Welcome to my garden!
This is where I spend my time in Spring, Summer and Autumn and where my thoughts spend their time  time during those cold Winter days. We try to live from the garden´s produce - with additional purchases from local shops. We start with herbs, elderflower and leafy greens in Spring - some of which grow wild - and move on to radishes, more greens, carrots, zuchini, broccoli, pak choi and onions in the summer and tomatoes, eggplant, brussel sprouts, kale and pumpkins in the Autumn. Oh, and I almost forgot the fruits! We have apricots, plums, grapes, rasberries, strawberries, red currants, cherries and apples. Writing this is making me realise how much this garden gives us! And it´s not much work really - I spend about  2 days a week in March preparing the beds, turning the compost and sowing seeds. In April and May it´s only 1 day a week - weeding and planting plus watering every second day. From June until August / September all I do is water, weed and harvest and in October I spend about 4 days getting the garden ready for winter. A wonderful hobby that I enjoy and which also feeds us!

SMOOTHIES

Some mornings I make a smoothie for breakfast. I take a cup of any juice, add a handful of any fruit and another handful of green, leafy vegetables and mix for about a minute with a blender. My favourite is pineapple juice with banana and spinach. This spring I´ll be growing many different salads and kales, spinach, strawberries and raspberries, cucumbers, zucchinis and beetroots so that I´ll have plenty of homegrown ingredients on hand. When you´re in a hurry, pour into a jar and take it with you. What´s your favourite smoothie?

Sunday Drive

We drove up the nearby mountain range this afternoon, to find the sun. It´s always quite foggy around here between November and February but I don´t mind it. It´s like a fluffy winter blanket to me that reminds us to slow down, make a fire and snuggle up. People around here always complain about the fog like it´s a new thing while to me it´s like an old friend that comes around the same time every year. When we do drive up and break through the fog, the sun seems so much brighter and warmer than I remember, makes me start thinking about spring and the garden and outdoor showers. Then back down we go, under the fluffy blanket, into the soft light and winter time.

WINTER

The last 16 photos taken with my Iphone. They pretty much sum up our life around here...churches wherever you look, snow, beautiful skies and as I´ve just realised - a lot of sweets!

EASE Day 12, 13 & 14

On Monday a long walk, tulips on Tuesday and Flow magazine in my mailbox today. I´m at ease. 

EASE day 11

I´m often amazed by the amount of free content available on the internet. Today I googled the word "ease" and found this amazing picture which led me to "The State of Ease" by Doc Childre, view here for free.
This year I´m inviting more ease into my life which is easy on the one hand because my children have all more-or-less moved out. On the other hand it´s proving difficult because others assume that now I have more time in my schedule to fill. I´ve had 3 weeks of work over the holidays and tomorrow is my first full working day. I´m a freelance english trainer in a language institute run by one of my best friends. It´s a job I love and do well and over the past few years I decided to concentrate on this task rather than making one of my other hobbies my occupation. It was a good decision.
This job enables me to earn enough money to support my lifestyle and my children and also have a large amount of flexibility. I don´t need more and I want to make sure that there´s still enough time to just "be" as well though, and not just on the weekends. Am I being selfish?
Looking to Doc Childre for some insight.

EASE Day 9 & 10

In the colder months, with more time to dream and think about spring and the sowing season, I start thinking about my vegetable garden. I have a few frozen veges from last year´s harvest in the freezer and we have a wonderful Demeter shop in Wolfsberg where I buy organic root veges, kales, winter salads and cabbages to get us through the winter.  I´ve been a vegetarian for over one and a half years now - and I´m still surprised that it has been so easy. I cook tastier and healthier meals now and our food is not boring at all. 

Here´s an interesting article to read at Zen Habits, if you´re considering becoming a vegetarian. 

Some easy and wonderful recipes from Taste Australia. 

A few words from River Cottage´s Hugh Fearnley, and a series of videos as well.

The above vegetable garden is not my own but I hope I can achieve something like it when I gain more experience. It´s the farmer´s garden in the nearby city of Klagenfurt, more photos here.

EASE Day 8 Going Grey

Ease for me really means feeling comfortable. For a long time I didn´t feel comfortable with my hair because I always wanted what I didn´t have. I have tried many different colours, styles and lengths - now, at 48 years of age, I can finally say I am at ease with my hair. I found a wonderful, local hairdresser a few years back and I have a shorter style that is manageable with my thin hair. One year and 3 months ago, I also decided to go grey naturally and I thought I would have more grey strands than I do but only a couple of friends have noticed. Here are some inspiring articles and photos on the subject. Woman´s Day, Decided to go Gray in 2015 and THIS gorgeous pinterest page.

EASE Day 7

I have been practicing Yoga for about 5 years now and this article on striking a balance between effort and ease really sums up what Yoga has helped me to recognise in my own life.  I go to a class every Wednesday morning here in my town and practice at home once or twice a week as well, mostly I follow instruction videos from Esther on Eckhart Yoga because I love her friendly face and voice. If you haven´t tried Yoga, these videos may spark your curiosity.

EASE Day 4, 5 & 6

 This is a photo of my sons (from left to right) Stefan, Markus and Daniel when they were 4, 3 and 6.

And here they are today, 16 years later. In the last 3 days Stefan has gone back to Graz to start a new job, Markus has moved to Graz to start his 9 months of social work and Daniel has left for a 3 month trip to Indonesia and Australia. It´s been an emotional few days for me but I am proud of them for being so grown-up, responsible and independent - time to start easing into the empty nest.

EASE Day 3

Goodbye Christmas tree Hello altar!
I followed these instructions.

Ease Day 2

Day 2: Clean up your work space.
Pay bills, throw away unnecessary papers ( business cards, notes, articles, lists, advertising etc.), write appointments for January into planner, organise computer desktop. Done!

2015

My word for 2015 is EASE
I´ll be looking into how to bring more ease into my life.

Starting with reading about the 3 essentials for living with ease.

Happy 2015!

Thursday´s with Ali

Taken last Thursday at my friend Ali´s place.