Work load for Christmas

The lazy days are over - now it's time to prepare for Christmas. That means working extra hours and almost every day. Honestly - I would not feel good if it was not like this. December has always been the most busy time of the year and I'm well prepared for it.

At work many wines come rolling in and need to be packed into the display shelves, hidden in the store room or carried into the basement. This makes December also my fittest season!

 store-room

 basement

Finished!

 

Some shelves are still empty - not for long!

And when all goodies are in place, we start making Christmas presents:

Not surprisingly I feel tired after so much exercise at work and need more beautysleep.

 

Marathon Baking

When I was a child our kitchen smelled of Christmas biscuits from November until the end of December. Many biscuits were eaten during the long evening hours when special arrangements were made for the graves in winter and more for all the lovely advent decorations. Those were the weeks when working hours hardly stopped before midnight! 

For Christmas itself all the staff, neighbours, friends and family got "a sweet plate" with homemade biscuits - and those had to be hidden well!!!!

Later, when my great-aunt and grandma had left the kitchen to my Mum, I took over baking. Cakes during the year and loads of biscuits for December.

 (December 1983)


These days we have few extra working hours and none at night any longer - still we love eating homemade biscuits at this time of the year. As December is always very busy we usually start during the auntumn (school) holidays. Our youngest daughter and I started at the beginning of November this year and filled some tins:

Yesterday I found some more tempting recipes and we did some more with the final favorite cookies today. Now all tins are filled - although the first are not full any longer. 

 

November Spring

Although summer had not many perfect days, fall is spoiling us with plenty of sunshine. Nature is beautiful, light is mystical and we still don't need winter coats. 

Yesterday most florists and garden centers had their exhibition for pre-Xmas decorations - and we made a cycle trip to visit one that usually is not on our path. Well, the trip was great, but my expectations are rather high and this nursery didn't meet them. 

Have a look at my standard from home from last year and decide for yourself:

Travelling for Fairy Music

At the first weekend of November I travelled once more to Franconia to enjoy a wonderful concert in Lichtenberg. The band "Elfenthal" (Fairy valley) plays Early Music, collected by former kings of Europe. Beside flutes, a harp, a viola da gamba and drums, several voices are special for this kind of music. The founder of the band, Maite Itoiz and John Kelly, always manage to lure me into a secret forest where I feel like listening to real fairies. 

Maite with her harp.

Jose Luis & Zuberoa

Gudrun Fuss

 John Kelly

Elfenthal

If you're interested, you can listen to 3 songs I recorded during the concert.

Videos of Elfenthal

Last Day of our Holiday (English & Deutsch)

English

Before we travelled home, we spend our last day in Friedrichshafen, the hometown of the Zeppelin. I climbed up the look-out tower at the harbour. Since our last visit, many people left "locks of love" at the iron bars on the top. We did some souvenir shopping and enjoyed relaxing at the promenade, watching the sparrows and the clouds over the lake. The weather was almost like autumn and that made leaving a little bit more easy.

Deutsch

Bevor wir nach Hause fuhren, verbrachten wir noch einen Tag in Friedrichshafen, der Heimat des Zeppelins. Ich kletterte auch wieder auf den Aussichtsturm am Hafen. Seit unserem letzten Besuch dort haben viele Pärchen dort oben Liebes-Schlösser angebracht. Wir kaufen noch ein paar Mitbringsel und genossen die Promenade, wo wir den Spatzen und den Wolken über dem See zusahen. Das Wetter wurde langsam herbstlich und machte den Abschied etwas leichter.