A brisk walk to the Stadtpark

 In my corporate world, the first quarter of the year is always the busiest.. there´s the reconciliation of accounts, preparation of the financial statements etc.  This week has flown by so quickly that my office days went too quickly as swift as a passat.

The weather was great, we had  plenty of sunshine with cloudless blue skies....

 To relieve a bit of stress after hours of working with computer, I took a

 brisk walk during lunchbreak to the nearby Stadtpark and took pictures...

Wien Fluß...with Vienna Hilton on the background

Wienfluss in Summer  ... (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Ring is the avenue that surrounds the old part ( city center) of

 Vienna.. and it also has parks... Stadpark is one of those.

Wienfluss in winter with The Intercontinental Hotel behind the trees.

A happy duck flirting with my camera giving me a good shot of his profile

School children come here to feed the ducks

Posing for my camera or maybe waiting for me to throw the bread cubes.

The kids, loud & giggling, were so excited to throw the bread ..but the ducks played safe and didn´t come too close to them.

The Kärntner Strasse is located inside the Ring and is the heart of the city.

 From here, it takes about 10 minutes by foot to the Stadtpark. 

Now that Spring is taking over  and weather is becoming warmer everyday....more and more visitors, locals or tourists come here to relax, sit for awhile, feed the ducks or simply pass-by and enjoy the beauty of nature....

Have a nice weekend!

Tulips...more than just a pot of flowers

As it started last weekend, I welcomed March

 with a jolly feeling. My tulips started to flower  and thought that this might be a good omen for a  wonderful Spring.

Well, Spring flowers would be nice in reality if one has done  the pre planting many months  before . It was an experiment to plant the tulip bulbs in a container too close to each other last Fall. Put it outside the yard covered with dried leaves for protection against frost.

My purpose was, if the bulbs start growing, the stalks would grow tightly next to each other and they would resemble cluster of tulips gathered in a vase like freshly cut ones.

Of course, I fertilize once in awhile until 

the bulbs started popping-up !!!...and the leaves became thicker.

 A cracker container was used so that each of the bulbs can be transferred easily to another pot  in case  something goes wrong with their growing. 

I must say that the bulbs seemed comfortable in the container.

 So I let them be there  where they are. The leaves 

have grown thicker each day. 

The first bud opened and popped-out right on time, exactly 

on  the 1st of March.

Flowers are inspiring! Just by looking at them, they take

 away the stress  after a hard day´s work. More flowers  

opened  yesterday  and I expect to have  more this 

coming weekend.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.

Hope you enjoyed these tulips, too!!!

a short walk ....

Today is one of those sunny days where I would make an office break

and take a walk... so off I went and took the chance to bring my husband´s wrist

watch and have the bottom glass replaced at Dorotheum...

Dorotheum is Austria´s foremost Auction house and it´s just about

 2 streets away from my work passing the lovely flower shop that sells 

the  flowers in today´s blog..

 Vienna´s 1st District has 25 churches and mostly not so far 

aways from each other, each one built so uniquely.

 Austria is mainly a Catholic land and its churches reflect its 

culture up to this very day.

This is the belfry of St.Anna Church which is exactly opposite

my office window. You can imagine how loud it is when the clock hits 

the hour. But the bell´s sound really is a music for the ears.

The street that goes to Dorotheum has many  small antique shops,

 most sell memorablias, paintings and other things that came from

 different parts of Europe.

The facade of this building vis a vis the Dorotheum has wonderful

"Jugendstil" designs. Took these shot while waiting for the watch being

 repaired.

 

 The city has gotten amazing architecture. The architects during the 

monarchy period paid  so much attention to details of each house.

Photos taken today.... what lovely colors

do the flowers have!!!

 

Various pink colors that make this world so romantic, LOL!

When watch repair was finished, went back to the office and

 thought of today´s flowers..

Thank you for reading today´s blog. 

Have a wonderful Thursday ahead!

xoxo

Mercy

Over & done - granny square pillowcase 3/3

Yuhuuuu!!! 

The 3rd one is finally done... after this project, I might not be crocheting pillowcases for a long time, LOL!

This is actually a classic granny design and each of the square

 is so  easy to make,  in just a few minutes, you´ll be 

done with it while watching a thriller on tv.

Each square is stitched on to the first square and so on...

Once all nine grannies were stitched together, layers of single crochet stiches

will be made to frame the pillowcase top and  picots were added to give the edge a lacy look.

These flowerettes were made extra and were attached/sewn

 by  hand to the center of each of the square. Cotton fabric 

was used for the back side of the pillowcase 

 and buttons were sewn for the closure.

Photo below was taken near my office in 

Vienna´s city center, hope you enjoy the colors as well as the

 colors of the granny squares.

Happy Sunday !

granny square pillowcase no. 2/3

Hi everyone! 

Today I´d like to blog on the latest project I did the last three weeks.

Finally (!!!), both granny square pillowcases nr. 2 and nr. 3 are now done 

and I was relieved. These two are part of a set of three, intended for 

our  2 new sofas that  have olive green color... The first granny

 was posted a couple of weeks back and you may  see it here. 

Here, I´m sharing the 2nd pillowcase, the 3rd one will be posted

 on the next blog.

I have ordered these yarns in August of last year without a particular 

project in mind...but since we got the new  sofas in Spain, I thougth  of 

making pillowcases to decorate the plain sofas with vibrant 

colored pillowcases... I was thinking of crocheting while watching films

 in the evenings.. so the granny square pillowcases were born.

clasic granny square motif

28 square pieces were tediously made

then attached to the edge of the center part

the small squares were sewn to the edge of the center part. 

Then single stitches were done on the edge to "frame"

the design.

picots were added to give it a lacey look and it´s now done!!!

Wishing you a good start of the week!

Pork Tenderloin Steak

At home, I serve steaks on weekends if  I´m able to get the meat from my discounter supermarket on my Friday food shopping. Aldi has quality meat and sometimes I get lucky to buy discounted steaks at very reasonable price. The thing is, meat at Aldi are usually discounted on Thursdays & Fridays just before weekend comes, and so one has to get early to be able to get some. 


Over the weekend, I have more time to prepare the meals properly , no hurry, no rush...just slow slow slow cooking and not looking at the clock :-). So here is what I did when I had the chance to have one prepared for lunch.

Pork Tenderloin Steak

This is a 2-minute steak fried in heavy skillet with olive oil. I simply brush all sides of the meat with soya sauce and fry it  in a hot heavy skillet with 2 tbsp of olive oil for 2 minutes til all sides were golden brown... remove and place on a platter, keep warm until served.

Then I make the gravy out of the pan dripping by heating the 1/2 knorr beef cube, add 1/2 tbsp soya sauce+ 1 tsp of green whole pepper, mix until the cube crumbls then I add 1 cup water, 1 tbsp creme fraiche, reduce the heat and boil once more.

To make the gravy thicker, I add 1 tbsp. cornflour diluted in 1/3 water , let it boil, reduce heat and lastly, season with salt & green pepper... (adjust seasoning according to your taste..)

To serve: Place the steak on a plate, season with salt and ground black pepper, add the fresh salad as well as the gravy in a saucier and serve with fried potatoes or rice. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Hope you´re enjoying your weekend!

of roses and other chores.....

It was hectic last weekend, you know... the usual chores that 

working wives do at home... Friday is always my food shopping day,

 Saturday, my cooking day & house cleaning. 

 All those dustings and the laundry and ...and ...and... that

 seemed never to end....

 I cook in advance, freeze the cooked food,  so I never have to worry

 what to have for lunch or  dinner during weekdays... Anyway, 

last weekend, I was multi-tasking,  cooked 4 different 

food  at the same time and in between FBing.

I somehow managed the cooking and even the food were 

that tasty ( according to hubby who is my tester :-)...

I´ve dried these roses a couple of months ago and last weekend,

 I gave it a go for a creation... I chose red bunch of roses as well as pink ones, 

 The red as it looked like, turned into dark pink or lila.

 I used dried florist sponge, cut the stems of the roses to the

 proper size, fitted the stems to sponge and let it stand firm.

 There was no green moss in our area, so I recycled dried materials 

 that looked like dried twigs, only finer,  to hide the inner life of

 my creation.

 It came with the boquet we got for

 my mom-in law, ...it fitted perfectly to the roses,  hiding the florist

 sponge.  Lastly, the stems  were tied with a natural fiber band..

so, I got everlasting roses now and I feel good!

I am still amazed at how the poinsettia this season survived this long 

since it first bloomed last November. Amazing isn´t it?.

 Well, the  leaves  are gone now and in a few days, I´ll be
cutting  the branches  ( if I may call them branches!? ) to prepare
the plant for Spring.

Then, there are these tulip bulbs I planted last Fall. I´m anxious

 to see them flower... 

During my food shopping, saw the first strawberries of  the season,

 and they came from Spain. I got a few for the fruit salad.

I have mixed fruits available in our supermarket.... strawberries, 

bananas, apples, blueberries, clementines were cut into bite sizes  (diced)

 then,  I squeezed 2 oranges adding the  juice to marinate  the salad for 

30 minutes adjusting the sweetness and added 1 tbsp of stevia powder

 ( sugar substitute)..

 I stored the rest  of the salad in glass jars 

with snap-on lid  and refrigerated  them for later consumption.

You may mixed the quantity of fruits as much as you like provided you

 also use enough juice to marinate them.

It was a very busy week,  but it always feels wonderful when  you have
achieved to finish the chores and relax a bit and even  become
 creative over the weekend.

Hope your Wednesday will be fancy and nice.

Enjoy it!