Winding down

  

  

Today I am winding down from a busy week. August is coming to an end. I spend the week busy either at work or working at home. I started prepping the garden for fall and winter and am building a walk way  in the garden. A new coop for the rabbits was build too and just in general the week was busy and over way to quick. Today we just relaxed. We had a BBQ for lunch and some nice cocktails to go with it. Now I am kind of waiting for the rain to hit, while listening to music and pottering and cleaning around the house.

Have a great weekend folks

{A Moment}

Today, instead of a regular post, I will be taking {a moment} 

A silent moment in thoughtful memory of Jana who tragically died this week and sending love and prayer to her family both here in Germany and the US

Having been an Au pair myself I feel connected to Jana, even though I never met her in person. As Au pairs we share the same experiences, the same hopes and dreams and none of us Au pairs imagines that our year could end like this or that death would be a part of our year.

Au pairs from all over the world will send a balloon to the sky on August, 25th 2013, 6pm German time to remember Jana, please join us in remembering a strong woman, who will be deeply missed by her family and friends.

Yarn along

Joining in with Ginny of Small Things for this week's yarn along. 

 

Not much of a knitter yet but I love crocheting, I got this book last week and decided to try something simple. Two hours later this was done.

 

Summer kitchen

 

 

I can't believe that my last post was a week ago. This week just flew by to be honest and I am wondering where time went. I was feeling slightly unwell towards the end of the week, feeling that a cold might be coming and taking steps to prevent this, including going to bed early. The week was foggy, cold and rainy, typical fall weather but it picked up again this weekend. I spend the weekend catching up on things in the garden, harvesting more cucumbers and tomatoes, froze another batch of apples and spend some time making beautiful tomato sauce a la Soulemama . I tried her recipe last year and loved it, so obviously I had to make it again this year. Some of the sauce did not make it into the jars but the first three jars have been canned and stored for winter. With the amount of tomatoes that I have, I can can a batch each week, which is gonna make me real happy. The first batches of apples sauce are stored away too but I also froze some and made an apple pie from the fresh august apples.
Life is good right now, I am grateful for all that the garden is producing at the moment. 

Garden Update August 12th

Slowly but surely it feels like fall is coming. Last week, when I was out doing chores shortly past 5am, I noticed that it was a bit darker then a few days or weeks ago and I realized that summer is on the verge of passing into fall. During the days it has been getting 'colder', less sunny and a bit windy. Not by much, temperatures are still in the mid 20s Celsius but compared to the heat from June and July it fells cold. All around the farmers are bringing in the wheat harvest and I can hear them driving up the dirt road next to my house until late at night. We had 2 or 3 rain showers and thunder storms in August so far but the rain never lasted more then 10 minutes. The thunderstorms clearly support the change in he season and I am spending as much times as I can outside, enjoying it while it lasts.

In my garden I was mainly focusing on harvesting beans and cucumbers this past week. I have 4 cucumber plants and harvested approx 40 cucumbers so far. Some are used for salad, the majority is being pickled for the winter. It has been years since the last time I had home pickled cucumbers. I will get one more harvest out of the climbing beans this week, before they are coming out. I also harvested the onions this week and some carrots. I am slowly starting to take the big fodder crops out to give to the rabbits. The kale and radish that I planted for fall harvesting are growing. The blackberries are starting to turn black and taste so sweet. Tomatoes are growing and turning red too. I already picked 2 kilos. The plants are full but the tomatoes are rather small, just a bit bigger then cherry tomatoes, so I am going with a different kind next year.

kale

 

 

 

 

  

6 weeks old

A Year has past

On the 9th of August 2012 I left the UK and moved to Germany, arriving in my old/new home shortly after midnight on the 10th of August. 

When I planned this move, I had no job waiting for me, just lot's of work to do on the house. 

A year later I am back working in my profession as a assistant tax consultant, being able to work from home 2 days a week, growing my own food and enjoying life as best as I could. My friend said it the other day, I sure did land on my feet, things could have turned out completely different and yet they didn't. 

To my friends and family it all looked easy. If you asked my mom and my brother they would tell you that things had always gone my way no matter what I did and yes some of it was pure luck but the majority of it, is a lot of this is hard work and believing in my dreams.

I am not missing Newcastle (well that is most of the time), just a week ago on Sunday I felt quite homesick for Newcastle and missing my friends there. I will take a week off in October to go and visit them.

All in all I can't believe how quickly this last year has gone by, despite some difficulties and homesickness it was the right decision for us to live a slower paces life. The dogs are enjoying the freedom they have and I enjoy the change of seasons, hot summers, snowy winters and having my family close by

Pickled Dill cucumbers

Yesterday, I pickled cucumbers (not sure if that is the right word but anyway they are now sitting for a few days before they are ready to be eaten. 

I used to do it the traditional way my grand-ma and dad used to to it. On Sunday night, I put the cucumbers in salt water. You should usually leave them in the salt water mix for 12-24 hours.  

Then last night I first cleaned the cucumbers, washed them and dried them. In the meantime, I heated a mix of vinegar and water on the stove and cleaned a large jar (in the past we put them in large stone jars but for one or two people that is way too much).

 

I then added the cucumbers, some peeled onions, dill and mustard seeds and then added the vinegar/water mix.

 

Leave in a dark/cool place for at least 8 days and then they are ready to be eaten

Harvest

Yesterday was a busy day. I was up at dawn and out in the garden shortly after 6am. I started off by picking beans and cucumbers before I spend half an hour just watering the garden. The drought that we have is severe and without watering the garden at least every second day, I would not harvest anything this year. The plan was to can the beans and preserve the cucumbers. Speaking to my neighbor she offered me a bucket full of August Apples, so after I prepared the beans and put them in the caner and went over to my neighbors to get apples. Now, as far as I am concerned August apples are the best and make for wonderful apple sauce. So I spend the rest of the morning peeling and cutting apples and making apples sauce. One bag of apples (approx 800g) was just cut and frozen for apple pie or smoothies but the rest was all used for apple sauce, and let me tell you it was delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{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