Daily Prompt: Ingredients

What’s the one item in your kitchen you can’t possibly cook without? A spice, your grandma’s measuring cup, instant ramen — what’s your magic ingredient, and why?

i do not really have much to add to the last time I did this prompt which was in 2014. Here is a link to this masterpiece for those who are interested:Ingredients

I was talking to Bluebell, the cow that likes to take meals outside in the fresh air, if there was anything she could do without when eating and she assured me that her needs were important, but reduced. Just a field of grass was enough, although she likes her grass in various shapes and sizes. sometimes she takes it freshly grown, very tasty she found and in Winter dehydrated which lacks in juices. . This has its disadvantages it seems. When you relase 20 cows from the barn after a winter of hay, it is like eating fresh peaches from the tree instead of from a tin (human comparison). The fresh grass is tasty, juicy and packed with vitamins together with roughage and fibre to encourage the digestive system. Bluebell said that the problem with the dried grass, known as hay, during the Winter is that it does not encourage the recycling process so well, but fresh grass is really something to be digested and savoured.

No respectable fly wants to make a nest in hay refuse, one of the reasons why you rarely see a fly in Winter, but come Summer the flies are swarming, each one fighting for its own maternity ward in the bovine recycled matter. Oh yes, do not underestimate grass. Of course Bluebell said that some cows have no manners and eat so much grass that the meadow becomes a flat mass of earth with a few remaining stalks. If you do not fight for your place on the meadow you will have to do with the feeding trough. Luckily Farmer Hans has now installed a portable feeding trough on the meadow meaning that the cows can remain outside and munch to their undder’s content.

And now to the human point of view. Of course there are spices and additions that would be necessary when cooking (see my last blog on the subject), but above all it is the love of cooking that counts. This sounds devoted and sacrificial, but without a portion of love in the soup it is not soup but just a plain plate of liquid.

“The soup if far too salty.”

“That must be because I am in love.”

This excuse often works and you will have peace and quiet for the remainder of the meal.

“I think this cow committed kamikaze, the meat is so tough.”

“Think of the people in other countries that never have meat on the table.”

This also works, although if your partner is vegan or vegetarian it will not.

“I have decided that I will no longer eat meat.” This could become a problem. Perhaps you can convince your partner at the table that if we all stopped eating meat, the world would be overrun with chickens, cows, sheep and pigs. Now who wants to share their bedroom with a pig? On the other hand vegetarian meals also have their place on the table, and eating potatoes, carrots and beans means that room is left for the animals on the fields. Life can be so complicated sometimes. Are you with me? Probably not, but I think I lost the thread myself somewhere.

Today’s lunch was served in the local supermarket restaurant. Mrs. Angloswiss deicided she would prefer to dine out than cook a meal today and Mr. Swiss agreed. This evening we will have a cervelat salad which is the national Swiss sausage (contained in skins imported from Brazil because they are the best for the sausage - yes, we Swiss are gourmets when it comes to sausage). Mr. Swiss will prepare this national Swiss dish as he is Swiss and knows how to do it properly. I noticed he bought some radishes, made sure there were eggs in the fridge and checked on the various herbs in the garden. Aromat is always available in our Swiss home, so what could possibly go wrong. And yes, I noticed there were fresh Swiss strawberries available in the supermarket (special price) so I will prepare a dessert of strawberries with whipped cream. The strawberries are now soaking in a sugar syrup in the fridge.

Daily Post: Smell you later

Humans have very strong scent memory. Tell us about a smell that transports you.

“Hello Dandelion, having fun on the daily outing?”

“I was until I discovered that Bluebell could not control her natural recycling process.”

“I heard that Dandelion. I am a clean cow and my pancakes are neat and tidy. No-one sent you an invitation to have a sniff.”

“I didn’t need an invitation, it was ready and waiting. Look the first flies are already examining the evidence. It won’t be long and they will move in and use it as a home for their offspring. Must be the smell that attracts them.”

“My recycling process does not smell, it is the country air. It belongs here. Imagine a field of cows smelling like…… well roses. It would not fit. Everyone likes to smell a cow field, it conjures up memories of the country, doesn’t it Mrs. Human?”

“I suppose it does Bluebell. Where I grew up we only had the smell of petrol from cars and dirt after the rain had fallen.”

“You didn't have any cows?”

“No, I lived in a town.”

“What about the smell of hay or grass?”

“We didn’t have that either, except in the parks. Everything was hidden under the smells of concrete.”

“Funny places those towns, but humans recycle as well.”

“That it all hidden in a special room called toilet, all in the name of hygene.”

“Poor humans they have no natural smells surrounding them. In that case Bluebell carry on, it seems your pancakes belong to the smells of the country. I wouldn't want to go to a special place every time, it is not normal.”

And so I left the cows with their discussion about being a cow. As I walked across the farmyard I saw this.

Yes, sometimes smells are there to be used. I take it that the farmer was collecting fertiliser for his field.

“Mrs. Human, if you really want to smell something invigorating, then come over here. We are the queens of smells in the farmyard, we are the goats.”

I did not have to search from where the voice came from, I just had to follows my nose. Yes, goats are the best with the  smell.

“Well I must say, you really take the trophy for a strong smell.”

“It is our trade mark Mrs. Human. What would a goat be without a smell. Our cheese smells of goat and our milk. We are famous for our goatliness.”

I did not stay long in the goat stable, I did not want to insult the goats by covering my nose with a handkerchief, so I moved on. I decided I had enough smells today. I live in the country, in farmland and so it belongs to my surroundings. There is nothing stronger than waking in spring or autumn and smell the aroma of natural fertiliser in the air. Ok, it is not all dung, we do have some nice smells as well.  Freshly mowed grass, the herbs in my garden and the first rose that flowers. They fill the air with their perfumes during Summer. Even the snow seems to have a smell in Winter, but perhaps it is because the nose experiences the coldness of the air.

As a housewife it is part of my duty to keep smells to a minimum by removing them by cleaning, but even then you leave behind the smell of freshly scrubbed surfaces. I wonder what my offspring would say about the smells of their childhood.

Daily Prompt: Menagerie

Do you have animals in your life? If yes, what do they mean to you? If no, why have you opted not to?

I have animals everywhere, even when I go shopping. See our supermarket feline watching as the people arrive to shop. They had an exhibit outside showing how you can have a nice cozy b-b-que in the garden with all the trimmings, but the feline moved in and took over. This felines have now become so well-known that a national free newspaper known as “20 Minutes”. have featured them. Apparently there are 2 of the species, both being of the Ginger race. Here is a link to the article The Supermarket Cats, in our local language, German, which I have partially translated. I myself have many photos of the two felines and it seems they have names, Max and Hugo.

It seems that even the police have been called in as there are days when they feel so comfortable in the various departments, especially the bed and bathroom areas, that they do not go home and remain unnoticed.The supermarket has an alarm when it is closed and the felines tend to take a walk when they are left to themselves which gives a signal at the local police station and so the police have to investigate.

However they are shop trained cats, do not smell and visit the outside parks for their recycling process. They also realise that they are not welcome in the food department. They live in one of the neighbouring houses and Mr. Swiss and I have often watched them on their way home. They walk across the large car park, wait until the entry road is free and cross to jump over the fence into the garden of one of the houses. Their favourite place in the supermarket definitely seems to be the restaurant where they make themselves comfortable on a seat and wait for a few edible rewards. 

Otherwise I am allowed to live with two felines, Tabby and Fluffy. There was a third, Nera, but she left us last year for another dimension. My felines have their own site in WordPress where they daily report the happenings in their lives and in the casa Angloswiss The Cat Chronicles

I don’t want to earn bonus points for adorable animal photos or double bonus if taken with my phone. I have a perfectly good DSLR Nikon camera and a Canon camera so rarely use my phone. I am actually surrounded by animals. My main animal in my collection is Mr. Swiss without who I would be lost. Our neighbours have cats. I once counted 10 cats in the area where I live. There are only a few dogs which generally stay at home unless they go for walks with their masters. We have a path crossing our area which is the dog walkie path, but only if they are on the lead. We have enough forests and country to let them loose. 

A five minute walk brings us to a stable where there are approximately 8 horses at the moment and cows outnumber the population. We have a murder of crows (I know, but that is the collective name for crows it seems) that like to go on collective flights waking up the neighbourhood. We have many hedgehogs. When No. 2 son lived at home, in the far gone days, Friday and Saturday nights were the night out and he would return home in the early morning hours. He told us that there was an array of hedgehogs (another collective name I did not know) around our home. Lately Mr. Swiss has reported the sighting of the regular visit of a hedgehog on our patio. It seems that Tabby our chief feline, sits on a chair on the porch and watches the movements from a distance. There has been no fraternisation up to now. I think hedgehogs are not a feline thing. I am naturally waiting for the chance to take a prize winning photo, but I am not as nocturnal as hedgehogs.

And so as the golden sun sinks slowly in the West, I come to the close of a repeat prompt, but being me I am never lost for words. See you all on the flip side tomorrow.

The Cows are here again

Yesterday my partner in crime, Mr. Swiss, invited me to a walk. He found I had been cooped up long enough inside curing my cold and now it was warmer so it was time to do it again. He said even the cows were now let out of the sheds and are roaming the prairies of Switzerland. I decided to risk the fresh air and when such a good looking young man sends you an invite you have to accept, especially when you are compared t a cow.

I dragged myself into three-quarter length trousers and a t-shirt with seven mile shoes and we were on our way. It was a carefully planned route, not too far, as Mr. Swiss was also feeling some symptoms of age (so he said) and there they were. At a distance but the cows were in the field. I could hear them from the path.

“Look Bluebell, fresh grass and even some daisies in between. This is the real thing. None of that hay stuff.”

“Then don’t drop your recycling process on the fresh grass Buttercup if we are going to munch it. That really spoils my appetite.”

“Then go and eat some grass in another place. I drop my digested remains where I want to. Look the first flies are laying their eggs in it, how sweet.”

“Yuck, and I am supposed to eat it. You are spoiling my first day out. Look Mrs. Angloswiss is on the path with Mr. Swiss and she has a camera. Smile Buttercup, we might make it on a Daily Prompt.”

“You think so, they are not interested in nature, just making profits on their web site. On the other hand it will show all those nice friendly daily prompters that we have survived another snowy and cold Winter and are ready to go.”

And after taking a few photos we moved on to the cemetery. If you want quiet surroundings a cemetery is always a good place to sit and rest. I did see two other visitors, otherwise we had the whole place to ourselves which was quite good as we had no disturbances when taking photos. Time flies when you are visiting fun places and we decided to take the long walk home eventually. It would have been faster to branch onto the sidewalk on the main road, but we do not like this way. Too much noise and traffic and no cows or other livestock. We returned through the cemetery and then we saw Buttercup and Bluebell on their way home. Actually the complete herd was on its way home accompanied by its Chief Drover who had a remarkable likeness to a bloke known as Gil Favour from the old Rawhide series on the television.

Perhaps the cows were not going home, but were on their way to better pastures on the other side of Switzerland. On the other hand it seems that Switzerland has so many cows, they were better staying where they were.

Cows are very obedient animals and they filed in a neat row back to the ranch, one after the other. Of course I could not resist another photo. I spoke to the ranger in charge, and he told me that the next time he would let the cows graze in a field nearer to my camera, for some closeups. Here they are going home.

On the banks of the River Aar

Spring has arrived, there is no longer cold freezing temperatures and the sun is shining. It is time to go.

We live in the country, but thankfully only a half hour walk from the nearest market town. Behind us there are mountains, the first row of the seven rows of the Jura mountain chain. We are surrounded by forests, our neighbours are horses and as time progresses, there will be cows in the field. Only yesterday I saw a farmer showing his herd that outside there is the green, green grass of home waiting to be munched. The cows all followed his words, nodded and then he lead them back to the stalls. This was only a preliminary visit. The real thing will arrive probably during the next couple of weeks. There was quite a mooing going on afterwards, you could hear it all over the village.

“What do you think Daisy, is it dangerous outside?”

“No of course not. This must be your first summer. Just follow your nose. No more hay, the real thing.”

“What about emptying the udder?”

“You ask silly questions Daisy. It will be back to the milking shed but afterwards you can stay outside all day and night when the weather gets better. Even no problem with the re-cycling process?”

“You mean ….”

“Yes, just drop it when you feel like it, the flies will thank you for it. No place better as a home for the flies.”

I decided to move on to the River. Yes, we have everything, the River Aar meanders from somewhere in the middle of Switzerland, through the town of Bern and eventually reaches Solothurn, my area. At the end of its journey it disappears into a couple of Swiss Lakes - Biel and Neufchatel. Walking along the river is one of the pastimes of the local population, which is where I took the photo. It is amazing the tricks that light play on the surface of the water and the shadows of the neighbouring trees on the banks of the River were caught in a perfect silhouette. The River Aar is fairly clean, we have fish and yes, you can take a swim if you are a good enough swimmer. The banks are quite shallow, but in the middle it is deep enough. I am not one of the swimmers, but I know a few who are. It’s free, and I suppose healthy.

There are boats on the river, and if you are lucky you have a mooring place for your boat, although these are few and far between. There is a long waiting list for a mooring place. Otherwise you have to drag it down to the river from its parking place.

How do I get there? Just five minutes walk down a sloping path and I arrive at the river. Sometimes I even have family duck taking a walk across my garden, the mother duck proudly showing her babies how the humans live.

WordPress Daily: Hi, Mom!

Today is mother's day in the United States. Wherever in the world you are, write your mother a letter.
Photographers, share a photo that says mothering.

My mother died about thirty years ago and last week on 9^th May she would have been 100 years old if she had still been alive. I will not write her a letter, I am now a mother, two step children and two own children and will be 70 years old in three years, so the time for writing letters is long past. I have to get on with my own life. My mother did her job well and I hope I do mine just as good.

So here is a little story from the farm. A friend of mine is a farmer’s wife and I have spent many happy hours with my camera at her farm.

“Hi Mom, you don’t have to keep looking over the wall to see if I am here. No problem, There are four of us in the nursery. We can all see our mums if we get lonely. Yes I know we are only a few weeks old, but we all stood our own legs a couple of hours after arriving. Yes mum, we get fed well, fresh milk a couple of times a day, a nice comfortable bed of straw to sleep on. I know it would be better to have the milk straight from the cow tap, but you cannot have everything.”

“I must say you have grown since you were born and you have become so independent. Don’t forget, the first time you go out to the meadow, keep together with the others. No wandering off. The world is a dangerous place for a calf and above all keep eating the grass. That will ensure a good milk production when you are older, and a milk cow is always the best sort of cow to be.”

“Why is that mum?”

“Don’t ask silly questions; just take your mother’s advice. The humans always look after milk producing cows. Look how nice we have it here, you are just a look away from me and not even alone. We mother cows are all happy knowing that our calves are well looked after and doing well.”

“And we calves are happy to know that mum is not far away. By the way mum, where is dad? One of my friends said that every calf has a dad.”

“Yes, it’s true, but don’t bother about little details like that. We females have become very independent. With a little help from the farmer, it is all automatic today. I have to go now, the farmer is coming to take us to the milking room.”

“No problem mum, see you later. And have a happy mother’s day.”

“Thankyou daughter, I will knowing that you are near and that you are being well looked after.”

And so the calf lay down to sleep content having such a wonderful mother, but still wondering what she meant by being “automatic” when she was talking about her dad. Slowly the picture of a strong bull with horns was disappearing, being replaced by something “automatic” whatever that is.

Mass Exodus

Today was a funny day as far as blogging platforms were concerned. I had been in Multiply for about a month now, busily copying all my 100 or so blogs to as a saving programme. After all we knew that 360 was slowly going downhill and had to be resuscitated now and again. Even Iwith my first aid experience could not help. He was just coughing and spluttering and now and again even shed a tear when he saw that the monster Mash was slowly moving in. 360 was very disappointed after all Mash couldn't even blog, he had to have assistance from rss feeds.

I decided it was time to see who else had escaped to Multiply and to invite a few friends. It seemed that today was the day to get to know everyone and meet old acquaintences. One of my blogging colleagues even invited me at the same time as when I invited him. Great blogging minds think alike. I think with time Multiply will be fun, just a matter of getting to know the system. And old 360, what will happen to him. Will he retire and go to the happy blogging grounds or will he strike back and come with something new, spontaneous, original and bugless as all good blogging sites should be. As time is running short, I would be surprised if anyone had heard of 360° Yahoo by the time the new, superior and fantastic version appears on the market. Another sad result could be that Yahoo blogging system goes bankrupt as the dollars will not be flowing any more. Even Mash had an attack of blogging flu yesterday and it took him a whole day to recover. Mash is the progressional form of blogging. You don''t even have to blog in Mash, just blurt and you can even have stuff. Multiply I will stay with you at the moment. I am beginning to even like you.

What else did we do today. I managed to escape again this afternoon and found my way in town. Unfortunately there were no two empty parking spaces in the parking house today, but as I only had to fit myself between a post and another car I decided to risk it, aiming mainly at the post to make sure I would not annoy the car owner. The car guardian angel must have been looking after me today, as I managed to fit my car into the small space with no damage, although it was at a sort of 45° angle which didn't bother me. It might have bothered the Swiss, however, they like things to be neat and in place.

What did I do in town - I went on a shopping spree and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just for I, me and myself. I actually only saw the inside of one clothing shop, the one that specialises for women with larger sizes (funny that I saw no-one of the younger generation in the shop). I managed to find my car again and manoevered out of the parking space. As I drove towards our underground car park where I live, I noticed the local farmer had put his cows onto the small field around the corner. My camera hand started twitching, so I arrived home, dumped the 3 carrier bags full of my tropies and said hi to Mr Swiss and goodbye, just have to deal with something round the corner and off I was. I left my handbag at home and just had the camera with me. There were a few cows munching grass and scratching and doing other cow-like things, so the result was a small video. The cows did not appreciate this as they started walking away - silly cows. The noise in the background towards the end of the film is our local "road train".