We finally, finally got some sunshine and went for a long walk in the snowy woods.
So good for body and soul. More photos from this series over on my photo blog.
It’s carnival weekend over here, which means no office today. Instead I’ll stay in (roads are closed all day due to carnival anyway), work a little on my neverending photo business to-do list and just enjoy the last of the long weekend.
My 5/52 photo and a perfect mirror of myself these last few weeks. I am really starting to miss the light. It’s been on the news that this past January has been the dullest (in terms of sunlight) in about 50 years. I crave a sunlit afternoon so bad.
Instead, I turn to the next best thing: sleep. Me and the couch and the hot water bottle, we’re close in winter. Come 8pm you’ll find me fast asleep nearly every evening of the week.
So hard to get anything done when you’re sleeping all the time. Some socks, coming along very slowly. A new skirt, waiting for the finishing touches for weeks. Lots and lots of research for the business (exciting stuff in the works this year!).
Planning and dreaming and waiting for the light.
I love getting up early in the dark, lighting a candle, making a cup of tea. Watching the light creep though our east facing living room windows, first blue, then rosy red, then bright warm yellow.
I settle down on the couch for a precious hour of blog reading before starting on some photo business tasks. The cats, having had their breakfast, joining me for a few more hours of sleep. Still early after all.
Some random photos from the last few weeks.
I never did get around to blogging our balcony garden this year but it’s there (past its prime already) and we had zucchini, and turnips and herbs and tomatoes and lots of flowers.
The peppers! I had high plans for these. I got ‘pimientos de padron’ peppers because I had liked them in Spain and started lots of plants from seed. Alas, they all turned out to be the hot type instead of the mild ones I was hoping for. I ended up giving them all away. If anyone in Spain has access to the mild pimientos de padron (the ones you fry in a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt), I’d be more than thrilled if you could send me some seeds! Do email me at tidytipsy.at.yahoo.de!
A little Oleander cutting my mom gave me is thriving and produced its first flower. Love it.
And finally, some down time with the cats amid some crazy busy weeks 🙂
I am SO hooked on making videos…I just can’t seem to stop.
These two get me every time. Be still my heart.
Do click on the image to view it bigger!
So loving imperfect black and white lately.
After spending every waking hour for the last five days on our new couch I’ve decided I still like it a lot but wouldn’t mind actually setting foot out of the door again.
The cats have been splendid company though, not leaving my side for a minute and even following me around the apartment on the rare occasions I actually got up (which I didn’t have to do very often, because my awesome boyfriend brought me medicine and tea and broth right up on a tray).
They love it when we’re home during the day, but they’re not usually so clingy so I think they must have sensed how awful and cold I’ve felt.
Today’s a lot better already and after a three-hour nap I even felt well enough to pick up the camera, to share a few shots of our new place.
Two rugs we ordered from a small weaving company in Austria got delivered last week and we (both humans and felines) totally love them. This is their website (german language only), they sell made-to-order woven sheep-wool and cotton rugs.
I can’t say how much I’m looking forward to eating something other than broth tonight. I already treated myself to chocolate this afternoon. Isn’t my life riveting 🙂
Seeing me up and taking pictures the cats seem to have decided I’m well enough to be let out of their sight for a while. This is them playing a favourite game, “chase the sunny spots in the room”.
Don’t be fooled though, about two minutes after this was taken, one of them started scratching that lamp and the sideboard very slowly and deliberately, while looking straight at me, saying as plainly as could be “You’re up and better, I am going to keep scratching your precious new furniture until we all head to the kitchen and you give me some food”.
Cats are the best.
Our unusually hot spring has been followed by a cold, rainy summer. For days we’ve had fog and drizzle and heavy rains with only few bits of sunshine in between. And the forecast says much of the same is to follow in the next days and weeks.
I’m not complaining.
Living in a top floor apartment, hot summers can be hell. We had some unbearably hot weeks last year . I actually like a fresh wind and though I could do without constant rain, I don’t really mind that much. I have a good rain coat and on barn days both the pony and I are much more eager to work when it’s cool.
Other than that we’ve been lying low at the weekends, sleeping a lot and trying to catch up on emails and friends and ideas (oh, the ideas…). By the way, I got on Pinterest and now I’m hooked. And so inspired. More and more ideas.
This is the best tea I’ve had in years: Fresh peppermint leaves, fresh ginger or ginger syrup, limes, honey and candy sugar. Heaven.
I couldn’t resist another photo of the kitties. So sweet those two.
I envy my kitties, for living so fully in the moment, for never thinking beyond a sunny day or a bowl of food.
For enjoying every bit of sunshine.
For being able to let go so completely.
Just the thing I need while I’m facing some difficult decisions about where to take my photography in the next months and years. Wish I had the peace of mind of these two and that my heart were pointing me in one direction or the other.
My seed order has arrived! Dozens of little packages with seeds that look so tiny and unassuming that I am finding it hard to imagine they will turn into a whole garden come summer.
I am planning to get started in February, both with putting the first (hardy) seeds in the ground outdoors and with starting seeds inside under artificial light. If everything goes to plan, March and April and May will be exciting months around here!
So far, I am still in the planning and building and dreaming stages though. I’ll keep you posted on the details and progress, quite literally 🙂
Until then, we’re enjoying just a few minutes more light both in the mornings and evenings and I am glad to find my knitting appreciated by various members of our little family.
little home by hand 