Zürich in Advent

Yesterday 

One son and I had a day to DO SOMETHING, but on Mondays many things are closed: Landesmuseum and Kunsthaus in particular for us. So we wandered the streets, looked at the Christmas decorations, had lunch in an old restaurant in an old building in the old part of the city, and conversed. A relaxing afternoon. Then, back at the house, we practiced digital art, the initial results of which I posted yesterday. 

The Christmas market stands are up.

These are by the Grossmünster.

Last year, these by the Fraumünster had a fence around them: admittance only for card-carriers. We are glad that nonsense is done. 



In a Gallery window in a side- street

In the big department stores by the Bahnhofstrasse (the main street), the best and finest and most expensive and exclusive wares were on display. I didn’t get a picture, but envision Dolce and Gabbana panettone for Fr/$50.

Note prices, roughly equivalent to dollars. 

Then we saw these highly desirable wares….(sorry for the poor photo; I was laughing).

Blessed first week of Advent. 

As you can see, this year I am not doing an Advent series. Much too much happening for that. But I will try to share some of the atmosphere of the season here. 

 

Something New

Digital

I learned something new today - with LOTS of help: how to use a digital drawing pad and “pencil.” In about ten years I might really learn how to use them. 

First effort, to try this, that, and the other function: “ink pen,” “brush,” “painting,” “ smudging,” and layers. 

Blessed Thanksgiving Day

To You and Yours

Ours was spontaneous, small, and after work hours. It’s not a holiday here. Some military friends asked to come to celebrate with us, which we hadn’t planned to do with most of the family gone. But it turned out well, with a lot of makeshift adaptations. Half the food was brought half way across the country - that which I prepared ahead, packed up, and brought this morning. Other food - the American part - was brought from Germany by the friends. The Turkey was picked up from the butcher this morning, to be stuffed and roasted with what we had on hand. We two ladies cooked, roasted, and baked in a kitchen that was foreign to both of us, only partially equipped, and was overflowing with the odds and ends brought to augment the process. Not all the odds and ends we needed….But, we did it! Even though we forgot or couldn’t find numbers of things. No cranberries - forgotten in the refrigerator in Germany. No scalloped corn - because no can opener. No ham - because, while it was there, it was overlooked. No problem; we had more than enough. No dinner rolls - because “let them eat stuffing.” No apple pie - no reason, except maybe time. But we had three pumpkin pies among us. So all was well. And we gave thanks, sang thanks, and feasted in thanks.

And I still don’t know where the new white candles went…..

Ink

Illustration 

One day the minstrel boy came to town and saw a wretched Kobold trying to drag off a tiny sprite into the forest. The sprite squealed. The Kobold growled. And the minstrel boy began to play his pipe. The Kobold’s eyes glared, but his feet began to to tap and slide. The minstrel  boy quickened the tempo. The Kobold howled, but his feet stomped and his legs jumped. And the poor sprite was swung to and fro. The minstrel boy played faster and faster. The Kobold screeched and whirled and his hands flung wide. And the sprite flew through air. When he landed, he clambered up the stone steps, and through the great oak door. When he had disappeared, the minstrel boy led the wildly dancing Kobold into the forest. And to this day, if you go into that forest, you will hear the sound of dancing feet. 

This was from a while ago. 

How many faces do you find?

Birthday

Busy-ness

My children and siblings said to take time for myself. Wellllll….. the day was chock full of everything, but this evening I decided to relax with a little watercolor. It’s been ages since I have painted. 

Our leaves are rapidly disappearing, but we haven’t had a frost yet, so this is a last bit of autumn color, before Thanksgiving and heading into Advent and a new church year. 

I got a most marvelous birthday gift. Actually, I don’t HAVE it yet, but it ready and waiting for me. Jessica said she would refinish my old desk for me. She is excellent at that sort of thing. She said maybe she could start in December, or January, which would have been all right, because she is very busy with her own house. But yesterday I got a gift box with these pictures inside.

DONE 

Beautifully.

It had been stained yellow-ish, and had all kinds of wear and tear and glue spots, and I couldn’t live longer with that. So, she made it better. Much better. 

For ME

In Today's Mail

Rarely does the mail bring anything personal any more. We get bills and catalogs and solicitations and junk advertisements, but almost no one writes a letter. Very rarely we will get a handwritten thank you for a wedding gift, and at Christmas we still do get occasional cards with handwritten messages. But today the mail had a package, for me, not work materials for my boys, not some nightgown or pan I ordered, but an actual person to person package.  It was a surprise package from my sister. It was a handmade gift for me. It was something that took a lot of time, loving attention, and heart. For me. 

Thank you, Mary.

Instead of throwing away the multitudes of papers that come our way, she sifted through them and found the pretty pieces, the fine designs, the evocative, and the pleasing bits. She put these together in a book of hand made pages, with pockets and flaps, stamps, and stamping, and layers upon layers full of pretties. 

Behold - 

With a charming bookmark!

… and many more.

It was meant to be inspiring, and it is. My fingers are itching….

But that wasn’t all. My birthday is coming, and always shortly thereafter is Thanksgiving, so there were cards inside, with handwritten messages from my sister and my mother. Here, one DOES NOT give birthday wishes before the day, so those cards are reserved for the day. But I can show you some of the other pieces included, which are a poke to get busy MAKING things. 

Handmade translucent paper

Pockets

And ready-to-use layers

Thank you, Mary. You made my day. 

 

More Heidelberg

Old City

Details

No admittance 

180 year old tombstone 

Looking up at the castle ruins from the city.

When your house is the corner

…older than that tombstone 

Note the corner tower of the castle ruins. That’s what the Frenchies did. And they blew up the munitions storage tower. That would have made quite the bang. By then castles were becoming obsolete, with the invention and use of gunpowder. 

Note the white cobblestones in the last two photos. A small hospital chapel used to stand in those outlines. 

Statue of Maria and Christ Child it’s the inscription reading that reverence is directed, not to the materials or workmanship, but to the mother and Child themselves.

… to be continued.

Next Day

Fall Planting and Clean Up

It is another very foggy day - rather Novembery. Instead of trying out alternative living methods, like yesterday, we worked outside on preparing for winter. That included clearing some planters and putting the beginnings of winter flowers in. 

And cutting the last of the dahlias. 

Challenge

Check Up

I have a weekly on-line meeting with my Siblings to discuss life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the state of the world. This week we have a group challenge to check up on our readiness for living semi-comfortably through a difficult time. The scenario is a one day electrical outage. This helps us check our mental and physical preparedness for such a potentiality. 

So, yesterday, Better Half and I took the challenge. It wasn’t terribly difficult, because we have a gravity water supply and cistern, and off-grid sanitation facilities. We technically didn’t have to turn off our lights either, because they run on solar and batteries, but we did, just in the spirit of the thing. And we have a fireplace with warming circulation, so no concerns about a furnace. (Note, all the stuff sitting around in not-appropriate places are part of our current push to get boxes unpacked and the house in order. Not there yet.)

The bigger test was food preparation. Technically we didn’t have to adjust much on that either, because we have a wood-fired cookstove, but I elected to try the more primitive route of not using it. 

Alternative option, obviously not in use. 

So, I pulled out the candle-powered Raclette cookers to make our brunch. Things required adjustment along the way, because, until you try something in real life, you don’t know how the details are going to work. Like, boiling water for tea. Cheese cookers won’t do. 

The ingredients and supplies.

No electricity 

Heat source. We found the quality of tea lights definitely matters. 

These are things that didn’t work: as appropriately sized and cute as these little pans are, they didn’t balance well on the cookers, so they got eliminated. 



Food

Food

Food

Mama’s homemade food. “But, Mom, that’s so old.” Actually it is perfectly good, and would be still in twenty years. 

Food, Getting done….

Some food done, and note to self: how do you keep food warm, while the rest is cooking? A plate over the dish helped, but a heat source would be better. 

Food to eat. We fared sumptuously and were filled, and took cognizance of what to do further, for “next time.”

One thing was to pull out the made-for-it food warmers, and wash off the dust. 

This is part of one. We have two, in different kinds with actual grill and plate tops, so we could use pots on them. Check.

 Then, of course, one must account for early darkness in this season. So candlelight🕯  dinner it was. But we simply had our Swiss platter supper with uncooked foods: ham, tuna (to rotate stocks, he said), bread, vegetables, and, naturally, garlic🧄. 

A very foggy day, heading toward dusk. 

Dark by suppertime.

So, there was no internet yesterday, officially; but some business had to get done, so we were not totally strict about those things; just no social media or messages or movies. So consider this yesterday’s post.