Practicing Patience - Yarn along

I am not exactly known for my patience ususally. The more it surprises me to find myself rather calm and peaceful these last days. Due Date has passed without any exhiting news. Friends and families keep checking, but me, I just try to be still and listen to my body and my child. I feel so certain they will let me know when they are ready for this birth. I am just praying doctors and midwifes will give us the time we need and that I stay strong enough to trust my own feelings as long as possible.

A friend of mine has sent me this picture yesterday by the artist Itaiana Battoni. It was shown via the Mother Health International Faceboook page and said:

"The concept of a 'due' date is something that is very abstract in many cultures. If, like in Uganda, you count a pregnancy by the moons, you end up having a 'due month' and baby comes when she is perfectly ripe without causing mama lots of anxiety."

My children being half Ugandans I found this picture and wisdom so comforting and just the perfect thing to be given on my due date.

The days of the due month are special for sure. Even though it is my second child, each day is spent knowing it could be the last one of my life as I have known it. Something new is coming, someone else who will mix up everything. So there are special moments in every day that I live more aware and present somehow:
This morning, after I came from a doctors appointment I very spontaneously went for a (very short) walk into our nearby forest. There was still ice on the pond, the air crisp and chilly but the sky was blue and sunbeams stroke  my face. Almost invisible still, there was the first hint of green around the bushes. But the actual truth was told by all those birds: spring is just around the corner! It was one huge concert and I told my child how wonderful this earth is and that I want to show her all its beauty. What a magical half an hour time a spend there.

Last night I suddenly felt like baking. Something I had not done in quite a while. There was flour, milk and yeast in the house, so I decided on some buns. While the dough rose I thought I should make some special buns, some "due date buns" maybe. So I added some amaranth cerial to the dough with sesame and nuts, something that would keep me going the next days. In my blessing way book I found some simple symbols related to birth and shaped the buns like them. There is the Native American "Wheel of Life" (the round bun with the cross), the Maori "Koru" (the spiral) which symbolizes new beginnings and the Egyptian "Key of Life" that symbolizes birth.

I finished all the planned baby projects, knitting and sewing wise and most of the things I wanted to do around the house so I picked up some old sock project that has been sitting around for far too long. We'll see how far I get this time... 

My sister has gifted me to a skein of lovely handspun ocean colored single merino and I am still contemplating, what I should use it for. Any ideas anyone? It is very soft yarn but I am not so sure it will work for a baby project because it seems unwashable without felting to me. I am not sure.

There are many books on my night desk these days. One I have devoured (no photo) by recommendation of Lori is Spiritual Midwifery. Such a bible for birthing really. And of course I could not resist to get the 1000 Days journal by Nikki McClaire for my baby. I hope I will really manage to keep it up for her. Then there is a Doula book and one on my ever so fascinating topic of gender and a few others, I pick a page here and a passage there. Sweet days of due month...

I am joing Ginny for Yarn Along today.

Fast forward - Pause

This week has started weird. Like someone pressed the fast forward button right after getting up. The one who pressed that button was a lady from court calling me on jury duty as a lay judge (Schöffe) this morning. An assignment I had applied for years ago when I was still studying social work and a bit into that law thing after having had a hard time with my exams. In Germany you can apply for this voluntary duty (sounds contradictive) but if not enough people apply you can also be called. Anyway, I had not heared back from court for years, until a few month ago when I recieved a letter telling me I was an official  lay judge "(Hilfs)schöffe" now. Then again, no news for month. Until this morning, that phonecall, if I could please be there in half an hour. The court being at the other end of the city. They paid for the cab though. Of course I can't talk about the case itself, but just the procedure itself was exhiting to me. Before the hearing we sat in a small room together with the judge and joked around.
In Germany the judge and the usually two lay judges have the same rights. Unlike in the US the judge also decides on the case, but the two judges can outvote him/her. As a lay judge I also sit right next to the judge in the front, which must have looked funny today because I was dressed very casual in t-shirt and jeans while the judges and the attorneyes were dressed in their robes, the other lay judge was wearing a suit... ooops. Well, noone said anything but maybe next time I will choose a black shirt instead of the orange-purple one to blend in a bit more...
Then I was sworn and the hearing started just to be called off again after a short while because the witnesses didn't show up. There will be another hearing next week.
Have you ever been called on judge duty or worked as a Schöffe? How did you feel about it?

I went to work straight after this and still hadn't had time for breakfast. Thats how the day continued until I got home late in the afternoon.
But someone pressed the pause button just in time for the evening.

It was about time for my very, very favourite summer salad: strawberries, a large handful of basil and mozzarella, seasoned with some sea salt and pepper, olive oil and dark balsamic vinegar.  Boy how that tastes like summer!

Our nights are still spend watching too much football/soccer. Some spinning included - for a project I am very much looking forward to share with you soon...

Same, same but different...

Ich muss gestehen, ich träume schon lange von einem wunderschönen, handgetöpferten Geschirrservice. Einheitlich, schlicht, schön und doch jedes Stück individuell. Leider ist Töpfern immer etwas kompliziert, da man ja auch eine Gelegenheit zum Brennen braucht, und überhaupt muss man das erstmal so richtig können. Naja, jedenfalls, bisher sieht es in unserem Geschirrschrank noch so aus, wie zu meiner Studentenzeit in der WG. Alles ist bunt durcheinander gewürfelt und aus den unterschiedlichstens Perioden meines Lebens. Hat auch was schönes, wenn ein Geschirrschrank Geschichte erzählt. Das soll er ruhig auch weiter tun. Trotzdem, so ein schönes Set für besondere Momente und Gäste ist ein Herzenswunsch. Bis der in Erfüllung geht habe ich aber nun eine andere Lösung gefunden, inspiriert von der wunderbaren JenMun(a), deren handbemaltes Geschirr mich in seiner Schlichtheit einfach verzaubert hat. Zunächst wollte ich mal ein Set Tassen haben die zusammen passen. Ich fand auch direkt die passenden weißen Tassen, groß und trotzdem mit einem dünnen Rand, genau so, wie ich es mag.

Dann haben Aaron und ich erstmal die Porzellanmarker ausprobiert und haben zwei alte kleine Tassen damit bemalt die ich noch rumstehen hatte. Sehr originelles Design ist draus geworden :-)

Für die richtigen Tassen habe ich mir dann bei Pinterest noch viel Inspiration geholt. Und bin dann auch fündig geworden. Leider kann ich für das Bild keine Quelle finden, da der Link nicht funktioniert, sonst hätte ich gerne dem Urheber Kredit gezollt.

Vor dem entgültigen Design habe ich noch viel herumprobiert und mit Farben experimentiert. Letztlich ist das Türkis mit dem Marker entstanden, das Grau aus Schwarz-Weiß Mischungen aus dem Töpfchen mit Farben die ich noch hatte: 

Mal sehen, vielleicht stelle ich mir so nach und nach ein ganzes Service zusammen...

P.S. Not joining Ginnys for Yarn Along today, since there was not a lot of knitting going on last week. Instead I designed my own mugs. I am still dreaming of my own, hand pottered dishes, maybe one day I will own it but until then I want to at least serve coffee in simular mugs from now on...

And how do you like this old and redesigned teapot I found in a store for handmade items last week? It looks almost like a doodle with a marker and it's brilliant I think! I really have to start looking for plain thrifted dishware.

Reaching out for Summer

This is really my very favorite time of the year, I can smell summer just around the corner, but I still enjoy the fresh early mornings, the chill of spring. And the days are getting sooo long and bright... There is so much to do and I have really got into preserving the treasures of the season. But first let me introduce:

This lovely lady arrived here yesterday. Isn't she lovely, my dandelion-girl? What a star at the natural table she will be! Thank you so much Marta!

I have been to the zoo today, work wise, with my clients. Nathan is gone all weekend to visit a friend in bavaria so Aaron came along too, he is not very interested in most of the animals (yet?). Maybe he is like me and prefers the closer look, the direct touch. The only picture I took in the zoo was the one of poppys and some blue ones, oh those colors...

Are you surprised I had to add some more color to myself? The few hours a day that we spend at home are mostly spend on the balcony. It is really amazing how much can be done in such a small space.

Aaron talked to his dad on the phone, in a language only he understands (my mum thought it was some African language first but it is mainly Aaronish). I love how he copies us exactly when he "talks" on the phone.

And last but not least the latest harvest and preservation actions: I just had to buy some more rhubarb so I could fill a few jars with jam, Next to strawberry, rhubarb jam is my very favorite and its hard to find in the stores. Maybe I will make even more but I am running out of jars at the moment.

Good the elderflower syrup will get filled up into bottles and some of it frozen in ice cubes. And the spruce tops have to wait at least three weeks before I need a jars for the cold syrup. Thanks to Martha again, for instructions and link. Spruce and elderflower I have all harvest just behind our house, I had never noticed any of those possibilities last year. Blogging rises awareness for such things!

We will try to squeeze in as much late spring living into this weekend as possible. Are you joining in?

Oh sweet Rosemary...

There is a reason why rosemary is known to be an appetizing herb. I just have to spend some time at our balcony and there it is, this craving. I think rosemary is my all time favourite herb. Yesterday that resulted in some late night baking. The plan was to bake rosemary cookies but after I combined butter and sugar I found out we had run out if eggs so another batch of scones it was, only I substituted the raisins with a handful of fresh rosemary. They turned out lovely and just right with some chai latte.

All you have to do is:

preheat oven to 180° C

mix 100 gram butter, 

50 gram sugar, 

15 gram baking powder 

300 gram flour

a pinch of salt

until they resemble bread crumbs.

add aprox 150 ml milk very carefully not to stir too much, just combine wet and dry

put the mixture on a greased tray

form a flat circle and cut into a cake of eight pieces.

bake until surface gets slighly brown.

Cut open while still hot and enjoy with melting butter. 

First harvest of the year

This weekend had us occpuied with running noses and sore throats. There were two friends birthdays to attend too, so the energy level at the end of the day was rather low. Still I wanted to tell you about our first harvest this year which happend last week. Aaron and me went on a small outing with my sister, his favourite "Tante Auto" ("Auntie Car"), because she has a car and Aaron loves it, sorry, her, very much ;-) . The only aim we had was to find a sweet lonely meadow with lots of dandelions. A meadow far from polluted streets and peeing dogs...
We didn't even have to search for very long and found this wonderful place at a hillside, near Altenberg.
For city people like us there is sooo much to do in a meadow: picnic, knit, play, pick flowers, watch busy bumble bees, doze, take pictures, breath... we did all that!

Aaron was the best helper when it came to picking dandelion heads. He toke his task very serious. So when we came home we had enough flowers for some syrup. I used this recipe and it worked out very, very well. 

That's how the heads looked like by the time I started. They have to be soaked over night before you boil the syrup.

Preparing the jars is the part of preserving I like least. 

Filling them is the best part. Look at that color, isn't it yummy?!

Done! Some bottles in the fridge, ready to enjoy, some jars prepared as gifts for some more up coming birthdays. The syrup is best to be served on toast, pancakes or ice cream. Mmmmhhhh... 

There is some crazy stuff you can do with dandelion. You can use every part of it. I even found a recipe for dandelion ice cream on pinterest, are you interested? And from the leaves you can make salad or dandelion pesto. I really wanted to do that but somehow the leaves were still very small and I guess I can wait a little longer... The roots can be roasted and turned into coffee. Has anyone tried that yet and knows if its worth the effort?

If you have some more recipes including dandelion, please share. I would be delighted!

Sunday of Plenty

Some days just feel so much larger than others, larger as in so much more stuff fits into that day than into an average one. I really don't know how that happens. If it all depends on the way you start your day? Possibly starting the day with freshly bakes scones helps? What do you think?

A walk after breakfast with some brought in lilacs (?) might also do the trick...

A day like that certainly needs a lot of yarn, yummy colors, maybe some dyeing even, no harm in that!

Definately giving some extra special moment to your enlarged day will be having a good chat with your Papa under a blanket without Mama to see you. Papa needs lots and lots of soccer on telly on a day like that and some running during Aarons nap time.

Mama needs this:

Yes! Enjoying my new spinning wheel, at the balcony, so much! With a cute little boy discovering his toes showing out of his new summer shoes, how weird...

And anyway, sunday living at the balcony, never to be underestimated! Ooops, there's been a road accident... (no hurt feelings here, we have done the chalk drawings way earlier, I don' think he even recognized that stickmann, so it just looks a bit evil in the picture).

Some late spring seeding of Physalis... (late, since I forgot the seeds in the freezer. Because on the package it said to give them two weeks of frost, it might have been a few more, I hope they survived...)

Of course a day like that needs good, fresh food. We had some asparagus-potato salat with chives, olive oil and a little salt. Sooooo yummy!

Knitting? Sure there has been a wee bit of that too. (Never mind my toe nails need some up doing...)

But even a day full of plenty like that comes to an end. Too bad I can't take my wheel to bed with me, so here it is once more. I am so in love :-)

How has been your weekend? I hope to see you over at Amandas for Weekending!

Edit: happyly joing in Woolly Wednesday this month too. 

Preparing Easter Breakfast

"Fear not, for Christ is risen!"

After some days with grey clouds and rain the sun is shining again today. Its bitterly cold still, but bright and welcoming. A day just made to celebrate Easter it seems.

Celebrating Easter is and has always been all about breakfast for me. Homebaked buns with jam, flowers and, of course, eggs... we dyed ours with natural but bought colors.

So yesterday we prepared what still needed to be done, bake the buns, plant some flowers, dye some eggs and, best of all, make some more butter. I really fell in love with the simplicity of this act, shaking the cream to seperate butter and buttermilk. And Aaron helped me today and seemed to enjoy it too:

  

This is how it looks like when you have done enough shaking. The seperated buttermilk is very tasty and doen't taste like the one you can buy at all, more like vey creamy milk. I talked to my granddad (who grew up on a farm) on phone while I was making the butter and he remembered how his mother used to make butter the old style in one of these wooded buckets and how much he loved to drink that buttermilk. I wish I had such an old wooded butter maker but then again, you'd probably need too much cream to fill it. 

You then can add any flavour you like. We stired in some raspberry jam for the easter buns. Actually we used a bit too much jam so the butter became a little bit too soft to shape it properly but at least it was easy to spread like that coming straight from the fridge and truely delicious!

We have not started hiding eggs for Aaron yet since it would be impossible to explain to him how to look for something he has not seen before. I love hidding though and impatiently have to wait for next year to get into that with him...

After lunch we will meet with some friends and celebrate the day together, I can't wait...

I would love to hear about your Easter traditions and news. Do you have any special plans for today?

Happy Easter to you!