*the moon and the sea

I very rarely take pictures in high size, but in this case it was not possible to catch the sea together with the moon in another way. Today it is finally raining – so good! And lots of time to do inside things like updating my Etsy store and making homemade pizza and cake. Have a nice Sunday!

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*and then the sea washed away my sorrows

{Music: Us – Matteo De Grandis + Naked as we came (Iron & Wine cover) – Sam Newton}

And at last a little movie that I made of our time at the sea and a poem I wrote some years ago:

The ocean

Ever changing,

soft and silent,

then soughing and singing

to the seagulls call.

A little poem

flies away with the wind.

The waves are listening

while I'm sitting so still.

The seawater on my feet

so cleansing and strong.

It runs down my skin

like a natural song.

I give up all dreams

and hopes of the past.

I remember so humbly,

The ocean is vast.

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*blue hour at the sea

My most favorite daytimes are the blue hours. When the sun is just about to rise everything feels magical to me and the same holds true for the evenings when the sun sits at the lowest point and all the colors are slowly fading. On our vacations I also try to be outside in this beautiful time window. Nature is never more beautiful to me than when the sun rises or sets from the open arms of the horizon.

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*finally at the sea again

At the end of June we made a trip to the sea. I was not sure if I would manage, but we made everything quite spontaneous and did not book anything, we just took the camper in the knowing we could return any time if I would feel too bad. But I also thought it would maybe help me to recover, because I truly love the seaside and we could not make such a vacation since four years. If someone had told my younger self that at some point I will not see the sea for four years, I would have not believed it, because it is so essential for me in a way. I just love water, it is my element and being at the ocean was always wholesome for me. Not only for my body, more even for my mental health. So it was a very special moment when we finally arrived and we used our time to just sit there at the coast and watch the waves and the endless blue in silence for hours.

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*A taste of summer & berries

{Music: Falena – Matteo De Grandis}

Summer means:

eating berries and fresh fruits all day,

golden fields & flowers that are blooming in competition,

reading outside in the early morning hours when the air is still a bit cooler,

having tea with fresh herbs directly from the garden,

observing snails & waiting for a welcome summer rain,

the mild scent of marshmallow blossoms & the happy chattering of the swallows.

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*snail speed

The heat of summer really forces us to slow down. Even more since I got fever again on the weekend and am feeling rather weak. What can we do other than just accept it and go with the flow of life. I'm daydreaming of the days when it is somewhat cooler to be able to make nature walks again. I even caught myself daydreaming of autumn, when the light becomes softer and the air easier to breathe. But those summer days are essential to be able to get better through winter, so lets make the best of them! Who determines how much productive time a human has to have on a daily basis? We are all different and we all have our phases. Needless to fight against ourselves. So, take your time and if you feel stressed, observe a snail!

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*summer happy list

• a hoopoe in our garden

• a book gift from a dear friend

• my first dahlias started blooming

• making red currant jam

• baking apricot cake

• floating in the water

• the very early mornings

• golden fields

• letting go

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*at home in the wild flower fields

Walk barefoot – day in, day out,

finish thoughts and postpone answers,

let the grasses dance between your fingers

and your hair in the warm winds.

Drink sun and eat clouds,

feel the summer, be the summer!

 {Claudia Voglhuber}

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*In the heart of summer warmth

We are in the middle of another heat wave right now, up to 35 degrees, so I stood up early to pick black raspberries to make some fresh jam. Also I took up drying herbs again and yesterday the first apricot fell ripe from the tree. We do not have many this year,  because of the cold spring, but enough to eat them right away and maybe make a cake. I tried several times to grow pink hollyhocks from seeds, but only the purple ones grew, but suddenly a hollyhocks plant  appeared at the other side of the garden. First I was not sure what plant it could be and just let it grow further and on the weekend it was clear that it is a hollyhock, but it had not opened the flowers yet, so I was not sure about the color, but today it started to bloom and the blossoms are really light pink! I couldn't be happier! What a lovely surprise gift from nature!

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*my recent ceramic pieces

{Music: Sweet Forest – Matteo De Grandis}

I also made a little video of my recent ceramic pieces. It took me almost half a year to finish them, that is also the reason why many pieces are a bit more wintery, but I thought I will share them anyway. And I like to have a chronological order here and sometimes it's even nice to light a candle on a mild summer night, don't you think?

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*high-fire ceramic pieces

Welcome to another update of my recent ceramic pieces!

It was nice to experiment again with different sorts of clay and glazing.

We are having hot and humid days and I was able to harvest the first cucumber and zucchini on the second of July already! So good! Tomatoes will be also ripe quite early this year and I cant't wait that my dahlias will start to bloom!

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*touch & scent

A dear friend asked me recently what is giving me the most comfort and I had think a little about this question, but came to the answer: touch & scent. Those are also the two things that I remember about people of my past the most, how the hands of my grandmother felt like and how her hair smelled, and the smell of my grandfather when he came home from woodwork in the forest and how tight his grasp was when he clasped my arm. And my mother's pillow that I would cuddle in, when she was away and the feeling of her hands on my back when I was little and was not able to sleep after having a nightmare. I have this blanket that Sunny had all those years and every now and then I take it out of the closet to unroll it and it still has captured his smell. I often ponder about how genius the great spirit was who devised everything around us, that we now can experience with all senses. Every flower, every plant has his own specific scent, every human has a different smell. Isn't it a miracle on its own? 

What is giving you the most comfort?

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