Sarah von Allmen
LightNews LightNews
banner
svona.bsky.social
Sarah von Allmen
@svona.bsky.social
550 followers 540 following 230 posts
English by birth, Swiss by marriage, living in rural Alsace. Family historian (MSc Genealogical Studies), avid reader, amateur musician, and crafter. https://www.angloswiss.site/ https://www.heatonsww1
Posts Replies Media Videos
svona.bsky.social
Wind orchestra setting up for a charity preview of our autumn concert. It went surprisingly well, considering the awful final rehearsal, and hopefully we raised a decent amount for a good cause! #MucisqueMunicipaleMasevaux #TraitD'Union
A wind orchestra of about 40 members in (mainly) black concert dress preparing for a concert in a traditional church setting.
November 16, 2025 at 11:25 PM
svona.bsky.social
#Halloween cookery in collaboration with my daughters. The bats are ridiculously cute! #CookieParty
Halloween biscuits and cakes on a kitchen counter top. Clockwise from top left: pumpkins, purple iced cakes, ghosts and bats. The ghosts and bats have sugar eyes.
October 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM
svona.bsky.social
Early autumn in Alsace.
A view of wooded hills with low clouds and rain. The leaves are just starting to change colour.
September 22, 2025 at 7:26 AM
svona.bsky.social
A strange shadow
A tall straight glass casts a strange spiral shadow on a light brown desk.
August 24, 2025 at 8:34 PM
svona.bsky.social
Cause and effect. #Birds #Seeds #Sunflowers
The upper half of the photo shows a bird feeder on a low balcony. Below it are some rather straggly sunflowers which have sprouted from seeds flung overboard by careless eaters.
August 17, 2025 at 6:33 AM
svona.bsky.social
Grace and elegance personified. #ProofOfCat
A large black cat sprawled inelegantly on his back, one paw in the air. He is lying diagonally across a grey cushion on a wooden floor.
August 12, 2025 at 6:33 PM
svona.bsky.social
Mushroom sauce simmering on the hob. A white plate with shell pasta, a small steak and mushroom sauce.
August 5, 2025 at 11:15 AM
svona.bsky.social
Dried wild mushrooms rehydrating in white wine ready to make sauce. #GoodLunch
A moderately tidy kitchen worktop featuring (left) a glass jar of dried wild mushrooms and (right) some mushrooms soaking in a small bowl.
August 5, 2025 at 8:28 AM
svona.bsky.social
Happy birthday Switzerland
Red fireworks burst over sailing boats on a lake.
August 1, 2025 at 8:20 PM
svona.bsky.social
The mythical beast. #EmptyLaundryBasket
A gratifyingly empty white plastic laundry basket. Not pictured: the ironing mountain.
July 19, 2025 at 6:54 PM
svona.bsky.social
The #TourDeFrance isn't coming to Alsace this year, but on this day 6 years ago it went past the end of our road heading up to the Ballon d'Alsace.
Riders in the Tour de France passing through a village in Alsace, led by the polka dot jersey. One is eating an energy gel in view of the upcoming col.
July 11, 2025 at 8:52 PM
svona.bsky.social
A quarter of "The Great Wave" finished, but not giving much idea of the complete picture. #CrossStitch #PointDeCroix #Hokusai
Upper right quadrant of a cross stitch version of the painting "The Great Wave" consisting mainly of a brooding sky in shades of beige.
July 9, 2025 at 8:34 PM
svona.bsky.social
In spite of the heat I managed to make a small batch of redcurrant jelly, having pruned our lone bush within an inch of its life last autumn. #HomeCooking
5 Jars of redcurrant jelly sitting on a kitchen worktop along with the jug used to fill them.
July 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
svona.bsky.social
Not my usual style - a special request for my daughter. #CrossStitch #GreatWave #Hosukai #PointDeCroix #GrandeVague
A partially completed piece of cross stitch in shades of blue and brown lies on the packaging of its kit, which shows a small version of the painting "The Great Wave" in the bottom right hand corner.
June 23, 2025 at 5:55 PM
svona.bsky.social
We needed our clip-on lights by the end!
Wind orchestra playing outdoors in semi-darkness thanks to small lamps clipped to their music stands.
June 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
svona.bsky.social
Lovely weather for "Fête de la Musique" this year - a very pleasant open air concert with plenty of spectators. #Music #Harmonie #MusiqueMunicipaleMasevaux
Amateur wind and percussion players with their conductor performing an open air concert for "Fête de la Musique".
June 21, 2025 at 9:38 PM
svona.bsky.social
Spring concert: "Contes et Légendes". Happy I was able to participate after recent health problems, even if it involved a certain amount of bluffing! 😄 #MusiqueMunicipaleMasevaux #WindOrchestra #Harmonie #AmateurMusic
View from the audience of a wind orchestra dressed in black with accessories (mainly hats) on the concert theme "tales and legends". Behind the orchestra is a screen showing slides linked to each piece.
May 18, 2025 at 8:47 AM
svona.bsky.social
The Moon Game was one of my favourite books as a child, and to my delight I discovered that my Swiss husband still had his original French version
Cover of an old child's book "The Moon Game" featuring a white pouncy kitten on a grey backsground. Cover of a child's book "Chat lune", featuring a white pouncy kitten on a grey backkgrond.
April 21, 2025 at 6:56 PM
svona.bsky.social
Easter baking to date: hot cross buns (with wobbly crosses) and lamala, a traditional cake from Alsace. #Easter
Home made hot cross buns with wonky crosses on a cake rack. A light sponge cake in the shape of a lamb sprinkled with icing sugar.
April 19, 2025 at 11:46 AM
svona.bsky.social
Spring in Alsace - it took a while to arrive!
Balcony planter with miniature daffodils and white starry flowers whose name I've forgotten Wild Spring flowers in the garden: pink, purple and white. White wood anemones White butterfly on wild purple bell flowers
April 4, 2025 at 3:16 PM
svona.bsky.social
A death record I stumbled across while helping my husband to research his family in the canton of Vaud - no known link to"his" Rochats, but still pretty cool! #Genealogy
Death record for Claude Rochat, who died at the home of his widowed daughter on 27 November 1751 in the Swiss canton of Vaud aged 109 years and 7 months.
March 29, 2025 at 10:12 PM
svona.bsky.social
We're off - operetta #6 is officially under way! #Music #Choir #Orchestra
A booklet with the chorus score for "Les Cloches de Corneville": the cover picture shows a contemporary advertising poster of the 1877 operetta.
March 26, 2025 at 10:10 PM
svona.bsky.social
Annotations in church registers can be invaluable to family historians - provided you can actually read them! One of the more legible extracts from my husband's direct line in Switzerland in 1683... #Genealogy #Lauterbrunnen
NB. Diß is das ander mal das dis weib zwilling hat geboren id quod rarum est. Dis weib ist auch selbst [...] zwilling.
March 23, 2025 at 10:41 PM
svona.bsky.social
Freshly baked focaccia: rosemary, goat cheese and potato.
Focaccia strewn randomly with pieces of cooked potatoes, discs of goat cheese and rosemary.
March 18, 2025 at 4:26 PM
svona.bsky.social
Ready for pressing and framing - I'm rather pleased with this one! #Crafting #CrossStitch #PointDeCroix #Owl
Cross stitch picture of a snowy owl in a wintry setting. Near-monochrome shades of grey, white and beige.
March 15, 2025 at 1:22 PM