Transumance à Hohrod

Holy Shit!!! We had so much fun moving to higher pastures with Andrea and Christophe!

While waiting for the cows, post-sandwich, on the steps of a rural primary school, we suddenly heard something in the distance, like the hum of a subterranean bumble bee nest. Then, when the soulful toots of a Swiss horn blew, we finally knew the ladies were about to emerge from their winter farm with bells on!

We followed behind them, hiking all the way from Hohrod to the Wormsa Valley, taking in the Vosges Mountains.

What a weekend!!!

Do the Softest Things in the World Overcome the Hardest?

"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth. " (Genesis 9:13-16, KJV)

stick it and stay

It's another season of handstands!

Staying for an infinite amount of time in a standing-on-hand position is a goal I've had for about four years now....

It's really touch and go, but when I really stick it, I stay, and it's pretty much the funnest thing ever. I'm planning on doing this up into my eighties....

If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there.

No, I didn't forget you, tomatoes and celery, making it difficult to open this window...

We (Daniel) had to repot several of the tomatoes
that were exploding the little plastic containers

And the celery are so delicate, their stems are like little slack hairs.

The tomatoes are from Sainte Marthe, a seed conservatory that preserves old, almost forgotten varieties.

That's not going to stop Mother-in-law Sutter from buying some conventional tomato seedlings for us to plant along side these rustics!

If all three of us travel together, I shall find two teachers....

Our kitchen is sprouting!

Sunflowers that are growing ridiculously fast...

Next to some lettuce that I planted this morning...

And our cucumbers that are getting huge!  

Plantation weekend!!!

English Words Rule!!!!

Right now in Alsace, anything with English words on them are hyper-cool. It doesn't have to make sense, just SAY ANYTHING and it's totally rad! I liken it to the Chinese character craze a couple years back when everything oriental was so exotically zen.
Here are a few from scouring ads that were stuffed into our mailbox....
from top left to right
*'HAIRY CAPTAIN.'
*'MY MIND BELONGS TO YOU.'
*'THE BIGGEST.' (Uhh, in case we were wondering..)
*'I KNOW ALL THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU.'
*'THE LIFE IS GOOD.'
*'HIBISCUS BEACH, SURF ON THE FLOWERS, WAX AND FLOWERS IN THE BAY'
*'YES/NO.' (What exactly are we yaying and naying in bed? )
The best part of these ads are that they are prefaced with 'AS SEEN ON TV!' which makes them pretty much even cooler if it were possible.

Search to find...

Hiking somewhere in the Altenberg near Breitenau on the hunt for this Rock of the Fairies that we never found.



This didn't mean that we didn't have a lot of fun! We even little off-the-trail exploring as well!

Haricot Vert....

Somehow when I'm not looking, Daniel manages to make the most beautiful things happen in the garden.  And I get jealous.  He made another structure made out of branches to give our little 'Or du Rhin' green beans something to hold onto before we steal and eat it's little children tucked away in pods.

Also seen in photo is our green house bought at Lidl two years ago that is disintegrating.  Boo to plastic!  But the leeks and onions inside are growing just fine.  Along the wall there are jerusalem artichoke clumps that will grow very tall and give something that I treasure: a green wall to secure privacy from passers by.  I love my neighbors, but do I really want to see them everyday?  Especially when they want to chat at the moment when I'm trying very hard to be alone in the sunshine?     Those jerusalem artichokes taste pretty good too when we dig them out of the ground in autumn.   Going to go see what Daniel's doing...he's in the garden again....

Criminy Climbing Cucurbitaceae Cucumbers!

The structure Daniel built for our little Japanese climbing cucumbers!

He's all like, "Don't take pictures until the cucumbers are all big and climbing all over the structure turning it green and stuff."

And I'm all like, "But I want the before shots, too!"

So here's the empty structure.

Also seen is our out-of-control rosemary, tiny lavender plant, sage and valerian.  

How are your gardens growing?

The Omelette Show

I made the most perfect omelette for lunch yesterday. Julia Child taught me. I urge you to watch her in omelette-action....

Just after finishing my fluffy delicate omelette, I logged onto The Latent Chestnut where I saw Luke's post about the new Good Eats 2 book in which Alton Brown describes among other interesting recipes.....how to make the perfect omelette! I'm curious to know if his technique varies from that of Julia Child's....

Batik Lesson...

Artist Kaffi Pré getting his Batik on at the Arts de Rue Colmar....