Anti-Nostalgic

Okay, before I turn my attention towards the main topic of this post, I will list the main events of my day:

1. Yellow water from the cold-water tap of my bathtub.

2. Sweetie-pie Tiva tries to jump onto the mirror, slips and crashes over heater and toilet to the floor onto her not-even-healed-yet back. Limps afterwards, but her embarassment was worse. Luckily. I totally freaked, of course, and coddled her for hours. I think she just stopped limping to escape from my worrying.

3. Did bake more bread, same recipe as always, but for some strange reason, it became ‘flat’. Still tastes the same, though.

4. Slept a lot, because it was so warm.

Now to more ‘deep’ matters. The month May is kinda dedicated to my mum for two reasons: First, Mother’s Day which is - at least in Germany - today. Second, the 26th is the day of my mum’s death. 17 years, that really disturbs me. 17 sounds a lot worse than 2 or 5 or 10 or 15. To me and right now anyway. However, since this is the first year I have a blog, I thought this a good time to get my mum some well-earned praise. You see, she was a total pro regarding crafting. I’m not sure there was a single evening when she didn’t tinker away. But her best disciplines were sewing, embroidery and knitting. She made a few stunning jumpers. I especially remember a white one made from angora with elaborate grey flowers embroidered around the collar. (When my dad learned how to use the washing machine after my mother had died, he washed it at 60°C and that was it.)

My mum also tried to teach my older sister and me what she knew. I learned how to crochet at the age of 3 or 4 and I got my own little but fully functionable sewing machine around that time, too. It was orange and white. When I was six my mum showed me how to knit, but somehow that just wasn’t my cup of tea. My sis and me and practically everyone else in the family ran around in the fabulous clothes she sew. Her dresses were kinda famous. I went through the remaining family photos (loads of moves reduced the number heavily and the rest is unorganised) to find you some good examples of what she did. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too successful. I will continue the search later. For now, the following will have to do (click to enlarge). I am sorry for the bad quality, but these are old. Even more so than my weak scanner.

Her own wedding dress:

Her honeymoon dress:

Blouse for my sis and dress for me:

My sis and I with two identical dresses (look greyish on the photo, but they were a light lilac colour):

Nightgown for my sis and jumper for me:

Red dress:

Both cardigans and my hat:

All three dresses:

Dress, coat, apron dress, jumper:

Nice comments would be … well, nice. My mum would be happy to know her work is still appreciated. It is. At least, by me.

P.S.: Tiva just fell into the tub full of cold water. She is such a clumsy sweetie.

The past few days, I took the time to cook some actually decent meals. I used to twice a day, but somehow that stopped when my schedule became chaotic. Now I am forcing myself to take the time again. I enjoy cooking and felt my health deteriorating shortly after I stopped doing it. (I am a food-combiner, so I have tons of veggies and bio stuff on my menu. Changing that to whatever is available at the next bakery so abruptly was idotic.) I have been searching for nice bread recipes, more specifically a recipe for hazelnut bread. My mum used to buy it for us as a special treat or, that’s what it felt like to me. Today, I tried one of the recipes found and I think it turned out delicious! It is different from how I know it (nuts in black bread), but I still like the outcome. However, next time (yes, there most defn. will be a next time!), I’ll gotta halve the ingredients - the bread I got is big enough to be three breads.

Also, my dinner turned out nicely, too. Okay, I have prepared this dish many times before… Isn’t it sad I am becoming one of those persons who photograph their meals and even post the pictures?! But I *do* enjoy cooking and I am so ridiculously happy, I took the time for it. (Note: the bread next to the zucchini/courgette is not the hazelnut bread.)

To make up for all the food stuff, here is another shot of my delicious, I mean sweet, eh… cute Kaori. She was incredulously watching me sinking my arms to the elbows into sticky dough.

Today, when I came home, I was missing a cat. That is not unusual, but it normally is Kaori hiding artfully. This time however it was Tiva. I gotta admit that I overlook her sometimes due to her rather dark fur. Yet, I do know *where* to look for her. This time, I had to run through my flat three times before a yawn led me into the right direction. She opened her eyes the moment I came into my bedroom, otherwise I’d have overlooked her again. She was lying on my reading chair which is covered with a very comfy brown lambskin. She looked so perfect ontop of it, I took some photos for your viewing pleasure: