one hundred years

Today is the anniversary of Juliette Gordon Low's founding of the Girl Scouts of America. To commemorate that special day, Girl Scouts all across the country gathered yesterday at the same time to stand in a promise circle and recite the girl scout promise & law and to sing. Imagine what a wonderful world we would live in if we would all adhere to the Girl Scout Law:

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

father and daughter

Seeing a new dad and his daughter enjoying each other is something very special and heartwarming to see.

rehearsal

It is magical and beautiful when it all comes together and sounds great at the first rehearsal of chorus and orchestra combined. I am definitely looking forward to our concert next week!

doodle

Sophie's unfinished work for the doodle for google contest with a hypothetical trip to Pompeii (prior to earthquake and volcano eruption). After having been to the exhibit at the MOS and concluding that with the Dr. Who Pompeii episode, it has been on her mind lately and she also wants to learn Latin now. I just love it that she is so interested in the same things I was hooked on at that age.

silly

extremely silly, in a fun way,  would be a very good description for what is going on here a lot, especially when we are playing games like Bananagrams. My odd sense of humor rubbed off onto the girls*, who I like to call project two & three, while I like them to call me Lord Mama, Robot - first generation. I am trying to make them believe that they are robots of the second generation and that I wind them up every night. They are not going for it though - go figure ;)

2012

2012 so far has not been a great year for many, many people I know and if the Mayans had it right, this is our last year. I don't believe the world is ending this year, even if it feels like my own little world has ended in a way. But imagine for a moment it is the last year, it can be for any of us, right? There is no guarantee for life. If this would be your last year, what would you do? Are there things that you are always pushing into the future, even though you really want to do them? We are always waiting for things to be right and for the right moment to come. The truth is, that might never be the case and if we make it to one day be old and wise and looking back, what will be the most important things? Which moments will stand out? Let's make 2012 the year to look at our dreams and examine our priorities, who is with me?

I took this photo New Year's Eve right after midnight. It took a lot of sparklers and many photos until we got it right and we had a blast. 

ranunculus asiaticus

These are really filled buttercups - as difficult as that is to believe - and they bring beauty and color to our soul, which is yearning for spring and sunshine and waiting for nature to reawaken. I am ecstatic every time* I see them at Trader Joe's and have to bring some home.


* Well yes, when you are reading this you might imagine my house overflowing with vases of ranunculus since shopping at Trader Joe's happens rather frequently. So no, I don't buy them every time really, usually just once or twice, hyperbole just puts such a needed emphasis into the sentence ;)

Snow

Wow, snow - almost forgot what it looked like (no, not really), but it was a surprise none the less to start March with so much fluff. With a new month upon us in this still relatively new year, it occurred to me that there are new beginnings all the time. The first year of this blog has really changed my outlook and made me more positive in my thoughts and evaluations. Then my life has been changing so much that it took all my energy to stay afloat, but I want to embrace my new beginnings and reading my own words on the side of this blog, it became obvious to me that I - again - need to go out of my way to document those little moments of the beauty of being. I can remind myself that life is beautiful and that it is wonderful to be alive, even if we are dealt a really lousy hand when we were already down. Life is not fair, but there is beauty all around those bad bits!

polished shoes

My children love polishing their shoes as much as I do, it is a trait I inherited from my grandfather. Can the love of polishing shoes be genetically encoded? Anway, it was a happy Sankt Nikolaus Day in our house. The girls were quite happy with licorice gum and licorice Mentos from Denmark, erasers from Japan, chocolate from Germany, bath bombs and mini Klutz books.

angel and cherub in Venice

It is Saint Nikolaus eve tonight and five years ago I spent it in mysterious and magical Venice. This marble angel and cherub were found in the stairwell of the magnificent Museo Correr which wraps around the West and South side of the Piazza San Marco.

angel in Shrewsbury

Today is the day of Saint Barbara, one of the fourteen holy helpers and the patron saint of explosives and math. In honor of my name I picked an angel who carries a resemblance to me when I was in my late teens. I found her right here in Shrewsbury.

angel in Quebec

It looks like this angel is ready to join forces with some occupy movement, fighting for justice, doesn't it? But this angel - one of a pair - is guarding the entrance to the cemetery in St. Therese, Gaspe-peninsula, Quebec, Canada. A beautiful final location, high up on the cliff and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. When my friend lived next door in her youth, she and her siblings would put wine bottles in the hands of the angels who probably at one time held some kind of trumpets.

We have been having blue skies like this the last days and it is starting to get cold now.

angel in the Dorsoduro district of Venice

This sleeping angel was found while walking around the quaint Dorsoduro district in Venice. It is a small statue in an art gallery and thematically very appropriate, since I am terribly sleep deprived due to insomnia.

angel in Boston

Advent and December arrived and I am slowly recovering, though my damaged occipital nerves might need a few years for that. I have spent a long time 'collecting' angels via photos for a friend and I am working on a calendar for her upcoming birthday. Given the season, I thought I might share some this month as I am not out and about with my camera that much.

This angel was found in the Boston Public Garden.

seize the moment

I decided to have the inauguration of my fire spiral tonight exactly because I am being in the midst of a medical nightmare, in terrible pain and inhaling painkillers like breathing. We had a bbq and bonfire with my mom, my best friend from Germany with his daughter and truly wonderful friends from here. And it was the best thing I could have done, being distracted by lovely and interesting company on a perfect fall night. We never know how much time we have: seize the moment.

paradis de pommes

Nothing comes in as many variety, except for humans I think. If a snake would offer me an apple, I could not refuse.

shroom

... and all of a sudden it was summer in fall, the leaves were resisting change, the mercury was rising and the sunbrellas had to come back out.

walden

"I went to the woods..." Well, I just went to try and have the crisp air clear my extreme headache. It did not work, but was utmost beautiful anyway. There is something very special at Walden Pond and I fail to put it into words.

intrinsic happiness

Though quirky and definitely having strange moments at times, this child of mine has such an intrinsic happiness and an infectious joy of life, I am glad I get to share it.

birds like fish

A display of sparkling white feathers in the sunlight and amazing synchronicity, a huge flocks of sand pipers was flying left and right over the Atlantic ocean at Crane Beach, looking rather like a school of fish than a flock of birds.

weathered

We came across this old cemetery right on the coast in Rockport, stones all weathered and beaten, yet still standing against time, marking what is no more.

sky

Sometimes I experience a tantamount need to have a wide and far sky to look at for an incredible feeling of air and freedom and possibilities.

linger

The day yesterday was so incredibly perfect that it lingered on in our minds and attitudes today. I know it sounds like yet another juxtaposition, but everybody was infected by a giddy, happy calm yesterday, almost like knowing that it was the last lovely day before a long winter and this shared feeling created a common ground between strangers everywhere.

promise

Extraordinarily lucky me, going to the beach today to let the waves crash over my feet, the wind blow through my hair, to walk in the sand and hear the seagulls. The promise of 'lovely' :)

grey

A grey day is at times all I need to kick into gear, get my creative juices flowing and get a lot done. Especially with the knowledge that I will be rewarded with a sunny day at the beach the day after.

little things

Often it is the little things that make us happy, for example looking at all these driftwood pieces that I collected on various beaches and that I now used to hang my hurricane bell.

apple tree

The Roxbury Russet apple is believed to be the oldest variety of apple bred in this country, actually in the early 17th century here in Roxbury Massachusetts. One of my favorite apples ever - a tree full of it is heaven to me. Thomas Jefferson planted a number of them in Monticello's South Orchard in 1778. I bet he had it with some cheese, wine and a good book just like I did today. Nashoba Winery has a huge variety of antique apples, people have no idea what they are missing if they only know Macs and it is one of the most beautiful places to visit in the fall.

goats

Goats are so funny and cute, for some reason they always make me happy when I watch them. Plus, they give us great milk to make the yummiest of goat's milk cheese.

get lost

Unanimously all five girls decided to ditch the map and try to get lost in the corn maze. So I just followed two of them since it is kind of nice to just keep walking without really any aim. We still never really got lost though, maybe we should have tried the map to get lost?

painted clouds

At times the sky is challenging our perception, throwing wild layers of chaotic clouds and weird weather at us. We found Salisbury Beach without the slightest breeze, but with humid and sticky air instead and the strangest sky that looked bizarre and different in every direction. I love the sky.