Exploring the Earth's abundance
My dearest readers
For some of us the festive season is in full swing and so are the holidays that come with it. I hope you are enjoying that time of year and indulging yourself in everything that nourishes your soul.
Mine is jumping and dancing of joy, wonder, and deep gratitude as I spend time in the stillness and magic of Finnish Lapland. It is so breathtakingly beautiful that everything feels like a real fairy tale to me and words can hardly describe what I sense right now. Read more
On my way home from Montreux I’d like to send you some warm greetings from this french-speaking city in Switzerland beautifully nestled on the shore of Lake Geneva.
Foremost, Montreux is world famous for its Jazz Festival that takes place every July here. It will be the 54th edition in 2020.
But it is December now and Christmas is the most present topic when you stroll along the shore where you find a Christmas market with a view and everything you fancy. Read more
Dear readers
How are you today?
Can you believe it is December and also the last month of this series on grapevines over the seasons? It has been such a journey for this awesome plant, don’t you agree? Feel free to wonder at it (all over again) by clicking on each month’s unveiling: October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February.
I got so lucky to see the beauty of a vineyard while it was snowing. Everything was so silent and magical in a very special way. I hope you can feel it, too, through this post.
Given you celebrate Christmas, do you have a special name for December in your language?
We do in Switzerland. It is called Adventszyt in Swiss German or Adventszeit in German. This special time of the year starts with December 1st this year. That is today, hooray!
We have a tradition to make what is known as Adventskranz – Advent wreath – and light a new candle every Sunday for four weeks leading up to Christmas.
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
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 ;-).
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
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
