December

 

Our home is decorated for the winter - the Geek always puts these lights up the weekend after Thanksgiving and they will stay there until daylight saving begins. We call them winter lights - this is a rather dark corner and all the dog walkers and joggers are thankful for some light. The lights are on a timer and switch on half an hour before sunset, switch off at 10pm and then switch on again at 6am for 90 minutes. We don't do any kind of Christmas decoration anymore and we said goodbye to a Christmas tree several years ago. It was a big relief for me.

December here looks a lot like autumn. The Japanese Maple in front of our house usually gets its most brilliant color around Thanksgiving and this year it lasted well into December.

These pictures were taken at sunrise when the leaves are backlit and the most beautiful.

Winter sunrises and sunsets are so much more intense. I enjoy the view from my bedroom window, shortly before sunrise...

... and after sunset.

However, I don't look that brilliant before sunrise. Here I am before breakfast, and more importantly before coffee, and although my hair looks kind of wild I did comb it. My curls simply can't be tamed and do whatever they want. This is for Nicole's Friday Face Off. Good morning!

Our mornings are cold and foggy, but our afternoons are sunny and very pleasant. I work a lot in the garden since there is still so much to do (the weeds are dancing salsa there). But I also take a break, sit in the sun and knit. My little companion is never far away and claims ownership. Another sweet face for FFO.

And lastly, I gave myself an early Christmas present (the only one since we don't so presents), this beautiful enameled cast iron covered casserole that comes with a lid. This has been on my wishlist for a long time and I finally used my tutorial money to buy one. The crisp gnocchi with brussels sprouts and brown butter turned out delicious in it.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. It's the third Advent weekend, time for the Christmas market in Tübingen.

The Autumn Garden

 

"Autumn is a time of sweet disorder and permissible procrastination" - Allen Lacy

Often, autumn is seen as a time in the garden full of chores - raking the leaves, tidying up the perennial beds, cutting back annuals, planting bulbs for spring, taking care of the tools and putting everything away. In short, bringing the gardening year to an end.

Luckily, in this part of the country fall still fills the garden with a lot of life. After a couple light rain falls the garden seems to wake up after the summer heat, taking a deep breath and pushing all its glory that autumn is famous for.

"Roger's Red", a California native grape pictured above, displays brilliant shades of red, winding through our old windmill and being reflected in the water left from the rain in our fire pit. It is a stunning show that takes my breath away every time I look at it.

The last tomatoes need to be harvested. It wasn't a good tomato year for me and most of my tomatoes I ate right from the bush. The few sunflowers I had are gone, but I had cut off the seed heads and attached them to the now orphaned tomato cages for the birds to enjoy. 

Fall is our major planting season, when perennials, shrubs and trees are put in the ground so that they can get etsablished over the winter. Bulbs for spring flowering plants will go in the ground in December. I don't have many this year - just a few tulips and a big bag of daffodils. I hope that some of this year's tulips will come back next spring, but it is not a given because we don't have very cold winters and tulips need quite a chill. If we do get a lot of frosty nights chances are much better.

Most of my perennials were planted in the fall and many of them come back reliably year after year. Like these sages in the front - pineapple sage and Mexican bush sage - that make up one of my favorite color combinations, red and purple. They are joined by salvia "Indigo Spires" and in the background you can see the loaded Pendolino olive tree. All of these sages are cut back to the ground in the winter.

The yellow of the swamp sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) is glowing for about two weeks in the autumn garden until it fades again. It's like a light that has been switched on. After our very dry spring and summer I was surprised how well it performed in October. The chrysanthemum is still flowering in all its beauty and such a delightful spot.

Almost two weeks ago we had torrential rain - much needed, but so much water came down that some areas were flooded (thankfully not in our corner). Within 24 hours we received almost 8 inches of rain. Since then it has rained on and off with sunny balmy days in between. While the rain did help the garden a lot, it unfortunately hasn't put a dent in the drought - for the drought to end we need a lot more rain and the prognosis for that is not very good. It's a La Niña year which means more rain for the Northern part and less rain for the Southern part. While officially being Northern, we're kind of in the middle when it comes to these weather patterns, and I hope we will get more of the rain that is supposed to fall in the North. Fingers crossed - we need it.

The most stunning plant in my garden at the moment - beside the "Roger's Red" vine - is the Chinese pistache that I planted seven or eight years ago. Every year its show is more brilliant than the year before - or perhaps this is only my imagination. I love love love this tree.

The leaves of the elderberry - Sambucus mexicana, a California native - are already gone, but the birds love the berries. They will be a good food source for them during the winter.

I shouldn't forget who actually rules the garden - it's these two. Somehow they have decided that this garden is the place where they like to be. They follow me around when I make my rounds through the garden and love to soak up the sun on the warm soil.

Autumn Blessings

 Autumn - the most beautiful season in my opinion. Therefore, the current challenge at Try it on Tuesday, "Autumn Blessings" was perfect for me.

I have a box labelled "Fall" that contains all of my autumn themed stamps and embellishments. I haven't bought any new stamps or embellishments or papers for ages and was just digging through my old stuff. No new images or add-ons, all of these cards are made with whatever was available. Oldies but goldies.

"Autumn is a second spring"

I cut the file folder card with my Coluzzle out of patterned cardstock (Scenic Route), attached the stamped pumpkin (Stampendous) and embellished with brown ribbon, a pumpkin brad and a trianlge shaped paper clip. I don't know who made the stamp with the beautiful quote by Albert Camus.

"Autumn Pears"

Again I used the same Coluzzle template to cut a different file folder shape out of Bazzill cardstock.  I still have some glossy paper that I made with alcohol inks years ago that I cut and attached to metallic cardstock. The pears (A Stamp in the Hand) were stamped with green Stazon ink. Maple leaves were punched out of metallic paper and the tiny paper clip added as a final touch.

"Bountiful"

Yellow, olive green and ochre cardstock were matted on top of each other (with the yellow as the card base). Another alcohol ink paper piece was stamped with a cornucopia and a text stamp (Hero Arts). Two maple leaves, punched out of the alcohol ink paper, were added as well as the word "bountiful" (Hero Arts).

"Turning Leaves"

A super simple card! Different pieces of patterned (Scenic Route) and solid cardstock were mounted on top of each other, the top one with the autumn tree (Inkadinkado) stamped with Kaleidacolor. I cut two circles from leftover bits of cardstock and stamped the top one with "turning leaves" (Hero Arts). Finally, a maple leaf brad - done.

"Autumn"

The base of the card is Bazzill cardstock, topped with scrapbook paper that I randomly stamped with the leafy twig (Magenta). The oval was stamped with autumn themed words (Hero Arts), I punched two holes to pull the ribbon through and added an oak leaf die-cut.

"Autumn Greetings" - my favorite.

This card is based on olive green Bazzill cardstock. I cut out squares from an old dictionary and "painted" them with stamp pads. Using bubble wrap I stamped dots with orange acrylic paint and stamped a row of colorful leaves on the bottom. This bare tree is one of my favorite stamps (PSX), I use it all the time. "Autumn Greetings" (Northwoods Rubber Stamps) appear on the left.

If you're still here - thanks for your patience and looking at my cards. There are so many creative works with this theme that you can see here.

Gratitude in Difficult Times

 

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving, certainly a different holiday for many this year than all the years before. Many of us will follow the CDC guidelines and stay home, celebrating only with the people in our household. The turkey will be much smaller and maybe there won't be that many side dishes because Aunt Mary who usually made the sweet potatoes with marshmallows is not coming this year. My husband and I will be the only ones at the Thanksgiving table (usually we celebrate with friends) and we won't have turkey since we both don't like turkey too much anyway.

While scaled down, I hope all of you will have a lovely Thanksgiving.

This is the time when we normally give thanks (which we honestly should do every day). But what about giving thanks in a year that has been so different? A year about which most people only complain and whine? When people lost loved ones to a virus we still don't understand, or lost a job because of the economy's downturn? It must be difficult to be thankful.

But the rest of us?

So far I don't know anybody who became sick with the virus and I'm glad that I don't. There you have it, first thing to be grateful for. I myself am healthy and so is my family and are my friends and colleagues. Second thing to be deeply grateful for. 

As every day I am grateful for my family. I couldn't have a better husband than the Geek, and I can't think of having a better daughter than Kaefer. Yes, I miss her and this virus doesn't even give us the remote possibility of just dreaming about seeing each other. But she is healthy, she likes living in Munich, she enjoys her studies and the international environment of her University program. What would I do without my family? My husband's humor often has filled a darker hour with light, and modern technology enables us to have video calls with Kaefer whenever we want. I'm certainly thankful for that.

We both still have our jobs. While both my jobs have changed due to distance learning, it has also offered opportunities to learn. The biggest change in this regard has been my work at the German School since I was able to offer conversation classes during the summer and an add-on class this fall in creative writing. Before we even started to think about online classes I had this idea of teaching a creative writing class because I know how difficult it is to write in a language that is not your first language. The pandemic handed me the opportunity to do this much sooner than I had expected. Yes, I was nervous - I was downright terrified, to be honest - but then the class went much better than I had hoped. It was a lot of work, but so worth it. So so grateful for that!

Beside all these changes in my jobs I was also very busy with my Etsy shop. It kind of took off during the pandemic. Suddenly everybody wants hand knitted socks! I don't think I spent a single day since March without working my knitting needles.

I am grateful for our warm home where we can snuggle up - and my garden. Working in the garden was a particular big help this year. Creating something beautiful not only for me but also for people who walk by and often stop for a chat (socially distanced of course). Another gardener two blocks down and I exchanged gardening knowledge and plants. Reading many gardening books inspired me and motivated to some changes - like new paths and an even more organic way to treat the garden than I already had done. The result has been a gorgeous garden that still has several plants in bloom.

We finally had some rain which (hopefully) means the end of the fire season - VERY grateful for that. This season, especially these days around Thanksgiving, are so full of color that it almost takes my breath away. It seems as if 2020 tries to make it up a little bit. Fall color is at its peak right now and it is simply stunning. Every day I walk through the neighborhood and beyond, admiring this magnificent display of nature.

There is so much to be grateful for.

Last Thursday in my creative writing class I asked my students in a timed writing exercise to write about what they are grateful for. Following that we did an exercise writing a longer text about "the pandemic and I". Afterwards all of them said that writing about gratitude first changed their outlook about 2020. It's just a question of perspective I guess.

What are you grateful for?

An Image and Its Story - November 2018

When it comes to taking photos, November pretty much didn't happen. For almost two weeks I couldn't get out of the house (except for short grocery shopping trips and driving to work) because of the bad air quality, and when I did I certainly wasn't in the mood spending much time taking photos (try holding a camera in front of your eyes without pushing the filtered mask you're wearing deeper into your face all the time...). On top of that I was very busy in both my jobs and my small business that everything that was not somehow connected to these was simply left undone.

But then it was Thanksgiving and that meant driving to Davis to pick up Kaefer (and dropping her off again a few days later). That's when the photos happened! The drive to Davis was during the first rain when the air finally started to improve. I couldn't resist stopping my car and getting out to photograph those fog covered vineyards in the Napa Valley; and on the Sunday, it was sunny and clear and again, I stopped in Napa Valley to capture the vineyard right before the sunset.

The grapes in the foreground were already in the shade of the mountains, but the colors were so beautiful and vibrant. Whenever I passed this particular vineyard I always loved the look of the rows of grapes with the wind machines in between. Quite handily there's a small bay by the road where I could stop safely without blocking other traffic. The wind machines are used to blow warmer air from above into the grapes when there is frost - yes, we do have frost here. Frost for grapes is bad - that's why there are so many wind machines in our vineyards. I find them quite picturesque.

We may not have the spectacular autumn colors of trees like in New England, but our vineyards make up for that big time. Depending on the grape you can find all shades from light yellow to a deep burgundy red. It is a brilliant show that I enjoy every year.

An Image and Its Story - October 2018

October was a busy month at work, especially at the German School where I felt like constantly putting out fires. Pretty exhausting, to be honest, but also good when you see that problems get solved. I am also very lucky to work with a wonderful team there.

But photography was again pushed to the back burner. I took a few photos in the garden and on my walks, but nothing that I thought worth for this post. But one day when I came home in the late afternoon I noticed how beautifully my favorite tree in our street was turning its leaves.

This tree is a Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis), a widely used street tree. It is deciduous, but before it loses all its leaves, it turns into the most brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red. It is a true stunner. I planted one in my own garden a few years ago simply because of its gorgeous color (my tree, however, is far from being such a beautiful mature tree like the one in the photo even though it already displays fiery colors). Every autumn I am in awe of this tree - the colors, the shape, the trunk. When the sun is deep in the sky, the colors are intense.

The show lasts only a few weeks, but oh! what a show!

When the Family Goes on a Hike

Last year REI for the first time didn't open their shops for Black Friday, but encouraged their employees and customers to "opt outside" instead and experience the great outdoors. We loved the idea and spent a wonderful afternoon hiking Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. This year we opted outside again on Black Friday, and we chose to hike in Jack London State Historic Park, the only park close to us that by some kind of miracle has been completely untouched by the October fires.

The vineyards in the park - with the original terraced planting by Jack London - were brilliant at this time of year.

We hiked up to the "lake" - it's not really a lake anymore since it is full of algae. This was our first view of it - that green thing in the back is the lake. I don't think anybody in their right mind would want to dive in there.

But when you walk further up there are some gorgeous redwoods.

I stepped right in the middle of the trees and just took a photo looking up.

When my family saw that, they wanted to do the same thing - and we ended up with this:

This was the first time that I broke in my new hiking boots - my old ones did break in Yellowstone during a hike and the Geek, resourceful as always, had hold them together using duct tape. It was a fine for that particular hike, but certainly not a permanent solution.

But then, of course, everybody wanted to take boot pictures!

And it just went on with taking silly family photos.

Kaefer was sitting on the wall at the edge of the "lake", but she didn't stay on her own for long, not in this family.

The Geek saw this tree and asked us whether we can see the seal in it - can you?

Even the hike back wasn't done in a "civilized" way - there is always room for silliness in this family. I think we thrive on it. Life is so much more adventurous upside down between the poison oak and the mountain lion warnings.

And the vineyards kept on being stunning.

We spent several hours in this beautiful park. Since it is the only park unharmed by the fire, the entrance into it is free until the end of the year. What a gift to anyone who loves to be in nature.

All the photos in this post were taken with my cell phone.