* Updated with a wonderful Virginia Woolf passage
Our view
Now that we know we have to move (see the second half of my previous post if you need an explanation), I’ve been looking at everything as if it’s for the last time. Sounds dramatic, but it feels very real … I won’t see the corn being harvested again in these fields, won’t walk the path by the stream to the bus anymore, the moon won’t shine into the bedroom, the white house won’t be in my photos of the Alps …
While it’s definitely a sad feeling, it’s also opened my eyes to what I consider “normal”. My normal won’t be my normal by the end of April next year – it will be the new owner’s normal. So, in order to soak it all in, I’ve been trying to appreciate more.
Beautiful autumn colours
Of course, I’ve always appreciated what we have here, but sometimes you just don’t SEE it. There’s nothing quite like a change to make you realise what you have and are about to lose (hopefully when we find a new place, it will be lovely too – I couldn’t live in something dark or horrible).
This week, walking to and from the bus to work, I’ve stopped to appreciate the neighbourhood – to soak it in, rather than rushing by.
Just beautiful …
Serendipity may have played a part in all this too. For the month of October, there’s a free mindfulness course on the internet. Here is the link. Each day, the moderator speaks with experts from around the world on a mindful topic, from mindful eating to making the most of meditation and so on. I’ve found it really interesting.
While I find the moderator’s constant agreeing and mmhmm’ing quite annoying (and I just fast forward through the parts where she speaks, as I find her quite a vague interviewer, oops, sorry!) she does get some great, insightful answers from her guests. And the guided meditations from some of them are very relaxing. If you want to listen to the previous week’s worth, you have to make a donation, but if you log in every day from now on to hear that day’s speaker, it’s free. As always, I have no affiliation with this website whatsoever, just putting it out there for you to enjoy too.
Here are some more photos, taken mindfully, mind you, from the past week. 🙂
Maybe you can look at everything in your neighbourhood with fresh eyes this week too?
I’ve just remembered a lovely passage from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, read while on a train somewhere in England in my early 20s, and written in a keepsake book which I brought to Switzerland. These are Lily’s thoughts:
“Here sitting on the world, she thought, for she could not shake herself free from the sense that everything this morning was happening for the first time, perhaps for the last time, as a traveller, even though he is half asleep, knows, looking out the train window, that he must look now, for he will never see that town, or that mule-cart, or that woman at work in the fields, again.”
Wishing you a wonderful day.
Sunflower’s being harvested
A late-blooming flower from one of my pot plants
A moody sunrise walking to the bus
Sugar beets piled high
Heavy morning fog at the neighbour’s house
And on the road to the bus
Can you see my new friend?
Fog over the Wohlensee (lake) down the hill
The decorative pumpkins aren’t proving so popular at the honesty box/flower field stall
Corn, harvested and wrapped up for the cows to eat in winter
The corn bales the next morning at sunrise
Happy cows
Our place … all sold. Onwards to new adventures, but not for a little while yet …
fitfor15in15 ... and further 
I can’t believe you have to leave. We had the BEST week there with you guys!
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I know! It’s so sad we can’t do it all again here. But we can hopefully do it all again somewhere else, equally as cool … Wishful thinking, right?! 🙂
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We will miss it too Angela! And these photographs are your best yet – perhaps because you are seeing it better, more mindfully? Thank you for the link – I’m off to look that up.
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Glad you’ve enjoyed them, Freda. I think autumn and the light has something to do with it too. Good luck with the Mindfulness Summit. Wish I’d told everyone about it earlier!
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Great photos Ange and so pleased Judy and I will be able to again enjoy for a few days your little piece of paradise, in a couple of weeks time. You sound positive, so that is good. I will have a look at your link after our trip to Buderim for lunch today. x
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Aaaagh, no more tulip field in Spring! Beautiful photos, Ange. And thanks for the reminder of being mindful x
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Hopefully we’ll find another tulip field! I always thought of you as I walked past the old one (which is still empty, to let the soil recover). The new one has more variety but not the same soul (haha almost wrote soil!), if that makes sense. Enjoy those mindful moments! xx
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Love your photos as always. Specially like your ‘new friend’ – whenever I think I Switzerland I think of cows being everywhere. Also love the pumpkins – hope you have bought a few – I think they are great art. I think you can varnish them or something so they last awhile. Pleased you are enjoying work and as you say while it is good in lots of ways that they speak English some German practice would probably not go astray. Yesterday Mum and I went to a fundraiser organised by one of the clubs Mel Tipper belongs to. Speaker was Li Cunxin (Mao’s last dancer). I read the book years ago when it first came out (which I loved) and saw the movie (which was shallow). He is a truely fabulous speaker – an amazing story of someone who had so little and through one random act took the opportunity to do extraordinary things. He is now the artistic director of the Qld Ballet and has totally turned them around from a ‘ho hum’ outfit in to a very successful company. I am not a ballet fan so won’t be going anytime soon. If ever you get the chance to hear him speak – take it up
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Dear Angela,
What wonderful photos of your home and surrounding countryside. It is all so picturesque. I loved Switzerland. Probably won’t ever visit again but I have great memories. In the meantime we are looking forward to our trip from Amsterdam to Budapest. Then off to London for a few days. Where did you have that treat of oysters and champagne? Fortnum and Masons perhaps? Just forget the details but it sounded like my scene!
Mum and Jud will certainly be with you soon and I know how much you will all enjoy that pre Christmas celebration. It’s wonderful news that you’ve got a job and it’s all going so well. Are you getting used to being a career girl again? It sounds demanding but then any new job worth while is.
This is just a short message but I wanted to make contact and let you know how delighted I am for you and am sure you will be successful. Love to you both from us both, Auntie Bette
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Hi Aunty Bette! Lovely to hear from you. The champagne and oysters were at Harrods, darling! Of course! 🙂 I hope you have a similar experience. The only problem was you sit on high stools, so not all that comfortable, but I suppose it doesn’t take long to eat an oyster! Your trip sounds wonderful. All’s going well with the job and the readjustment has been painless. I’m pleasantly surprised! I do love my free Fridays (I work Mon-Thurs). Dad’s cousin Drew and his wife are visiting us today. Better get ready! Speak soon. Love to Uncle Mel xx
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[…] countdown to the house move has well and truly begun … I’m still making the most of every […]
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