A few days break in the Mosel Valley (part one)...

After our brief stop from my previous post, we drove on towards the Moselle River. This is our 4th visit to the Mosel Valley and we just love it there. This time we stayed in the village of Lieser at Landhotel Steffen. This hotel was something I chanced upon while looking for a place to stay. It lived up to its description and more. We had a room with a view of the river and dinner included each evening. Jos was a little leary as food in hotels is not always good. But this could not be farther from the truth. Both evenings were excellent. We ate a starter that we would not have ordered but really enjoyed. Funny thing is we had it at the second place and would not have eaten it otherwise. But more about that later. There was a beautiful big terrace but the weather was not warm enough to sit outside unfortunately. We will certainly return here for another stay in the near future. 

We choose Lieser because it is close to Bernkastel-Keus. This is a pretty German village and we always enjoy walking here. Jos tried a Riesling ice cream while we were there which was delicious. It really did taste like frozen wine. 

The Italian restaurant was right across from the Bear fountain. I just love this fountain and have shown it before in my old blog. My father's nickname was Bear so I must be a bear cub...right? *grins* 

I always walk around in awe in villages like this as I adore anything wrought iron. They have beautiful hanging signs that just make me drool. And we discovered a Dutch connection with an iron shield hanging on the city wall. It reads "Vivat Oranien Nassau" or Long live Orange Nassau which is the Dutch royal family.

Jos peeked one morning to see what was right next to the hotel. He told me to come over and look as I would love this garden. Then he said "Oh no...don't look!" It was a wonderful garden for a shop. Lucky for Jos, the shop was not open on the days we were there. We did however go look in the garden. It was so beautiful and gave me some inspiration for my own garden. 

I loved the angels and wrought iron! I want to go look for a chair in the charity shop to sit in amongst my plants now. And I told Jos I wanted him to make me a ladder for our tree. He said he would so now I just have to hold him to it. *grins again* 

Heidi

Walking into a fairytale.....

On our way for our vacation last week, I searched for a good place to stop halfway there. I discovered this castle on the outskirts of Bergheim, Germany. It is the magical renaissance style castle of Paffendorf. You could easily pass through the village and miss this treasure which is set off the road behind the church. But from the moment you drive up, you are met with a fairytale castle...

We had lunch in the castle brasserie. Knowing we had a dinner booked that night at our destination, we ordered a starter to tide us over. Jos had white asparagus soup and I had the green asparagus salad. Both were delicious!

We then took a short walk in the castle park. As you walk in, you are met by the first of the ponds and giant sequoias. There were wildflowers in bloom all around you. 

There are gunneras in bloom all through the grounds. 

How beautiful dead wood is! It becomes a garden ornament when left to stand along the water's side or a piece left to sit and rot naturally. Since we are doing this now at Cranberry Cottage, I loved seeing this. 

The water in the ponds was so clear that you could see the fish swimming (left) and the tadpoles darting around (right). 

If you are ever in the area, this is a wonderful stop. We could not take the time for a tour of the castle but would love to go back one day...

Here are some links I found on YouTube so you are take a cyber tour for yourself...

You may want to turn off the sound on the second video. It is a good look at the grounds but the music is terrible for the scenery. 

Heidi

Garden visitor

Sprng is such a pretty time in our garden. This year, all three of our wisteria are doing well. One was badly frost damaged 4 years ago but even it is perking up with 4 blooms on the vine. One for each year I had to wait and see if it would survive.

Jos was very busy starting back in February. He relaid all the paths here in the city garden. We decided to use the stones we had at Cranberry Cottage so he had to remove them there and relay paths there too. There are three wider paths now with give order between the cottage garden planting. 

We put out our fountains again. I always have them on when I am in the garden and love the sound of water. I also discovered that there are 2 frogs and a toad living in that tiny pond on the right of the photo. 

Decorating in the garden is a must for me and now I have a new table to decorate with. Our older table is still on the back terrace but we had a robust table specially made for the terrace closer to the house. 

It is a monk's table made with very chunky douglas pine. We both love it! Jos aged the wood with vinager and steel wool so that it would match the chairs and bench we have owned for years. 

This special visitor to our city garden is such a treat! For the third year running, this great spotted woodpecker has been visiting us each spring. I was so pleased to get some good photos while he was at our peanut butter feeder. It is a crowning glory to me that he feels safe in our garden. We have achieved what we set out to do when we bought this house 5 years ago...that is to create a little piece of the countryside in the city. 

Heidi

Busy bee in springtime.....

Where did March go??? I was really busy and kept wanting to blog but time just slipped away. I will share more about it at the end of this post. March meant two holidays to decorate for this year. I started the month with my cloches showing a tiny of St. Patrick's day cheer but then had to switch them after the 17th of the month to Easter...

All my spring and Easter quilts were pulled out and accessories added to welcome the Easter Bunny when he arrives...

These little shoes were my Easter shoes when I was a baby. I am so glad my mother kept them along with a few other items of clothes...

Jos and I have been really busy working both in the garden in the city and at Cranberry Cottage. Lots of changes have happened at the cottage but that is a post in itself for later. As for the city garden, we have added a conifer hedge right next to the house. 

We need a little privacy. See that beautiful pine on the neighbor's side? We found out they are going to cut it down when Jos saw a notice in the local newspaper. We ordered some 15+ year old Thuja Emerald conifers and the man from the nursery called to say they would be delivered. 

Once we removed the plants that were in this section, Jos had to dig a big trench. They are planted and watered in so we have our fingers crossed they root well. Jos also added a row of paving and it all looks so nice now. 

We have also been to visit a carpenter up north who is making us a robust pine monk's table with cross legs. The table is done so we have to go pick it up. I can't wait to see it and have our first meal of the season outdoors!

Heidi

February cloche and quilt love!

It is already so close to the end of the month and I had intended to post more this month. February is the month of love and Valentines so my cloches are decorated for the season. On the coffee table are two with various hearts in them. Three of the hearts were gifts from friends...Sonja, Silvia and Annet (Silvia's daughter)...so they have a special place. The heart doily was a gift from my sister.

The sideboard has a cloche with three white glass heart ornaments.....

My desk also has a cloche with a vintage feel...shoe pincushion, spool of lace and a black glass heart ornament.....

Pink roses by my quilt wall.....

Blue and taupe vases by my 50 Hearts quilt. This quilt was made over the last year to celebrate my having turned 50. The evening before I turned 51 this month, I sewed on a special label to finish off a quilt that holds memories for me. You can read about it here.

Heidi

Amaryllis.....

Again this year, my amaryllis bulb was planted in October to have it ready to bloom in December but it did not show itself until January. Too late for the holidays but standing tall in all its glory for the start of the new year. It brought some beauty to the month which normally feels dull due to the Christmas decorations having come down. 

This week the blooms faded as February began. I see a tiny spot coming up again so have to wait to see if a second stem will come up into flower yet. 

The language of flowers...amaryllis is the symbol of pride and splendid beauty

We tallied up our decluttering results for the entire month of January...

10 items thrown out

1 suit donated to clothes bank

8 items taken to thrift shop

5 items taken to chemical drop (old paint and glue)

21 items sold for a total of 363,50 euros 

We are thrilled with the start of our year's goal to clean up our home and life. I hope we can keep up the momentum as the year progresses. Each month, I will tally up what we have achieved. I am so excited to get rid of unused items in order to make room for things we want to do in the house. More about those plans will come this year. 

Heidi

A little winter.....

This piece of stitching adorns our living room each year in January. This year, it turned out to be prophetic. We spent last weekend at Cranberry Cottage and on Saturday morning awoke to this.....

I was thrilled to see some snow. It was thick wet snow that stuck too. What a pretty sight!

Then on Sunday morning, we had a visit by this little creature. This red squirrel was trying to get the peanut holder from the arbour but Jos has made sure he no long can make it fall off. But we felt for him as he was hungry and put out some peanuts for him. He was adorable with his bushy tail and pointy ears.

Back in the city, the little snow that fell here was all melted by the time we drove home on Sunday afternoon which made it harder to leave the snow still at the cottage. But I can think back to our perfect weekend while I look at my winter tree. All the ornaments are handmade by me.

Heidi

Going from room to room.....

In our bid to streamline our lives and get rid of things we are not using, I am going from room to room now looking at what we have. I thought it would be fun to revisit the rooms on the blog. But first, I wanted to try out this for some time...making your own vanilla extract. Have you ever tried it? I had everything to do it but just did not get around to doing it. Saying to myself that this year would be different, I grabbed all the ingredients this afternoon and it is now sitting on my pantry shelf. I simply put three vanilla pods (cut open lengthwise) into a small air tight bottle with vodka. I shook it and set it on the shelf. Now to remember to shake it twice a week and then in a few months I can start baking with it.

I am going to try and spread out my cleaning more this year. It is also a great chance in the first few months of the year to see what I want to keep and what can be decluttered. Our powder room (click here to see the first post about this room after we moved) is very tiny so there is not much there and it is easy to keep clean.

 I did edit the items on my cupboard shelves I have hanging over the toilet. No more ivy to simply collect dust. I see from the photos that I need to edit the glassware now too. I have started using some of my doll quilts collection here too. They are stacked on a shelf and I now hang one at the bottom of the shelf. Hopefully, I will get a few more doll quilts made this year to add to the shelf. There are two of them sitting in my studio as UFOs (unfinished objects) waiting to be finish. It is fun to use my handmade quilts in our home even in the smallest room of the house.

Heidi

New year.....new vignettes.....new goals.....

The holiday season is long behind us and a new year is settling in. Did you have a nice Christmas and New Year? 

Jos and I have set a goal for the new year. We are going to declutter in a big way. We set a goal for 2015 to declutter 15 items each month from our home. When I say declutter, I do not mean reorganizing but de-owning. We started with the holiday season since we had time on our hands to list many things for sale on a Dutch version of eBay. Last weekend, we totted up what we sold and 12 items have gone so far bringing a total of 135 euros back into our wallets. Funny, we had a hard time remembering everything for the list I just made so that means we really did not need the things if we already are forgetting them. Jos also did a clear out and took 16 things to recycle and donate to the thrift shop. It is not stopping there since we have people coming to pick up more items this and next week. So far our count is up to 28 items de-owned and 4 more should be gone by the end of the month. 

I am also trying to rethink how I can keep my seasonal decorating which I love doing but keeping it more simple and organizing items this year as I use them. I decorated the large bread board Jos made me (see first two photos of this post) with a winter feel using lace, ice skates, taupe pot and pinecones. I could not help but add a pot of pink hyacinths though! It is a dreary winter here with spring temperatures and autumn gale force winds so a little bright feeling with bulbs cheer us up was just the thing. We still do hope for a snowflake or two to show up in the coming month...who knows...

A love of cloches has evolved into a good number of them in our home. So this year, I want to change them each month to reflect the season. For winter, three are standing on my sideboard with snow, pine trees, snowmen, an ornament and even some mice playing in the snow. Take a closer look by enlarging all the photos. 

Have you set any goals for the new year or decided to make some changes?

Heidi