Florian Leopold is born!

A new Annemarie Moser-Pröll?

Soon, Anna will turn two years old - high time to get her into touch with real winter sports!!! And luckily, Anna was quite fond of the idea! After only minor and short protest while putting on her skis, she discovered that skiing down hill with daddy is great! "Once more, once more!"
A new Annemarie Moser-Pröll? Maybe - maybe not? Anyway, she and her dad had great fun in the snow!
Let's really hope that this winter will bring us lots of snow also up here in Potsdam - its so much fun to sledge, ski, play in the snow and build snow men!

Cookies Baking III

Coconut macaroons were the chosen sort of cookies of the day! The easiest part was mixing the ingredients (mostly sugar, egg white and coconut raspers):

The subsequent step of placing the sticky coconut mixture onto the wafers was a bit more difficult...
But with full concentration, we also managed this difficult part of making macaroons.
Now, we have plenty of cookies to enjoy - and a kitchen floor which desperately needs swabbing...

Snowy Sentinel

We have a new sentinel on our balcony! Unfortunately, he likes a booze once a while....

Perilous winter ascent on Mt. Babel westface

Every avid mountain climber faces various hazards when exposed to Alpine conditions with due respect. Mountaineering in the winter is known to be particularly perilous. Often enough, the most serene weather can rapidly turn into a ferocious blizzard. There are countless eye-witness reports of experienced alpinists who claim that, in adverse weather, climbing even the tamest hill may equal the ascent of a demanding Himalayan peak.
We consider ourselves therefore particularly lucky that we had impeccable weather during our first winter expedition in Babelsberg park (the first this winter, that is)! Our team decided to climb the awe-inspiring west face of Mt. Babel (Babelsberg). This ascent already poses several natural obstacles during a summer ascent: no footpaths, mixed terrain (lush forest and meadows) and molehills need to be overcome. A winter ascent such as we planned it, was only feasible utilising a sledge. We are of course still equipped with our fantastic Gasser Rodel (proudly made in Tirol, where else).
The first picture shows two climbers of our party starting their ascent of the west face of Mt. Babel. Arctic temperatures (-10C) and treacherous passages through snow-covered molehills require strong team sprit.

To add to the thrill, our fearless adventurers decided to also descend by sledge! Here we see them happily returning back to the base camp, having miraculously circumnavigated all perils.


Here is another photograph taken from a safe spot by a member of our base camp team. Note the ferocious quadruped beast in the background, greedily aiming at our adventurers. But it proved to be far too lame to pose a real danger to them.

Here we are happily reunited with our base camp team, ready to start the journey back home to reinvigorate ourselves with hot tea and self-made cookies. What a successful December afternoon!

Cookies Baking - Reloaded

Again, rainy cold weather.... This time, we asked Ada and her mom Brit for helping us baking cookies! Again, much fun and delicious cookies!

St. Martin

On November 11th, we took part in the St. Martin lantern procession, a wonderful tradition especially for the children!

Anna with her friend Ada (poor Ada was frighted by the St. Martin rider on a tall horse):
And Anna and Ada with Arne (AAA):

Bad Weather Afternoon Program

Unpleasant autumn weather with rain and chilly winds is keeping us mostly at home during the last days. Thus, an interesting afternoon program for the kids was badly needed. Petra and I decided to see if Anna and Arne would like baking some Christmas cookies. (I know it's a bit early - but we desperately needed something funny to do for the kids!)
And YES, they even loved it!!!
They eagerly cut out the cookies and placed their sometimes a bit mutilated stars, hearts, sheep and mushrooms on the baking tray.
Decorating was much fun, too - though lots of decoration material (especially the raisins and the sugar beads) disappeared beforehand in their mouths....
And voilá! The result was not only respectable but also quite tasty!
Back to playing:

"AM I LIVING IN A BOX, AM I LIVING IN A CARDBOARD BOX?"

Baby Bellies

Being pregnant with Anna in Taiwan was very exciting but also a bit lonely - I had no close friends in a similar situation in Taipei, with whom I could have discussed all my pregnancy-thoughts. But this time, I can share my pregnancy with three(!) close friends, who are expecting, too! To remember this special time, we decided to have a home-made photo shooting - and we had to hurry, as Maria's due-date is this week (yellow flower)! (Petra - orange flower - is scheduled for November and Annette - red flower - and I for December.)
Our kids were watching with big eyes what we did, but luckily Annette had baked enough waffles to keep them at bay and busy! Afterwards, they were allowed to an own photo shooting - what a pity that Maria's Darius was missing...
We might do a similar photo shooting in January - then hopefully with four healthy little babies in our arms instead of the flowers!

Canada

An invitation to the wedding of Kamil's cousin led us to Toronto in October and brought the opportunity to spend our holidays in Canada during the famous Indian Summer time.
Kamil's uncle and his younger son AD (not the one who got married, though!) were showing us some nice corners of Toronto.
AD was a fabulous playmate for Anna!
Kamil's whole family gathered in Toronto (especially in his uncle's house...) and we spent a lively week with them. Many thanks to aunt Jola for her kind and great hospitality! We might post some official photos from the wedding soon.
Of course, we visited also the nearby Niagara Falls - water was coming from all sides, though...
Despite the sometimes cold and rainy weather, we went for some walks to a nearby park:
After this buzzing week in Toronto with the greater family, we escaped for four days to Algonquin Provincial Park to enjoy our togetherness, the calmness of nature and the brilliant colors of the Indian Summer.
We rented a small cottage just outside of Algonquin Park (The Pines Cottage Resort) on the shore of Oxtongue Lake. This was our starting point for various magnificent hikes in the Park and paddling tours on the lake.
And after these strenuous paddling and hiking excursions, Kamil prepared a nice bonfire on the beach in the evening to roast marshmallows!
Some of the wild animals we encountered during our trip - although the adjective "wild" might not be appropriate for the chipmunks, which lived around our cabin...

Walks and Mushrooms in our Park

It is true - autumn has arrived in Potsdam. The weather is much cooler and windier, but often also quite sunny with sharp blue sky and beautiful clouds. Chestnuts, beechnuts and acorns are falling from the trees and wait to be picked up - a new season has started in our beloved Babelsberg Park!
And last week-end, we were visited by Janos, my former office mate from Bern! It was so nice to see him again! And he is absolutely fabulous with kids - Anna loved him! Thanks, Janos, for playing with Anna and the "Enteneis"! ;-)
And walking with Janos through the Babelsberg Park, we found two wonderful and tasty examples of parasol mushrooms (Macrolepiota procera) and two boletus.