*Inside of you

There is a beautiful thing inside you

that is thousands of years old.

Too old to be captured in poems.

Too old to be loved by everyone

But loved so very deeply

by a chosen few.

{Nikita Gill}

☙

*Calm moments from my August diary

{Mother Nature + I wrote this song for you – Oak Studios}

• A new dahlia sort started to bloom. I love its dusty red color! It fits perfectly to the colors of the freshly mowed, dried-out fields!

• Observing calmly the heavy clouds in the early morning hours.

• Working the first time with black clay.

• Being witness of how summer is slowly fading.

• Time with my snail friends.

• An apple breakfast under the birches in the soft morning light.

☙ 

*Between floodings and flowers

Just the moment when I collected some herbs for my tea, three swans were flying over the house. I have never seen them here so closely. What a wonderful start into the morning!

It has been a while since my last blog post, my summer seems so far like an endless concatenation of stressful events and in between a sea of flowers to rest my ruffled mind. As I often stated, we had almost no rain this summer and in the middle of August we suddenly had the most heavy thunderstorm with hail and heavy rain I ever experienced here. Within a moment the street in front of our house turned into a river, first I filmed a bit, but when a hill behind the house slipped off and created a mud flow that started to block the trench that usually should drain the water away from our house, things got out of control. In the heavy rains we tried to release the blockage, wading knee deep in the mud, but only more mud came our way and it was like fighting windmills, the powers of nature were too intense. We had to be witness how the flooding came into our garden and basement entrance and it was one of that kind of moments when everything seems so surreal and you feel like a tiny piece in a puzzle that has no other power than to be part of it all, no matter what happens.

Fortunately the rain suddenly got less, the mud flow did not get into the house, but water was pressed through roof, windows and cellar walls. The street towards our house was blocked and when the phones started to work again, we heard that our village was completely flooded, the water went up to over a meter high, very quickly our area had been declared as disaster area. Because mud gets hard as stone as soon as it dries, people and fire brigades started immediately to shovel and clean up as soon as the rain calmed down. It was a sleepless night and I got fever from the shock. On the next day the fire brigade and an excavator was here to help making the street passable again, it was so strange, it had immediately 35 degrees again. And in the evening another storm came and created new damage very quickly, because the ground was not able to take in any more water.

The coming days were full of cleanup and clearing work. We sorted out the cellar and repaired the terrace which was also affected. I cleaned the vegetable garden and Ronald worked up the two huge branches of our big apricot tree that had broken down. It will surely take some time until all the damage is repaired in our village again. It was a big shock for everyone I can tell. 

But there are lots of nicer things to tell also. Before the flooding came, I had collected quite some video material for new movies and we collected water from a healing spring, because tap water gets really bad here over summer. I burnt my recent clay pieces, glazed them and was able to get the finished pieces out of the kiln on Saturday. First time I tried black clay, it is a bit tricky to work with, it gets easily fissures and can make bumps while burning. I made plum jam and finished reading a book, my dear friend Marie, borrowed to me. It is called "We are okay", written by Nina LaCour and it is about a girl dealing with the loss of her grandfather who raised her.

I have seen how wonderfully collaboration works, if something drastic happens like the flooding. It shows me that humans are still humans in this strange world we live in.

Enjoy the last days of August and hopefully until soon again!

☙

*With the wild horses into August

{Music: Repeat – Serge Dusault + Sicilia – Oak Studios}

At the beginning of August the little rain that fell on our dried out landscape, made everything appear and feel like in the middle of autumn. We visited the beautiful wild horses not far from where we live. They were so playful and open, it was a joy to be near them. There are many seeds ready to be collected for the next garden year, I love to sort them out and put them into little labelled paper sachets. And lastly, the first grasshopper has found itself in one of the zinnias to take a rest. He picked the one that started to bloom at first this year. Good choice!

☙

*poems cannot be forced

Gedichte kann man nicht erzwingen,

nur demütig empfangen

aus dem Schoße der Ewigkeit.

~

Poems cannot be forced,

only humbly received

from the bosom of eternity.

☙

*a serious soul

Nichts Schöneres als eine ernste Seele,

die, was sie schaut, gelassen andern spiegelt

und alle Kraft, die reich ihr innewohnt,

allein ins Leuchten dieses Spiegels legt.

{Christian Morgenstern}

Nothing more beautiful than a serious soul,

which calmly reflects what it sees to others

and puts all the strength that is within

into the light of this mirror.

☙

*The first dahlia blossom, a cloud pillow & kitchen moments

{Home Song – Ross Bugden}

Celebrating the first blooming dahlia, 

collecting wild grasses for my ceramic work,

observing clouds & taking my hand-sewn cloud pillow outside to take pictures,

while being accompanied by the swallows again

and preserving zucchinis for the cold season.

Pickled zucchini salad recipe

• 2 kg zucchinis

• ½ kg onions

• sweet peppers

• 1 tbsp salt

• garlic

• chilly pepper (if you like it more spicy)

Cut everything, add salt and let it rest for ½ hour.

• 120g sugar

• ½ l vinegar 

• ½ tbsp mustard seeds (I use more and also add whole peppercorns)

Bring the vinegar, sugar and mustard seeds (and peppercorns) in a big pot to the boil, add the vegetables and cook everything for 5 minutes. You can add 1 tbsp preserve helper to be on the safe side. Pour into sterile jars while still hot. Finish with olive oil. Close jars and turn upside down and leave to cool. Store in a cool, dark place and after opening, put into the fridge.

Enjoy!

☙

*Call it Causelessly Merry

Summer is a loud time, colorwise and in other ways, too. So I loaded my zenit B camera with a black & white film and was really pleased with the results. The timeless feeling b&w film is creating, is matchless.

My sister recently shared a poem with me, that I wanted to share here as well, it directly speaks from my soul.

Call it Causelessly Merry 

I am glad that clouds are traveling cross the skies

And that it rains, hails, freezes, and snows.

I am glad also during the green season’s rise,

When wild roses are blooming and elder shows

That blackbirds are whistling, and bees are humming,

That midges are biting and bluebottles are drumming,

That red air balloons are rising into the blue

And that the sparrows are speaking and the fish stillness pursue.

 

And I am glad that the moon is up in the sky

And that the sun is rising every new day, high

And that autumn follows summer and spring follows winter

Pleases me. There is sense in it, isn’t there?

I know, the smart ones won’t buy that

But not all can be understood through the head!

I am glad and that is life’s aim.

I am glad before all that I am.

 

All is tidy and cheerful inside me

The corridor is sparking, the flames poked high

On such days, we climb the ladder, you see

That leads from the earth into the sky

Up there we can, as taught us our mothers,

Because we love ourselves – also love all others.

I am glad that I never quite

Seem to get used to all beautiful, miraculous sight.

That everything remains so amazing, and new!

I am glad to be glad, aren’t you?

{Mascha Kaléko}

Where do you experience the greatest joys in your life? For me it are never the big events that I feel deeply in my heart. It are always the most mundane and unexpected moments that make me feel good the most, like playing with the wind, cleaning spider poo off the rooms floor corner, a little bird taking a bath in a puddle, the sight of the crescent moon, when it is so thin that it is almost invisible, a slight touch from a dear hand, a smile to a stranger, the first moment my feet touch the water when taking a bath, a snow flake landing silently on my arm, little holes bitten by a bug into a leaf, the smell of all the wild grasses out there, closing the eyes at the end of the day. All this and much more.

☙