Last Thursday was Coco’s first day of NATURE Spiel Gruppe. We drove up the mountain to bring her to the farm and I had to stop like every 100 yards for a photo. Yes, it’s apple season here too!
I really wished I could just move into this little farm house and grow flowers and apples and of course, blog about it.
Is that a cow peaking out the door window?
We arrived in Jeans, a feat in-and-of-itself. We did a lot of talking about wearing jeans the week before. We pointed out the cute cherries on the bottom that matched the cherries on her shirt. But there is just no getting around it, Coco does not like pants. She much prefers tutu’s. When she was sufficiently convinced that wearing pants is mandantory, she reluctantly put on her jeans.
Nature spiel gruppe is a totally uniquely Swiss experience. The children are outside rain or shine (kinda like a real farmer). In Switzerland they have a saying “There is not bad weather only bad clothing”, so we received a long list of “appropriate” clothing requirements. Most had to do with staying warm and dry; I am eager to find rubber sweat pants in my size, if it means that I can have a sunny outlook on bad weather.
And speaking of clothes- aren’t these pants to- die- for!!!!! This is the Barbie mom (there are several of them in this group~ will I fit in?) who reminds me of Elin Nordegren (Tiger’s Ex). I was really trying to pretend to take photo’s of the kids, cause it’s a little wierd, and stalker-ish.
Here’s a shot of the cow tail that is tied up so they don’t get pooped on- pretty clever huh?!
And a chicken.
And a bunny
And a “swiss pet” guinea pig
And some goats that are dying to say “guten tag”.
Well hello to you too goat-ey!
Don’t ya just love their bells?!
And their eyes are crazy cool!
Coco loves feeding the animals, especially the beautiful Swiss cows.
I think all the kids loved it.
I caught Coco thinking “how old do ya have to be to drive that sucker”?
And since she was still too young, they said she could use the practice tractor.
At Nature Spiel Gruppe, the kids work outside, play outside, take walks in the forest, build stuff, mix natural paint pigments and do crafts with them. Everything has a natural and self sustaining philosophy- I love it! Kinda like a preschool using he “Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It” by John Seymour as a textbook.
I hope that somebody can teach Coco to do this!?!?
Every farm has one of these, its a big tank that is filled up with cow “waist” and is pulled behind tractors to spray the manure mixture all over the fields to “make the grass grow quickly”. This big ugly stinky machine is responsible for the “unpleasant” smells that fill the air just before a rainfall (nearly everyday).
We live in a rural village… with lots of cows… and lots of grass.
I can only describe the smell as pretty shitty especially on hot days. Ha Ha.
Have you ever seen wood piles like this?! OCD?
Gabrielle Blair wrote a post about them here.
Every Swiss Garden has Gnomes caring for it.
I am convinced the only way they can be so perfect is because the magic elves doing all the weeding at night.
After about a half hour the children picked flowers in the garden,
and gave them to the parents to say good bye.
It would be hard not to love NATURE SPIEL GRUPPE, look at these views.
Okay, I’m in love with the NATURE Spiel Gruppe!! That sounds so awesome and the photos are beautiful. I wish I could have an apple fresh off the tree! Yum! Your “stalker” pics of the Barbie mom are hilarious, and of course you will fit in. Just be yourself, and they are bound to love you!
I love your Barbie stalker pictures. They will love you! Your photography is amazing!!