les lavandières/the washerwomen

"Ugh...time-consuming drudgery...stop glorifying washing clothes by hand, Ladies, time to just push it out of the collective memory..."

Is what I was thinking when I saw the Lavandières of Scherwiller shuffle into Barr last weekend.    Why would anyone want to watch and even get all nostalgic about this domestic task?

But these cheery women clustered around the waterway, gossiping, scrubbing sheets (that I suspect weren't really dirty), singing, sweating, and laughing.  Then an accordion player showed up and things got crrrrazzzy!

I met their acquaintance later on in the afternoon and easily decided that they're some of the nicest humans on the planet. 

 Wooden clog and linen apron alert!  

Watch as they file past in this video clip I took of them....

So instead of saying 'poor me' while I'm loading my mini-washer (little basin only half-full of clothes and within the restricted time frame of 12:30 P.M. for whites and between 12:30 P.M.-1:30 P.M. for color) every day of the week, hanging each article of clothing by hand to dry followed by a vigorous ironing to remove the clothespin pocks, I'm actually saying....ahhh....this is the life....

painting image 1: Lavandières sur La Toques by Eugène Boudin, 19th century

music in video: Françoise Hardy

Sorry Guys.....

Remember Friday's post about the stylish dress that couldn't?  I know the pathetic factor in posting about dress making failures.  But at this moment I have little else to write about than my textile adventures....Sorry dudes, another dress post....

Here's the dress after minor modifications.  I left it as it initially was and just added a vintage button at the neckline, bouffant sleeves, bubble hem and a waist tie with little flowers at the extremities.  

Maybe it's now just a jazzed up night gown.  Ha!  Back to the sewing room.....

Ebersheim: troc plantes part II

Trading and bartering plants Place de la Mairie, Ebersheim.

We traded our plant cuttings for just the thing our garden needs the most: more

FLOWERS.....

Baby Jumping Goats

A couple days ago, taking a stroll, we met 'Animal Man' Paul, a friendly neighbor who invited us to see his baby goats. Music composed by Daniel.

Cacti Album

I repotted my cacti and succulent friends. Check them out!

Bathtub Fish Pond

Remember our interred bathtub goldfish pond back in the Gregory, Timmy, & Banana Living post? Well, Greg, Tim, and Banana have grown, and they've had six black babies and one gold one: it was high time to get a new, larger tub.

Taking the bathtub to the recycling center, I saw people looking into the car. I knew they were judging our bathtub rings.


Exhuming the bathtub was more work than we envisioned, night fell, and we weren't nearly finished! We were forced to carry on with flashlights,


scooping out the water, mucky dirt, aquatic plants, and fish with our buckets and hands.

Because of all the agitation, the water got thick and dark and I started freaking out, worried that the fish weren't getting enough oxygen. And the black baby goldfish were impossible to see and capture so we developed a system of scooping up the murky water in a bucket and pouring it over a patch of flashlight-illuminated grass that acted as a kind of net. When we saw something tiny flopping, we gently scooped it up and chucked it into our designated fish bucket. If it wasn't eerie enough, we discovering leeches and some kind of water cockroaches living in the mud, too. I was so worried we'd missed a fish or two, or wounded a couple of the little ones. It was very stressful for all of us.


Thankfully, our fish family is alive and well, enjoying their new home which is actually a green plastic highway exit indicator bumper sign (as seen in photo below) buried upside down. Daniel has plans to find an even bigger improvised pond and I can only imagine what he's going to come up with....

Sarkozy sur grand écran

Après le crash de l`avion polonais...

Dimanche soir à l`aéroport de Bordeaux-Mérignac 70 passagers refusent de monter à bord d`un tupolev 204-120 en raison de son délabrement et de la trouille causé par le crash de l`avion présidentiel polonais. Après avoir montré du doigt l`électricien polonais c`est au tour de l`aviation polonaise et au constructeur tupolev de foutre la trouille. Prochain épisode avec une autre compagnie, un autre constructeur et un autre corps de métier...

Turret Nest

Despite this empty nest perched on a turret, the storks are back from Africa! Check out a blue stork that's been spotted near Berlin!

DU CAFÉ CONTRE LE DIABETE ET LES QUESTIONS CONNES.

See more: www.DanielSutter.net

Rue des Arts à Barr

Rue des Arts à Barr turns into 'this is boring, let's go for a hike!' Here are some random shots...Happy Monday everybody!

Troc aux Plantes Muttersholtz

Who can pass up a chance to trade plants, meet some really nice people (except for the talkers who come to impress with their plant knowledge) and if you show up late, adopt some vegetation that nobody wants to haul back home!
I've adopted some succulents! One looks like little pickles. They must have been cut from the mother that morning, there are no root systems yet at all!
Our dreams came true when we traded a delphinium for a lilac bush!
Next Troc aux Plantes: Ebersheim April 24, Place de la Marie. See you there!

Little Plat à Gratiner

I found these two gourmet Le Creuset dishes at Emmaus for one euro and they retail for around 50 euros ($66) each! And we seem to have an orange theme going on in the kitchen anyway...
I made a little Swiss Chard Gratin with biodynamic chard and munster cheese (untraditional) that was really delicious with potatoes.
It even attracted a giant ant.

April Hikes in Charbes

A little hiking in the village of Charbes in the Vallée de Villé. There was a crystal blue sky to greet us (and a curious circus truck) at the summit and then clouds roared and bloomed overhead, dropping a clamor of hail on us for the descent!

Hunawihr

We had a beautiful day here in Alsace yesterday and we took advantage of Lundi Pâques by going to a concert in Hunawihr and I took a couple of pictures of this village nestled in among the vineyards.

Is this not a great color for a house?

An old crumbler just beside it.

A fountain in front of Restaurant Suzel.

Another great house color.

And 'right on' with yellow and turquoise!

And mauve!

Hi magnolia

Looking good, little Magnolia! For obvious childhood reasons, I wanted to plant a magnolia tree in our front yard. We planted this one two years ago. I hope it's the same variety as Nonna's!

Magnolia sighting today in Ribeauvillé.