Peace, or, in my bed last night

This is what I found when I went to bed last night:






May you always have somebody to cuddle up with :-)



Love,

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Love is.... and an apfelstrudel recipe

Two of a kind, snuggling up:

Also, today is the last day of the challenge!

To celebrate, I baked:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (365 Fahrenheit).
Cover a tray with baking paper and start layering phyllo pastry sheets, buttering the sheets before adding the next one.
I made six layers.

Then add the filling.

Peel and slice 4 apples, add 2 tablespoons of castor sugar, some lemon juice and about 100 g (3.5 ounces) of ground nuts (whatever you have on hand).
Add 250 g (1 cup) of smooth cottage cheese and mix.

 Distribute the mixture on your phyllo pastry sheets and roll them in.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!


Have a wonderful Sunday

Love,

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April Fool's?

This morning, in the pitch dark, I am woken up by cries.

They are quite feeble and juvenile, but at the same time unmistakable.

I managed to convince myself that this was part of a nightmare and fell asleep again (it was so early that not even the puppy was stiring yet, but snoring softly and twitching her paws in a dream).

Once the sun was up, I remembered and went to investigate.

Here is what happened (seemingly over night) to poor Frida:

Of course, turning her into a Sunday roast is by now out of the question...

As is giving her back to the pet shop. Their surely isn't much of a market for noisy chickens that are full of themselves,
strut around and lay no eggs, so her fate will be sealed there too.


I still harbor a very faint hope that all this is an elaborate april fool's joke...



Have a lovely Sunday, and if anyone is in the market for a rooster, please leave me a comment.



Love,

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Shoe shopping

Do you like to buy shoes?

Here is a 'how-to-have-to-go-shoe-shopping-in-two-easy-steps' guide for you.


You will need:


One cute puppy

plus a pair of shoes (new, expensive) your daughter borrowed from a friend

Et voila, you got yourself a trip to the shoe shop!



Have a lovely Sunday,

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What I am grateful for

I am so very grateful for my beautiful dog Buddha.

He was with us for the last 12 years, so strong and yet so sensitive. He died peacefully yesterday morning and is now burried under a big camelthorn tree, next to his favorite river.

Since he got sick he kept on shadowing me, following me around the house, sleeping right next to my bed at night.
Now it feels rather empty.

Thanks so much for being part of my life my big boy.

Our favorite riverbed:

Living in such a beautiful, empty country:

The ones that are left:

A new morning:

Have a wonderful day filled with things to be grateful for.


Love,

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How to print on fabric, or, big dog on little pillow

Every day when I sit on my couch I look at the chair standing opposite, and every day I think that there is
something missing.

I wanted a little pillow with a photo on it, but nobody here sells fabric you can officially print on. So today I
decided to just print on any old fabric and see what happens.

It worked like a charm (although it will probably disappear when I wash it).


Here in more detail how to do it:


I first took a picture of one of my dogs, cut out the head in photoshop and put the head onto a blank document.
I then added some flowers that I cut out from yesterdays wreath pictures:

I cut a piece of thin cotton the same size as an A4 paper, glued the fabric on the paper, and fed it into the printer:

I then took the paper off again and sewed the fabric onto a plain white pillow case with thick embroidery yarn:

And here it is now on the 'empty' chair:

Have a fun day!


Lots of love,

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Peaceful and idyllic

A friend of mine commented on how idyllic and peaceful my life seems when reading my posts.

She sounded ever so slightly envious so I decided to set the record straight.

Here is what a typical morning looks like in our household:

I get up VERY early (this morning it was 4.35), not because I want to but because the puppy wakes up.
If I don’t take her out immediately she pees on the bed.

After spending 10 minutes with her in the pitch dark I recon she has peed (too dark to see).
We go back in, she heads straight for the carpet and leaves yet another puddle on my already very
smelly sheep.
Not sure how many brain cells fit in that tiny head of hers….

Seeing that I am up already, I make my daughter's lunchbox while two of our three cats circle my legs,
meowing loudly.

I feed them, which doesn’t stop the chorus.

They want sausage, but more on that later.

Then I write a blog post (not this one), visit my favorite blogs and have a cup of coffee, and for a while it
really is quite peaceful and idyllic.

Finally the big eyes staring at me whenever I look up with that 'I am starving' look get to me, and I start
preparing the food for the dogs. The two big ones need their food heated, softened and cooled again.
The puppy is supposed to eat puppy kernels but hankers after the big dogs food (dangerous thing to do),
and the dachshund is never hungry when it is feeding time but scavenges all day long.

After they have eaten, all the four-legged ones gather around me (if that sounds romantic, it is not really).
I am basically squeezed in next to the fridge, doggie breath wafting up at me and little claws scratching
my leg.

 

It is now time for the big dog's tablets.

I give them to him in a piece of sausage, which is what all the excitement is about.
Everybody else (cats included) also wants a piece of sausage!

Little Lola for some reason always jumps up on Buddha’s leg. He is sick, he is old, he is not in a very
good mood most of the time, and he is the only one likely to bite her.
Go figure…

Anyway, here I am throwing the spiked sausage to Buddha who misses it.
It falls to the ground and I tackle Elsa (she is half Labrador and anything to do with food really gets her going).
While I prevent her from eating the sausage the dachshund gulps it down

Eva manages to sleep through the commotion (as does my man) and has to be woken and fed too.

I coax her into brushing her teeth and get her into the car, hairbrush in one hand and shoes in the other.
Straight after school drop-off I have to give a yoga class (oozing calm and serenity), and we are
quite late already.

How did that happen?

We make it out of the gate and are halfway down the street when I remember the chickens.

We turn around, I run and open their house and scatter yet more food, run back out, off we go again.

By now everybody who owns a car in Windhoek is also on the road.

When we finally reach the school we realize that Eva’s schoolbag is still sitting in her room…



Wishing you a peaceful and idyllic day :-)



Love


 

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Chickens don't fly...

For years I have been dreaming of getting chickens. There is just something to the idea of going out in the mornings collecting eggs, of seeing them wander through the garden picking worms, a self-sufficient, farm house, simple living kind of vibe.

I also grew up with stories about my mum's pet chicken that followed her to school and slept on her bed (NOT that I want anybody else sleeping on my bed, it is too crowded in there already :-) ).

So some months ago I changed the playhouse my daughter doesn't use anymore into a chicken home, and kitted it out with nesting boxes and a sleeping platform. I also put a (low-ish) fence around the part of the garden the playhouse sits in.

And then, instead of getting chickens, I waited.

Not quite sure why, it might have had to do with the less than enthusiastic response my man had when I told him about my chicken plans.
Anyway, last Monday he really annoid me. I forgot what he did or probably didn't do, but it served as a good excuse to pay a visit to the pet shop.

They had all kind of different chickens, white fluffy ones with lots of feathers, little golden ones and big brown ones with very long tail feathers. I really liked the look of the golden ones, until I heard the price. You could get a designer handbag for that money. The fluffy ones and the long-tailed beauties weren't much cheaper.

I told the sales person that I don't want pedigree chicks, I just want someone to liven up my yard and lay eggs.
So he showed me to an out-of-the-way cage in which three scruffy looking black and white chicks sat.
I remembered the warning several friends had given me after seeing my chicken enclosure: don't get chickens that can fly, or they will be out of there very quickly.
I told this to the sales person who thought it was very funny, and who assured me that chickens cannot fly, at least not higher then half a meter.

I took his word for it and brought the chickens home. Their excited clucking got the attention of both dachhunds. The dogs started running around the enclosure and the next moment all three chickens were sitting in the surrounding trees.

So much for expert opinions....


Luckily the chicks came down again after some time and the dachshunds kind of accepted that these chickens are not to be chased.


So now I have my chicks:

According to the sales person expert they are all three female and they will start laying in about a month's time. 

I will keep you informed :-)


Have a lovely start of the week







Ps: They are called Frida, Lotti and Gretel

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Puppy love

Today is a much better day :-)

 

I am enjoying my time on this beautiful planet, and I remember to stay in the moment.

Everything is easier when you are present to it instead of going on a wild trip into the past or future.

You can trust me on that, I have my own personal coach teaching me.

Lola is VERY good at staying in the moment.

I must have told her about 500 times by now to not pee on the carpet, to not eat the big dogs food and to NOT chew the computer cables ...   :-)

She just does whatever occurs to her when it occurs to her and is very happy for it (this is not necessarily recommended when you are not incredibly cute at the same time).


Lots of love to you

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