Summer 2012

This summer, we ate lots of salads and pies. I did a lot of genealogical research, and a few sewing projects.
And we stayed close to home.

February & March 2012

February: Valentine's day, the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition, more Ramseyer art, and the Lion of Lucerne.

March: We traveled to the US. I took lots of photos with my mind's eye, but none with a camera. 

Some of our adventures in West Virginia can be seen here and here.

January 2012

January was a crafty month for us: I worked on several sewing projects, and Zak carved a set of salad spoons for his mom and a butter knife for us. We also visited the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and celebrated Zak's birthday.

Onions

Thanks to a small misunderstanding over the price, we purchased a decorative strand of onions last weekend. These strands commemorate an event in 1405 when the city of Bern was on fire, and the farmers from the neighboring area of Fribourg helped put out the fire.

Quince harvest

Our landlady harvested her quince this week.

Pasta and bread

Additional preparations for our meal.

Italian dinner party

Yesterday we had a small dinner party for the guys who took care of Fred while we were in Italy. On the menu: creamy tomato soup, fettucini (from our cooking class) with mushrooms, garlic bread, stuffed eggplants, caprese salad, parmesan with special balsamic vinegar, and Zak's homemade truffles. 

Sheepdog cat

Freddie and Zak recently watched the World Sheepdog Trials on TV. When the camera showed only the sheep, Fred's attention would wander. As soon as the dog was back, he was totally engaged. It was highly entertaining. He's watched the TV here only once before, for these commercials which aired back to back: Royal Wedding corgis and toilet paper koala.

Peppers

We harvested our pepper crop last weekend for a spicy meal. The two thinner ones came from a plant given to us
by a friend. The jalapeño came from seeds I planted in May.

Quince

The quince tree in our yard is full of fruit. Our landlady shared a jar of her quince jam with us last fall.
We leave for Italy today. I'm pre-posting a few more local photos before the Italian extravaganza begins.

Banana plant

I cleaned the dust from the banana plant's leaves in the shower, and Freddy dried them.

Aida

Our landlady's dog, Aida, on the porch of her dog hut.

Berries for lunch

Actually for lunch dessert.

Next project

The fabric for my next project arrived in the mail this week.

Freddie's water

In Minnesota, our cat Fred drank water from the bathroom sink. Since moving to Switzerland, he drinks only

from water glasses. He has two: one in the living room, and one by his food bowl in the hallway.

Calla lilies

As are the Calla lilies.

Canna lilies

The Canna lilies are in bloom in our garden.

Framed art (at last)

After torturing ourselves and Mindy over where to hang the art we have, we finally got a bit of it up on
a wall in the living room last weekend. From left to right, it includes a painting from Senegal, a photo of a cake
at our wedding, a screen print from Minnesota, a wall quilt I made, a Matisse print, and our three paintings of
Singapore shop houses, which Zak had framed in Seattle.

Smores

We celebrated the Fourth of July with local American friends, Paul and Laurel, yesterday. 

For dessert: smores prepared under the broiler.

Mont Blanc

The view of Mont Blanc from our balcony at dusk.
(We are indebted to Chris for identifying this for us in May.)