes my life a lot easier and if an accident happens, there are rags, there is water and my hands will be able to clean quickly the mess produced unintentionally. and meanwhile, she learns so much it is all worth it.

{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

canning::marinated peppers

i could not resist the so good looking red peppers at our grocery store, in fact i had to buy a big bag of those red beauties. in my brains already seeing a few jars of marinated peppers on our kitchen counter!
a few years back we had the opportunity to bulk order peppers with the CSA, that's how i got started on canning peppers. it was a labor of love with those veggies... and now again a morning of work cut out for myself. back then i served the web and found a really good source on safe methods to preserve peppers, the university of california's division of agriculture and natural resources... here we go!


the peppers are all lined up with some water in the pan and shoved into the oven. i roasted them at high temperature. after that i set them aside in a big covered bowl for 15 minutes. pealing was a breeze after this proceeder.


we got the jars from the basement and of course they had to be stacked up. thea was totally into it and i just loved to watch her working on precision, she took them down and built them up again and again.
i love to have her see me work and getting involved herself. there is just so much learning going on, by allowing her to participate at her level in my work.


peppers all peeled and ready, in a second pot the vinegar, garlic, onions, spices and oil is being heated up to a rolling boil. this is the marinade it turns out bit different every time i do it. and that's ok, we love the fact of a little twist each time i get around to can peppers.


after filling the jars with peppers and the marinade, i carefully get rid of the air bubbles and loosely put the lid on the jars (the jars have been sterilized in the boiling water for a few minutes, including lids).
then i took the largest (widest) pot, put the filled glasses into the boiling water, up to the glas sholders) and let them sit on the stove top, boiling for 20 minutes.


oh yes, taking them out of the water and tightly closing the lids. you will year the lid pop inward as they cool. the vacuum is the essential part of sterilizing. if the vacuum is not "in the jar" the canned goods will spoil very quickly.
i'm happy with the result of a few small jars, they will be little gifts. and three bigger ones to consume in our house, very likely with polenta! this is a favorite of all in the house.

a chronology::veggie kebabs

we love to cook outdoors, we savor good food and we do have some "pyromaniacs" in our family.
a sunny afternoon, lots of veggies on hand as well as some grill cheese. what better can happen to it as to put it all on wooden skewers and put it over the fire.

beeing creative::with "schwarzwaelder torten"

like every sunday night we meet as a community to share a meal and be together. this looks different every time. some times it is a time of sharing stories of our lives, listening to a travel report, discussing an interesting article or bible passage. other times we play games, have fun pure or like this past sunday we are creative...


we split up in three groups, each group got all the needed ingredients for a "schwarzwaelder torte", chocolate sponge cake, lots of whipped creme, cherries and chocolate shaving. and yes there were a few more ingredients which were added for the fun of it...


lots of whipped creme didn't make it into the dessert...


one team was super creative, they created something like an "ice bomb"


the results turned out fun and yummy!

a first::for the six year old

naomi's first day of school, and back to school for the boys...
after having moved back to switzerland last year, naomi went to kindergarten and enjoyed it a lot, kindergarten in switzerland is fun. it is very wholesome, and naomi is so ready to start with "real" school. learning to write and read and getting homework! we had many great conversations about it all and during our summer brake there was lots of thinking being done in regards to this new "thing" called school!


so, here we are!
7am we get up and of her cloths have been chosen carefully yesterday evening. of course the dolly "n" had to have breakfast with her and some happy conversations have taken place over the past days, very sweet.


hopping along in her new school bag, not missing a sight on our way to school.


the boys were great, the loved to take her along, very proudly pronouncing her a brave sis and of course, she will have to fend for herself when the sixth graders will be threatening her!
she got to hear all the "horror stories", there was once a brawl and a boy got a scratch in his eye and is now blind... o well i guess those tips of stories make their way around the school yard in any given town... but i thought of it as very cute the way the big brothers coached her for the big day. now a week into it all, it is routine and no big deal, just normal and i'm glad for her. she loves school, she loves to run out of the house every day with her big bros.

{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

summer::the fourth

we got to see a very old church, built around the year 200 AD


the church of densus






and of course, the building was not that interesting for our nature boy....
he found a rock with ton's of little fossils!


and then on the road sides, once in a while ruins of failed businesses, these big and wide towers have been iron furnaces of the csv calan, someone else has taken a photo, an very impressive black and white one...
many other said places of not finished construction sights we passed by. mostly abandoned within the last few years, as the mortgage bubble hit in eastern europe in a similar way as in the USA.

summer::the third

visiting places in romania includes quite a bit of driving...
the streets are mostly very high frequented main roads. lots of cars and trucks of all ages and then as soon as you leave a main road there are villages, people selling produce right there on the street side and we passed many horse pulled wagons loaded high with hay. definitely a unique experience...


int he car...


and outside beyond the car windows...


the little farm we visited, there are so many interesting parts to the history of the village life and in particular to these lovely place. in short the house was built in communist times. there were two floor plans available, a one story and a two story one and that's why houses look very much alike!


the farmer and his wife work 5 hectares of land. they have one milk cow and three buffalo cows, about two dozen chickens and a couple of pigs, and a hand full of cats. a garden where lots of yummy veggies grow a few fruit trees, that's what they live on. there are no shops in the villages, no groceries to be bought, it's just the market on saturdays.
here is a very interesting link in regards to making hay and stacking it. it is an art, yes indeed it is.


the farmers wife was in the middle of braiding all her onions into long strands, something i remember my grandma doing too. i do wish for a garden to be able to grow onions, to last all winter for our family...


here the result!
to the right are the garlic braids, all safe in a little dry shed.


the buffalo pull what ever needs to be pulled, be it plow, wagon or just anything.


elias and i were stunned by the sight of this rooster!


and the kitty love...