Wood.

No accident that my Hero found this in his Christmas stocking this year, because actually, we take pleasure from our small woodstack.  Or, possibly more accurately, I take the pleasure and enjoy the warmth of his labour in stacking it all.

Only last week, we took delivery of a load of fresh logs, ready to be stacked and seasoned over the year.  There’s a similar quantity of seasoned logs stacked and drying in the garage ready for use, every one lifted and placed carefully, for there is a satisfaction in such things, don’t you agree?

But we are not in the same league as some, as witnessed over the weekend.

Of course, if one has to heat the whole house for the winter, then a larger stack is needed.  But my hero’s critical eye was cast over this one, lacking somewhat in the rotation, we thought.

This being a farm, then perhaps heating would be needed in the barns and cowsheds too? 

Plenty of room for new supplies here, though.  What a fine woodstore,with a clean, tiled back to it.  Having said that, the open design of ours allows the wind and rain to blow through from front to back, seasoning the wood nicely.

At least when the wood is stacked around the house, there’s the benefit of insulation too.  As you can tell, driving around we take note of such things and from time to time, one of us will “ooooo!” and spot a particularly fine example and admire the skill and sheer hard work involved in creating it.

On Sunday, though, we spotted the best woodstack ever.  Really.

It stretched three sides around the boundary of the Karthause Ittingen and contained more wood than we’ve ever seen, all neatly stacked in evenly sized and well built stores.  We’d met our Swiss friends for Sunday lunch in Frauenfeld at the marvellous Goldenes Kreuz (Goethe war da!) and on a lovely, Spring afternoon, their suggestion of a walk in the country was spot on.

The woodstacks were remarkable in the way they were sorted: some stacks contained smaller, kindling sized pieces and these variations in texture and pattern were very attractive.  I was also rather taken with the small drifts of what I assumed to be a variety of willow.

My favourite, perhaps, was the stack of dry vines, each one covered in lichen and in spite of being oddly twisted and contorted, was just as neatly stacked as all the others.

A grand sight to lift the spirits.

Formerly a Carthusian monastery, Karthause Ittingen is now a venue for concerts, weddings and suchlike.  There’s an hotel here, a good restaurant, a gallery and a spa.  We enjoyed looking around the reconstructed residence of the monks and soon realised why so much wood was needed.

A kachelofen in every room would have required regular feeding throughout the winter months.

And oh my, what beautiful kachelöfen they are too!

This one dated back to 1677, though it had been restored in the 1990s.

A silent order, the Carthusians must have savoured such a wealth of visual treasures.

I mean, the refectory is rather pretty too, isn’t it?

As for the chapel.  Well.

Altogether breathtaking.

After a spot of tea and a short stop in the lovely monastery shop we made our way back to our cars.

What a lovely day we’d had.  What great company our friends are!

And for sure, those Carthusians chose a great site for their monastery, even if they did need a fair quantity of fuel to get them through the chilly times.  Whether the concept is attributed to Thoreau or Ford, wood does indeed warm at least twice; once when cutting and once whilst burning.  When stacking is included, then my Hero definitely gets an extra boost.

In die Schweiz

We are just home from a few days in Switzerland.  We flew to Zurich on Friday lunchtime, arriving in the late afternoon and feeling very happy to be there again.

It’s always been a favourite, ever since our first visit as a couple in the summer following our wedding in 1980.  Driving past a road sign to Effretikon just a few miles from the airport brought back happy memories of that first trip, when the generosity of lovely Swiss friends of my family enabled us to discover the character of a country which enchants us both.

Even though the weather forecast didn’t sound too promising, the late afternoon sunshine highlighted the Alpstein nicely to greet us and the clouds revealed Säntis there on the horizon.

We left the laptop at home this time, so there are still a few stories to tell and a lot of details to share.

We stayed in St Gallen, where the peach and grey building holds a treasure trove of riches to interest me.  What better place to spend a rainy Saturday morning?

For sadly, the sun doesn’t shine continually and those green fields need a drop or two of rain to keep them looking lovely.  Saturday was especially wet and driving to a concert in Winterthur in the afternoon we made sure we had umbrellas and raincoats with us.

My Hero will surely be reporting on this grand occasion, when the highlights of the programme were works by Joachim Raff, bringing Swiss, German and British Rafficionados together to share enthusiasm, research and friendship throughout the weekend.

We might have enjoyed a few “white angels” lovingly created in the brewery next door to our hotel, the oldest brewery in Switzerland, no less.

At this time of the year, there are not so many visitors around, so we enjoyed peaceful times by the lake.

We were the only visitors – the only people – in the museum where the cloakroom is imaginative and utterly charming.  That was a fantastic place to visit!

When the weather brightened, we drove out and up into the mountains to new places and old favourites.

Sadly, the aroma of a Swiss cheese shop simply cannot be effectively communicated.  You simply have to be there.

The Gold Bunny on top of the car park was a reminder of something else on the shopping list.

Finally, with a couple of hours to spare before returning to the airport, we never have a problem simply sitting in a favourite place and watching the world go by.

So, the next few posts will surely be about our glorious weekend.  I’ll try not to forget to share the story of the Zuger Kirschtorte too. Textiles, transport, music, landscape, Weissbier, chocolate, cheese, rösti, friends, mountains, lakes and fun.  We love it all.

Oh, and there’s this, too.

Wood.  (I’ll explain later)

A little sunshine

The hospital-related activities of last week together with a funeral left me feeling in need of some light relief by the time Thursday came around.  Thankfully, it was a WI week, so a fun evening promised to lift the spirits and a lunch date with an old friend on Friday followed through nicely.

Such things are a reminder of the important things in life, for as I listened to the eulogy at the funeral I wished I could chat to Margaret once again, about some of the things I didn’t know about her life and to get to know her a little better.  It’s not the first time I’ve left a funeral and felt sad that it was too late to learn more: a useful reminder to spend more time with friends whose company I cherish.

More fun on Saturday too, with a fish and chip date before going to the opera at the cinema in Cheltenham to see La Traviata live from the Met in New York.

Wow.

We loved it – and were not alone.  A fantastic set design and marvellous performances from the whole cast.  Even if we thought Alfredo was a bit wet, at least he had a great voice!  Of course, it’s not a story with the happiest of endings (!) but at least in this production Violetta held her own until the very last gasp and left the audience similarly breathless.  Only on the way home did we realise that Ellis and Mary were at the cinema in Thousand Oaks watching the same live production and feeling equally positive, even without the benefit of haddock and chips to sustain them

Oh and another little ray of sunshine dropped through my letterbox yesterday.  I have plans to install the update this afternoon and am trusting for no unexpected changes in the weather.

Fingers crossed.

New vocabulary

It wasn’t quite how I’d planned to spend the morning, but wee-small-hour worries unsettled me and I simply had to resolve them.

Back in time then, to New Years Eve, more than two months ago, when I stupidly stepped on the hem of my skirt whilst hurrying back up this flight of (very hard) stairs and fell heavily on my right knee. The two bottles of wine I was carrying were unharmed, but since that night, I have hobbled about from time to time because whatever I did to my knee was (still) incredibly painful from time to time.  Regular readers might recall how I had further knee troubles when in Miami compounding the issue somewhat.

Since then I have been “getting better”.  Well, that’s what I told myself.  Except that it still wasn’t right and I was wondering if I should seek professional help.

(Yes, I know, it’s more than two months ago…about time, I hear you say)

Fast forward to around 2.43am this morning, when I awoke with a horrible pain in my right calf.  My mind was working overdrive and, in exactly the same way as it’s impossible to go on holiday until you’ve checked that yes, you really did turn off the gas, I just had to get my suspicions checked out.  You see I’ve been reading about causes of lower leg pain and since this one was a new development and seemingly nothing to do with my knee – I wasn’t moving about, after all – three letters sprang to mind.  D V and T.

Which is how I came to be admiring the blossom in the garden of our local Minor Injuries and Illness unit this morning.  Three hours of expert care, detailed questioning and careful diagnosis.  First things first: measurements and and an examination of my leg indicated that it was unlikely to be the deep vein thrombosis I feared and as I grabbed my coat and bag to leave, I realised that Sister Pauline was not going to let me off quite so lightly.  After all, she had identified considerable crepitus in the joint and wanted to investigate what was happening.  (new word #1)

An X ray revealed nothing sinister and thankfully, no damage to my tibial tuberosity (what? new words #2 and #3!)   Armed with a recommendation to consult a physiotherapist for further treatment, my apologies for being a nuisance were met with a wave of Pauline’s hand. 

The National Health Service.  What would we do without it?

Creative days like these

I have a new post on the Bernina English language blog today about the inspiring demonstration of some new Bernina accessories and software I went to last week.

I took my amazing machine to Frank’s with me, because of late it’s been misbehaving and not responding to my gentle touches as it usually does.  I left it for his technician to investigate and learned that the bobbin sensor was not working as it should.  A new replacement part was ordered, arrived within 24 hours and hopefully, my machine will be home again in a couple of days, complete with a firmware update and refreshed from a little TLC!

I keep looking at the large space where it normally sits in my studio and feel quite bereft, even though I know I could get my older, Bernina 1630 out to play…or the even older still, Bernina 1030 (do you see a pattern here?)  I know, however, I am not in the same league as many when it comes to collecting sewing machines!  (You know who you are )

Speaking of Maggie (!)  who came with me on Thursday and shared all the Quilting Ruler fun, on the way home we had a small errand to run for our dear friend Jordi, who had seen a couple of things online which she liked the look of.  I immediately followed the link to Sue Brown’s blog and discovered that she’s just up the road from me, in Cheltenham.  No need for mail order there, then!

 

So on the way home, Maggie and I spent a fascinating half hour looking around the yard ARTspace and just knew that we’ll be back there before long.  There’s an interesting programme of workshops and classes, right up our alley, and Sue herself creates some amazing work.

So much inspiration on our doorstep and lovely friends to share it with. 

Now, if only I could stop being bothered by that bird up there…