coffee & vitamin d

Friday morning in November.

Coffee & vitamin D in the frontyard.

The entire garden, including furniture, is covered by golden ginkgo leaves. What splendor! Nature does the best designs of all.

Cheers to the weekend.

ginkgo love

This time of year the ginkgo tree is at its most beautiful!

Every year in november I'm stunned by the beauty and the golden glow and brightness.

I enjoy the ginkgo leaves carpet in the frontyard each time when I look outside through the kitchen window.

We planted the ginkgo tree in our frontyard when we moved in 15 years ago.

The Ginkgo Biloba or Japanese walnut tree is my favorite tree. In Japan they honor the tree as a god; it symbolizes hope, love, magic, timelessness and longevity and is nicknamed temple tree.

Even on a rainy Monday the frontyard looks wonderful. The beech hedge turns brown and the hellebore is ready to flower again. Change of seasons remains spectacular!

the grand ginkgo finale

The golden week in November.

An impressive end of the yellow Ginkgo leaves in the frontyard.

After an endless summer, we are now treated to beautiful crisp autumn weather. The sun turns the yellow autumn leaves into gold.

The ginkgo tree in the frontyard is always at it's best this season and this year it seems even better.

and the Helleborus is almost ready to bloom...

ginkgo carpet

The annual autumn party in the front yard.

The ginkgo tree in our garden is always splendid, but now it's the most beautiful!

During these weeks, we have a high pile golden yellow ginkgo carpet in the front yard!

pink blooms

Pink blooms in the front yard on this Friday morning.
The hollyhocks outside between the paving and the bougainvillea inside the kitchen window.

Enjoy these beautiful and long june days!

december days

During the last weeks of December I've made two new beanies, because I've sold all the moroccan beanies. A multicolored one and the other one is matching my mittens.

I also made two warm shawls, a black one and a rusty brown one.
The shawl is very easy to make, the fabric looks like it's knitted but actually is an easy crochet technique.

You start with a foundation chain and make the chain as long as you want your shawl to be.
I've made a foundation chain of 250 chain stitches (ch).
All the following rows are worked in half double crochet (hdc).
The first row of stitches is worked into the foundation chain. Always start with 2 ch for the 1st hdc and continue the row with hdc (it's a long row!)
Second and following rows: 250 hdc, but instead of going through both the front and back loop, you insert the crochet hook ONLY through the f r o n t loop of the previous row of hdc.
After some rows you will see a textured crochet fabric that resembles a knitted rib.
My shawl is 24 rows wide, but you can make your shawl as wide as you want.

If you start now, your shawl might be ready before 2017!

(I used a crochet 5 mm hook and about 300 grams of yarn)

If you want to make the beanie, join the cool crochet workshop...

ginkgo mania

Fell in love with our Ginkgo tree in the frontyard this week (again).
Every year in november I'm surprised by it's golden glow and brightness and excited by the ginkgo tree we planted 12 years ago when we moved in.

Last year I've dried a whole lot(!) of yellow ginkgo leaves in a heavy book. I had to restrain myself not to keep all the leaves, because they were are all differently shaped and too pretty to throw away the organic waste bin.

This season I will try to leave the golden carpet on the ground as long as possible and stop myself from collecting the leaves...

The Ginkgo Biloba or Japanese walnut tree was the favorite tree of Goethe. In Japan they honor the tree as a god; it symbolizes hope, love, magic, timelessness and longevity and is nicknamed temple tree.

courtyard & coneflowers

Coneflowers add a flashy touch of color to the front yard.

Sunday morning reading Dream Decor in the frontyard, the colorful interior book by Bright Bazaar, brimming with inspiration!

november front yard

A carpet of yellow ginkgo leaves in the front yard.

I have saved a lot of beautiful leaves to dry, before the autumn storm had blown them all away. I don't have a flower press, so I arranged the ginkgo leaves on sheets of paper and stuck them into a heavy book, that I weighted with more have books.

All the leaves are shaped differently, they are all beautiful! I will make a ginkgo herbarium soon.

white afterchristmas

This morning we woke up in a white winter wonderland.

A white afterchristmas.

The bamboo in the backyard bent over the terrace and all the chairs covered with a snow pillow.

It's wonderful, even if it's probably only just for one day...