I wish all my readers a Happy Valentine Day. May we use this day as a reminder that we NEED love in our life. Let's start with giving Love and thus make space for getting love in return! Not only today but for the rest of our lives. Remember: Love is the absence of judgement!
Day 1
Let's go 1 week back in time. My big brother would get the keys of the ex-hotel now gite around 4 pm on Friday February 1; we had a save drive through a snow landscape and on arriving 10 people were already there. We brought the food we were responsible for to the kitchen, choose a room and I made the beds right away; nothing more awful than you want to crawl into bed, drunk with sleep and your bed is unmade.
More and more people dripped in and around 8 pm we were "plenary", 29 in total. We had decided on a potluck dinner for the first evening and it was fun to discover what was displayed on the table: mostly cheese, cold meats and soup. I had brought an avocado salad and a dry pea soup; pea soup is just what you need when it's snowing outside. My nephew you can see in the picture is ALWAYS in shorts, inside and outside!
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| Discovering our Potluck Dinner. |
My sister-in-law Gudrun (Concept Smalle) made a doodle and we signed up in advance for 2 corvees and food for 15 people for Saturday and Sunday; on the spot everybody knows what she/he has to do and once supper over clearing the tables and doing the dishes went smooth and the kitchen was spic&span in no time and we could start our games, play pool or just talk and catch up with family. I played Cluedo with my sisters, a niece and my goddaughter; then we played Codenames with my nephews and around midnight I went to bed.
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| Young and old playing games, no generation gap. |
Day 2
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| 3 nieces making slime |
After breakfast the next morning, we left the hotel for a walk monitored by a guide. He showed us a beaver dam, traces in the snow of a badger, a wild boar and deer. The children walked along bravely without complaining, we only heard their cries of joy when seeing a field covered with untouched snow; in no time a small snowman was made!
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| Assembling before the walk. |
That noon, my husband and I had signed up for preparing lunch. Luckily we had prepared our bolognaise sauce at home, it is a nuisance to cook in an unknown kitchen; my sister Lieve made a salmon sauce and Catherine and Mieke a Far Eastern type of noodles. The young ones were hungry after the 5 km walk and were first in line to serve themselves heaps of pasta and went back for more before everybody else was served.
In the afternoon, we visited the city, La Roche en Ardennes; some of us went to the WWII museum, I went with my nephews to visit the local castle built wholly with local schist stone. Sadly it was closed by the time we got there so we went for a hot chocolate.
For Saturdays supper, we catered; we did some speeches and I took word to tell that this year I had presents for all the guys: a little pouch or a memento mori for the bikers. Supper finished I took my box and let them choose a pouch or a skull bracelet for the bikers. They all loved the idea of the memento mori. That evening, the ladies occupied the pool room and my brother in law started dancing later on. I am self conscious but between family I feel secure enough to dance.
Day 3
My second brother is born on December 24 and my mother used to adorn the Christmas Log for his birthday with a marzipan baby Jesus. He continues this tradition and got us special breakfast bread with little pink Jesus'es.
After breakfast on our last day, we walked the 2.5 km to the castle; one of my nephews, who is an architect, told us that he is "going through a medieval period" and he was very excited to finally visit the stronghold/feudal castle; very impressive with its courtyards, cistern, prison, guarding towers.The building was started in the 11th century and is entirely constructed with shale held together with chalk and sand. It is built on various impressive rock formations. The structure is visible in this picture.
Below an overview of the different courtyards and defense tower with the semicircle of the cistern visible in the foreground.
My sister in the foreground, my daughter on the right and my niece with boyfriend are enjoying the view.
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| Family members enjoying the view |
We stayed at this ex-hotel
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| Gite Les Merlettes, La Roche en Ardennes, Belgium |
At noon we had our last meal together: a delicious chili-con-carne and when the kitchen was tidied up, we left.
And this is the youngest of the family, Gust with his grandpa, the second eldest of my family.
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| little Gust with grandpa; courtesy of S. Ozonder |
Fish leather!
I love to try exotic food: fruits, vegetables, meat, the more exotic and strange, the better! That does not include insects and the like. Not surprising at all that one day on Pinterest I saw a pin about fish skins: flexible enough to be used in jewelry! Last Monday my trout skin in dark chocolate arrived in a big box. Despite the good care, the skin was bent and did not straighten out. I thought about ironing the skin but my gut feeling told me it wasn't o.k. so I emailed the company about it. I got a mail back in a couple of hours: especially no ironing, just put a heavy book like a dictionary on top of it for a couple days. What I did and here is the skin:
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| newly arrived trout skin in dark chocolate |
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| detail of the trout skin. |
It is a lot more brittle than expected so I'll have to do a good thinking session what I can do with the skin. One thing I know: it will be jewelry for men. Jewelry for men is doing very good on Pinterest, so I 'll follow this lead. The biggest challenge will be to protect the edges from crumbling or so I think, I might be wrong.
Anyway, if you are curious about this fish leather, don't miss my next post, I'll have more news for you.
Have a nice Valentine Day, keep away from judging and you'll be loved by everyone.
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