My feeling for time stopped last Sunday 2:29pm. And nothing else mattered anymore. Except love.

Difficult hours, nights and days passed by. A rollercoaster of emotions & feelings. Love being the winner: love emails, messages, phone calls, prayers, best get well wishes, meaningful words. Candles were lit around the globe. Spontaneous visitors & neighbors bringing dinner. And flowers. Thanks for everyone stopping by for a big hug. It felt great! Thanks for helping me to organize the motorcycle return. All of it means the world to both of us.

Thank you!

In between many happy moments and lots of laughter (despite the serious situation). I love the Irish family chat: so much humor. So much laughter.

The patient is doing ok. Surgeries all done. Overall pain but he is gradually feeling better (not sure if I believe him…). Ready for the healing process. It will take some time. We can do this. I still haven’t seen him (tried my best by using his German (medicine) language gaps to get access to him when the doc answered sweetly that his English was pretty good… well, I tried).

Love. The most important ingredient.

We are astonished. So much love. Big thanks to all family & friends around the globe! So glad to know all of you!

Give all your loved ones extra big hugs every day and let them know how much they mean to you! xxx

Sunshine & strawberry cake. Blue sky & summer temperatures. Sunburn & happy faces. Inviting my mum for lunch and this is how restaurant visits look like in 2021:

It was a wonderful weekend with lots of laughter. And all of a sudden: you get an alarming call from a strange number. It’s the mate who joined the ride telling you that your spouse was involved in a motorcycle accident just a few moments ago. Suddenly, everything rushes to your mind at once. Will he be ok? How bad was the accident? Was someone else injured? What does this mean for the future? You want to rush to be by his side but you are a 5 hour drive away. And later you find out that due to Covid hospital visits are not allowed. You are worried (worried sick). You try to be patient (but you cannot). Finally the hospital receptionist connects you with the Emergency room. He’s alive. He’s in shock. He’s in pain. He talks weird stuff. He can’t talk more than a couple of minutes. Very precious minutes. Nobody exactly knows at this point what’s wrong with him. But he is alive! It’s amazing what Adrenaline does to your body. You just function.

Loads of love memories (almost 12 years together) rushing through my mind while driving back home (the longest drive ever). Stopping every other kilometer to make or take phone calls. I was shocked. I was scared. I was sad. I was hopeful. In love. All of it at the same time. And repeat of those mixed feelings. Uncontrolled.

I’m a motor biker myself, knowing exactly how it feels to be in a never ending right curve: scary. Hubby always telling me in previous common rides what not to do (and then he did it): breaking in a curve. A decision you take within milliseconds. And then he crashed into a car on the other side (luckily the couple inside wasn’t injured!).

He sounded positive in the messages, but a lot more bones and other things broken than initially thought. He couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t sleep. This whole day has felt endless.

He can’t return to work for awhile and will need a lot of extra help. He had a ton of guardian angels along his ride. I cannot describe in words how relieved I am and family, friends & colleagues are. We all are. It feels like marrying the same guy the second time. Just better. And all of a sudden all worries turn into pure love for this one guy. My guy.

He’s a passionate biker. He’s hard in taking. He will be back on a bike again. Me, too. Not now. Not soon. But at some point.

Big thanks to his mate and his first aid & everything he organized (and yes, we are interested in a curve training!). Thanks to all the police, firefighters, doctors, nurses & various other helpers! Thanks to family, friends & colleagues for everything you did & you do: calling, texting, praying, thinking & caring of us & wishing Scott well. A million thanks! We are very grateful.

Cheers to all mothers (and especially hubbies mum)! Cheers to everyone else and our precious life where love matters!

Hands on! Instead of watching hubby, I brewed my very first own beer. A dark beer. My favorite one. 6.5% alcohol (wohoooo). Caramel & chocolate flavor (heavenly). „Anny‘s Porter“! Hmmmmm!

Mashing the malt and following hubby’s advice: „You can’t brew without having some inspiration“. Enjoying a craft beer while stirring the mashed malt. Since this is a rather long process (3x20minutes) you get a beer treat in between each. (That makes 3 and I wonder if that’s the motivation of very regular brew sessions. Lol).

Searching for the sugar (or in a brewers language: measuring how much sugar has been dissolved in the water).

Getting the hops ready (soon from our garden).

Cooling the beer & later adding the Bittering hops.

Filling the beer in its fermenter & adding yeast.

Now it’s time for the most important ingredient: time. About 14 days until ready.

Last step for the first session: Cleaning up (hubby’s job – thank you 🙂 ).

2 weeks later: fermenting process successfully finished (despite the rather cold temperature due to lacking heating oil).

Ready to go in bottles.

Adding sugar and waiting for the bubbles. Ladies produced beer getting pink lids.

A week later: excitement & first tasting. Cheers!

It’s like a dessert in a bottle. This is a rich, creamy beer. I am loving it! I would call this a huge success!

So much fun: Brewing the beer. Cooking & fermenting. Aging & bottling. The most fun part: drinking!

By the way, Porters originated in the UK and are identified by their dark color, a light roastiness, and a hint of molasses-like sweetness.

8 liters / 16 bottles. next job: taking care that hubby doesn’t drink it all. Lol. Cheers!

Kopfkino – a very popular travel destination these days.

Today I was in little Amsterdam. Watching the tulips dancing in the wind at sunset.

As far as the eye can see: beautiful colorful tulips.

May arrived. One of my favorite months and not only because my birthday is coming up soon. It’s strawberry time & asparagus time. Summer is close. Great times ahead. Yeah!

„Der Mai ist gekommen, die Bäume schlagen aus, da bleibe, wer Lust hat, mit Sorgen zuhaus; wie die Wolken dort wandern am himmlischen Zelt, so steht auch mir der Sinn in die weite, weite Welt.“ Emanuel Geibel, 1841

Celebrating May 1 weekend and (early) Father’s Day.

Rain or shine – we had fantastic plans: „Spanferkel to go” in our camper van in the Black Forest.

Hubby & daddy brewing beer. In about 4 weeks it will be ready.

Cooking & eating together. Daddy making simply the best fried potatoes (the secret: cumin & onions).

Spending time with each other. The best gift ever. Happy Father’s Day!

Wednesday afternoon. Sunshine. Blue sky. 21C degrees. And an after-work date on motorcycles.

220 happy kilometers later: Yeah!

The Black Forest: curvy & challenging. Today was the 3rd trip since I have passed my motorcycle license last year in October. I definitely left my comfort zone today and proud that I made it.

Thanks guys, it was fun! Ready for the next ride.

All you need: Hiking boots. Camping Bus. A breakfast to go. Lemon tartlets. Best friend on board. An ice-cold bottle of Cremant and off we go.

Cheers to the birthday girl! Delicious breakfast in the green (all Stuttgarters who passed by were impressed and maybe a little jealous).

Perfect weather & time to start our wine hike, ehm I mean our 4-castle-ruin-hike (kind of missed the ruins but the wine was great).

Walking along vineyards with beautiful views (it felt a bit like Napa Valley…).

Passing the Golden Gate Bridge (of Stuttgart)… it’s all about your mindset, you know.

Chilling in the shade of apple trees.

Phenomenal spring weather.

Well deserved citron tartlets after a beautiful 8km hike.

The perfect finish of the day with a meal prepared by the BBQ master.

A beautiful Sunday with a best friend. Happy birthday!

I agree with the hint of other non-Stuttgarters: it takes a while to get warm with the town, but it has many beautiful places to be discovered! Stuttgart rocks!

Friday night. Beer in the fridge. Tasting glasses ready. Water ready (who needs water?). Cold cuts of meat & cheeses ready. Ready & excited for the digital „Brotzeit“ with delicious goodies from back home in Frankonia.

And so it begins: 2 hours livestream. 5 cold beers. 5 courses. All explained by 4 charming gentlemen in a bright Rhöner accent. Feeling like home.

Course 1 – the starter Pils (the Prosecco of the beer).

Course 2 – helles beer combined with „Pressack“.

Course 3 – monk’s beer, hay ham & cheese with herbs from the garden.

Course 4 – getting international: Kellerbier meets Ostheimer Leberkäs with French roots (a recipe from the 2nd world war picked up in France).

Course 5 – Bock beer (7.5%), 12-month aged mountain cheese & “Friedhelms sausage”.

And a dessert, of course.

That was umami! A delicious night is ending on livestream. We’ll continue with hubby’s Turley brew.

Happy weekend!

Bonjour! Petit Dejeuner with cafe au lait and a croissant on the Champs-Élysées, ehm, I mean on the Vogelsanstrasse in the beautiful West of Stuttgart.

French capital vibes & savoir-vivre in Stuttgart in Covid times.

Saturday morning. A walk in the West of Stuttgart with a baguette in my arms. A little break at the beautiful lake watching the swans.

My „Tour de France“ in Stuttgart.

We all miss traveling. Of course it’s not Paris but I discovered beautiful little corners which made me feel (for 2 hours) being in France. French charme. French vibes. French taste. French spots with Paris-Flair, Gourmet-Baguettes, Tartelettes & beautiful faces of buildings. Très bien!

„Le Tonneau“, „La Boulangerie“, „Chez Ginette“, „Pâtissier“ – more Paris or France is not possible.

Paris is always a good idea!

Au revoir!

It’s small. It’s local. It’s fantastic.

Friday is market day (since home office).

It offers anything your (at least my) heart & soul need:

French cheeses sold by a wonderful French lady. It helps to dream (and taste) about France without being able to travel there.

A wannabe Italian (with bright Swabian accent) selling Italian goodies: Buffalo mozzarella bringing my mind immediately back to Italy. And chocolate truffles. Fresh pasta. And he successfully sold me „Italian Obatzda“. We had fun and lots of heart warming laughter. And his stuff is super delicious.

I also enjoy buying vegetables from the local farmers who are fun to talk to. I purchased the last kilogram of local white asparagus (we agreed on a pre-order for next week).

Olives in garlic. And fish: tuna cream. Scallops. Graved salmon… 2 fresh lemons as gift included. Mmmmmm!

Is there anything better than watching people with a coffee to go and a fish roll? Or chatting with the sellers? And finally carrying a big basket with lots of delicious goodies home?

Hello weekend! Dinner plans are made after successful shopping at the market.

On the way home a quick stop at the flower shop: margaritas in pink for the garden.

Happy weekend everyone!