My name is Barbara, I am a Swiss living in the lovely town of Basel, in northwestern Switzerland, next to the borders of France and Germany.

I grew up in a middle class family and family was always the centre of my life. Both grandparents lived in the same town and we regularly saw them. I fondly remember the big family reunions celebrating a golden wedding anniversary or birthdays.

When I was 8 years old my father died of cancer, my mother was a young widow of 35, sometimes I think that is the point in time when my carefree days of youth were over.

I have a daughter, Rebecca, who is a gifted artist, a fantastic cook and a loyal friend. Rebecca created the Late Bloomers branding.

I have many talents, a few skills and lots of ideas!

I love to cook and share meals and recipes, to travel to foreign countries and sit in a roadside café getting the feel of a new place, go the local markets and barter with the vendors. I used to delight my family and friends with my homemade products and it was a logical step to start selling them on local markets (I told you I like to go to markets, this time I am on the other side of the booth!).

Some years ago I have started making my own organic soy wax fragranced candles, today I make a line of wellness products including goat milk and soy-glycerine soaps and diffusers and lately I have begun creating my own natural essence mixtures. Highly exciting!

I grow my own herbs and as much vegetable as possible on my balconies.

My professional background is marketing, with major experiences in selling, buying, communication and social media marketing.

I have always believed that you can realise almost anything by not only wishing for it but also by hard work, perseverance and being willing to learn new things, such as setting up a blog and learning about social media. And by adding a ton of passion to the mixture.

I dream of living in Southern Tuscany, in Maremma, the place where I feel rooted and recharge my batteries, surrounded by animals, growing my own herbs, vegetables and fruit, making olive oil and wine.

Let me share my experiences, everyday niceties and adventures with you.

Why Late Bloomers?

Some years ago I designed a collection of leisurewear in the style of 40ies movies.

Remember Katherine Hepburn or Lauren Bacall walking down a long winding marble staircase wearing a silk dressing gown over silk pyjamas? That’s it!

I called this line Late Bloomers (maybe for the reason they only seemed to get up at 5 pm to get dressed up for another night out, wining and dining and dancing to the wee hours). Unfortunately, this collection never made it to the catwalks but I promised myself to use the name later on for something else.

Fast forward to 2010: encouraged and pushed on by friends to share my stories with the whole world I decided to start blogging. A name? Bingo, Late Bloomers resurges, little did I know at that time that the name has some other connotations (amongst which that sweet Swiss movie Late Bloomers about some golden girls in a remote village setting up a lingerie shop is the most innocent one).

According to Wikipedia a late bloomer is a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual. Great: are we not all late bloomers in one way or another?

What is Late Bloomers all about?

I have always written, I used to write in my diaries as a child and teenager (sometimes throwing them away because I was so ashamed of what I had written in them), and I saw myself as an aspiring novelist.

My friend S. one day said to me: “Why do you not publish your travel stories, it is as if I am invited along the trip and can feel the heat and smell the beautiful odours of a sunny day at the beach, besides they are so funny and …” That is what she said. The seed was sown.

Why not combine everything I love and know how to do (and maybe learn a thing or two about blogging and web design and social media and SEO and mail lists etc.)?

This is how Late Bloomers was born, my baby is approaching its 5th anniversary, like any mother with her first born I have been making many mistakes and learning from them.

Late Bloomers has changed its looks three times, today it features a true bilingual blog and web shop.

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