this neck of the woods

This weekend gone (after much deliberation, cost comparing, and review reading – of course) we walked into our local camera shop, handed over a wad of cash, and in turn got to go home with the beautiful new Canon EOS 550d. It really is lovely. I’ve been using the 350d for just over 4 years now, and absolutely love it to bits – so I can’t wait to see how the 550d goes in comparison (the gigantic screen has already made the money worthwhile for me!).

Its first official outing was into the forest just down the road.. we had fun, but it was so cold that the outing didn’t last too long!

One of our on-going projects over the last couple of months has been slip-casting bowls. I think we now have about 6 bowls all made with this process, so we’ll take them off to be fired soon! We probably could have done a lot more bowls in all this time, but we’ve been pretty lazy with the whole thing really.. we keep forgetting about it!

Last weekend we took the opportunity to visit the amazing new VitraHaus, which is only about a 10 minute drive from where we live. It really was fantastic – so many chairs, so little time! I just wish they were a little bit cheaper.. or me a bit richer, because I would really like to buy one before we leave Germany. Naturally, it’s this one that’s had me drooling for quite a while now, but at just under €5,000 I’ll be lucky to own it at all in my lifetime. Instead, I have my eye on either this one with wooden legs, or this one.. and then probably trying to find a second-hand one at that :) Wish me luck! And go visit the Haus if you’re around – it’s well worth it!

One of our favourite parts of Fasnacht is the Fasnachts Feuer (fire), where a huge bonfire (of old christmas trees and crates) is lit to wish away the winter witch. Now days they have a dummy on top of the bonfire that explodes with fireworks to represent the witch, but apparently back in the middle ages they used to actually burn a person they deemed to be a witch.. I think I’ll settle for fireworks, thanks.

This year we thought we’d really make a night of it and went along armed with sausages and (thanks to Alex and Ally) smores – which are marshmallows melted on the fire, prized between two biscuits and a chunk of chocolate… incredible!

Like I said in the last post, we’ve been to two fasnacht parades this year.. one in Lörrach (with our lovely friend Emma), and one in Weil am Rhein (with Dave’s Dad). While the Lörrach parade was good, it now seems a little bit tame in comparison to the Weil am Rhein one.. as you can see by the photos. About an hour into our parade watching, I had a masked witch sneak up behind me and (once I’d noticed him) push me into the street and pull me to the ground while the other witches took my boots, drew all over my face with red lipstick, and shoved a huge amount of confetti down my coat. Meanwhile my boots disappeared down the street, leaving me to chase after them in my stockings. It was all in good fun – but I’m glad there aren’t any more fasnachts for a while!

The last couple of weeks have been Fasnacht (carnival) time here. After attending two parades, our apartment is inevitably littered from one end to the other with confetti that just seems to fall off us as we walk (out of pockets, hoods, bags, shoes, clothes, hair etc.) Here’s why…

A couple of weeks ago, we bundled ourselves against the cold and headed out on the town with a couple of friends for the Basel Museum Night (the one night a year that all the museums in Basel are open until 2 am, with one entrance fee). In about 5 hours, we only managed to make it to 3 museums (hah!) – our favourite of which was the Basler Papiermühle (paper mill). Contrary to what the name suggests, the mill doesn’t only make paper – it’s also a fully functioning letterpress printery.. they even cast their own lead letters! Totally awesome if you ask me :)

And here is what we came back to.. a little bit less sun, a little bit more snow.

We took a trip home to Australia for 5 weeks over Christmas, which was the first time we’d been home in almost two years. It was fantastic – and much needed :)