The sun is now creeping down the side of the valley by 7.30 a.m. and by then I was scrambling up the mountain this morning in my vibrams. Such a joy to scramble up and cross the moss-covered stones, overhanging branches and little waterfalls and see the deep forest waking up. My feet are longer … Continue reading »
Filed under slow living …
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 »
small moments :: labour of love
What have we lost from our ancestors?
Some Inuit looked into the aurora borealis, or northern lights, to find images of their family and friends dancing in the next life. For others they were invisible giants, the souls of animals, a guide to hunting and as a spirit for the angakkuq to help with healing. They relied upon these shamans for spiritual interpretation. The nearest … Continue reading »
Pancakes for Candlemas
We celebrated Candlemas (La Fete de la Chandeleur) here in France with pancakes today, the traditional dish for this day of February 2nd, Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day in the Celtic calendar. This, in pagan tradition is a festival of light, when candles are made and displayed and ewe’s milk is blessed. It marks the turning of … Continue reading »
Tarte au boudin noir, poireaux et pommes
Blood Sausage Flan with Leek and Apple. Blood sausage comes in black (noir) or white (blanc) and is solidified pig’s blood in a sausage casing. It has a very strong and distinctive taste, used sparingly however, it gives and rich and luscious flavour to casseroles and pies. In Northern England, especially in Scotland, black pudding … 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 »
How I got rid of the TV (part 2)
“Oh, does that means daddy will have to watch football at the pub then?” So, there we go, no eyelids batted whatsoever. I mentioned it briefly to Jules before the fated Saturday night and chose that date specifically because he was out all night working – so we didn’t get into a huge argument about … Continue reading »
How I got rid of the TV (part 1).
So, I am harping on yet again about getting rid of the TV. Only because I have seen, in the last few weeks the most amazing changes in my children. I want everyone to know about it. Unfortunately it is not the kind of thing that I can banter on about ad infinitum here in … Continue reading »
Vacuuming and the art of zen housekeeping
My vacuum cleaner finally broke yesterday. I tried to fix it with duct tape, but to no avail. It probably is about ten years old anyway, (it was second hand from friends) but I feel that buying a new one is really, probably unnecessary – plus we don’t have much money to spend on anything … Continue reading »
Their time, not ours
When I want my children to do something NOW, like putting shoes on or getting hair brushed, I have to tell myself that children do not work on the same time frame that we do – they live in the moment, from second to second. For instance, if, when they are getting dressed, they suddenly … Continue reading »
Children need a space of their own
Whilst we are utilizing our walks to the lake, ski-de-fond and forest ambles the best we can, I really feel that our home should be made more sacred and special. Yesterday I cleared out the shelves of all the children’s books. I put all those which are never really looked at behind in our storage … Continue reading »
Spirituality
Spirituality, now that is a word that made me prick up my ears when I started to read about Rudolph Steiner’s philosophies. I feel that spirituality is the one thing lacking in today’s world (school and elsewhere) and the one thing that will succeed in pulling us all back together again. So, perhaps I could … Continue reading »
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 »
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 »
comfort in small things
A trip to the park. Squeak not too well sitting next to me, sharing comfort in my colourful scarf. Then running off to play on the swing. I found comfort then in my own ‘brownness’ and a small leaf by my feet. I like my new boots.
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 »
cultured mess
When I moved into a bigger place with the same amount of stuff, I’d imagined that the place would look less chaotic, more like the show homes I see in magazines and on TV. I thought that each place we moved to would be better, would have more space to put things out on display, … Continue reading »
pine
I’ve had a sore throat for most of the day today and a really bad cough last night. I think the stress of moving has finally got to my physical body. Squeak has the same cough as me. I had to resort to taking some of my pine needle cough medicine last night, which I … Continue reading »
grease
I have just spent two f***ing hours cleaning the oven. Drat and double drat. It took me 45 minutes to scrub clean one single puny little metal oven rack – 45 minutes!!!! I now know what green household goddess Ellen Sandbeck means when she says “Prevention is better than cure”. Alright, I stuck my nose … Continue reading »
cleaning
I am slowly and inexorably moving into the cleaning phase of our nearly empty house. It is so weird to see how much space we would have had, had we not filled the place with furniture and junk and Oh! the dirt and grime. It’s amazing what small children can push under fridges and shelving. … Continue reading »
children’s artwork
In the process of packing everything up I have been sorting out all the reams of paper we seem to have been hoarding. Most of it is Bubble and Squeak’s drawings and paintings. I have sheets and sheets of stuff; from Bubble’s first faint scribblings to their most recent self portraits, with everything in between. … Continue reading »
separation
Something really struck me today about the relationship I have with my children. I am into ‘day three’ of the big clear up, spending from nine in the morning ’til eleven at night packing, only popping into the temporary abode for meals. And when I do pop back to see the children, I am amazed … Continue reading »
the unplugged challenge
So we have moved into temporary accommodation for two weeks, whilst I clear up our chalet. The new house is a large property three doors away from ours, owned by some absent friends. I have been busy packing for two days solidly now whilst dOH has been looking after the girls during the day. They … Continue reading »
