Lady Bird

A touch of the tropics

November 10, 2019November 10, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

While days have become shorter, forests browner, and the sky grayer here in the North, I thought to share some colour splashes with you.

Pico in the Azores is not in the tropics, but it can really make you feel so. Temperatures don’t drop below 20 degrees Celsius during the night in summer, rain clouds and the sun mixed together are a guarantee for a humid and hot atmosphere. Luckily, the ocean is never far on this little jewel as you can see in my other story about the island: The Big Blue.

The vegetation is lush and the flowers astonishing. We drove around the island and suddenly saw flowers that reminded us of the tropics.

daniela, muehlheim, danielamühlheim, ladybird, exploring, earth, abundance,

daniela, muehlheim, danielamühlheim, ladybird, exploring, earth, abundance, flower

Spooky

October 31, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

Today is October 31 and it may well be known as Halloween to you. I went to Wikipedia to learn a bit about the history of this day. The word derives from the Scottish All Hallows’ Eve and stands for the evening before All Hallows’ day (also known as All Saints’ day), which is tomorrow on November 1. The term Halloween probably first appeared in 1745 and the traditions around this day are believed to have their origins in the ancient Celtic culture. These days it is famous, I think, for how the people in the USA go about it.

Halloween had no tradition in Switzerland until recently.
What about the place you live, is Halloween celebrated there?
Do you celebrate Halloween? Read more →

An eye on grapevines in October

October 27, 2019October 27, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

Or rather grapes :-), because the harvest season has finally come. Hooray!

The header shows an image of the mind-boggling forest in the area (crossed by power lines in the foreground…) and the neighbour’s vineyard, which is very neat and tidy as is normal for conventional grown grapes.

The organic vineyard all my photos of this series come from is much wilder, more diverse, and of course gentle with the environment.

O Cantinho da Emília

October 20, 2019October 20, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

Do you like pizza or do you loooooove it? Isn’t a good pizza something you could eat on a regular basis? It is a big yes from me.

Having said that, it may not be that easy to get a real good pizza. Unless you prepare it yourself or live in Italy or have an authentic Italian pizzeria in your neighbourhood. Hands up who has!

Surely, you know the pizza takeaways. They look the same from the outside all over the world, don’t they? And the pizzas usually taste not that special. But they make for an easy dinner now and then.

On Pico in the Azores, we felt like eating something different and chilling on our balcony enjoying the sea view after dining out several nights in a row.

In an earlier post, I already told you a bit about Pico’s capital Madalena. It is a little town where you can do everything on foot and can’t get lost. On our walk way home one night we stumbled over a pizza takeaway. It was closed, but we kept the availability of pizza in mind. Read more →

Greetings from the Engadin

October 13, 2019October 13, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

Autumn is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere and the Engadin in Switzerland transforms into a unique spectacle now. Read more →

A picnic without borders

October 6, 2019November 12, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

As you may know, I am also a German teacher and as such I welcome people from all over the world in my classroom. It may well happen that every student comes from another country and we count around ten nations. Right now we combine six from three continents. Nigeria and Eritrea/Africa, Mongolia, Nepal and Syria/Asia, Switzerland/Europe (that is obviously me :-)). It is a privilege to learn from one another and form a space of trust, respect, and kindness. Read more →

An eye on grapevines in September

September 29, 2019October 24, 2019LadyBird - exploring the Earth‘s abundance

The vineyard has become colourful. Its leaves show us that the days have a bit shortened, cool to cold night temperatures are the regular and mornings may come with dew.

We have arrived in autumn, dear readers, and the grapes are almost ready to be picked. Mid-September is the time many winegrowers start harvesting their grapes. On the vineyard we have an eye on since February, it will only take place in October. That means, we can enjoy this bountiful crop a little longer.

Have you missed this series so far? Read all posts by clicking on each month to wonder at the changing of the seasons in an organic vineyard in Switzerland. February, March, April, May, June, July, August.