{this moment}

A Friday ritual Inspired by SouleMama

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.

 

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see

Bargain

Back in December last year and again earlier this month I started to plan out my garden for this year.

What to plant, when to plant and where to plant

Last year before I moved to Germany, I made some grea sales on seeds (salad, herbs, tomatoes, peppers) , so when I planned I took in consideration of what I have and what I need.

Today I went into town to drop of some sale items at the post office for shipping. My mom had asked me to go to this discount center in town to check out if they have a few things that she is looking for while there, so I did. While there, I came accross this massive box of seedlings with the sign 'to go for free', I checked out what was in there, mainly salads and leek but also a few others and with a bit of looking I found some peas, bean and carrots along with leeks, kohlrabi and rocket salad that I took home for free. That's what I call a bargain.

Morning walk

I woke up tonew snow this morning and how better to start the day then a long walk through the winter wonder land?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can't beat a night sky in the country

 

 

Last night between 9 and 10pm, I took the dogs out for a quick walk before we settled in for the night. It was a moonless, quiet, clear and cold night and I could clearly see the stars in the sky. There were no other lights around us, no noice other then the dogs running on the grass and I was reminded once again that as far as I am concerned, I live in a little slice of heaven on earth. It reminded me of my childhood and nights that were spend outside just looking up in the sky, gazing at the stars. It is something that I missed when I lived in Newcastle. The closeness to the city meant that no matter when I looked in the sky, there was always sorounding lights. The simple act of basking in the wonder of a night sky and marvelling at its mystery is an experience that is shared across humanity, throughout history, no significant knowledge required. Sadly this experience is growing more rare, as large numbers of the population congregate in urban spaces and augment city borders, pushing their innate desire for constant light up and out, spilling light pollution into even the rural areas hundreds of kilometres outside of those major cities. I am glad I was reminded about the beauty of the night sky last night

...for the love of bread...

Nothing beats the smell and taste of freshly baked homemade bread.





I love baking bread, I love the kneading of the bread by hand and I love the smell in the house of freashly baked bread.  I have been baking bread for 12 years now and I have not bought bread in the store for 5 years now. My mom had a bread maker like 12 years ago and that bread tasted amazing but I prefer using my own hands to make the bread.

Yesterday evening I prepared some sourdough and today I spend the morning kneading, baking and eventually eating freshly made bread.

The garden

It's been rather mild outside for the last few days, so I figured that I could do some more work in the garden. The plan is to put a fence through the garden soon, so that the vegtables are safe from the dogs ;-)

Last fall I created a new piece of land but I still wanted to put some corner stones around it. We have lot's of stone plates left in the garden...so I hauled them over 1 by 1 to the place and then dug into the soil to create a hole, so that I could put the stone in and create a small border wall. Some other stones were used as a path way. After two hours of good work, I was done. Now all that I need to do is build or set the actual fence.

Now it's getting late in the day and I have just finished to prepare the souerdough for tomorrows break baking. I am very much looking forward to the fresh bread and the smell in the house

January Money diet

It's been a week now that I am participating in the January Money diet, the tips and hint provided are very useful and the community is great to keep going. A lot of the things I already do but everyonce in a while I come accross things that will help me further.

In terms of spending, I have not spend any money apart from the insurance pay at the beginning of the month.

So far no grocery shopping was needed (Actually that's not true I did buy chickenbreast for 2.50 Euros on the 2nd of January and 1.5 kilo of banana's for 1.45 Euro's but that was it) and I had homemade food each day of the new year. I have lot's of frozen berries, cherries and apples in the freezer that have been used for smoothies in the morning or dessert or snacks in between. I have ate a bit more vegan this week than I usually do and tried some new recipies, with the ingredians that I have. I have also baked some fresh bread.

Further more I am looking for ways to save money. Todays challenge was to find way to safe eleetricity and while I found no new ways (yet), I was glad to realize that a lot of things I already do and that I was raised in the way to safe electricity from when I was young. It's good to know that those lessons from my grand-ma do pay off :)