Why is the Black Forest called that way?

Well, as we found out one gloomy weekend in May it is because it is pretty darm dark in there, especially this May when winter was still officially there and hopes of sunshine were crushed every single day.

We had decided to take advantage of a long bank holiday weekend to go to Germany and spend 2 nights in the Black Forest with some friends. As we found out that weekend, we only live 15 minutes from the German border (and after almost 2 years we did not have a clue we were that close) and 90 minutes away from the South border of the Black Forest. We broke our short journey in Titisee-neustadt as Baby Suisse was having a very bad day and had decided 20 minutes into the journey that he had had enough. After a spot of lunch, I had imagined an afternoon of strolling along the shore taking pictures and buying souvenirs but thought the better of it after realising we hadn't packed anything warm or waterproof to wear at all. We have got quite good at packing everything we're likely to need for Baby Suisse on trips away but somehow forget about ourselves. Never mind, we said goodbye to Titisee after a last chuckle...

Another 20 minutes up the road, we unpacked our things in the hotel we were staying in Vöhrenbach (nice and dog/kid friendly, we recommend!) and decided to take advantage of the sun briefly coming out for a short walk in the area, skipping up the hill, singing and...well not quite but you get the jist.

The first evening was spent eating far too much schnitzel and trying to convince Baby Suisse to go the fuck to sleep (do you know this children bed time story? GENIUS!). Baby Suisse, we realised, does not like not sleeping in his own bed so ended up with us.

After a very short night's sleep and a breakfast of cheese, bread, eggs and meat (why do you always feel obliged to eat 3 times as much for breakfast when you're away from home just because it's free and there??), we set off to Triberg for a hike around the waterfall.

The Triberg waterfall is one of the highest in the whole of Germany and was impressive given the surreal amount of rain we've had this "Spring".

Annoyingly, you have to pay to see the waterfall but we took the opportunity to buy a bag of peanuts at the gate to feed the squirrels. Alf was going nuts for the squirrels, he is very keen on them shall we say...

We stopped for a coffee near a big pond and a spot of duck feeding...

Because of the light rain, the site wasn't too busy on that day and we thoroughly enjoyed the hike in the woods around the waterfall. Not much to see in terms of wildlife...

...but the many different sights of the waterfall were worth it.

And yes of course, we saw plenty of cuckoo clocks too, but that'll be the topic of another post :-)

A weekend of fooding

Oops, I meant to write a blog post at the weekend but I got to Sunday night feeling completely shattered and desperate for an early night. Mr T left us last Thursday to go to Ireland on a stag weekend until Sunday afternoon and I was on Baby Suisse's full time duties after work on Thursday and Friday and at the weekend. My little boy and I had a great time together but we were pleased to have Mr T back home after a few days!

One of my resolutions for this year was to take up cooking again every now and again, and in particular to make use of the many great cookbooks we have accumulated over the years. Mission accomplished this weekend, with 3 recipes from 2 very different cookbooks.

The weekend started with a recipe I had tried before: chocolate banana bread from my Green&Black's cookbook. Last time, I added a twist to the recipe by making muffins rather than a loaf, but both are equally tasty!

A new recipe from the Jamie at Home book was tried and loved, simple but delicious home-made pizza with courgettes (home-grown), mushrooms, taleggio cheese and parma ham. I realise now that I was so desperate to tuck in that I forgot to take a picture of the pizza after it came out of the oven...oh well...

Sunday dinner was light, perfect comfort food again from Jamie's book: home-made beans on toast. Perfect for the evening, put all ingredients in a pot and simmer for an hour:

A new favourite in our house!

Apart from cooking, Alf, Baby Suisse and I went on many walks in the neighbourhood (including a trip to the Roman amphitheatre) and Baby Suisse spent a lot of time splashing about in his paddling pool. It's beginning to look a lot like Summer :-)

Do you have a favourite Sunday night dinner recipe?

What about me??

Some of you have been wondering how I am doing and what I have been up to recently...it was time for me to post a quick Alf update!

They say it's been hard adjusting to the arrival of Baby Suisse and the sleepless nights but have they thought how difficult this has been for me? Everyone's been paying far too much attention to that bald crying baby and not enough to me! To make sure I am not being forgotten, I have resorted to following Baby Suisse around like my own shadow so that I am always in the middle of the action.

Things were easier when Baby Suisse did not know how to crawl, I could just lick his face and feet whenever I felt like it, there was no escape! Now, he's all over the place, gone are the days when I could snooze in peace in the open...I have to hide under the table now!

It's not all bad really, now that Baby Suisse is eating in his high chair, there's always an opportunity to get snacks in the middle of the day ;-)

I've started my twice-weekly trips to the office in Bern with my mistress back in January and I have been enjoying meeting up with my canine friends there and my walks in the woods at lunchtime. On the occasional sunny day, we've been on hikes in la Suisse and abroad (this is me in Germany...I was told a blog post on that adventure would follow soon). Life is slowly returning to normal...if only that Baby Suisse would stop pestering me!!

It's a green disaster

I am not going to start a long rant about how messed up the weather has been this "Spring" and how this has badly affected Nature and those of us trying to grow stuff in a garden or on a balcony. We have been held at ransom by rain in the last few weeks, culminating with over 24 hours of non-stop rainfall this Friday/Saturday.

The river at the bottom of our garden (seen above on a normal day) has burst its banks, firemen have been on duty all weekend setting up sand bags and blocking roads, whole tree trunks have been floating past and bridges have been submerged. Needless to say that with the lack of sunshine and over-generous amount of water, our tomato/pepper/chilli/courgette/aubergine seedlings are not looking promising. We had very good crops last year but this year will likely turn out to be a wash-out (no pun intended). The only plants which are doing well (probably because they are inside!) are Mr T's collection of carnivorous plants:

Pretty and keeping the winter garden fly-free! :-)

PS: I have recently discovered the panoramic setting on my camera and Picasa Photo Editor, so, as you can see, I am going through a mad phase with both of these!

Pie love

I heart pies and if I wasn't married to Mr T, I probably would be married to one of the Hairy Bikers...fact!

http://www.hairybikers.com

Maybe you don't have a clue what I am on about if you haven't lived in the UK, and even if you do you may not understand my weird crush on overweight hairy middle-aged men but I am digressing...PIES!

http://www.hairybikers.com

Being French, I had no ideas what pies (or Yorkshire puddings) for that matter where until I met Mr T, a Northerner...and God was I missing out!

I bought Mr T the Hairy Bikers' "Perfect Pies" book at Christmas and did not have the patience to wait for him to try one of the recipes (he never follows any recipes) so I got stuck in!

Mr T being lactose-intolerant, it was a bit of a challenge to find a pie recipe that did not heavely rely on cheese or cream but the "sausage and apple puff" recipe ticked the right boxes.

No fancy ingredients: good quality sausage meat, an onion, an apple, bread crumbs and seasoning.

Mix everything and put in the middle of a roll of puff-pastry.

Love pie

Cover with more pastry and be creative!

This glorified giant sausage roll is very good, super easy to make and got Mr T's approval (and he is a pie connoisseur).

With the left-over pastry, I decided to make some mini apple turnovers to be enjoyed with coffee the following morning.

Just stewed apples and a little bit of sugar...

Two were not enough!

I have really enjoyed doing a bit of cooking lately. Mr T is our official cook and does a very good job but I do miss taking the time to cook something special and trying out some new recipes. I have made more of an effort lately to actually browse all the cookery books we have at home and bookmark some recipes to try in the near future. This success has spurred me on!

Schenkenberg ruins

View from main road: our destination

When in need of inspiration to plan little trips in our neighbourhood, I head to the My Switzerland website, full of great ideas for walks or sights to visit in each of the Swiss cantons. Canton Aargau where we live is full of castles so you're almost assured to see one in the distance on any walk in the countryside. It is on that website that I found out that 15 minutes away from us were the Schenkenberg ruins, the largest castle ruins in the canton.

Built in the 13th century by the Habsburg family (they've built most of the historical sights around here), it was abandonned in the 18th century as it had become too costly to maintain and repair. Built on a 631m high hill, its first use was to protect core areas around the Brugg district. It is now a Swiss heritage site of national importance.

From the main road in the small town of Thalheim, up and up we went, past some vineyards...

...past some grazing sheep...

...leaving the town behind.

I had read online the day before that there are two main paths to the ruins and that the shortest one was not pram-friendly. We therefore decided to test-drive Baby Suisse's hiking rugsack now that he is big enough to sit in it properly.

At a power-walking pace, the climb took us about 20 minutes. We were prepared for how extensive the ruins of the castle are... the site is surprisingly big and large sections of the derelict castle still stand.

It must be quite a popular spot in the summer given that we saw 4 barbecue pits in the middle of the site. Only in Switzerland, one would fancy grilling a wurst in the middle of a listed heritage site...

Because the weather was fairly touch-and-go that day, we were alone up there although we had walked past a few people during our speedy ascent.

Nature has taken over the site in many places

We enjoyed very (cloudy) nice views over the valley and the town of Thalheim.

We decided to take the slightly longer way back to the car, not walking through the woods but following a path down the other side of the hill onto the valley.

As the weather looked rather ominous, we didn't hang around for too long but glanced back at the castle one last time.

What a great way to spend our afternoon on bank holiday Monday. This would make a good day trip to anyone passing through the canton or visiting Zürich (public transport links are very good but the bus dropping you at the bottom of the hill).

Now, where should we go next?