early morning hike (53/365b)

twas a day off from school, and we thought we would take a nice walk early in the morning, but we left a little before eleven.

a very happy nina took us to the bus station after bringing croissants for breakfast. henry packed our lunch. i almost (i had to run back) forgot my camera.

almost big enough to ride nina's bike

felix measuring himself on the tram

we weren't traveling very far to hike, only a few tram stops away, but because of construction and because it is a holiday, the trams don't go properly, and we had to get in and out of buses substituting for trams. when we arrived we waited a few minutes for manuela and watched the koi fish hanging around hilmteich. the water was very dirty, and the fish were very big and looked very sad.

that is not lens haze!

we stopped and looked at animals at the animal shelter, where they treat wild animals, some get released back into the wild, and some, non-native species like raccoons, and golden pheasants, stay there for the duration. one of the volunteers gave us a very extensive tour. we liked watching the fisher otter, and the martens, which i wrongly translated to "weasels" because i didn't know there was a species of animals called a marten.

after that we had a snack lunch, and just as we were leaving, we saw someone from the animal shelter passing us very fast with a jogger along side her. the jogger had found a wounded owl, and we got to see up close how they picked the owl up, checked it for insects and carried it off. poor thing.

all of us hikers (brian had to work today, it's not a holiday in london)

we ended the hike at the playground, where the kids got increadibly muddy. so muddy that felix went home dressed only in a tshirt that he was wearing like a dress. we found about 1000 mushrooms on the way. with all this rain, it sure is good for fungi.

probably a choice edible, but i didn't look it up till we were at home, too bad.

we came back by the long walking way and everyone was very hungry when we got back. big fast stirfry to the rescue, and then a very early bedtime.

falling asleep on a swing (52/365b)

Well, I didn't take a photo today. My memory card was full, and I didn't feel like it. *excuses, excuses*

and now that i've emptied the memory card I don't feel like a blurry grainy noisy picture of me sitting around in the dark all tired.

brian let me sleep in after staying up way too late and getting too high on music last night.

by the time he got back from driving the kids to kindergarten (their last day at that place) nina was over, breakfast was served, coffee was made, and the morning had started. he went off to work. we chatted inside, to avoid the terrible soggy mess that is all of the outside world right now.

bettina came to practice the bridge lament and we recorded ourselves for ourselves, and laughed at the dreadful intonation in some spots.

i picked the kids up. attempted to get them in the car at the right time, but all of them were having an emotionally difficult day and i had to basically beg ronja to let me take her home. on janishhofweg, the very one-lane but two-way road that the kindergarten is on, is a construction site, and a big truck was delivering stones. we waited quite a while before the truck driver was ready to let us pass. upwards of 10 minutes.

theodore practiced all on his own while i made a rhubarb cake with rhubarb from irmtraud's garden and then we all went to the abenteuer spielplatz to share the cake with the magical people there. fritz liked it well enough to say he would bring me all of his rhubarb. he was busy making a new swing that's bigger than a single bed. when he finished sawing drilling hammering etc, everyone in the park came and posed for a picture on it, we fit something like 4 adults and 8 kids on it.... everyone else went away but i lay there for a while looking up at the trees (and the rain drops, because of course it was raining again) and fell asleep until closing time. i would call that a very good swing.

got theodore back in time to get to his opera performance (he wasn't supposed to play tonight but he was filling in for somebody else) and got henry ready to go, because he wanted to watch. the original plan was for me to go too, but i was just so tired, and i practice fiddling in the bathroom while felix took a bath, then read him to sleep where i fell asleep myself.

old timey fiddle tunes (51/365b)

so i might be joining a blue grass band.......
.....i mean, i really really really want to (if they'll have me)

by that i mean i had a friend (danielle s. who i met up with for an hour a few weeks ago while she was visiting in ireland) who hooked me up with a guy who plays fiddle and banjo in a bluegrass band and is looking to play more banjo, and needs a fiddle player to play with. I really want to be that person.

my new mandolin player. look i can play a song, can you guess? it's about a star

Before that though... I picked T&H up from school and took them to tables outside the art museum to do their homework and have a snack. They were done double time. Then I noticed I didn't have a bike lock, so I just risked it and left my bike standing there, and brought them on the tram to their swimming class. During swimming class I took the tram BACK to my bike (which was still there, no problem!) and biked it to a store to buy a bike lock. we are low on bike locks since we bought a few new bikes a few weeks ago. Also I keep leaving my bikes all kinds of random places around town. Made it back just in time to get them (and to have it rain on us again, of course)

Took them to their last David show, left them there to get ready, and had every intention of watching it with them, but did not reckon that meeting up with Henrietta to pick up music for a gig would take an hour and a half, and end up with me buying some sheet music and a croissant (with way too much jelly in it ....... last time i asked for a croissant with jelly when i was with Manuela it had no jelly in it)

But then I met this new guy and he was super easy to talk to, super fun to listen to, and I was too shy to jam "properly" but I think I got the point across that I am serious, interested and ready to learn/do pretty much anything that's musically necessary... :) When we finally finished our session near midnight Centa bottled her second batch of elderflower champagne for this year. 

 

tutti frutti video (50/365b)

we need more projects... a lamp made of string and wood
saw it and took a picture so theodore could copy it
haven't even showed him the picture yet

Monday is just a crazy day of doing stuff. This is nothing new. My Elke thing in the morning drew into a double lesson, because the person after me never showed up. Theodore and Henry were playing again in the afternoon, the David musical from yesterday, and so Felix got to go, although he had stayed home from kindergarten, he was feeling fine again. I didn't go though, I had a video shoot for our recording of Tutti Frutti (li'l richard)

We made a gigantic fruit salad, among other things. I hate being in front of a camera. I would memorize a few notes of music, play them a few times, and then, with the camera pointed at me, i would forget everything i had just played.

chop in rhythm

we got done quickly enough shooting that i had time to go to the parents meeting. the kindergarten is moving. i somehow agreed to organize the farewell to the space in nature. i was second on the list after hiring a shaman. that means i have to work out some cool violin songs to play hidden the woods. a beautiful easy to learn song to sing goodbye to all the places. and some shaman sounds so people can shout into the fire. someone else will organize the fire. :)

since jacky and i were there, we walked all my stuff home, and stole beers and brian from the grune gasse and went to jacky's place to chat (although andi was asleep) until it thundered loudly and suddenly poured down rain again. i think it's rained every day for a month now. we got home on bikes, pretty soaked. question, in a light rain, does one get wetter if one bikes faster or slower? 

unterwegs mit david (49/365b)

The premier of the little kid's musical, staring a real live opera singer in a dual roll as Goliath and Samuel.... It was of course, rainy. Which meant they almost moved everything inside, but thankfully we stayed outside and braved a few rain drops. Theodore and Henry have been so excited about this. Felix has been very curious to go watch, but unfortunately he had a fever and an earache today and just stayed home to sleep... 

Peak energy for today

pizza AND pasta for dinner. and of course a gigantic salad

Nina and Centa went though. I picked up Nina at her house and tried on some clothes to use for a video shoot tomorrow... yay more videos. We walked because it was threatening rain.

second spear holder on the right

playing before the show starts

after the thunderous applause from all the barney parents, we stopped at a vegan place to get ice cream. michi was there with her kids too. we thoroughly enjoyed our selections, and then walked home slowly through the town, admiring stuff in windows, and art on the lawn in front of the museum.

from the front

from the side

At the gate, I abandoned the family for the evening, and instead drank yummy cocktails, learned some styrian card games (schnapsen, knacksen, und machiavelli) from phil and nina. 

unscheduled saturday (48/365b)

typewriter worth it! theodore found old glasses in basement. fun to wear. so tired today. took a nap and was still tired. had greek coffee after bipa walk with nina. honeybutter and fresh bread for breakfast. no grill fest (cancelled at the last minute cuz i didn't feel like it). henry goes to a soccer game - goalee breaks his arm.

Theodore captured this

wearing great-grandfather's spectacles

a concert of wedding music (46/365b)

It rained on our "wedding day" ... well, our concert, at which we are playing lots of music that is generally only played at weddings.

in action

my dapper family was there, as was centa and nina (who took the photos for me, thank you!)

bowtie and sparkling cider

the whole day i was fighting sickness or headache or something like that. i don't really know what all there was because i took some ibuprofen to mitigate the symptoms. i even got a massage before i left. but overall the concert went well enough, it was fun to play, and our audience was in a good mood. we had a little mini family reception at home aftewards, where centa read an "Analysis of Africa" a semianonymous in depth view of the meaning of the pop song "africa" ... we also read aloud the balcony scene that she wrote for mama's birthday, a new one about how tarzan feels vs. what he says.

will we ever dry out? (46/365b)

i'm just a little black rain cloud

lots more rain. stayed inside and watched a movie with the kids in the evening after a long day of rehearsals (for everyone, singing, cello, quintet, everything) and all kinds of other stuff.

brian went off for frisbee game in the park at bedtime despite the rain.

typewriter (45/365b)

the old cable and new text

spent a lot of time cleaning this old typewriter (finally, almost a year later, man, is my to do list old!) and in the process broke a cable. well, it was really just a twisted piece of waxed twine to pull the carriage along as one types, and it was seriously decades old, and had been "fixed" (knotted together) in a hack job in the past. new idea - old guitar string... and lots and lots and lots of patience and trials before i got it to work. new ribbon didn't really fit so i had to use an exacto knife to cut it to size. everyone was very curious about the work but they ended up asleep before i put the first piece of paper in. 

day off of everything (44/365b)

Very concentrated

One more glorious day off. Still didn't go hiking, although we kind of wanted to.
We cleaned out a bit of basement junk, found an old lens, and took it apart into components, which we used as magnifying glasses. Well, we actually took apart two, because it wasn't fair that somebody didn't get a glass, and there are of course only two per lens. I donated my old 35mm to Henry's enthusiastic curiosity.

and for my lovely mama's birthday i spent some time writing a nice proper handwritten letter. :)

What did we do? (43/365b)

What *did* we do today? It's hard to say, I'm so tired tonight that I fell asleep reading to the kids, and barely got myself down the stairs from their room to find Brian to go to sleep in my own bed.

I know for sure I practiced in the morning and had coffee in the morning with Nina. And that the kids were home from school because of state holiday. I know for sure that we cooked a glorious meal of mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce and salad all from our farmers market and garden. I know for sure we went to pick up our bikes from J&A's house (who weren't there) and that Henry went sideways over a curb and landed on his belly, and that I sat in the road for a few minutes helping a weeping kid while a grandmotherly looking-lady watched with curiosity from her yard.  To be fair, two bulky guys with heavily accented German asked very nicely if I needed help and if he was ok, and I said thanks for asking. He was fine, but I'm glad he wears a helmet! I know for sure it rained into our window and soaked through a pile of clothes the kids had not put away. I know for sure I didn't take any pictures.

Flamenco evening (42/365b)

A very intense day. We woke up quite late. Didn't have to cook, because Jacky was cooking and we were invited. We couldn't coordinate our leaving very well. We were all waiting for everyone else. There was more random showers. Hot warm sunshine and then cold breeze and rain. The kids played unsupervised while Jacky, her friend Karin, Brian and I kind of chatted, snoozed in the sun, and just lazed around. It was a kind of perfect Sunday afternoon before a holiday Monday.

Then because Mary was playing a Flamenco concert in Maribor, only an hour away, we packed everyone up and went to Slovenia for the evening. On the way, Brian gently broke the news that my Aunt Lisa had suffered a stroke at 56,  and had passed away. I was shocked by the news, and since I guessed Mary, who had been rehearsing since 1pm, had probably not checked her email, I felt responsible for relaying the sad news.

We arrived with 1 minute to spare, but they started late anyways.

Reading the funny spelling of Mary's new last name, Mlinarich

excitement is palpable

The flamenco concert however, was put together out of pure genius. A very pregnant flamenco dancer organized and thought through everything very carefully. Special effects of cloth and bells and lighting. I was extremely impressed with the slovenian acapella group vivere, who sang dressed in white toga-like robes with really interesting music. clearly enunciated (though i couldn't tell you what the words meant) and even a special cello open strings solo, bare feet stomping, and choreographed hand holding and circle turning while singing.

mary's band held their own quite well. Mary was especially atuned to matching her melody line to the solo flamenco dancer.

wow, what terrible lighting conditions....

The guitarist of Mary's band said we looked, acted and truly were the same.

Is there a difference?

The nephews on the wall.
Post concert bliss

then we had a few hours of contemplative conversation on the outside steps when it was over. Felix tried to do flamenco, wearing my big spinny sweater. We toasted our dearly departed with some white wine

stomp stomp clap, we made a fan from one of the programs

high tea (41/365b)

 Morning of baking to finish off the stuff for bachelorette picnic that Centa was hosting in schloss eggenberg. Lots of bread, crackers and cookies and cakes to bring. The hardest part through wasn't the baking but the packing, which was very complicated as everything had to fit on a bike or two.

all the cakes on the trike

and more! thank goodness karin came to help, or the picnic would never have happened

As we drove off to high tea at Nina's, a taxi drove up full of bachelorette party girls. they had been scared off by a drizzle or two of rain, and were ready to continue the party in the basement. 

*Fun fact: Blogger spell check does not recognize "bachelorette" as a word, only "bachelor" ....*

I didn't bring my camera, what with kids biking and on again off again rain, but I guess pictures were taken of the absolutely exquisite spread of fancy sandwiches, tea, scones, and then magical opium i mean poppy seed cake. And of all the happy people around the table.

We were full and tired when we headed off, even though it wasn't really even that late. 

photos by Nina (40/365b)

Such a headache this morning. The TU gig yesterday gave all 5 of us a headache. Mine just annoyingly lasted through the night to be worse this morning. 

A nice walk and window shopping and coffee helped a lot. Thanks to Nina I didn't have to think about anything complex, *do* anything, or have any stress.

The table is an old piano.

"Barf Shop" - a very expensive typo or calculated irony?

Open classrooms, a TU initiative. Here I am learning about the various methods of surveying using a simple laser device.

 lots of rain again, pouring right after i pointed out to brian that the aloe vera plants had gotten way too much water this week.

dropped theodore off with elke (i had considered cancelling due to tiredness, but naaaaah)

when he got home, we watched around the world in 80 days, finishing just in time to get theodore to midsummer nights dream

Baked with centa, getting ready for the bachelorette party she's hosting.

ingrid cz. came to visit briefly, right after bath time, and we had holunder sekt (centa's homemade speciality) in the garden.

TU *3 (39/365b)

Like last year, we played at the giving of the golden diplomas. The diplomas for those people who are still alive and who graduated 50 years ago, no matter what their life held afterwards. They announce each person, say what they did, and then give them their diplomas. The people are nearly all men. There were perhaps 4 women out of the nearly 100 people who we played for today. The split it up by department and do the ceremony exactly the same way 3 times in a row. It's a little surreal feeling to play the exact same pieces, listen to some of the same speeches, watch from the same spot 3 times in a row. It's also exhausting to sit up front and be watched doing nothing.
The chemistry professor had the most deadpan black humor ever. His class was the smallest, by the numbers. It went something like this.

Honored guests, I have the honor of transfering these golden diplomas on the class of 1968. I notice the list is smaller than for my colleagues. I hope that is because the people are on vacation, and not because of the shorter life expectancy for chemists. My first candidate is Ms. Bladiblah. (who we notice is sitting in the front row, blind, with a helper) After graduation, she started work at Dudad company, where she stopped after 3 years, due to intense injury after an accident.

After a long stressful gig (8:30 - 5:30) Barbara and I unwound with some computer work and drinks.

making of the future

I got to the opera just in time to watch the performance of Midsummer Night's Dream, and took Theodore home afterwards. He was so tired, and he has another performance tomorrow too. Poor thing.

transportation (i don't believe the path is always the goal) (38/365b)

went to the hospital with centa to hand off our samples for manuela's study. got to have our blood drawn. coffee afterwards was very nice, to sit in the sun under an umbrella on top of the lkh and just relax. but i had to get to kindergarten pickup quickly, and of course the waitress didn't believe that we really wanted to pay *now.* :) I still made it there barely in time. Because I was on the latest side of pickup time, I got home at the latest I could, which meant I picked up my viola, and Barbara was already waiting for me to take me back (past the lkh, haha how effecient) to Quintet rehearsal for tomorrow's long gig.

On the way back, I grabbed my bike which I had left with Centa near the university. I would be meeting up with Brian for a kids handoff in about 1 minute... except my brand new chain came off as I was just taking off. Ooops. So I walked it back, and walked the kids home with their bikes. It was a nice walk home, and we stayed up very late drawing reading and talking. Too late, but it was very comfortable.

Felix drew our giraffe.
Learning abour Marshall Rosenburg's "Giraffe Language"

Morning date (37/365b)

Ooohoo, parents get to go on dates in the mornings.
That reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder's saying: The poor get their ice in the winter. The rich get their ice in the summer.

at parks, in the midst of deep philosophizing

der Weg ist das Ziel

After getting lots of little things done that we had put off for days, weeks, months, even more than a year, we parted ways and I took Theodore and Henry to swimming class, even though it was raining enough we could have taken a dip in some of the deeper puddles in the street. It was pretty though.

Sartre has some strong opinions
See how wet their hair is before we even get to the pool

rain drops near and far

All in all a pretty fun little day.

maerchenbilder (36/365b)

A Monday with nothing in the morning, what a luxury. We kept Felix home and even Brian took things quite easy. Eventually I left for the afternoon and evening. It ended up being a little bit of a back-and-forth and here-and-there day.
Lesson, playthough of Schumann,
meet with Danielle s. who is visiting until tomorrow morning from dublin. walk around window shopping for random interior design things
back to the kons, for Schumann performance
straight to lindy, last class for the season. it rained again 3rd or 4th time in a row now.

Christian, accompanying me on the piano, was late for the performance. I was supposed to play near the beginning but I played last. That meant that Brian and the kids didn't stay for any of the concert. They just came, played ball in the courtyard, and then left. It wasn't quite ideal. When c. got there, he asked if I was going to play all the repeats. Yes. Ok. Then right before we played he asked again. Yes. Ok. Then guess who forgot a repeat? me. i felt pretty stupid. But overall, for the first time, I think it went pretty well.

monkey in the middle

Happy 8th Birthday, Henry turning 7 (35/365b)

He'll be the first to remind you that he's turning 7 and that today is his 8th birthday.
He'll also be the first to remind you that it's mother's day. The moment they dared to tread into my room they descended on me with all the typical presents that kids make for their mothers in school, with all the excitement that kids have from keeping a secret.
He'll also be happy to tell you that it's St. Servatius day, one of the ice-saints.

Even better? my bed became the place of a go-fish game.

all five of us. theodore in left corner playing card game while reading howard pyle's wonder clock
henry, felix, brian  across from us
me in the right corner showing my cards to the rather onery camera, disinterested in auto-focus before 8am.

We also had a wonderful conversation about infinity, where they explained to us that TWICE as many numbers as infinity would still fit inside Mr. Hilbert's Hotel infinity, and that there are an infinite number of numbers between 0 and 1, so many that they WOULDN'T fit in Mr. Hilbert's Hotel Infinity.
Then Theodore went and made me coffee. The last few days he as been attempting to froth milk with rather varied disaster rates. Once he spilled the entire dregs drawer on the floor and over himself, and then gave up on the coffee, i'm not surprised. Once he managed to fill and overflow my pretty large coffee cup with extra steam water. Once he got Centa to just make it for me. But today, for the first time, he frothed milk, all on his own, and even got a little heart shape (a trick I haven't learned after 1000s of cups)

<3 yum - it was also extremely yummy

so i was telling all the kids about the wise man with the jar
that old philosophy chestnut of the professor who shows his students that the jar can be filled with rocks, and then pebbles and then sand, then water (or beer) and not the other way around, and that those things are analagous to the important things in life. Basically don't fret the small stuff.

i'll describe how it worked with my kids.

there was a wise man with a jar. just a jar like our empty glass jars. he asked a classroom if the jar had room for lots of stuff in it or not. is the jar full or empty?
  henry says: it's full of air.
that's right. it IS full of air. and can you fit other things in the jar?
  henry: of course, if it is small enough to fit in the jar.
so what if the professor puts stones in the jar, a few big stones. now is it full?
  henry: yes.
can he put more stuff in the jar?
  henry: i don't think so.
how about little pebbles?
  henry: yes, he could put pebbles in, and then littler pebbles, and then even littler pebbles.
exactly, and then sand. and is the jar full then?
  henry: yes.
can he put more stuff in the jar?
  henry: yes, of course!
what?
  henry: he can plant seeds in the jar, and then the jar would be full of plants.

we call that lateral thinking around here. for some reason, i was dumbfounded, but i needn't be - it happens all the time with kids.


then we went to deutschlandsburg.

Theodore has been very enthusiastic about showing us where he went with chorus a few weeks ago. Train trip with the family. at 11euros round trip per adult and free kids we might take more train trip around here.

(on the way we stopped at lendwirbel's final thing: mothersday picnic, free food for all)

some unknown person captured this. it was very sunny and we were all squinting

Theodore forgot exactly which path to take up to the burg so we took a much longer much steeper one than any of us intended, always in full sun. No matter, we got there happy, just in time for the clouds to break. :)
had a picnic in a thunderstorm
came back a much shorter path by way of strawberries, a welcome distraction from our wet shoes and clothes.
brian took all the pictures.

HOW AND WHY?

reflection before the storm

Theodore is impressed by the canon

Watching the thunderstorm

Writing thank-you notes to friends

On the train

At home we dried off and played more cards before bedtime.

Felix hasn't noticed yet that theodore is telling Henry to ask for an ace

all or nothin (34/365b)

So sometimes I say yes to way too many things. Here I was this morning with a baptism to play, and I thought, real quick, maybe i can arrange/print some stuff before I leave to supplement those terrible arrangements we had yesterday. Then I still have to go pick up the car and drive there. But I need directions, so maybe I'll take pictures of the laptop screen for that. 

And when I get there, I find that the program we got yesterday for rehearsal wasn't even accurate and we were playing an additional piece that we hadn't practiced. Good thing we had the whole binder with us. When we were completely set up and ready to play, the priest announced that all the audience should come up and sit around the alter, since there were not so many people. So we would have been playing with our backs to the audience, unless we moved all the stuff we had set up and turned around. 

crying baby

They wanted me to be in the family + friends photo, outside, so I did one, but then dashed out, hoping to get to the Gestiefelter Kater (Puss in Boots) musical halfway through. I did. I left all my stuff, viola included at Jackie's (they still were not up, I'm not surprised, Lendwirbel is a little crazy) and rushed there, stopping only quickly for a to-go coffee (first one in years, except on the highway, when I have had my own thermos with me) and watched the second half of the musical.

the birthday boy at the opera house at intermission

Left Brian with the kids again, so I could go pick up my now repaired bike, and beat them home, just in time to make cake, snacks, and hope that people wouldn't get there exactly at 3. Well, at 2:59 the doorbell rang, and from then it was non-stop social activity till the night-time. I was exhausted.

birthday cake and flowers

all the kids

Brian's "no presents please" on the invitation worked pretty well. Everyone brought something, but they were exactly the right things. A book. A plant. :) Brian made a last minute treasure map, and they found the rest of the presents. And Henry got to open a package from the USA. :)

The day was full enough for everyone that I was glad when it was cuddle and story and bed time.