Back from the Alps

I've been back quite a while but had problems with my online-connection. Once fixed a couple of days ago I spent time reading and not writing myself.
As soon I got back my job was calling and of course I'm spending time with my sports and actual crafting. I don't know how regular I will post and in which direction this little blog might go. Also kind of a journey........

I spent two lovely weeks in the Alps, lots of climbing, of nature, of art, of inspiration for crafting. Lots of shopping :-), shoes, new dishes, yammy beads.
As I know myself I will write about those activities and impressions in bits now and then and hopefully somebody besides myself is interested ;-)

This post shows some pictures of the last day, literally the highlight of the trip: Above is me joking around in front of the Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of Europe. We climbed a "tiny" mountain opposite of the so very impressive mountain range above the french village of Chamonix. The Mont Blanc is straight 3800 m above the houses! And he is not the only mountain around.
In my humble opinion also not the most beautiful. That label should go to the Dru, the massive "stone" in the background of the next picture. The Dru is featuring a famous very hard climbing route with more than 1000 m. Even the eastiest approach is way above my skill- and wishlevel.
But I do wish I would live near the Alps and not almost 1000 km away.

Tschüs for summer travel

Tschüs is "Hamburgian" for the informal bye-bye. The photo is from my last year's big trip to Africa and I think it symbolise the leaving, going, off to new adventures. I don't know about you, at least for me it does.

In a couple of hours I will hit the road for Switzerland and France for 15 days. Hopefully the conditions will be good for climbing, walking in the Alps and maybe one greater mountain. In between I want to cycle around The Lac Leman, the great lake of Genevre, in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

Thanks for all the touching comments on my last posts. As usual I got lost in blogland, looking at photos and this week also in climbing pages. So when I finally told myself to get off internet I hadn't written a personal note to you.
Besides surfing my days were filled with exercising. My shape is pretty lousy so I spent many hours climbing, due to a lack of rocks inside in a gym. But at least my compagnions there are fun to be around with and because I have vacation I treated myself afterwards with some good time in the sauna.

Many many hours I spent with packing. Although travelling is "my life" and I do travel frequently, I hate packing. I get sick from it, sometimes even physically. It doesn't even matter if I fly to Africa or India, it also can happen just for a weekend camping trip.
Of course I'm working with lists, cheerful self-talk and today I will use my new remedy, the Bach rescue drops.

I'm not ready yet so instead worrying if I have forgotten to mention something to somebody of my cyber acquaintances I should quit here with a hearty

tschüs
:-Tally-:

ps: for my readers in the English speaking countrys: Please tell me if the vowel in the German word is not displayed. I don't know with the lastest html what you can see. If you can't figure it out it should be: tschues

Sun in the lilies

Yes, the title is right. Can't see the sun outside, as so often here in North Germany in this so-called summer. But for luck I have my photos. This weather sometimes provides very special light situations, when one sun-ray hits something. And when it it something beautiful like the lilies in my garden I run to get my camera.

Even more for luck we don't have this pouring rain like in England, where the people are suffering from flood-like sutuations nor do we have the heat and dryness from southern Europe, where people are suffering from that and the fires taking place in the dryness.

Auspicious shell

After quite a while a post for the Bead Journal Project.
My theme for July was already fixed, when I enrolled. Since 1,5 year ago I knew that this July I would travel to Hamburg ;-) for the teaching of H.H. the Dalai Lama.
Finally during the last days I developed a plan of what to bead. As long as it took getting an idea and thinking it through as long it might take to learning how to do it.
First I will tell you about it and if you have any hints I would appreciate them.

Remember my overall topic are bracelets for each month. I will take the golden ribbon from my entrance pass that was hanging from my neck for the week. In the middle I will stich one of the 8 auspicious symbols of the Tibetean buddhism, namely the conch. More about that in another post. I liked very much the design of it, a wonderful modern translation of a very old sign.
The brownish-red outline I will bead. The holography in the middle I will try to embroider. Since I'm a beginner in both techniques it will be kind of a trial for me.
Because I want some of the golden ribbon to show I will only stitch some lines of a opal white on the sides.
I have to figure out quite a bit, mainly the design and than how to transfer it onto the ribbon.

Hopefully I get around doing that and the beginning of the beading and stitching. End of the week I will travel for mountaineering and bicycling. My hands will be too cragged for such a delicate work so I won't bother taking it with me.
I'm already way past schedule and decided that the main part is getting the idea and design fixed for the month.
Today television is showing 5 hours of the public speech the Dalai Lama was giving in Southern Germany today and some documentations. I have recorded them, so I can watch and listen during working on the braclet on the long winter evenings (well, among 1000 other things I plan for them *lol*).

Thubten Chodron in the evening

Each day after the teaching of Dalai Lama there are other programms to go to.
Today I went to the talk of Thubten Chodron, an American buddhist nun. What a lively speech, what an inspiring person. This lady really draws ones attention into her talking.

Dealing with anger - who does not know the situations where one is annoyed, frustrated, even furious.
I can't write down all the explanations for anger and all the remedies she was mentioning. The most important is contemplating about impermanence (everything is changing every moment). This prevents from exaggerated expectations and attachment.

As I found out Thubten Chodron has an expanded homepage. Have a look for yourself if you want to read more: Thubten Chodrons homepage