Into the green

Lately we've been trying to make the most of the mild weather and the nice green spaces we have so close by.  Here are some photos.

Easter!

 I'm so excited about this holiday weekend. Like Christmas, this is the first Easter where Isabella really 'gets' it and that makes it all the more special for me too.

 She's already excited about all the decorations around the house. Wait until she finds the chocolate and gifts!

Holidays!!!

Happy New Year!

source

Holiday Feeling

Schools out!

Today was the last school day of the year. It was long overdue and I think colleagues and pupils alike were ready for the break. It's been the most stressful end of year that I can remember, for different reasons but we're through it now and it's time to relax and recover.

It wasn't all negative though. In amongst everything, I felt very grateful. I thanked lots of colleagues who supported me this semester and received several thanks. We also said goodbye to several colleagues which is always sad, especially when they were colleagues I could work well with.

I'm excited and apprehensive in equal measures about the new school year but before I get bogged down in that, I'm taking a couple of weeks to shut off mentally, enjoy my family and house and freetime.

Family Time

Over these Easter holidays, we've had some lovely family time. First my dad was here for five days and this week mum and gran came to visit.

The weather was pretty miserable for most of it but the main thing was having time together. Isabella loved having her grandparents here. She has them both wrapped around her little finger.

We had a lovely girls day out clothes shopping in Bremen and having tea and cake in Fischerhude. I also had a few rounds of dominoes with my gran who made the trip at 91 years old!

From today

source

Harz Photos

As I talked about on Saturday, we had  couple of days in the Harz last week. Here are some photos from the trip.

The view from our flat

On the walk up to the castle

Arriving at Wernigerode castle

On the castle tour

An impressive building

The view of the Brocken

Walking to the top of the hill

A sneaky break with my extra six kilos

Finding our way

Looking back down on the castle

Beautiful view

Amazing light in the forest...

...and shadows

The smallest house

Love these little streets

Happy Holidays

Today we are heading away for the holidays - two weeks with our families.

I won't be posting regularly so here I am signing off for the holidays.  

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a happy and healthy 2014.  

See you on the other side!

Summer break

As regular readers will know, I am getting married next week!  Tomorrow we head off to Schneverdingen to get ready for the fun and the chaos that the wedding will bring and then we are heading to Scotland on our honeymoon.

Obviously this means that I won't be updating the blog everyday as I have tried to do for almost two years now.  

I am honestly a little torn.  I love blogging and making regular updates but on the other side, I feel my posts on here are becoming a little stale and I think it will do me good to take the rest of the summer off to first of all have a break, and then to regroup and try to get my creative juices flowing and do something more with this little space of mine.

So I wish you a long, lovely and relaxing Summer and I'll see you on the other side! xx

Saying Goodbye

On Friday, we cut our project short because we had the year ten leaving assembly.  I was honoured to receive a rose from each of the classes I taught in over the last three years.  The marking of time is one of the great things about our job, no two days are ever the same never mind two years, and working with crazy groups of individuals is always entertaining, if also trying at times.

Holidays

It's been a while since I talked about holidays.  (I'm waiting for some photos, hint hint mother.)  Also, it's not really been the time to think about the holidays - when you are sat watching the pouring rain or harsh winds through the window, you don't want to think about hot summer adventures, past or future.

Lately though, things are starting to stir the wanderlust in me again.  The summer is slowly but surely arriving and as my favourite blogger has gone on maternity leave, I've been trawling through her archives for my daily fix and came across this little report on a trip of hers.

It got me to thinking, I love lists...I love holidays... but it' not something I often combine.  For starters, Nico would stop travelling with me pretty quickly if I didn't leave my to do list at home but also, a break is a break for me.  However, there are usually some things at the back of my mind that I know I want the trip to be built around.  For example, when we went to Amsterdam, I knew I couldn't miss the Anne Frank museum or the Van Gogh Gallery.

However, when I look back on that holiday, the memories that shine the brightest are the completely random ones - the amazing meal we had when we ducked down a side street to escape the crowds, playing chess on the tablet and sipping wine at a streetside cafe while the heavens poured down around us, and sitting on the canals to eat cheese and sausage for breakfast. 

I think it's the case that some of the best memories I have from any holiday were unplanned experiences that can never be repeated - seeing bambi footprints in the Harz, coffee in a deserted Trump Tower Starbucks at 6am, discovering a new rioja over tapas on Las Ramblas.

While there are certain things I want to experience on my next holiday, - our honeymoon in Edinburgh - Edinburgh castle, good food, visiting a distillery... I know the best memories will be those I can't even imagine yet and most of all, getting used to married life.

Easter

Hope you had a great Easter.  We had a quiet one here, baking cakes, catching up with family and eating these extra thick Hachez eggs before heading back to work on Wednesday. 

It was nice to tone it down this year.  Next year I plan to paint some eggs though - a tradition I haven't done before!

Easter Time

Easter bunnies

So it's holidays and, looking through the window here, you could be forgiven for thinking they were the Christmas holidays.  In an effort to get into the Easter spirit, I spruced up the flat with our Easter decorations last weekend.  Feeling a little more jolly now!

Easter candles

Easter eggs in the tree - German style!

Inspiration

source

Family Time

One of the best things about the holidays is getting to spend time with family.  I'm so excited about heading back to England in August to see mine but one of the highlights of last week for me was getting back to Nico's home town to see his family on his Dad's birthday.  Last year we barely made it as we flew back from England on that day and the weather was horrendous - cold and stormy.  This year couldn't have been more different.  We were nice and relaxed after a great and very productive start to the holidays and the weather was almost too hot to sit outside!

I've said it before and no doubt I'll get onto it again but I love how all Nico's family come together on such occasions and it was really great to see everyone.  I'm really looking forward to heading back in a couple of weeks for a longer stay as we settle Pete in there before our trip.

Shopping!

On Monday we went into Bremen to do some shopping ready for our holidays.  It did mean a lift on the clothes ban but I think I've done well to say those were the first trousers I have bought in over two years.  Anyway, the holiday clothes will be in our holiday pictures but I thought I would share these piccies with you now.

I've been thinking about getting a lightweight waterproof jacket for a while now as my waterproof coat was bought for a skiing holiday and is way too warm in Spring never mind Summer and my other lighter coats are not waterproof...and I live in Germany.

I fell in love with this one at first sight.  I love the colour, it had everything I wanted and was in the sale.  We had different pictures to decide which size was best.  One of the interesting things about shopping on Monday was that I don't know European clothes sizes and it was actually quite a nice experience to shop for comfort rather than a number.

I'm also hoping that buying a raincoat will secure us this gorgeous weather for the rest of the holidays!

Something New - Ginger Beer

When we went for lunch on Sunday, Loreto asked for ginger beer.  We managed to find her something similar but I had trouble explaining what it was as it's something I have never tried and although it is called beer, I knew it couldn't be alcoholic because it crops up on so many children's adventures in Enid Blighton novels, in fact, that's probably the only place I had heard of it until then.

Coincidentally we came across some ginger beer in the Asia food shop while we were out and about on Monday so our first new adventure of these summer holidays was trying that...

...and we were pleasantly surprised.  Nico introduced me to all things ginger after we started going out and he discovered that I am always cold.  It was a little sweet and probably didn't fit in with the diet but it was one can and I'm glad we tried it.

School's Out!

Cheesy as hell but it had to be done!