A wee bit early..

A cause for excitement for the kids today....not for me.

Here's why...

While everything looks so very pretty, especially the blend of white and orange,
I am so not ready!!
P.S: Pics taken in the neighbouring mountains of Rechtenbach.

Wild flowers for the home..

What was supposed to be a walk to clear my head of some thoughts and simultaneously take a breath of fresh air instead turned out to this...:-)

The bright red Hagebutte on the rose bushes called out to me. Soon I was like a little child promptly breaking tiny branches of the red buttons and also looking out for wild flowers. 

I ended up collecting wild daisies, some unknown flowers and berries too. 

Hagebutte are the fruits of different kinds of roses. Something I learnt from my german friends. The pulp from hagebutte(found at the fleshy base) can be harvested in late autumn to make purees or jams!!

A tiring process I am told. It's simpler to buy the readymade jams. Since this is something new I came across, I am yet to try it out.

For now, I took satisfaction in simply getting them home to brighten up a corner.

Hagebutte are also used in flower arrangements or floral deco. I just love the way these simple flowers and berries from the meadows have transformed a corner in my home.

I am now beginning to wonder as to how I have never come across the fruit of a rose plant back home. Any thoughts on this??

Is it because of the seasons?

A yellow weekend

The weekend didn't turn out as planned. The weather forecast turned out to be horribly wrong. We made up for it by meeting up with friends and going on a long walk in the woods.

It was great to catch up with them after a very long time. 

They know the best walking paths in the woods without the help of maps and satellite..:D Hubby and I always need help of some sort when either driving or walking through forests. It helps a lot when we are surrounded by people who know their territory well.

The scenes in the woods amazed us. While hubby and I have been mushroom spotting since the past two weeks, the mellow yellows now took us by surprise. A golden hue enveloped the trees and as we walked the rustle of fallen leaves was sweet music to the ears.

Since our friends are quite knowledgeable about mushrooms and can distinguish between poisonous and safe ones, the kids and they set out on a kind of mushroom hunt. While the purpose was not to collect them for consumption, it was more of a treasure hunt for the children to see how many different varieties, colours and textures would they come across.

Like the so called "colony of mushrooms" they are looking at below, the term coined by sonny.

While they were doing their thing, I did what I do best..:-)

Only that the mushrooms were so prettily camouflaged with the fallen leaves, it was real hard to capture them.

We spent a lovely time together walking right upto these ruins, taking a break over a pot of coffee at a rest house and occasionally sighing and wishing that the sun would make a rare appearance..:-)

Tomorrow, I will share more pictures of mushrooms that we spotted while on the go. 

Pinspiration.

So, I had been waiting for the weatherman to predict sunshine, yes SUNSHINE for a very long time. I had enough of the rains and the crazy fog and grey skies. I felt totally uninspired a wee bit early this year. To keep myself occupied all I did was whip out new dishes in the kitchen and begin on some craft projects. When this happens the family is glad, but me....I need some respite. 

l need to get out with the camera and take pretty pictures, 

I need to window shop or if I feel like it, splurge too(much to the dismay of hubby dearest)

So when the forecast showed me that we are gonna have a GREAT week, I said yahoo..:D

We haven't ventured out as a family since our last trip.

So, this weekend we should be going on our first autumn drive. 

Hopefully I will have some great shots to share.

Last evening, the kids and I went to the local park and begun our hunt for autumn treasures. We found pretty leaves with intricate patterns on them. Some of them had colours we had never seen before. 

Back home, I had a new t light holder for our dining table with the treasures collected from our walk.

I call it Pinspired..:D

Fresh autumn leaves + a clean mason jar+ t light +  some twine.

You are ready to go!!

Autumn colours.

This year, the season of autumn is not at its best. It's grey, cold and constantly wet. Which in turn makes the leaves fall faster to the ground as you can see in the picture below.

At times it feels more like W I N T E R....

Here and there you can spot deep shades of pink, orange and yellow coloured vines clinging onto the earthy walls trying to take in the last bit of sunshine.

How's autumn been treating you in your part of the world?

A postcard..

Guess what arrived in the mail today?

A postcard from SONNY!!

This was just before we were to go and pick him up..

Mail within Germany more so within the same region sure took long to arrive.

His short message warmed me up and brought a smile to my face...

and also prepared me well.

He wrote he had showered only once in 5 days......eeeeeeeks

and he was returning with a bad throat and lost voice!! 

So much for school camps..:-)

The above is the place they stayed. He had lots and lots of fun. And missed us the most at night. 

Now I have to get him back in shape for the next week. Lots of hot tea and warm cuddles should do the trick. Till then,

Happy Weekend to all!!

Mushroom spotting in the woods..

Hubby and I went mushroom spotting today, in the woods.

While there were a few people mushroom hunting with baskets, we were content at just looking, admiring and taking a few pictures.

If you do not know your mushrooms well and end up picking the wrong ones, it can be dangerous!!

Sharing the pics I took on my phone.

Mushrooms of various sizes, colours, textures are all over the place. Some are extraordinary to look at and some plain ugly. If you are anywhere near the Spessart region(the forests surrounding Lohr) I highly recommend a walk in the woods. Watch out for these fungi wonders, you won't be disappointed.

Happy Weekend.

I am surprised by how cold it has gotten. Real cold. I don't know if it's only me or the others too feel the same way. The poor plants on the balcony are taking the brunt of it all. While the general  norm is to either throw away cheap flowering plants or either move them to the cellars for winter, I honestly do not know what to do. While my heart does not permit me to throw them all in the garbage, I neither  have the space nor the artificial heating required for them to thrive in the cold winter. It's going to be hard to decide what to do. For now, I moved the spider plant into our dining room. The edges have already browned. 

I am also trying to get indoors whatever is remaining of the geraniums. This arrangement was inspired from Pinterest. I simply submerged the stems in water but they seemed to keep floating out. Getting frustrated after a while, I prayed that they sit still. Thank goodness for the compliments my little ones gave me on the arrangement. I think it will look pretty when I light the t lights around it tonight.

Another weekend is here! It's going to be quite busy in our home. Sonny will be away for 5 nights to a camp along with his classmates. So we shall be heading to a town 45 minutes away for some last minute shopping. Sunday we shall help him pack. He is so very excited. Me, I am nervous. It's his first time being away from the family for so long. Will he manage fine? I hope so!!

Till then, Happy Weekend all!!!

An Indian breakfast...

Yesterday was a holiday for whole of Deutschland, the national day of Germany. Our goal was just to laze around at home. 

So the lazing began with all of us waking up quite late followed by this sumptuous Indian breakfast.

Something I would never ever dream of making myself. 

Last week hubby introduced me to the BBC documentaries of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian recipes. He has taken a subscription for these documentaries on our ipad which we can also watch on our tv.

While I am not much of a foodie, I do LOVE to cook. I never consider preparing meals as a chore or process, instead it's more of a hobby to me which is definitely relaxing and an enjoyable experience. The end result of the family devouring what you have prepared with love is truly satisfying.

So back to the documentary which took me surprise and then filled me with an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia!!! 

The sight of our veggie markets, fresh seafood, the small road side cafes, restaurants, landscape, festivals.....Madhur Jaffery definitely knew how to strike a chord in my heart.

What was even amazing is the way she cooked, with a kind of flair. She made it all look too easy. 

Now what I didn't expect is for the images of all that FOOD to be stuck in my head for like forever. In my sleep, the next morning as I went about, all I could think of was all the food featured on the show. Yes every bit of it.

That's when I decided, yes, am gonna make it too, much to the delight of the family. 

Shrikhand it was with puris. The former being actually a sweet or a dessert, it can also be had with Puri,  a kind of Indian bread. 

Here's the recipe for the Shrikhand: Take 750 ml of curd, hang it in a cheese or muslin cloth overnight, so that it is drained of all its water or whey. Powder 150 grams of sugar along with 3 cardamoms(unpeeled). Puree a tin of mango. Mix the thick curd, powdered sugar and pureed mango beating all together either in a blender or by hand. Refrigerate it and serve chilled with piping hot puris. The above puris rolled out by my 10 year old..:) Yeah, we have somebody following in mommy's footsteps..:D

Note: Tinned Mango available in Edeka outlets or Kupsch in Lohr. 

A peek into an open air museum

I cannot believe that October has come rolling in. How did the months fly by? I do not know. 

As a new month begins, I wake up with the thought.... another one down. For those who do not know, it's a countdown to our return. With each passing month, the excitement builds up...:-) 

With the countdown it means that I have a bucket list of things to do, places to visit, events to experience and so on. I do not know whether it has something to do with the fixed time frame or pressure, but to my delight so far we have been able to achieve it successfully.

Like a visit to the Franconian open air museum over the weekend. The only sad part was that due to a misunderstanding we ended up without our camera's. Hence the pictures from my mobile which finally gave out after 15 and odd shots..:-(

Lesson learnt: Before setting out, cross check with your love if the camera bag is in the car or not.

Who doesn't love going back in time? Well, we do, especially our son. Museums help him go back so many years to the eras and times of the past, sometimes making him wish that he lived then..:D It helps him to imagine and wonder what life must have been like eons of years ago.

Open air museums are unique ones exhibiting collections out doors. You can step into homes of the ancient past, have a look at the rooms with actual furniture, see pictures of the families that lived in them and wonder how did they all fit in the small sized houses. 

The day we visited, we were lucky to witness costumed interpreters portray life in the medieval ages. There were women cooking on an open hearth in the kitchen, meat and sausages hanging from the ceiling along with onions and garlic(I missed my cam boo hoo hoo). I stood for the longest time taking in the strong smell of the crackling fire and as my eyes burnt with the smoke around, it reminded me so much of my grandmother's home!! I happened to mention it to my girl that this was how her great grandma cooked(looks like we were still in medieval cooking methods back home..:D). 

Another highlight was watching the traditional craftsmen in medieval clothes at work. We had the longest chat with a bead maker who made beads with animal bones. It was interesting to see how he worked and also listen to the stories of the years gone by. And the musician, what sweet music he played as the women were preparing the smoked mackerels for dinner. Did you know that the medieval violin had 5 strings? 

Over all it was a day well spent. The museum is spread over vast areas of land filled with fruit tress and patches of vegetable gardens here and there. It was a delight to see the luscious red apples peeping out from here and there. Also interesting sights are shepherds grazing their sheep along with a sheep dog(a delight to watch), lazy pigs waiting for a feed or two of apples and goats who do not mind being petted for a long time..:-)

Definitely a fun time with kids during a weekend!!