Three perfect things about today: Spending an hour collecting fallen wood for fire kindling on the other side of the river, all four of us, a family. Picking up damp, moss-covered branches looking distinctly like deer antlers and being reminded of all the riches of autumn. Lying on the sofa with the sun slanting in … Continue reading »
Filed under mountain life …
in-between-time
I am sitting here between a window of darkness and the open fire, with my ancient mac whirring away to deliver the news to me and to send out news to others. Snow lies on the mountain top and there is a frenzy of floodlit activity across the river as dumper trucks pile mounds and … Continue reading »
thursday
Saw the moon low in the sky at 3 in the morning and for a moment had the overwhelming feeling that I was in a small hut overlooking a primal scene with only a few other people living on the planet. I felt ancient and the forest surrounded me. There is something about the moon … Continue reading »
birds are singing, seeds are sprouting
Although we are under five feet of snow, in the last few days I have felt the most imperceptable stirrings from the deep down in the earth. The birds, who usually lie quietly in the thicket, are all a twitter – carrying gifts for their mates, fussing around in the bush, tidying and making ready … Continue reading »
There is a reason why I have bought a grain mill, seriously
There are a few reasons why I wanted to buy a grain mill to grind my own flour from scratch. Here they are: I want to go through the complete process for sprouted wheat sourdough bread from wheat berry, to sprouted berry, to dehydrated berry, to milled flour, through sourdough starter, to proved bread, to baked … Continue reading »
Should we really be eating grains/nuts/seeds?
I followed the ‘Eat right For your Blood Type’ diet about 8 or 9 years ago, but it didn’t agree with me (I am blood type A+ which means eating lots of grains). Even though I suffered when I was on it, I have been very interested in the theory behind the diet for a … Continue reading »
I am awake again (my bimodal sleep pattern)
I am awake blogging at 2 a.m. and I want to know why. I searched on the internet and found out it is called segmented sleep, divided sleep, bimodal sleep or interrupted sleep and I have slowly started to experience it since coming here to live in the mountains. Bimodal sleep is composed of two … Continue reading »
The Loetschental Valley, as featured in the first chapter of ‘Nutrition and Physical Degeneration’ 1932.
I wake up this morning and think more clearly for the first time in a long time. I think how I love my children, my husband, my life. I have just discovered that we live 100 miles, a two-hour drive away from Blatten, a town nestled deep in the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland. This valley … Continue reading »
soup
Flight OK. I am here. The pilot flew with textbook perfection during every moment in the sky, even as we banked over turquoise blue mountain ranges back to the Alps and I found myself gripping the seat arms again. The children were perfect too, not a whine or complaint about anything. The journey was not … Continue reading »
9 a.m. view from the kitchen windows
new snow
lost in time
“What child, while summer is happening bothers to think that summer will end? What child, when snow is on the ground, stops to remember that not long ago the ground was snowless? It is by its content rather than its duration that a child knows time, by it’s quality rather than its quantity – happy … Continue reading »
dawn sun
good ‘v’ fantastic
A GOOD DAY: We get up early before the children. We watch a little french t.v. and drink coffee. The girls get up and I sit at the computer whilst they watch french cartoons. DOH goes off to do some errands. Me and the girls eat breakfast and plan the day. Grocery shopping, walk by … Continue reading »
dusk walk on the shore
Dusk fell quickly this evening, we held hands and dug in the sand. Horses were whinnying from across the lake, black as night. A moth fluttered overhead. Stones took on strange appearances, like the face of the moon. The water was an inky blue, with turquoise marbling, still. The sky fell closer to the water … Continue reading »
inky lake
Cold, rain, snow, forest, enchantment.
I woke this morning to cold, that kind of cold that gets right into the bones. DOH lit a fire when he got up, something he has not done since last April, when the snow finally melted. There is snow at 2,000 metres up on the mountain tops and persistent rain down below. We wanted … Continue reading »
change
Things are really going to be changing for us in the next month. We finally have to move out of this chalet on 27th September, then we will be in the UK for a month catching up with friends and relatives (it has been a year and a half since we were there). We will … Continue reading »
wild boar
I have been having encounters with wildlife recently, from beavers on the side on the road, to bats swimming under bridges. Nothing though, could prepare me for what happened last night. A week ago, we were driving back home in the dark when we suddenly came across a huge silhouette in the middle of a … Continue reading »
simplify your life
Our move to France was not planned as such, but we have kind of found ourselves thinking about making a home here. I do not know whether it is the lifestyle that we have fallen in love with or the mountains themselves. A bit of both, I suspect. France is a really slow country. They … Continue reading »
slow life (part two)
But it is not just the consumerism that is the issue for us today – of course, I have virtually stopped buying clothes and we never wanted to accumulate much bric-a-brac for the house, seeing as we wanted a nomadic life. I am not interested in packaged goods and toiletries any more. I use soap … Continue reading »
a slow life (part one)
There are many reasons why people take up this ‘slow-living’ thing. Many are disenchanted with excess consumerism, many with the thousands of miles burnt up through product distribution around the world, many because it just fits into their idea of what life should be like. I subscribe to all these things. I didn’t actually realise … Continue reading »
baby’s washing
My little friend
You know the time has come to do something when your eldest child points to your stomach and says, “Is there another baby in there Mummy?” The time has come to do something about my little friend who has taken up residence around my middle. And I know it’s not a baby. I guess as … Continue reading »
A storm in the making
Oh, a huge bolt of lightning has just struck our power cable somewhere – the electricity circuits in the house have just shorted out. We have been sitting through this storm for hours now it seems. I am up under the eaves listening to the water drumming incessantly on the tin roof, watching torrential rain … Continue reading »
