spontaneous meditation (212/365d)

the la strada people called me to ask me to do the graz vigil today (i was on the waiting list) - the art project involves standing and watching over the city in a closed box for an hour at sunset. i was excited to get to have a turn.

before that we had a nice little grill party with nina and centa and the family. i threw several pieces of pepper and several pieces of eggplant directly into the fire due to impatience - i guess i am my mothers' daughter.

the sunset vigil was very hot - the thermometer in the box said 35.6C. to begin with i got to go into the uhrturm to put my things there, and back in to write my little journal entry that's also part of my project. i packed 6 cameras for my boys but in the end nobody made any good photos, which was a bit of a shame because i only get to do that one time. when my watch-hour finished,  felix game me a fig that he had picked.

looking out over the city

baby teeth (211/365d)

brian took felix to the dentist (wake up at 6:30 :( ) in the morning and he got his first baby-tooth pulled. felix came home with a new bouncy rubber ball in one hand and his tooth in the other, and seemed very emotional about it. then the ball rolled and bounced down the stairs and out of sight - out the front door, it turned out. we spent about an hour looking for it in the dust/dirt/under leaves

we were motivated to clean up a bit of yard stuff from the fallen apple tree. we all did a lot of work out there, sawing, hacking, axing, clipping, etc.

henry made palatschinken for all of us all on his own - he even learned to flip them! we sent a short video to edward in england - who is on his way to slovenia now after 6 months in england!

2pm united intonations rehearsal broke up the day a little bit - the kids meanwhile were at the abenteuerspielplatz.
got home in time to read raeuber hotzenplotz for bedtime

it seems impossibly small.....

steig i n den gatsch hinein(210/365d)

visited ingrid cz a walk in the woods and for dinner. 
read on the tram on the way there

masked bandits 1 and 2

masked bandits 3 and 4

went for a walk in the woods, found mushrooms that we collected for dinner

walking back out of the woods
felix theodore henry ingrid

he bit felix's finger quite badly soon after this shot was taken 

finding hidden raspberry bushes
ingrid, henry, theodore, felix

then stayed with her for dinner and played boggle while an enormous thunderstorm raged outside

on our walk ingrid told me about his wonderful quote from her uncle julius (that's some direct relation to me but that's too complicated to write out)
quote is "steig in den gatsch hinein - er weicht aus"

tension finally waning (209/365d)

completely full morning with surprise visits from michi, and jacky with her kids, while centa also had a surprise visit from her friend debs.

i cooked with jacky here, but didn't get to actually finish eating my dinner before i had to leave again for another quintet rehearsal
things were a still a bit tense but finally showed signs of smoothing over during playing.

home early enough to read to kids and have a nice bedtime.

tension headache with added tension (208/365d)

pretty much ruined day with a massive headache...

...didn't stop me from going to quintet rehearsal but came back right away and went to bed super early - tensions were still a bit high at rehearsal, kind of yucky

another "mostly dead" day... (207/365d)

walk/hike/jog up to kerschbaum again before the 9am packing up and leaving the castle
another breakfast at the holzer on the lake.

we came back from greifenburg a bit faster/earlier than last time because we drove straight without stopping. i lay around and slept quite a bit right when i got home, and had a bit of a sleep-deprivation headache.

i loved watching henry and felix measure themselves on the doorframe...

very carefully draw the line

and then measure very accurately in cm.

theodore was very snuggly... after a week at camp and then me being gone for 2 days made him a bit cuddly

also i talked to ingrid cz, who explained to me a lot of corona-related conspiracy theories that she is completely convinced by.

centa visits us in greifenburg (206/365d)

brian went super early in the morning and bought leis for our concert in greifenburg, our unofficially called "cultural appropriation" concert includes one hawaiian song from the "girl from hawaii"

still a little bit of tension today left over from yesterday's rehearsal
i spent lunchtime macro-photographing flies so i didn't have to be social

before the concert we did some photoshooting

the top of the wall slopes backwards over a cliff...
...relax!

centa came with her friend karin and it was great fun to finally have someone in the audience (after two years of this series) that i knew. afterwards i got to see them at their table, and on our way out together, i got a blatantly terrible harassing comment from a relatively influential guest to which i didn't respond, but afterwards i felt most annoyed that nobody else, including his wife, sitting right beside him, responded either. after the short drive back to their hotel i got my dinner, starting at 12:30am, which i really couldn't eat, it was too late and too heavy. then barbara and i danced full energy till 3am and giggled ourselves to sleep again.

the boys are back home (205/365d)

felix and i went out for coffee with barbara at lendplatz, and then felix and i went on to the library. we didn't have much time alone together, because we went to the playground andpicked up theodore and henry from camp... i had predicted they would be beyond tired, so i had borrowed them a movie, and we made popcorn and watched kleiner phillip.

i had another quintet rehearsal that went till midnight... everyone was a bit cranky with our cellist by the end of rehearsal and i tried to cool the flames a bit (first mini bottle of champagne that i didn't partake of)... at home i stayed up chatting in the kitchen with centa (second mini bottle of champagne that i didn't partake of)

back to rettenbachklamm (204/365d)

went to rettenbachklamm with felix and made it back barely in time for rehearsal

it poured rain on us and we hid from the rain and the wind under a tree (i know that's not very smart) i was very glad i didn't have my camera with me, or it would have been ruined.

picked lots of mushrooms and berries
came home in just enough time to cook dinner but not enough time to eat it before i left for rehearsal that i got home from at midnight, very hungry.

Hierzerteich besuchertag (203/365d)

mastermind in the very early morning for brian after only a few hours of sleep... then he went and picked up our rental car for visiting day at the summer camp.

got there in time for the morning circle so we didn't distract them and wandered around the woods

morning circle with talking stick

finding a parasol at his feet

lay in the sun for 10 minutes and then a sudden terrific rain storm

watching from the shore
felix canoeing with henry
theodore kayaking on his own

singing and dancing in the rain

crossing the threshold between wet and dry

After the rain and after lunch Henry set up a hammock for me so I could lay there and read. In the early afternoon I had to leave on my own, and drive to and from a rehearsal for the buffaloes that they had scheduled just for me, since the singer is out of town. i had a horrible time navigating the tiny one-way streets in the city center that are normally no problem for me on a bike. Back at the lake they had dinner for me.

felix on the zipline
stayed in the water till the last possible minute.

Same spritz-effect with the mud puddle under the swing

It got dark quickly and we headed home when the game of werewolf began.

Accusations in Werewolf

drove home with felix...
when we left we asked him "what would you write in your corona journal?" and he replied sleepily: "about the eierschwammerl"
when we arrived he woke with a start, saying: "so short to get home?"

when life gives you fallen branches make pie (202/365d)

Another hiking morning with Felix, this time on the Jacob's leiter ...
we found tons of mushrooms but i was nervous about collecting taublinge to eat so we just left them.

niko came over to tell me he hadn't finished the book i lent him yet, and we chatted about literature and travel until we heard a scary *CRACK* and a huge branch broke off the and apple tree... No wind, no warning, just bang. The treehouse is pretty broken and our privacy is compromised. it also looks pretty bad for the apple tree which seems to be rotten from the inside....

our new view of the apartment house

new view from the street

when life gives you fallen branches make pie.... that's what centa and felix and brian did while i had a quintet rehearsal. cleared up some of the smaller branches and made an apple pie.

i didn't get home from rehearsal till after midnight since we did a wine &cheese tasting

into the woods (201/365d)

lots of time hiking on Rosenhein with Felix, running around, looking for mushrooms, enjoying the day ... it was beautiful out.

i had an early quintet rehearsal, and Felix still had unlimited energy, so brian took him on a bike-riding excursion and they did more foraging:

kriecherlbaum
one of these is not like the other...

 In the evening, Nina and Centa and I had a quiet little chat and prosecco time

back in time to say goodbye (200/365d)

I woke up early enough to go for a quick walk/jog up and down the hill near the castle, back at 9am for packing up our stuff and going in the opposite direction of home to have breakfast on the weissensee. we got back to graz just in time to see Theodore and Henry leave for their week away at summer camp...

a little bit sad

a little bit happy

i was pretty exhausted in the afternoon. Felix and I just lazed around and read and the rest day was essentially for nothing.

first greifenburg concert (199/365d)

Finished reading Borrowers to kids in the morning and still got out the door by 9am with Barbara to drive to Greifenburg for our evening concert in the castle.

It was an absolutely excellent concert and great 4-course dinner - we had nothing to be worried about. We were up way too late.

ready for the concert in the evening sun

bottle in a message (198/365d)

today at rehearsal, we got our wine as payment from the guy in italy that we did a mini-sountrack for - message in a bottle champagne for each of us - and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. many many bottles of wine for all of us to share.

no idea what to expect...

henry got his harry potter book from centa - from the still-locked university library. she also got me a lovely lavender plant for my ongoing bring-bees-to-the-garden project.

spent a luxury amount of time time talking online to labeeby.

after bedtime and reading to the kids, brian and i picked up my bike from lendplatz, but that was the extent of our evening-walk. both of us were very tired.

strange (197/365d)

early morning appointment at the passport office - 3 kids, 3 non-eu conform photos... we took them to the photo booth across the street and fed it with coins and got 3 correct photos with quite a bit of poking and prodding from us and patience from the little ones

all we had for felix was his hospital birth record that says "not a birth certificate" in small letters across the top. they took it though - english is not their first language... slowly mozied our way to the joanneum until i got a call from barbara, she was on her way to pick me up. i had forgotten all about rehearsal. she drove by our house and centa handed over my viola. then i ran across the street and jumped into her car at lendplatz.

after quintet rehearsal the kids left for abenteuerspielplatz so i got some unusual alone time

practicing to practice (196/365d)

spent essentially all day practicing for this evening's buffaloes rehearsal - more devil going down to georgia. some things just take a lot of time!

ABA (195/365d)

i had a morning quintet rehearsal...

still full of energy after 3 hours of music

AND an afternoon buffaloes rehearsal...

then i went out to eat with the quintet at Gerüchteküche - to see what kind of dinner was in store for us at the next few concerts we have. we were quite surprised to be a bit underwhelmed by what was supposed to be divine cooking and dinner. but at least the company was good.

blech (194/365d)

then there are days where you wake up in a great mood, grab some left-overs off the counter from who knows when for breakfast, and then spend the rest of the day in bed with food poisoning watching reruns of bad television and a great movie about egon schiele. :(

strange excuse to go hiking (193/365d)

Manuela left early in the morning and then I went back to Rettenbachklamm with only Henry ... he had lost his mask yesterday and really wanted to look for it. We retraced every step from yesterday, talking and laughing as we went. Although it seemed like a silly reason to be out again I wasn't sorry at all that we had the luxury to be out just the two of us. At the very end of the hike, walking across the street to get to the tram we successfully found his mask lying in the dirt. Totally worth it. :)

Quintet was having a grill-party to celebrate Barbara's moving in to her new apartment.I originally wanted to go with everyone but their kids were not there, so I decided it was too boring for our kids to go, so it was just me. It's on the 7th/8th floor (depending on which language you count in) and i had fun looking down and watching people from the birds eye view.

the more the merrier (192/365d)

Brian and the kids and I all took an early morning hike in Rettenbachklamm with Manuela. Theodore carried a book with him and whenever we stopped for a second he went back to reading.

relaxing minute

a bit blurry but the mood is right

We found tons more mushrooms and called Centa on the way home to make noodle-dough. We got home right before an impressive thunderstorm. Centa had been intending on meeting some friends for dinner but she then just invited them over since we had plenty. They arrived completely soaked and we found clothes for them. We were nine all together. We didn't run out of mushroom sauce and we still had lots of mushrooms left for drying, giving away and eating another time.

After our perfect dinner we had a little games time.

hanabi

and "gold!" 

Manuela met up with a friend while I had an evening quintet rehearsal. I got back home just as she was going to sleep, but we still found time for a quick chat before bedtime.

last day of school (191/365d)

manuela came over from germany right after the kids left for school, and also just in time to leave with me to pick up kids from their last day of school.

i love that they wore ties to school today
and i love that they were surprised that they were the only ones

they only had an hour and a half there and only got report cards. i was very emotional. theodore was too.

manuela and i went up the plabutsch in the evening and brought back tons of steinpilze.

path into the golden hour

alongside the path

the goods
we could have cleaned them better
but aren't they beautiful?

abschlussfeier (191/365d)

today was the last full/real day of school. - for theodore, it was his last day of elementary school. i made an absolutely enormous cake in the morning for the parent-organized summer party for theodore's class... the first time since corona where they would all see each other again.

i was a bit teary-eyed at the abschlussfeier party...

carrying a huge cake across town to take felix to the cursed dentist visit
- left late
- didn't know a bike-route
- didn't have our masks (embarrasing on a bus)
- carrying the stupid cake everywhere
- arrived late
- didn't have our masks (not allowed into office)
- didn't have the right insurance card
- didn't have cash
... eventually a nurse came outside and handed us a mask and felix got his tooth filled - but they don't have any cleaning appointments available for a year! i don't understand dental health in this country.

by the evening i was absolutely exhausted

liked the way brian's eyes looked here

for the birds (190/365d)

pigeon visit - i screamed when a pigeon landed on the windowsill of my bedroom this morning. it fluttered away rather bored.

i had a nice date morning with brian - we went to a cafe that he suggested but it was closed so i took him to cafe fotter (where we got a table despite not having a corona-required reservation) then a walk up the schlossberg where we found some little mushrooms: apfeltaublinge.

cute little ones

kids made magic wands at the abenteuerspielplatz using fritz's lathe, during which time nina came for a visit, during which time a bird pooed on my head

i had a buffaloes rehearsal and for the first time played/sang "devil went down to georgia" (the day after charlie daniels died - with whom i share a birthday)

i left rehearsal, forgetting my violin there, biked back, everything was already closed, and then left again.

had some candelight prosecco at nina's.. which was most lovely.

on nina's balcony

spiel mir das lied vom tod (189/365d)

OPEN/CLOSED (i'm reading) (that's the sign that the kids put on the door (to my room) to tell me to KEEP out)

Theodore finished his last homework for elementary school - it was the slowest homework he's ever completed: i think he is a bit in mourning for the end of the era but that he can't really understand it.

for a completely spontaneous lunch, Pauli came over with ingredients and made himself (and us) a big giant greek salad.

barbara picked me up for quintet rehearsal, during which we made a little mini video dedicated to the memory of Morricone who just died yesterday. The death song from "once upon a time in the west". We had no outfits/makeup etc so we just put spotlights behind us and used that to make terrific art-film feeling

sometimes there's leftover homework (188/365d)

left-over homework - friday saturday and sunday were so full that we had homework left from then
that fact did nothing to motivate the kids to work harder - instead it caused plenty of procrastination

i got back from my elke lesson nearly at noon, and still had to sit with them to finish homework
we took theodore to *his* violin lesson, then to the library, and when we got back, did more homework.

a lot of the homework doing was just sitting there slowly not moving, and staring into the distance.
at 8pm i was still waiting.... and then very slowly, and very tiredly, we finished everything for the day, and in henry's case, for the school year. hooray. terrific thunderstorm and bedtime.

non-ergonomic writing on the floor

bruno and i had a meeting to organize dynamics in my composition while brian had a work meeting. then we did some yoga and watched the movie "pillow talk"

stattegg (187/365d)

we made the best of a logistical nightmare today
it was stattegg so we had the picnic, and we took ronja and zorah. first i had to bake/make everything and pack up the car
brian had to get them to andritz by bike, becauese of sunday bus schedule
the picnic was lovely
the concert was lovely

centa figured out a german sentence from my peter handke book that was too confusing for me
the girls and felix sat together and behaved perfectly
ice cream afterwards
we were all very very very tired

before the concert

after the concert

felix was reading all evening, but took a break to play a round of bridge (which he says he has "forgotten" how to play) and make some yogurt (with 2 liters of milk!)

fourth of july (186/365d)

i took henry to the farmers market and he chose to go on roller skates... it was so lovely to have some one-on-one time with him.

stattegg and driving around - so much driving around to get theodore to his try-out for a scholarship which overlapped with his orchestra rehearsal. henry was great company as we waited for theodore's warm-up lesson to finish, and listened out in the hall. felix got to stay with the foersters while all of this was happening

when i returned the car, felix wasn't ready to go home yet so i just lay in the sun with jacky

bruno has a module now to convert electrical signals given off by living tissue into sound. i asked for the sound of a leaf once it's picked. a few hours after being picked it was still himming. then i got to hear it slowly die.

listening to bruno's dying leaf

at the farmers market this morning i had bought 20 euros worth of flowers to give our garden some new food for bees. when the temperature went down a bit, i planted them with brian and centa and felix.

meh (185/365d)

not a good day :( too bad for me i was feeling pretty yucky all day

extra lesson for theodore with elke and stattegg rehearsal for this weekend's concert

homework was really cool pentaminos puzzles with henry, but they were even challenging for brian and me, so the time it took to do it tried all of our patience.

choir was cancelled for brian so we just hung out together instead, a much needed chat

you had a bad day... (184/365d)

sometimes you just have a bad day....
today was a bad day for me.... just blah and unhappy

most positive part of the day was the salonorchester board meeting - went till midnight, at least for me and barbara

i can't believe it's july (183/365d)

Emersed myself in music, Buffaloes and strange research, including quartertone geniuses: Wyschnegradsky and Enescu (in his 3rd violin sonata)

i accidentally kidnapped henry's Niklas... i saw him walking alone down our street looking sad and asked him where he was going - "a walk by himself"... i asked him where he was walking to - "i dunno" ... so i told him he should come with me to the playground where my kids were. he brightened up and came with me. i left his mom a voicemssage that i had found him and taken him with me. half an hour later she calls in a panic because he had actually not said he was leaving at all. he had just told her he was going to get a drink of water. oops. he cried when i sent him home, and i felt so bad. i hadn't thought of asking "do your parents know you're out walking alone"

went to the abenteuerspielplatz, played fusball with zorah until felix and theodore took over for me. then i lay in the path on the pavement ready for the thunderstorm until Jacky got there.

Theodore made dinner for everyone.

Buffaloes rehearsal, biked home in the rain and took theodore outside in a raincoat over his pajamas to watch lightening.

there was a wonderful group call - an unusually high quality skype call with edward, centa and papa.

Work on my Composition with Bruno......

i said i wanted a fairly constant tempo...
...but did i mean it?