All posts filed under: Lifestyle

We’re off on our Summer Holidays!

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After packing, tiding up the house and garden, making sure the cat and post are being looked after, it was time for half the family to catch the train off to Zuoz our summer holiday destination in the Swiss alps. It was only half the family because Mr. T and the boys decided to take their bikes, which of course didn’t leave much room in the car 😉, but I’m not complaining as the train ride is spectacular and very relaxing… …and of course having a welcoming committee (our youngest son & doggy) with a chauffeur (Mr. T) that whisked us off to our chalet was rather nice! MerkenMerken MerkenMerken MerkenMerken MerkenMerken

Happy 1st Birthday!

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Today it’s Meeko & Mitsi’s 1st Birthday. It’s already a year ago since our Kittens were born at the Waldhof (check the link) farm in Schneisingen (a little village about a 10 minute drive from here). How time flies! And look at them now! Our adorable, exploring (especially Meeko, he keeps us on our toes with his runaways), hungry (are always very interested if there is anything fishy our rubbish bag), cheeky (try to take over our Labradors bed by lying right in the middle of it as soon as she gets up for a drink or a walk) , sleepy (definitely the thing they do best), playful (anything that catches their eyes is in danger, even if it’s someone asleep under a duvet, that seems to be absolutely irresistible and has to be pounced on)… …but we wouldn’t change them one bit and it’s hard to image a life without these two tumbling around us.

Our Easter Egg Tradition

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I’ve just realised that I did a post like this last year, it has obviously become a bit of a family tradition. So here goes for you want to give it a try… All you’ll need is: -eggs (raw) -leaves or grasses -old tights -thread -onion skins While we took our dog out, the kids enjoyed collecting leaves, flowers and even an empty snail shell (not that we could use that for the eggs). Once we got home, we put the leaves and flowers on the eggs. Fixed them with some old tights, tied them up with some thread… …and boiled them for 10 minutes in the onion skins.   Happy Easter!

Meeting Mike…

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Early this morning I took a 20 minute train ride to Zürich to meet my blogging buddy Mike (alittlebitoutoffocus.com) for the first time. He lives in Evolène thats in the alps, in the south/ french speaking part of Switzerland (about a three hour drive from where we live), so not just around the corner. But he was running in the Zürich Marathon today, an opportunity I couldn’t miss…. Zürich, peaceful before the race… …but not for long… …and then, pricisely on time… Mike! A true marathon runner, with temperatures hitting 20°C/ 68°F (that’s burning hot for a marathon!) he fought his way, with 9’000 others, to the the finish line! Well Done!!! While Mike went for a well deserved shower, I took our daughter, (who had meanwhile come to help me cheer the runners on) to the fun park, which was right next to the race course (very handy). After going down the slide 7 times (!), twice on the merry go round and the trampoline, we headed off to the restaurant Hiltl to meet Mike. It was really nice meeting …

Spring Inspiration

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With Spring on the doorstep, I’m on the loose. I’m a collector of inspirations, a hunter of emotions. I try to capture both. Searching, finding, capturing the moment and turning it into a post for you…   …and I’m never know what’s going to come next… MerkenMerken

Merry Christmas

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Christmas is here and here’s a one of my favorites … cinnamon stars. The Ingredients 3 egg whites 1 pinch of salt 200g icing sugar 1 tbsp cinnamon 1 tbsp lemon juice 350g finely ground almonds Beat the egg whites and salt. Gently sieve the icing sugar into the egg whites until shiny.Take a third of the egg white mixture out of the bowl and save for the icing. Add the cinnamon, lemon juice and almonds. Mix until it turns into a dough.Roll out to about 1 cm thick and start cutting out the stars. Now use the leftover icing sugar to decorate the stars. Leave for a couple of hours then put in the middle of the preheated oven (250°C) with the door slightly open for three minutes. With all the preparations done, all that’s left, is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Your Tammy Twinkle

“Grittibänz Zit”

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“Grittibänz Zit”? It’s Swiss for “Grittibänz” time. “Grittibänz” is a Swiss advents tradition. It’s a man (or in our case a lady as well) made of sweet bread dough that we bake around the day of St. Niklas (“Samichaus”) on the 6th of December. If your too busy and living here you can just pop down to your local bakery and buy one. But for all of you, that don’t live in Switzerland, and want to give it a go… The Ingredients 500g flour 15g yeast 1tsp salt 60g butter 1tbsp sugar 3dl milk Decorations cranberries raisins almond slivers coarse sugar 1 egg Mix the ingredients to a dough and leave to rise. After it has risen. Preheat the oven at 200°C. Form the dough to a sausages. Shape the neck by squeezing slightly the top quarter of the sausage. Make cuts for the arms and legs and decorate with raisins, cranberries, almonds and leftover dough. Brush with egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes. As you can see, there are no end of possibilities to …

End of Summer…

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Yup! Autumn is here. The temperatures have cooled down and the rain has set in. But that’s not stopping us from enjoying a wet walk. After we had dried off, stocked the fireplace with wood, and brewed some coffee. Our two little ones had woken up and were ready for some fun…

Meet Mitsi & Meeko

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Today is the day! At last we get to pick up our kittens! The kids have been looking forward to this moment for weeks. We drove off to the farm “Waldhof” in “Schneisingen” and were greeted by Yuma the new farm dog (only three months old). After a lot of chasing the kittens round the kitchen it was time to put them in their traveling box and drive them home. Where our lovely labrador was waiting to meet them After eventually creeping out of their box, there was a lot to explore… …but all the exploring got very tiring (not only for the kittens but also for someone that stayed up late last night to celebrate the swiss national day “1. August”).