Category: Switzerland

Greetings from Afro-Pfingsten

Daniela - the Lady behind the Bird

It is that time of the year again… you hear drums, your body and especially your hips move with the rhythm, you smell fire, fish, and sunscreen, you see more colourfully dressed people than usual (thank goodness!), and you see smiles and content faces everywhere.

It is when Africa takes centre stage in a Swiss city.

It is Afro-Pfingsten Festival in Winterthur.

She stole my heart. Do you see the elderly lady looking out the window in the top middle image? I dared to take a picture without asking her as she had this big contagious smile in her face moving her body with the rhythm of Ma belle chérie we were all listening to (on stage in the photo to the right of her).

Let’s do it like her: Keep smiling and dancing forever!

Are you in the mood now to listen to some African rhythms? Then watch the videos in my other Afro-Pfingsten post.

Warm greetings and have a wonderful (long) weekend,

Daniela

An eye on grapevines in May

An eye on grapevines in May

Daniela - the Lady behind the Bird

Here they come: the photos of the vineyard in May in my this year’s series of the grapevines’ growth.

Have you missed the other months? No worries, simply click here: February, March, April. You best start in February to enjoy the unfolding of nature’s magic.

The vineyard is now lush, the grapevines much longer and leafy, and the flower buds more numerous. daniela, danielamühlheim, ladybird, nature, abundance, earth, explore, blog, switzerland, grapevine, wine, vineyard, spring

Read more →

An eye on grapevines in April

An eye on grapevines in April

Daniela - the Lady behind the Bird

So, here we are dear readers, plunging right into the natural spectacle that miraculously happens every year in spring in Switzerland: the awakening of nature. Of course, in this post, we again have an eye on grapevines on the Lindenhof farm, but not only, because way too much is going on there :0).

What a difference to what we saw in February and March! You may want to look at the posts on a split screen to enjoy and be even more amazed by the changes :-).

Grapevines’ buds have swollen a little bit by the first days of April and you see how they are still tenderly protected by what reminds me of a ball of wool. Through it, the first leaves are finely shimmering. Isn’t this pure magic?

Shortly after, the buds explode and grapevines start to grow. Read more →

An eye on grapevines in March

An eye on grapevines in March

Daniela - the Lady behind the Bird

A month has passed in a twinkling of an eye since our first look at grapevines in February, don’t you think? Let’s see what this means for our grapes.

Not much of a difference compared to February, I guess. They are still sleepy, the buds also remain very small and are well protected from bad weather. But the undergrowth is greener and that is why sheep are now grazing within the vineyard and freely using the grapevines to scratch themselves :-).

That does not mean, nothing is happening…  Read more →

From Brown to Wow

From Brown to Wow

Daniela - the Lady behind the Bird

Winter in Central Europe can be quite demanding. Especially, when the sky remains grey for several days in a row (or weeks in some parts) and the vegetation does not add much colour, either, as it comes in fifty shades of brown.

While last winter was one of the darkest ever, this one is gentler on us. As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite as we are spoiled with so much sunshine that February broke records for the amount of it in Switzerland.

Either way, the awakening of nature is something many of us long for. Nature so wonderfully shows us the circle of life, the rhythm of the seasons, and the alternation of quiet rest and powerful growth, don’t you think?

Looking down to the ground is therefore worthwhile right now, because it is that time of the year when the brown soil turns into a wow. The wonder does not last long, however, so I would like to share with you what can be marveled at on a stroll, a bike ride to work, or on a sneak peak into other people’s gardens ;-).

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Surely, you all know snowdrops! But what about spring snowflakes that are not made of snow as the word spring in their name may suggest? Read more →

An eye on grapevines in February

An eye on grapevines in February

Daniela - the Lady behind the Bird

A warm welcome to this new story!

Today I’d like to start a series that will accompany us on a monthly basis throughout the year. Are you in to to see your wine grow, develop and change over the seasons?

Isn’t it mind-boggling to watch nature awake after (the European) winter? To witness nature coming into the tender green of spring dotted with rose, red, yellow and white flowers, insects flapping over meadows, birds singing to their fullest?
In summer the light green is turning into a darker heavier one changing into a colourful blast in autumn before going to what looks like a deep sleep at the beginning of winter. Read more →