Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all.

It is very grey here in Germany and and not as snowy as it was last time I spent Christmas here. I have a great time - meeting people, reading, drinking tea and eating my way through the Christmas cookies at my grandmother's place..

Thank you so much for your lovely birthday wishes.

I hope you have a wonderful time...

Maria

29

I am just about to go to bed, tired after a beautiful day with so many people who thought of me, called, wrote me lines, sent a card .... friends who came over, chats over coffee, tea and cake, laughs. It's been a great day.

I made Nigel Slater's beetroot cake this morning and I wanted to take a picture but forgot and now it is all gone but it was so great, a perfect Winter cake....

It is great to be back home..

Fremantle Western Australia

I am here in Fremantle since last Tuesday. It is our Summer stop before we fly over to Germany on Tuesday. I was lucky and could work from here and enjoy the beautiful warm weather which everyone was missing in Sydney over the last couple of weeks. I went for a swim in my lunch break which was early in the morning here due to the 3 hours time difference to Sydney, had the most delicious fruitbreat I ever had as snacks and great great coffee at a friends place who just opened up a cafe in a bookstore called Grumpy Sailor .

On Friday night we went to a beautiful solo concert from Sean Pollard from the split seconds at the Fremantle Arts center. What a beautiful night it was. I hope I can share soon the link with you. Radio National recorded and broadcasted it live.

>> Two good sites which show a lot about great places in Perth and Fremantle

Have a great day,

Maria

Corners from the new place

You know when you move into a new place it is a bit like having a white piece of paper in front of you. You can arrange your space totally new add bits here and there, pin up different things to the wall and make it your home. I moved into a small room in a shared house last Sunday (only for a couple of months) and I am still in the process of making it my new home.

It is a nice room gets great light, which was very important to me and has trees in front of it. At the moment I am getting used to this new place, its noises and sounds, such as cracking floor boards or light reflections on the wall when its getting dark.

On Saturday morning I woke up and thought I could smell coffee from the little cafe across the road, I was hearing the sound of cups on tables and chats from the distance. It was a very nice sound ....

I am off to Perth tomorrow and will fly home to Germany on Sunday.

Can't wait.

Maria

A couple of things I liked and saw this week.

>> this video

>< this song makes me happy

<< a breathtaking beautifully video about Iceland

More Summer food

I am still having unpacked boxes all over my little room and thought I share some Summer food images with you.

#1 One of my favorite things in Summer is to have some bread with fresh cucumber, chive, and raddhishes

#2 The breakfast with Summer fruits

#3 Summer also means lots of fresh basil and this is one of the great meals we make, pasta, home-made pesto with boiled potatoes and squash

#4 This is a great recipe from the amazing 'Plenty' cookbook from Ottolenghi. Lentils w/ carrot, celery, coriander, baked eggplant and yoghurt - so good

Necklace

It's Sunday afternoon and I am almost done with the move, I wanted to say a quick hi in between all the cleaning and carrying boxes and show you the necklace I got from Trixi the other day. You might have seen them here and here and now she is also selling them in her own little store. Have a look.

Have a wonderful start into the week.

Maria

Tasmania day 4/5

Every trip comes to an end. I had a bit of an extended trip after being at the airport on Monday morning and realizing that I had booked the pm and not the am flight. Well, as some airlines can't easily move you onto a different flight and you rather need to buy a new ticket we stayed the whole Monday in Hobart and enjoyed our extra day there. I bought a new book and we were sitting in cafes reading.

#1/3 On Sunday we drove back to Hobart along the east coast of Tasmania and it was stunning, so many great beaches. The weather was changing hourly so we had rain, sunshine, fog, clouds...

#4 This is how the beautiful water looks like when the sun was shining

#5 We drove and suddenly everything was so blue, I needed to stop and take a picture

#6 I woke up by the sunrise on Monday morning

#7 Reading in a cafe after I booked the wrong flight. It is in fact the cafe you see on my prior post from outside

This is the last post of analog photos from my Tasmania trip. Thanks so much for all your great comments. It is a magical place down there, if you have the chance to go, I would highly recommend it. Its beautiful!

Maria

>> A incredible trailer

Tasmania day 2/3

How as your weekend been so far?

Rain, wind, sun, wind rain, thunderstorm is going on here.

Thank you so much for all your great comments on my Tasmania images. It was a wonderful trip and this time last week I was still breathing the fresh air of this beautiful place. I hope I don't bore you, but here is the second last post with images from the trip.

#1/2 still day two on Bruny island, this strip is called 'the neck', we walked up the wooden steps to enjoy the spectecular view over the island

#3 we got fresh oysters and had them at the sea. They tasted like the fresh ocean on your tongue

#4 just mail boxes

#5 on Saturday we went to the famous Salamanca markets and got some fruits and bread for our trip to the Cradle Mountains

#6 we passed a wonderful stall where you could get seeds, I loved the Iceland poppies in October so much and got myself some seeds

#7 Before we hit the road we had coffee with a friend and I adored their hidden backyard with all their flowers, plants and veggie patches...

#8 On the way up north passing the great lake. Breathtakingly beautiful landscape!

#9/10 lunch

#11 !

Tasmania Day 2

On the second day we drove to Bruny Island which was a bit of the highlight of the whole trip for me. It is an hour south of Hobart and after we missed the first ferry I am glad we didn't drive further but waited to enter this wonderful island and discover it. Some bits of Tasmania somehow reminded me to Ireland and Sweden maybe because the weather is a lot cooler than on the mainland and also because of the wonderful green fields, trees and bushes. What I remember is: the fresh air/wood-fired bread, sheeps, fog, lonely beaches, walnut orchards, green trees and bushes, black swans, apples, reading book, fresh oysters.....

Maria

A wonderful cover song for you.