Ooh la la

I seem to have quite a collection of obituaries on this here blog, and here’s another – only this time (thank goodness!) it’s not a living thing!

For the last 10 years, I have driven my faithful little pink Renault Twingo. This is a car that was never sold in the UK (until they developed the new model after 2007), so only my European readers will know what on earth I’m on about! Look, when it was new, back in 1995, this is what it looked like:  Actually, that is already a pretty snazzy version! By the time mine got to 18 (and it seemed to run on air and water, so maybe it just wants a stronger drink!) it was more like this:

 What you see over the rear wing is peeled paint and rust, and gradually, a lot more has started peeling away, and she’d got herself a few lumps and bumps, too. Still trusty and doing fine, my family were beginning to be embarrassed to be seen with me and as the car lives outside our house, I suppose it wasn’t the best visiting card!

I’d been without a car for a year prior to getting my little bonbon pink car and no longer needed the vast capacities of the people-mover I’d had before that. At this point, I needed some wheels, and fast. One look at the second-hand exchange website brought this one up at a very reasonable price, decent mileage for its age and wonder of wonders, in the next town over. Within 24 hours, I had my new car, thanks to the efficient Swiss traffic offices and insurances, and settled in happily, meeting any taunts about having a pink car with merry laughter… you know me, have lemons, make lemonade. There were soon bright pink cushions in the back and always, always a pink scented mini-flipflop hanging from my rear mirror

This little wonder is a Tardis, much bigger inside than out. Although some mean person ran into me in a carpark only two weeks after we were united, my clever mechanic found me a secondhand axle to replace the cracked one, and we never looked back. We have done 120’000 kilometres together, been to Brittany numerous times (1200 kilometres each way, always well under 12 hours driving time!), to Paris, to the Rhineland and to Saxony, over to Austria and down to Italy – and moved house twice.

The first time we moved house, we moved within the village and it simply wasn’t worth getting a removal company involved. We were moving from a huge house to a smaller house and getting rid of a lot of things. Carfuls went to the tip, to the electronic collection and to the brocante. Boxes and boxes of books were transported from the old house to the new in banana boxes (8 empty ones fit, 5 full ones…) as well as stacks of small furniture items and other bulky stuff. At the time, my husband drove a sporty car so the only way of moving everything else was by Twingo!

There were still four of us at home – my 6’4″ husband, my undainty 5’2″ self and two daughters, 12 and 8 and fast growing according to my husband’s genes… plus a large dog (Hamish, the Bernese mix) and from 2004, Alina the Cocker spaniel. One daughter played the Celtic harp and I had riding gear to ferry around. After moving house, there were the usual Ikea visits – seldom have I had to look for alternative ways of getting my purchases home, it always fit in the Twingo. Even the 2m long Benno CD shelves (as long as I didn’t have any passengers LOL!). Never once did the Twingo complain, grumble, shudder or lock her doors against the loads.

On one memorable occasion in Brittany, we had spent a rainy morning in our big new discovery, Decathlon. Used to pricey equipment for what are considered prestige sports in Switzerland (riding, sailing, golf…) and Swiss price tags on everything else, we had found sports heaven. We happily filled our baskets, bought a pop-up tent (all the rage that summer), rollerblades, neoprene surf suits, you name it, if it was a sport we’d ever done or were ever going to do, we got the gear… Then we loaded it in and around us, four good sized people and two dogs, and decided to go out for lunch.
We arrived at the picturesque port of Ploumanac’h, where there is a great crêperie that does some of the best moules in north Brittany and lo and behold, there was a parking space in front of the restaurant, just Twingo-sized (barely over 3m40, so hardly bigger than a Smart car), and we happily pulled into it. As we poured out of the car, one by one, the varied and international guests on the restaurant terrace couldn’t help but gape – some were stunned, others laughed, but all gave us admiring looks, 1200 kilometres from home with a good full load!!

The second time we moved, it was a proper removal with a big lorry etc. but the Twingo still played an important part – we knew what it could do! More trips to Ikea, first to furnish our new home and later to furnish my daughter’s new flat, more trips out and about in Switzerland… you know how I get around

Over the last couple of years, we’ve not been going so far afield, or I’ve been using the train more. The girls are almost all grown up, now, and don’t often need chauffeuring (although we did have a last “Pimp-my-Ride” up to St. Gallen to pick the youngest up from an Xzibit concert!!). As the rust got worse and more and more paint peeled off, repairs began to look a bit more expensive compared to the value of the vehicle, and we began to think about a replacement.

My husband desperately wanted to get me a cabriolet… lovely idea. But how practical is that, with a dog and the occasional luggage to transport? I can hardly manage the weekly supermarket shop without some loading space, never mind dog biscuits and Ikea trips! No matter what I looked at, no matter how pretty, snazzy, zippy or whizzy, I came back to wanting a Twingo. And not the fancy new model, either, but one of the trusty old ones like my little pink sweetie…

Our mechanic’s smile soon faded after our initial announcement of “we’ve come to order a new car” became “but it’s got to be a 2006 Twingo”! He gamely noted down my requirements, his expression getting glummer all the while. I thought I was pretty modest, really, all I wanted was no silver and some air-conditioning, please?!

The weeks passed.

Last week, a triumphant phone call. “I’ve found you a car,” he excitedly reported! All he would say was that fitted my list and had electric windows – ooh, I hadn’t expected that

I arrived on Tuesday morning to see what initially appeared to be a black Twingo (fair enough, sober but honest, I thought…)  Only to find, it’s actually PURPLE!! Wheee!

So here she is, the new purple star of the family! Not only electric windows (and mirrors!), my friends, but power steering, air conditioning, central locking, 75 horsepower and even – gasp! – airbags!!! A designer model (Kenzo), those shiny purple looks are classic and tidy, just what we’re used to, and her interior, well… back to those lemons, eh?!! LOL But lookee, new cushions – doesn’t look so bad, eh?! And all ready for Brittany this summer! And Alina seems to approve… Our test drive (above) took us to the lake at Ermatingen, our first official drive took us back to the lake to pick my daughter up from work in Kreuzlingen, the third ride was for coffee here at the Feldbachand our fourth ride was to Romanshorn to go sailing this weekend… A watery trend?! Yesterday we stayed inland (took two youngsters to the cinema to see The Great Gatsby – full load, 4 adults!) and today is, fortunately, a day of rest….!

So we’ve gone from this To this Time to enjoy…!! Mon petit bonbon suisse!! 

 

 

 

Merry Old England

It was certainly merry. And 97 is definitely old. Of course, England was England, with all its usual quirks.

The trip was quick and intense, just 3 days this time – and 3 of us were able to go! Early morning flight west – we had a marvellous view over the channel coasts of UK and F!

A religious holiday in Switzerland coincided with my Granny’s 97th birthday this year, so a great opportunity to hop on an early morning plane to see her and join in the festivities. All day long we had an endless stream of visitors, both relatives and friends, which was really lovely – both for Granny to be honoured and for us to meet up with, which is relatively rare. Many many pots and cups of tea were made, my mother’s very successful birthday cake was greedily crumbled and her cinnamon rolls were very popular, too, along with a large batch of fairy cakes… A light lunch of salmon sandwiches, with unexpected but welcome company (we can always stretch to feed a few more!) and a yummy dinner, again, courtesy of my mother, who had spent the day before slaving away in the kitchen – very worthwhile!  Prosecco with dinner – Granny enjoyed a glass of bubbly; and wine the next day…   The day after the birthday, we had a lovely drive to an old mill in the countryside near Kidderminster. It’s an hotel and restaurant set in a very quiet and beautiful dip in the landscape and ideal for events like this. As I said, merry…!
A smart and leisurely lunch followed by coffee in the lounge made this a big day out, though the drive through the countryside certainly added to the pleasure. Granny loves to see some greenery and nature – unfortunately everything is so late this year that the bluebells weren’t quite out, which would have been the icing on the cake!

Our Saturday was spent concentrating on the garden. A new mower was required for the back garden, and as the front garden, lovingly tended for 75 years, is going to be paved over, there were a lot of plants to be “rescued” before the diggers arrive! Everything has a story, even the rocks making up the bed edgings, cuttings have been brought from friends’ gardens and trips at home and abroad and Granny’s green fingers have ensured that both gardens have always been a full and pretty riot of colour, despite their petite proportions. In fact, having covered the rear terrace with trays of rescued plants, there still seemed to be most of the front garden in place! However, it will not only be easier for two elderly women to care for (i.e. nil!) but will also provide off-street parking, which is quite a commodity in an area where houses were not built with the idea of cars in the 1930s – the streets are too narrow to leave cars parked there, so most of the front gardens have been sacrificed in this way. Future generations of architects should note, though, how much neighbourliness and community spirit used to be generated by everyone spending time “on the front”, tending their patch and chatting with neighbours and passers-by – sadly lacking  now (although in this particular street, many of the inhabitants have been neighbours for 40 or 50 years, so there is a good bond!).

We had to dodge the raindrops, so the rear lawn didn’t get mown, but we did manage to weed between the forget-me-nots and some of the rescued plants will find a place as the summer progresses. Granny’s father made this birdbath, which we hope to inherit one day! 
As always, merriness and laughter were predominant over the three days we spent, and I certainly hope we didn’t exhaust Granny – she seemed to be constantly cheerful and repeatedly said she’d had a lovely time. Isn’t it great that we can all do this?!! Till next time! More on http://www.catterel.wordpress.com…;

 

A spring in our step

Switzerland rarely does anything as a whole country, as the cantons usually prefer to do their own thing. So May 1st is only a holiday in certain cantons, usually those who want November 1st as a holiday instead! As we live close to two cantonal borders, we can usually profit in some way.

This time, the weather for our May Day was cheerful for most of the day and my husband even mowed the lawn – stating that it was Labour Day and therefore he should be allowed to be working, if loudly! (The Swiss can be very funny about noise on Sundays and holidays… usually forbidden.) – and then spent a very leisurely couple of hours down at Lake Constance on the lower lake, always a bit quieter and more peaceful than elsewhere. Serenity personified – and a glass of champagne always helps! After a pretty drive through the full-blossomed Thurgau orchards, we spent the afternoon celebrating the Mayday birthday I mentioned last time, a big family do, enhanced by the presence of our daughter and son-in-law, visiting from England. Time flies and so it was nice to catch up – it’s nearly a year since our last get-together to see the young couple off, so a lot of growing has gone on in the meantime A beautiful day. Originally a 13th century convent, the Feldbach is now a lovely restaurant and seminar hotel, with a large park and breathtaking rose gardens I will wander in a month or so! A popular venue for weddings, those rose bushes round the grass patch (and elsewhere) have been planted over the last 20 years, one for each couple who married there… 

Last week saw me kicking my heels in Zurich for a couple of hours, with no shopping on the agenda (!), so we had a walk all through the old town as long as the rain held off. We climbed up the Lindenhof, a moraine hill in the middle of ancient and narrow streets above the historic Schipfe quarter alongside the river and that opens into a high viewpoint over the Niederdörfli, the old town that is on the other side, with the old university buildings halfway up the Züriberg… This is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

“At the flat shore of Lake Zurich, we find Neolithic and Bronze Age (4500 to 850 BC) lakeside settlements, such as Kleiner Hafner and Grosser Hafner(both small former islands), near Bauschänzli (Zurich City hall), Alpenquai (Bürkliplatz) and Lindenhof. Lindenhof was largely surrounded by water: Until the early medieval area, neighboring Münsterhof (Fraumünster abbey square) was a swampy, by the Sihl river flooded hollow, so that Lindenhof hill was an optimal location for early probably fortified settlements. Middle bronze age (1500 BC) artefacts were found near Limmat (Schipfe).^[1][2] For the 1st century BC (La Tène culture) archaeologists found remains of a Celtic settlement, a so called oppidum, whose remains were found in archaeological campaigns in the years 1989, 1997, 2004 and 2007 on Lindenhof and Rennweg.”

You tend to forget about the history when you’re wandering through the town, what with all the fancy and exclusive shops and hotels, banks and high-security buildings, but it was all there long before they arrived!

After the Romans and into the Middle Ages, it looked like this… Hans Leu the Elder, late 15th century

Incredibly different, even if there were already some houses along the Schipfe and the Lindenhof walled (as a result of the Roman citadel) and with tall trees, as it is today! I bet most of the houses on that picture are still there today, too. Certainly the Lindenhof was the only public place and park within the city walls and people would congregate for leisure shooting (longbow/cross-bow) among the traditional lime trees. It was important for public life and regular festivals (the Sächseläuten with the Guilds, mainly) and had lots of famous visitors over the centuries. I can just picture Madame de Staël floating around on a jaunt up from Coppet on Lake Geneva!

The dovecote is probably one of the few places where pigeons are encouraged – there were a lot milling around, anyway!

 

Duh…

I’ve often thought I had a rather curious range of interests. Today, it finally dawned on me that there is a thread between some of them… (helped along by Eddie Izzard suggesting that the Stuarts put poodles on their heads )

1. History

                                                               Charles II

2. Rock music

                    David Coverdale – Whitesnake (before he faked himself in the 80s!)

3. Dogs

                                               English Cocker Spaniel 

Something about the hair, maybe?! LOL

Edit: my mom has contributed this photo as proof LOL!!! 

Two Shawls

A new relation has the delightful privilege of having a May 1st birthday – I always wished someone in the younger generations would have a May birthday in our family, so it’s nice to have a married-on one, at least! This lady has lovely blue eyes, hence my choice of Côte d’Azur as the colour for this winged shawl, one of the laciest I’ve done yet: 

Orchid Thief by Ysolda Teague, in Malabrigo Sock (merino) in Côte d’Azur

It went swimmingly and the pattern was perfect, all my stitch counts were perfect and the finished product is what I would call perfect – it’s beautiful! Amazing how far a few grammes of wool can stretch when made into lace – and the slight hand-dyed effect gives so much more texture than a plain navy would have done. Another great product by Ysolda – she really is a perfectionist and original with it; the shaping is subtle but – perfect. The magic of blocking – this scruffy little heap of knitting, when stretched and blocked, resulted in the shaped shawl above! 

The second FO (=finished object) was quite a different kettle of fish… 

I think I’m calling it “Wine Fudge” – not that I drank any wine while knitting it or the stitch count might have been squiffier still! As it was, nothing was as it should be on this one – even after the first, very plain, part, I didn’t have the right number of stitches and for me, feather-and-fan patterns are notoriously dodgy; I can just about get them to line up but they never do go to plan when there are increases to incorporate, so this shawl was pretty much fudged right from the start!! Thanks to the designer (Elizabeth Doherty) but apart from using her idea combination and edge lace for a triangular shawl and with a final result that more or less resembles the pictures, I did pretty much have to wing it… 

Ebbtide by Elizabeth Doherty/blue bee studio, in Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano Red

The edging lace pattern is supposed to represent sand-dollars, so that reminded me of all my Florida-connected friends! Interesting concept – Shetland feather-and-fan and Florida sand-dollars, Scottish pattern, knitted in Switzerland, wool from Peru, all in one shawl…

And to add insult to injury, I’m sure the cat sat on it while it was damp and blocking on the table – it’s covered in fine white hairs that need to be picked off individually. Smug. 

(Malabrigo wool is another brand that has lovely colours and knits up into an extremely pleasing finish. I’ve now used the sock yarn in a number of projects and they really are beautiful and wear well. As far as I know, the yarns are spun and hand-dyed in Peru, though I don’t know where the actual wool comes from (likely Australia, like most?). 

Now I’m looking for Malabrigo or MadelineTosh quality in some lighter, fresher colours for two late spring gifts I’d like to make, as those two all seem to be bright or quite dark colours at the moment – any ideas?!)

Snow on the cherryblossom

No no no no no no no no….. Yes.

Much as I like pretty snow…. aaaaaaarrrggghhhh.

Sigh.

 

Magic of Spring

Along with everybody else, it seems, I’m feeling particularly pleased that spring finally made it. I mean, there wasn’t really any doubt that it would get here eventually, but it did rather try our patience (and being April, will no doubt continue to do so!).

So here it is -  All of a sudden, the crocusses popped up to  take over from the snowdrops and a day’s warm sun brought all the daffodils out, too. A couple more days of sunshine and mild rain has the tulip buds leaping up and a lot of other dormant plants jumping to attention – the dicentra and paeonies are shooting and there are leaves on all sorts of things that were looking decidedly dead, like the hydrangreas! Overnight, we have a cloud of bright yellow forsythia outside the front door and the cherry trees have decided to deck their lingerie and provide a delicate screen between us and the neighbour’s house: In the same vein, we’ve gone from being huddled up indoors to being able to sit, and even eat, outdoors (no, it’s not Paris – though it could be, couldn’t it?! – it’s Lucerne!), which is a most encouraging sign!  Can you believe it’s not even two weeks since we were doing this…? Yes, that is snow!Well, it’s given us something to talk about, anyway, as everyone seems very curious to know if we really did sail over Easter! As a souvenir and a thank you for having stuck it out valiantly, I made my friend a shawlette that incorporates the colours of stormy waters and the frilly, frisky waves we had on our trip: “Holden” shawlette, design by Mindy Wilkes, yarn is Malabrigo Sock in colourway “Persia”

Helen and I had another jaunt and enjoyed getting together again after a long break! We had a lovely day out in Schaffhausen, right up in the northern tip of Switzerland. Drizzle greeted us, but by the time we’d been round the new exhibition that revolves around the artist Albert Anker and his pre-Impressionist Realist colleagues, the sun had come out. Of course, we really just wanted to see Albert Anker’s knitting paintings Fortunately we have prettier sock yarn these days! But it might be of interest to non-Swiss knitters that naturally, all the Anker knitters are knitting Swiss-style, with the yarn wrapped round the forefinger of the left hand – continental isn’t always simply continental! And many sitters are wearing the typical high-curved bodice and embroidered collar (“Göller”) of the area Anker was from, around Ins, which is in the canton of Berne and lies pretty much on the German/French language border: Anker appears to have been bilingual and attended school in Neuchâtel, studied in Germany and France and later split his life between Paris and his (Swiss-)German-speaking home village, though I noticed he corresponded with his children in French…

Lest we forget that spring is here and summer just round the corner, this is where I’ll be for the next little while - Home Sweet Home!