this neck of the woods » Germany

Dear Eames, I love you.

this neck of the woods — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:28:19 +0000

Welcome home.

Freiburg Pottery

this neck of the woods — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:02:06 +0000

As far as I know, there are two dedicated ceramic markets held around this area every year – Freiburg and Kandern. So far we’ve only been to the Freiburg one (first posted about here), and amazingly 12 months has gone by since we last visited! I’ve been anticipating it for weeks, counting my pennies and mentally preparing myself for an onslaught of creative awesomeness.

I wasn’t disappointed.

This year it was held on the last weekend in June, and we arrived bright and early on Saturday (ok, like 10.30 – early for me) to snatch up our favourites before anyone else could. We sought out our most favourite vendor (who consequently always sells out of her coolest stuff really quickly – and who I’m pretty sure is actually starting to get to know us) and managed to walk away with some pretty cool purchases. Who needs money when you have painstakingly handmade plates and bowls right? Priorities.In.Order.

Australia v Deutschland

this neck of the woods — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:50:56 +0000

As we all know, Australia played Germany in the World Cup on Sunday. If you followed it (or even if you didn’t) you’ll know that we lost to the Germans.. preeeeety badly.

Luckily, earlier on Sunday we were blissfully unaware of our impending embarrassment. We proudly donned our (freshly purchased) Australian flags and tattoos, and with lamingtons under one arm and XXXX beer under the other, we headed to our friend’s place for a true-blue Aussie/Deutsch BBQ. It was a great day, building up to the match with tug-of-war, volleyball and goal-kicking games, German sausages, Kangaroo steaks, and Black Forest Cake. The match was played at about 8.30pm our (German) time, and would have been great game if we’d actually scored. Unfortunately by the end of it, even the kids who’d – only hours before – professed their love of Australia, wanted out.

Oh well, better luck this weekend Australia! Thanks for giving us an excuse to have a big BBQ anyway :)

Peonies

this neck of the woods — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:35:00 +0000

A week or so ago I snapped up some of these beauties from the flower field down the road for €1 per stalk. They are my favourite flower, so I’m glad I got some while I could – because one week on and there isn’t a single bud left on the bushes. I guess they’re just that popular! These ones are pretty much all dead now, but I thought I’d post the photos I took of them because the weather has been so miserable (something new!), and I need to look at something bright and cheery.

My apologies for always posting flower photos! I like photographing them because they sit still and don’t complain when I take 10 photos of the same thing :)

Surprise package

this neck of the woods — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:34:07 +0000

We found a wonderful surprise in our mail box yesterday! It was from our good friend Emily who sent us our favourite block of Aussie chocolate (coincidentally named ‘Black Forest’) .. and also a little note from our favourite 3.5 year old, Harry. He drew us a chef with a mustache, who now resides on our fridge :)

Thanks Em and Harry.. you guys made our day :)

Also, Dave baked a cake!

This week

this neck of the woods — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:00:55 +0000

Phew – what a week! I’ve been madly making garlands all week long and have managed to send out the first few orders.. exciting! My routine this week has been something like this:
- get up
- stop by post office on way to work
- have 20 minute lesson in the art of communication with post office lady (much hand-actioning included)
- work
- come home and start garland
- eat dinner (which Dave cooked)
- continue garland
- wrap finished garland, write card, find buyer address
- put everything at front door so I can grab it on the way out next day
- fall into bed.

So it’s been busy.. but fun! I’ve glued my fingers together far too many times to count – not to mention gluing ribbon to pants and losing a gazillion little beads all over the house :D

This photo is in no way related, but I thought it was lovely. It was one of the flowers we picked a couple of weeks ago (same as the last flower post), but this one had a double centre.. pretty!

flower picking

this neck of the woods — Sun, 09 May 2010 14:58:38 +0000

According to the calendar, it’s most of the way through spring here.. not that you can tell though – it’s been raining for the past 2 weeks solid, and freezing cold again. We’re so over it! I guess I shouldn’t complain.. everything’s finally green and the flowers are blooming which is lovely. We just can’t be outside enjoying it! We did brave the weather on friday to go and pick some flowers from one of our favourite flower fields (so many f’s!).. we came home with the bunch below and some pretty muddy shoes, but it’s worth it because they’re doing a great job of brightening up our apartment on these gloomy days (the flowers, not our shoes!). Bring on the sun I say!!

Spring has sprung

this neck of the woods — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:18:41 +0000

We went for a walk in the forest yesterday with some friends that were staying with us. It’s beautiful to see the first signs of spring.. I never thought I’d get so excited about a season change, and yet, here I am.. jumping-up-and-down-excited! (Be sure to find the little mouse in the third last photo)

One view, different days

this neck of the woods — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:58:56 +0000

One thing we love about our apartment is that if you lean over our balcony, look to the right and squint a little bit – we have a pretty nice view of Basel. The other day, whilst in the middle of taking a photo of said view, I realised that we’ve actually taken quite a few photos of it over our time here.. so I went hunting. And now I’m sharing. So – here is our Basel view, from the balcony on various days over the last 1.5 years.

brown paper package

this neck of the woods — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:48:12 +0000

I was so excited to receive this surprise package in the mail yesterday! It contained some beautiful earrings and a ring made by my super talented little sister :)

Thanks Eb, they’re perfect!