Zurich: Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen

Tiefenbrunnen, the best badi in town, is just a few minutes walk from our house in Zurich. "Strandbad" in High German means "beach". The cute Swiss German abbreviation is "badi". Now that the badis are open again for the summer, I took Coco today to the actual badi, with the frog pond filled, the drinking fountains and showers working and ice cream for sale in the Badeboutique. The badi is a true paradise in the summer. There are a cafe and grill, showers, changing rooms, bathrooms, lockers, huge expanses of grass to put your towel or chair out on, a little shop that sells ice cream and rents out umbrellas and impeccably maintained steps that go into the water (no algae!) and floating docks (no bird poo!) all looking out on the most gorgeous Swiss alpine view over the lake. Wow! I honestly can't imagine anywhere more wonderful that Badi Tiefenbrunnen in the summer. Seriously. It was one of the first places we visited when J and I first moved to Zurich two years ago, and it's extra special to me because I swam there nearly everyday while pregnant last summer. So it's no surprise that it positively filled my heart with joy to take my little Coco there today. She seemed to enjoy it immensely.

In the winter, Badi Tiefenbrunnen's gates are open and you can walk through whenever you please. On several occasions last fall and winter, I took Coco for a walk in the wrap or Baby Bjorn and we went through the badi. Every time I took her there, I talked to her. I explained how wonderful it would be when summer came. I looked around at the fallen leaves, dark sky and cold misty water and snuggled her close thinking of all the times we swam together and how good it felt to swim with my big belly being caressed by the satiny water, before I knew if she were a boy or a girl, before I knew her sweet face. On those winter walks, I'd point out to her the buoys, as they swayed up and down in the water in the dark silence of a winter's eve, and explain that that's where I used to swim to with her on those summer days. 

Now I know that darling baby who was in my belly all that time. Now she and I can go to the lake together and swim with one another, as mother and daughter. Now we can lie in the shade of an umbrella on the cool, green grass and look together at the mountain view I spent so many hours gazing at while she kicked inside of me. Now the summer we have been waiting for finally begins. 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend, wherever it takes you. Coco, J and I will be at the badi. :)

Frugal {fancy}: Glamping

Glamping (as in glamorous camping) is something I initially thought was absolutely ridiculous. However, since reading the Sunset magazine spread in this month's issue, I've decided it's the greatest couple's getaway idea ever! 

Imagine going glamping with your husband (no kids!) and sleeping on a comfy bed, waking up with no alarm clock and drinking hot coffee in the peace and quiet of nature. Then in the evening, instead of watching TV or wasting time online, you could enjoy a glass of wine under the stars and make s'mores over the fire. Sounds delightful doesn't it? Apparently there are all sorts of options for glamping from 100% DIY to full luxury including meals and turn-down service. Sunset has a great camping guide online here. 

It will be quite a few years before J and I want to go glamping just the two of us. We are definitely looking forward to camping as a family for now. But when the time comes, I think it's an awesome way to have a fancy, romantic and truly relaxing getaway. What do you think? Would you go glamping? Why or why not?

{photo from Sunset}

Pregnancy Travel: Nice and Cannes

Looking back I'm so happy that J and I did so much traveling while I was pregnant. This weekend is a three-day weekend in Zurich for the local holiday Sechseläuten, which involves a snowman filled with explosives and lots of horses. It's not exactly the sort of thing you take a baby to, so we are just relaxing at home. We didn't even know what Sechseläuten was last year! All we knew was that we had a random Monday off, so we booked a weekend getaway through EasyJet and jetted off to the Cote d'Azur for the most perfect time. A little tip for those living in Switzerland: check departures from Basel. It's just an hour or so on the train from Zurich and you can get much better fares!

Here we are ready for take off. Can I just say how easy travel used to be? ;)

We stayed at the NH Hotel Nice and it was perfect: clean, comfortable, quiet and stylish. Best of all, they had a full breakfast each morning with scrambled eggs, meats, fresh squeezed fruit juice, fruits, coffee, and of course, beaucoup de baguettes et confitures. Every pregnant woman's dream come true! 

We went shopping and strolling through the town and markets and drooled over all the gorgeous flowers, especially the peonies.

We strolled along the Promenade des Anglais and had the best ice creams ever: Rose and Violet, handmade by a woman just on the side of the road. Oh, how I love France!

The next day we hopped on a train to Cannes, admired the blue water and took some photos - my baby bump was just beginning to really show! Then we rented beach chairs and lounged until the sun went down. So heavenly!

It was so wonderful! I encourage all of my pregnant friends to take advantage of traveling during those last few months as a couple. Now that we're a family, I'd love to take Coco to the Côte d'Azur someday, but it would be more about playing and naps and strollers. Our romantic getaway was all about dining out, enjoying each other and relaxing. Just what an expecting couple needs! 

Did you travel while pregnant? Where did you go and what did you do? If you're expecting, what sort of travel sounds good to you?

Stitch and Bitch

This afternoon Coco and I are heading to a Stitch and Bitch with a bunch of other mommies and babies. I'm a very capable yet inexperienced knitter, which means I can handle pretty difficult stuff and I knit really beautifully, but every time I start a new project I have to get on YouTube and watch a video on how to cast on! Seriously. Is that ridiculous or what?!

While I was in Spokane last month, I hit up the local knitting store, A Grand Yarn, and went a little nutso planning projects for Coco for next winter. The good thing is that I gave myself lots of time, the not so good thing is that I chose intermediate (!) projects and I'm a little nervous about it. I got the book 60 Quick Baby Knits, which is all patterns for Cascade 220 Superwash yarn. Yes, that's right. It's wool you can WASH! Essential when you have a baby and are not willing to hand wash, or even think about using acrylic! God no. ;) First up, I'm making Coco a pair of mittens, then leg warmers and then a hat with ear flaps. The book may claim they're 'quick', but I'm thinking that should take us right up to the first frost, people. I must be crazy. Oh well! The fact is, knitting is super relaxing and satisfying, and I know I'll enjoy myself. That Coco won't freeze is really just an added bonus! ;)

I'm hoping there will be some good knitters at stitch and bitch today. Otherwise, I'm going to be spending a LOT more time on YouTube in the coming months!

Vacation

Folio Rose has been on vacation for the past week, but I'll get back to posting tomorrow when things slow down a bit. I'm at home in the brilliant USA having the absolute best time being surrounded by friends and family and enjoying dining out at all my favorite restaurants. I needed a good dose of that!

The beautiful Sam at Navarre in NE Portland.

Zells in SE Portland. One of J's and my favorites.

Speaking of the lovely J, he is having the time of his life riding his bike through France along country roads through lavender fields and camping next to moat surrounded castles in Provence. He tells me his French is getting very good!

J's beloved Bleriot. Note the tent on the back.

A tree-lined street in Provence.

We are each having our own respective good times, but we agree that we miss each other terribly.

Darling reader, have you and your other half ever vacationed separately? Did it make for an extra emotional, lovey and meaningful reunion? Or would you never do it again?

Safe Haven

For centuries Switzerland has been known as a neutral place. It was a good place to be during the first half of the 20th century when Europe was war torn and embroiled in conflict. And for me, it's a good place to be now because it gives me a lot of distance and a chance at protecting my life and my marriage from my some completely toxic and utterly poisonous people. 

They still try though. 

If you have anyone in your life that land, sea and mountains can't block out due to the beauty and wonderful of a little modern invention called Gmail, I've got a trick for you! Go into Mail Settings, then click on Filters. Click on Create a New Filter. Then enter the email address of the person you would like to block. From there, you can check little boxes to create directions for Gmail to follow every single time an email is received from that individual. It's fabulous!

After the rather unpleasant experience of seeing a certain individual's name appear in my inbox this morning, I skipped reading the email and I set up a little filter instead. Any time I receive email from her, Gmail knows to do the following: Skip the Inbox and DELETE! It felt so good I set up an identical filter for another related person. Switzerland may have been the fortress of days gone by, but let's face it, nowadays we need an electronic fortress. 

Darling reader, do you, or have you ever had, a relationship that was so toxic you simply had to cut the person out of your life completely? How did you do it? 

{photo from here}

Saturday Morning

Saturday morning is my favorite of all mornings. Friday nights we get a lot of sleep and then wake up on our own (no alarm!) and snuggle until we're ready to get out of bed. I'm especially happy this Saturday because it's raining and cloudy and inside feels so cozy and warm with a cup of strong coffee.

Today I tried a new recipe from my America's Test Kitchen Cook Book. I made the Cream Biscuits, which they promised would be fast at only 30 minutes start to finish and light. They were both. If I had taken them about just a few minutes earlier, they would have been a bit moister and chewier, but they were not the least bit dense or heavy. Overall very impressive, especially because I used Schär Gluten Free flour! Because I was on a roll, I also whipped together some pork breakfast sausages that I adapted from this recipe. I prefer the Hot version, but I up the sage and omit the MSG - of course! 

All in all, a pretty perfect morning if you ask me. What do you do on Saturdays? What are your weekend rituals?

Vision Boards

I thought the movie, "The Secret" was a crock. Some of the basic principles were good - positive attracts positive, negative attracts negative. But, unlike "What the Bleep Do We Know?" I found that "The Secret" focused mainly on attracting money and things and that is not all that inspiring.

Recently, I decided to give my goals definition and intention and thought I would make a vision board. In "The Secret" the vision boards are mainly composed of photos of gigantic houses, diamond rings that resemble flashlights and Hawaiian beach scenes. How do you represent "Organized, peaceful home" with a photo on a board? 

Because our lives are so visual, I still wanted to give the vision board a try. I think that having a picture collage reminder of the things I'm working toward and desire will not only keep my mood positive, but also focused on the path and on track. Making a vision board is easier said than done!

In the end, one of the best ways I've found to attract more positivity is through gratitude. Taking a few minutes at the beginning or end of the day to recall five things I'm grateful for is surprisingly powerful. What are you feeling thankful for? Make it a great day!

Beach Day on Lake Zurich

Just in the nick of time, summer decided to show itself!  Last weekend was the final weekend of summer before school started.  It was invigorating to have three days of sun, heat and delightfully warm evenings.  

Saturday we went to the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen.  For those of us who don't speak German, that means Tiefenbrunnen Beach.

It was fabulous.  There are showers, grassy areas to put your beach towel, lockers, steps going down into the lake, floating docks, a restaurant and not one reason not to stay all day.  You can even rent an umbrella!  

The view overhead

View to the left

View straight ahead

What day to the beach would be complete without a little picnic?  The already hardboiled "Pique-nique" eggs available at the store are a such a glittery and shiny gold they make me feel like I'm in Willy Wonka's factory.  Yay.

I read many long New Yorker articles and watched the clouds change shape in the sky during my day at the beach. It was just what the doctor ordered following the most stressful summer of waiting for work permits, moving, visa applications and all that madness. 

Baby Bunny

If you're having a rough day, or maybe just want a dose of cute overload, simply Google "baby bunny" on Google Images.  Here's a little taste of what you'll get.  

photo from seehere.blogspot.com

Are you saying 'awwww' right now?  I thought so.

Heavenly & Blissful

Yesterday I had the most relaxing, peaceful facial at the Aveda Institute in The Pearl.  I must admit that I was a little nervous about going to the Aveda Institute this time around.  The majority of my visits to Aveda have been really positive, but from time to time when you have students doing your services, you wind up with someone who really does not have the knack.  Sorry to be rude, but seriously, the last pedicure I got at Aveda was hell.  I was literally scalded with paraffin wax and left with nail polish not just on my toe nails, but all over my toes, too.  It's one thing to get through an uncomfortable pedicure, but a facial is quite different.  It was a serious relief to have a very skilled student giving me my facial yesterday and as an added bonus, she didn't talk at all.  No one wants to talk when they're getting a facial.  Still, there are those times when you get a chatty esthetician.  Anyway, whoever came up with the facial was a genius.  It is so wonderful to have your face massaged with luxurious smelling beauty products, get hot towel treatment and that lovely steam they blow in your face.  It is the best.  I almost fell asleep at one point.  If you live in Portland and you have not been to the Aveda Institute, you should go.  Chances are you'll get someone really great to do your services.  I think I'm going to go every other week until summer starts.  Seriously.  At $25 per facial, it's a worthy investment in stress reduction and peace of mind.  La.

photo from avedainstitutes.com 

Delightful Day

It's hard not to enjoy the first day of spring break.  I slept until a quarter past nine, ate a leisurely breakfast of sausage, fresh eggs and hashbrowns, drank not my usual one, but two cups of coffee and stayed in my pajamas until mid-afternoon!  Once I finally decided to don daytime clothing, I took care of some paperwork, got together three bags of clothes to get rid of and even took out the garbage.  That's when I realized how decidedly summery it felt outside.  I got together my things and headed out.  It was a lovely day for walking and being about town.  After getting a few errands taken care of, I had a cup of Tomato Orange soup at Elephant's and read the latest issue of Real Simple.  Now I'm home and you can't imagine how lovely it is to sit and read at this table on an evening like this one.  And, of course, it's needless to say that I am head over heels for our magnolia.  I'd like to give that tree a hug.

Early Risers

Getting up early on the weekend is just about my favorite thing to do.  Luckily these days it's easy with the sun streaming in by 7:15.  

By 9 this morning, Joel and I had already enjoyed a nice breakfast at Starbucks on Broadway and were happily walking through Forest Park listening to the birdsong.  We stopped for a little while and watched the tiniest, happiest bird there ever was building a nest out of moss and twigs in a little hollow in a tree.  How lucky we Portlanders are to have a park like that right in the city.

photo from fleurdelys.org

After our walk it was more coffee on 23rd, a few errands and then I spent the lion's share of my afternoon knitting.  My socks are really taking shape!  

The evening began with Indian food and Talk to Her.  I love watching a favorite film again.  Especially when I've forgotten most of what happens.  

Ashland

Here's everything you need to know to spend a delightful, relaxing weekend in Ashland.

{drink}  Noble Coffee Roasting 281 4th Street  

Equally delightful rain or shine.  All beans are roasted in house.  Try the Pompadour.

{shop}  Prize 264 East Main Street  

I wanted to transport every lovely piece and beautiful detail directly into my home.  But I settled for a vintage Paris map, Savon de Marseille Extra Pur Figue and Smith's Rosebud Salve.  

{indulge}  Chozu Bath & Tea Gardens  832 A Street

Troubles seem miles away when your soaking in 105 degree salt water sipping on jasmine tea or sake.  Stay the night in a cottage and snack on healthy japanese fare by the fire for a little après soak.

friday afternoon...

The past week went by so quickly it's almost as if it never existed at all. I'm thrilled to be feeling better and happy that the time I was sick was somewhat "productive" given that I discovered a couple of new blogs I find very inspiring and had a lot of time to think. Joel gets major points for taking good care of me while I was sick, including busting out the Comet, scrubbing the bathtub and making this happen.

One of the new blogs I'm smitten with is The Awesome Summer Journal which I blogged about here. The other one is wikstenmade. Jenny Gordy of wikstenmade is completely adorable and I intend to hijack her eyebrow shape as soon as humanly possible. Her clothing designs are impeccable and reading her blog just fills me with feelings of sunshine, farm fresh eggs and green green grass. Don't ask me why, it just does.
I learned via The Awesome Summer Journal about a little thing called "bokeh" which is the blurry, out of focus part of a picture. I had to take photos while paying attention to this phenomenon at once! And I knew just what to try it on. The perfect pansies in my window box that I'm unabashedly in love with.

But I believe it's really more dramatic at night, so I just tried a few more in the twilight that's glowing over Portland right now. It's definitely tricky to get the camera to see what I see and focus on the right part. It always wants to go to the background. Then once I get it to focus it's delicate to hold the shutter release half way down while framing the shot. Still, I can tell this is going to provide hours of fun. And what a relief! When I bought my G10 back in August, I had this lingering doubt that I had bought way more camera than I'd ever make use of. Turns out, not so!

This photo is probably the best of the lot. And while I wasn't entirely satisfied with it, it did occur to me that my neighbors may think I'm trying to take pictures through their windows and I felt compelled to stop.

I wish you all a lovely Valentine's Day. To celebrate, Joel and I are going to Chozu Bath and Tea Gardens in Ashland. I can't wait to spend two days doing nothing but soaking in a hot, therapeutic salt water pool, reading magazines and books and walking around adorable Ashland. Three cheers for the three day weekend! See you back here Monday.

Get a Grip!

I was so completely inspired by this photo when I saw it. For several reasons, but we'll get to that in a minute. It came from The Awesome Summer Journal, a blog by a woman who lives freakishly close to where I live. Weird! And it makes it extra fun to read her blog because I know all the streets she's talking about, and restaurants and all that. This picture was taken on the Hawthorne Bridge. See more here.

But the reason that this picture really inspired me is this: I get so bogged down with teaching and how demanding it is and how tired Joel and I always are by the time we get off of work that I don't even take advantage of this amazing city I'm living in. My first thought upon seeing this photo? What's the point of living so close to everything if you don't even bother to get out and walk around? Exactly. So, if there's one good thing about being sick, it's that by the time you're well enough to sit up and think a little bit, you discover a sliver of time that didn't exist before and you use it to get new perspective on life. Maybe that's why I get sick so frequently. I need more perspective. Huh. Well, anyway, I would like to enjoy my life more than I do, and I'd also rather not be so rushed and overwhelmed the majority of the time.

I think I will make a list.

Life Lessons

I've made a resolve to relax more and stress less. I made a list of activities that help me de-stress and a list of those that actually make me stress more. In an effort to stress less, I've set the goal of doing at least two de-stressing activities each week. This afternoon, I drew myself a hot bath with bath salts and candles, got a glass of water and the December issue of Real Simple. It was wonderfully relaxing. Especially when I got to this article. It's a good one, and definitely made me feel like I'm on the right path these days. Photo from realsimple.com

Eat Pray Love

I have not posted for a couple of days because I was on a mad hunt for some books. It all started when I went to Powell's and spent $40 on books! OMG. This is something I just do not do - books are something you get at the library and then when you're done with them, you take them back to the library and your life remains happy and clutter free. In this particular instance, I was feeling a bit impatient with the library system, but the regret of spending that much money on something I would want to purge immediately after reading was too much for me. I returned all $40 worth of books to Powell's and returned my efforts to the library.

I searched for Eat Pray Love and the system said that I could place a hold and would be behind 8 other holds. With a total of 94 copies, I figured I would get the book quickly, but not quickly enough! I wanted the book then - as in now! Then I happened to notice that there were copies listed as "available." Why am I being asked to place a hold when the book is available? After a number of phone calls and a visit to the grand Central Library, I emerged victorious with my book. Joel and I drove straight to Cannon Beach and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading on a blanket on the sand. So heavenly.