*spring flower heart

My first series of watercolor paintings of the year.

It feels good to play with colors again!

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*Poems under the oaks

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

{Mary Oliver}

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*Spring is slowly settling in & the short, but profound life of Walter, the Sunday's child

Slowly spring is settling in. 

Violets have started to bloom in cushion formations in the garden and I took the liberty of picking a few to make myself some tea. Their scent alone is the epitome of spring awakening. One of our apricot tree is also suddenly in full bloom and every morning I witness how the rabbits are grazing fresh greens in our garden. The birds are enjoying the rain that we had lately and so do I. We had the first thunderstorm of the year and it felt fantastic and somehow it's hard to believe that winter is finally coming to an end! I had wonderful 8 days with Walter, the moth that hatched in the middle of March, he really helped me to blind out my current physical state. I feel grateful for the time I had with him and already miss his presence. It's terrible that Giant Peacock Moths are more and more dying out because of the chemical sprays that people use. I don't understand how those can still be allowed. It's a real crime towards all life on earth.

It's hard to get over how adorable his face was!

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*Easypeasy Bandana Nr.2

Close-ups of the blue triangle scarf that I knitted for my dear sister. The pattern is from Susanne Müller, available for free on her ravelry page. Again, I used a different kind of wool and thinner needles, so I adjusted the number of stitches. I hope she will have good use for it! I find the size really practically.

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*Knitting through March, fluffy alpacas & finding the first snowdrops

{Music: A raw acoustic song that tells stories – Trail + Children's Waltz – Serge Dusault + Spotless Mind – Jon Brion + Chill Acoustic Folk Guitar – Alison}

Two more finished knitting projects, 

a cute & mindful Birthday gift,

visiting the fluffy alpacas 

and a lot of snowdrop hunting.

Marie made this little "Sunny" plushie for my Birthday – I was moved to tears when I first saw it. What a thoughtful and special gift! He is standing near our bed now, just where our real Sunny slept at night. Thank you once again, Marie, you made my day! And if you, dear readers, want to see more of Marie's wonderful handmade plushies, feel free to have a look at her blog!

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*winter is back & another moth surprise

Finally taking a moment to sit down and writing here. I guess you are more into spring mode already, but those pictures are actually fitting today, because it is snowing right now! But at the beginning of March we had fabulous mild and sunny weather. In March we always have a lot to celebrate. It was also my Birthday on which I went on the search for snowdrops again and luckily I was successful, but apart from snowdrops, nature needs a little more time to wake up this year. The forests are still barren, but tiny buds are appearing more and more on the trees. I have finished knitting two more bandana scarfs, one for my sister and the other one for a dear friend. I also bisque fired my latest ceramics which are waiting now patiently for getting glazed. On the weekend I had to stay in bed most of the time, but something exciting happened! I think I did not mention it here yet, but some months ago, we found a strange, hairy thing on one of our firewood logs. I thought it looks like a cocoon, so I made some research and to my surprise it is the cocoon of the biggest (up to 16 cm) existing moth species in Austria: the Giant Peacock Mot (Saturnia Pyri). So we put the log aside, but to be honest I did not have much hope that it will hatch, but yesterday in the morning it did! I have never seen one in real life before and I understand why it is so hard to get to see one. Not only because they are nocturnal, their life span is very short. They are living only a few days, don't eat and the only thing they are up for is searching a mate to reproduce, laying eggs and then they die. But I'm delighted! To be able to observe such beautiful creature so closely is amazing! I will for sure share some pictures soon! For now, I'm just showing you how the cocoon looked:

So stay tuned! :)

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*Koala chushion

The pattern of this sweet koala cushion is also from the Japanese craft book "Crochet with Sonomono: Animal Cuddle Amigurumi." I knew instantly when I saw it the first time, that I have to make it! I decided to embroider the eyes instead of using plastic ones. I think it makes it more cozy. I went up the little oak forest to make pictures. The sun was such a relief after the row of gloomy days that we had before. On the weekend I was looking for snowdrops, but nature is sleeping still here. Yesterday morning we had minus 6 degrees and today also frost again, but it seems it will get milder very soon!

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*Solo Lino Print Top

Welcome to March!

The pattern for this crochet top is from the magazine "Lana Grossa häkeln – Ausgabe 3" and is also available for free on ravelry. I used a different sort of wool, so I had to adjust the pattern, but it turned out better than expected in the end. Of course the temperatures are still too cold to wear it like this outside, but the light was beautiful on that day, so I decided to make some pictures out of doors. It is extremely soft and it will for sure be a garment that I will wear regularly.

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*A lavender crochet top, winter walks & A koala on the oak tree

 

{Music: Par la fenêtre de Théo – Alexandra Stréliski  + Dune – Muriël Bostdorp}

February is coming to an end. We made some really nice nature walks and I finished two more crochet projects, a lavender top and a cute koala cushion.

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*Slowly

Langsam,

den Tag abwarten, 

die Dinge ruhen lassen,

das Herz hochhalten

und die Seele rein.

{Claudia Voglhuber}

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