familial entropy

bits and pieces

Posted on 31. May 2014 by erdhummel

During the last weeks, I haven’t had much time to write. Great events cast their shadows ahead and lot’s of stuff has to be done. Plus, the little one is demanding more and more entertainment and is getting quite annoyed if dinner isn’t ready as soon as she feels hungry. Therefore just a few bits and pieces from our last week:

After a difficult start of the week (maybe all the travelling finally took its toll), the little one finally figured how to use the baby walker after she spent a whole afternoon pushing our storage boxes around the flat. Our days are now dominated by the sounds “rattlerattlerattlerattle BANG rattlerattlerattle BANG…” At least she learned really fast how to manoeuvre the walker and she is proud as Punch. I also think that there is a new tooth coming. But then again, I have been thinking that for the last three months and nothing happened so far.

She also takes great pleasure in making nonsense now. Preferably at the dinner table. Her highlights of our meals: when she can finally put the empty plate on her head. Note: I didn’t manage to stop her from doing it. But at least now she waits until the plate is empty!

While I was at my parents place, Karsten had a workshop in Turku again. He really enjoyed the long days and all the stuff that goes with being on workshops (nice dinners, afternoon in a high rope park, sitting at the river drinking gin tonic until 4am, enjoying the hotel spa and sauna and last but not least the good company of our friends…). While I was on a 12 hour journey with the little one, he told me on the phone how great it was to sit in the whirlpool and relax….afterwards, he had such a bad conscience that he booked me a spa treatment in Zurich.

And that’s what I was doing on Friday: Karsten took care of the little one and I went to the city centre for an “Irish-Roman Spa ritual”. Meaning lots of warm water basins, steam saunas, whirlpools, relaxing chairs, sea buckthorn peelings and so on. It was such a great feeling to have the whole afternoon off and to relax without being under time pressure. Highlight of the thermae in Zurich is, by the way, the roof pool from where you have an awesome view over the city while relaxing in a jacuzzi. Only thing I struggled with: lying relaxed in the water when in fact, your legs are always trying to reach the surface or drifting away. The others didn’t seem to have that problem…maybe I am just out of training. Or it was a small and clear sign from my body to loose weight? Who knows…

Apart from all these pleasures we also worked quite a bit in the garden. We had salad for dinner for the last few days – it really pays off and tastes so much more delicious than the normal salad from the supermarket. The first strawberries are ready (much to the delight of the little one). I made peppermint-lemon balm syrup. And planted bush beans, red beet and fennel…but they are not really growing a lot at the moment. I also sowed more flowers, let’s see how that turns out. Every evening at dawn, slugs are invading our garden, celebrating an orgy. During the day, they are joined by their friends, the greenflies.

What else? Right now, Karsten is out there in the darkness (nautic twilight, just so you know!) gazing at stars. While I have been writing these lines, he called me three times. First I saw the moon – just a thin crescent, but I think I saw the Sea of Fertility (hehe…). Half an hour ago, I saw Jupiter with five moons. And now I will, before going to bed, quickly run outside to check out Saturn.

So, good night everyone. May the nautic twilight be with you.

Posted in Family, Garden, Switzerland, the little one | 2 Comments

green delight

Posted on 26. May 2014 by erdhummel

Back in Switzerland! And enjoying our first self-grown salad of the year!!

Posted in culinary bits and pieces, Garden | Leave a comment

Spiekeroog part III – shrimp boat and seals

Posted on 22. May 2014 by erdhummel

For Karsten, North Sea and shrimp boats are inevitably connected. For years, he has been talking about going on a trip on a shrimp boat during our first holiday at the North Sea. Therefore, I felt very, very honored that it was me who was allowed to join the trip to the seals while Karsten said he would watch the little one.

I love being on boats and when we left the little harbour, the wind freshened and the sun was sparkling on the water – so beautiful. It was a small shrimp boat which is not fishing anymore (unfortunately, it doesn’t pay off anymore since the coastal areas are all overfished) but showing tourists the seal banks near Spiekeroog. As there were many children on board, the captain did a little fishing anyway and put the catch in a waterbox so everyone could see (and sometimes touch) it. Although the area is overfished I was amazed by the diversity in the net!

After a little while we reached the seal banks with many seals enjoying the occasional sunshine. At this time of the year, most of them have offspring, so there were a lot of little seals as well (and no howlers). The people were relaxed, the group not too big and the captain drove by two or three times while the seals were not disturbed at all – a very nice experience without the feeling of mass tourism or sensation mongering that you so often find on excursions.

In the evening, Karsten looked at the pictures and asked me why there was a green seal on the bank. A bit confused, I checked the photos and zoomed in and we discovered that one of the seals was trapped in a fishing net (which none of the other people noticed despite binoculars and larger cameras). Since we had no internet and no working phone, we couldn’t call anyone which worried me but we saw that its fins were outside the net, so it was probably still able to swim. The next morning I went to the community centre to inform someone who would be able to help (or at least know who to call).

One day later, the little one and I were leaving Spiekeroog. In Neuharlingersiel, where you have to get of the ferry, we saw the shrimp boat lying in the harbour. And when we passed it and asked about the seal, the captain showed me a tattered green fishing net – the community centre had called him and, on the same day, he had gone to the seal bank and relieved the seal from the net (which he only does when it is unavoidable as humans should normally not enter the sandbank). With all the pollution, overfishing and destruction of natural habitats, it was really nice to find out that at least this story came to a good end.

Posted in Germany | Tagged seals, Spiekeroog | 3 Comments

Spiekeroog part II – the village

Posted on 19. May 2014 by erdhummel

Spiekeroog has a population of 780 inhabitants. And exactly one small village. It is the place where people meet to have coffee, where you can do your shopping in the only supermarket on the island. Where you meet everyone at the small bakery in the morning, picking up bread rolls. Where you can buy souvenirs, go to the spa or visit one of the small museums of Spiekeroog. And where you get married, of course.

Among the Frisian Islands, Spiekeroog is known as the green island because the population has always paid special attention to the care of the island forests. Enhancing the green concept, every house on Spiekeroog has to include something green as well, may it be a green roof, a green gable or a green fence which gives the village a special charm.

It’s a picturesque village with many old Frisian buildings. A few of them, including the oldest building from 1705, are constructed with so called swimming roofs. Meaning that, in an event of a storm flood, the people could sit on the roof of the house and if worse came to worse the roof would be separated from the house and would swim on the water.

The old church in the middle of the village has a whiff of melancholia. The models of ships under the ceiling and the old tombstones around the church are telling stories of all the stormy days when people would seek shelter in the church and pray for all the family members who were at sea, not knowing if they would make it home again. Life as a fisherman’a or sailor’s family must have been particularly hard.

Posted in Germany | Tagged Spiekeroog | 2 Comments

Spiekeroog part I

Posted on 17. May 2014 by erdhummel

After a week on the island, without internet or proper phone connection, we are back in the fast-moving world. It is true – on Spiekeroog, you immediately slow down, take life easy and relax. Or maybe it was just the exhaustion of the 12 hour journey? 😉

We started at Zurich airport, took a flight to Hamburg, a train from there to Bremen, a bus from there to Neuharlingersiel and finally the ferry to Spiekeroog. It would have been faster to fly to the US or even South America, but then we would have missed a wonderful wedding and our first holiday at the North Sea.

Spiekeroog is such a beautiful island. It is one of the East Frisian Islands and part of the Wadden Sea which was recently listed as World Heritage. As soon as we arrived I noticed how much I missed the sea – the sky is just incredibly wide, the air smells salty and a bit like seaweed and you hear the seagulls (and, quite often, the pheasants which are everywhere on the island). There are no cars on Spiekeroog, just a few electric vehicles to transport luggage (or old tourists). It does not only mean that you walk everywhere (or cycle), but also that you can hear the rushing sea and the birds…something many people might forget about when living in a city.

The wedding weekend was very windy and rainy. But after we managed the 2o minute walk to church in high heels and skirts with gusts of wind and rain, we didn’t mind the weather anymore. With the celebration taking place at the country hostel where we also slept during the weekend, we were in the great situation that we could just put the little one to bed at 8pm and then switch on the babyphone and enjoy the wedding. For the first time in a long while we danced again! We drank wine and whisky, laughed, enjoyed the buffet and the good company. It was great. 🙂

As soon as most of the guests had left on the monday morning ferry, the weather changed from rainy to less rainy (and after another 2 days from less rainy to sunny) and Karsten and I enjoyed some more beautiful days on the island. The little one loved eating sand (and many other things) and destroying sand castles. She also loved the indoor playhouse which was an awesome place to wait until the occasional rain showers were gone again. We loved eating matjes (salted herring) and shrimps. We loved going for walks in the dunes. I loved the trip to the seals (during which Karsten took care of the little one). We loved drinking coffee in the sunshine. And again the good company of our friends.

And since there is so much to tell and so many pictures to share, I will just post some general pictures of the island now and write one our two more entries during the next week.

Neuharlingersiel

First morning: sunshine! Lasted about two hours, then it was replaced by rain and wind

One of the most touching pictures I found on the camera: the little one starting to crawl after me (the little red dot in the background)

churning sea

dunes…

the Utkieker 🙂

blooming dog roses everywhere

and finally sunshine!

Posted in Family, Germany | Tagged Spiekeroog | 4 Comments

pitsch patsch patsch…

Posted on 8. May 2014 by erdhummel

…durch Regen und durch Matsch….

That’s the song we learned at our first musical playschool day in Zurich. It’s a song for a rainy day (as it was raining cats and dogs on that day) and it has six lines.

First, the lady who runs the course sang it twice so we could remember the lyrics.

Then we sang it 3 times to learn it.

Then we sang it 4 times and made rain sounds on the tambourin.

Then we sang it 3 times and clapped the hands of the babies together.

Then she played it 3 times with her cd player (instrumental version).

Followed by 3 times singing version.

Then we sang it 4 times and jumped to it in a circle.

Followed by 2 more times with more accentuated jumps.

Then we sang it 3 times and danced into the middle of the circle.

Afterwards she played it 2 times on a xylophone (I sang to it, just in case).

And she played it two times on bells (then the babies started to put the bells into their mouths).

And she played it 3 times on the keyboard (again, I think we were supposed to sing).

After that, half an hour was over!

If the little one can’t sing this song by the end of this summer, she probably won’t follow a musical career…

Tomorrow morning, we’ll get up at 5:30am and start our journey to Spiekeroog (North Sea) to attend the wedding of our friends. We’ll stay there for a week. I checked the weather forecast today: apparently our rain song was successful! Strong gusts of wind and heavy rain showers for the next days……

Posted in Switzerland, the little one | 1 Comment

friendly turns (or the sacrifice of your peace of mind)

Posted on 7. May 2014 by erdhummel

This week, we take care of our friend’s flat and its content: plants and a hamster which fulfills every mathematical criteria of a perfect ball (with fur).

Part of the instructions are as follows:

“If you happen to run into a fat moth, a wireworm or a less hairy caterpillar (cockroaches and small, delicate slugs are great too), feel free to serve it to the hamster. Sometimes the cockroaches are a bit fast for him though. He doesn’t like beetles too much, spiders neither. They are probably too bitter. Basic rule: the animal to hunt/eat should not be bigger than half the size of the hamster. Grubs are critical too.”

Yesterday we found a small bug in our flat. The perfect dinner for the hamster. Karsten caught and served it…and I spent the rest of the evening lamenting the destiny of the poor thing. There it was, unsuspecting, doing no harm on our kitchen table, and before it could say knife it was fed alive to a monstrous creature ten times bigger than itself. Although according to Karsten it had a perfect chance – if it would have lasted longer than a minute with the hamster, he would have taken it out again. I also shortly imagined the feeling of being crushed by big teeth while you can still move, but that was too much for a peaceful evening, so I quickly stopped.

Gee, children really do mess with your emotional limits…..

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged hamster | 3 Comments

the queen of the mountains with grey hair…

Posted on 5. May 2014 by erdhummel

In order to discover a bit more of Switzerland and to spend a nice day with friends, we packed our daypacks with warm clothes, a picnic and some elaborate beverages and went to Vitznau to go up the Rigi. (When I say daypacks it means the following allocation: rainjacket, hat and scarf for me, rainjacket for Karsten. Lunch, drinks and camera. For the little one: lunch, water bottle, rice crackers, bread with butter, fruits. Diapers, wet tissues, sunscreen, waterproofed trousers, winter jacket, normal jacket, gloves, hat, scarf, woolen socks, a lighter hat, a complete new outfit in case the diaper doesn’t hold (or for any unforeseen circumstances). A book, a rattle and a pacifier (to play with). The stroller. The car seat. Oh, and because we finally wanted to try it out, but weren’t sure how long she can already sit in it: the baby pack (very handy and stable baby carrier for the back, also known in German as Kraxe :-)).

With all of that and our friends in the rental car, we went to the Vierwaldstätter See, parked the car and took the little cog railway up the mountain. The Rigi (1797 m) is a well-known mountain surrounded by several lakes with a beautiful view over the Alpes. Tourism started early here, already Goethe, William Turner and Mark Twain appreciated the view, as well as Queen Victoria of England. And now us…

The train started in Vitznau with beautiful sunshine and a great view over the lake (and a lot of Chinese tourists taking pictures of the little one admiring the view).

Well, somehow that changed after a while. When we got off the train a bit below the top, we found ourselves in thick fog. The trees and even the grass were covered with several inches of ice and whenever I stopped to take a picture, the others were already out of sight after a few meters. At one point the fog was so thick that we could hear the train passing by, but we only saw an outline when it was right next to us. And although we felt quite warm pushing the stroller (and ourselves) up the mountain, I was glad I took all the warm stuff for the little one with us. One can’t say we don’t learn from mistakes! 🙂

The view from the top was…well…special!

After the little one had lunch, we started to walk down again, and finally, after a while, the fog cleared a bit and the sun came through, which looked amazing (and resulted in almost a cloudburst since all the ice on the trees melted at once). The way downhill was pleasant, we had picnic in between and enjoyed the landscape. The baby pack proofed to be very handy as the path we chose was an anti-stroller path over hill and dale, and most of the time the little one was relatively quiet (which might have been because of the height, so it was actually good that we didn’t spend much time at the top).

We were down in Vitznau around 5 o’clock – the lake presented itself again with sunshine and glittering, crystal clear water – and back home around 1.5 hours later where the little one (and ourselves) fell into our beds shortly after.

Karsten’s conclusion: that almost felt like being on holiday! So, all in all a great day trip, definitely worth repeating!

Posted in Family, Switzerland | Tagged Rigi | 4 Comments

and the winner is….

Posted on 1. May 2014 by erdhummel

Thank you so much everyone for taking part in the book raffle!! There were so many great suggestions, covering almost all genres – awesome!
For the sake of completeness I have to mention that there were three more favourite listings on facebook: Antje mentioned “Besondere Kennzeichen: Zahnspange” which was one of her favourite books as a teenager and all books of Sandra Boynton. Chelsea listed another children’s book: “My father’s dragon”, and Sooz added the Jitterburg Perfume by Tom Robbins.
This morning after breakfast I wrote down all names, threw them into our bread basket and let the little one pick. Winnie-the-Pooh goes to Thiemo – congratulations and we hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as we do! If you write me your address via email, Winnie will hit the road soon!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments

Sächsilüüte, Beltane….spring traditions

Posted on 29. April 2014 by erdhummel

A long procession of guilds, an exploding snowman and the prediction how the summer is going to be….that’s what happened in Zürich yesterday.

Many cultures have their own ways of saying goodbye to winter and welcoming summer. While we were in Edinburgh, we went to celebrate Beltane – the original Gaelic festival marking the beginning of summer was reintroduced in 1988 and celebrated ever since at night with an impressive procession and fire show on Carlton Hill. It is quite an archaic event, the actors are wild characters, figures dressed in black coats holding torches, white flower maidens, the May Queen, red and blue half-naked creatures with drums and fire (maybe the Scots have indeed a propensity for airy dresses).

Red Men at Beltane Fire Festival (source: wikipedia)

In Zurich, the beginning of summer is performed in a slightly more demure way. It is marked by three things: the procession of the guilds who influenced Zürich’s politics for centuries. The bonfire to end the cold season and mark the beginning of summer. And the switch of the knocking-off-time – while the workday was over at 5pm during the winter, the workday during the summertime ends with the stroke of the 6pm clock. Hence the name “Sächsilüüte” – “six o’clock stroke”…

As a special treat, every year a prediction is made: the head of the huge snowman (called Böögg) is filled with firecrackers. And the time that the head needs to explode gives a clue about when the summer will come and how good it is going to be. Last year, for instance, it took over half an hour. The summer was still really hot though. As this year’s Böögg only took 7 minutes and 23 seconds to explode, I wonder this summer is going to be like (maybe we should invest in a ventilator?)

Böögg (source: telezueri.ch)

According to Wikipedia, every now and then something unforeseen happens at Sächsilüüte. In 1921, the Böögg was lightened too early by a small boy (apparently the communists put him up to it!). In 2006, the Böögg was stolen (and found again. And stolen again). And in 1944, it fell into the lake. And if you want to avoid the crowds and celebrate Sächsilüüte at home, you can now buy a handy pocket böögg!

And while the Beltane festival ends in the middle of the night with heavy whisky consumption and whatever effects alcohol, drums, half-naked creatures and darkness may have on you, the people in Zürich use the hot coals from the snowman for a big barbecue (“Volkswurstbraten“).

Posted in Miscellaneous, Switzerland | Tagged Böögg, Beltane, Sächsilüüte | Leave a comment