sad to wake up to the end of september, but it is a truly beautiful way to end september (273/365d)

 Absolutely gorgeous day today! everyone was at school, as normal. The sun was shining, everyone was in a great mood. After school I biked them to Judo, and I spent my hour waiting by climbing the schlossberg and then climbing the fig tree and gathering figs which I ate all by myself. I then took them to the ASP and then home in time for Caroline's Zoom Pickwick club, where all of my kids shared a story. They were not willingly written at all, but they were written. and Henry's included an illustration that he copied from one of my tiny doodles. I guess it was not a very good doodle, since he thought the house I made was a star. Although they had written under durress, I think they were quite proud to share their stories, and they were very happy to hear them read. I had Caroline start with Felix's story, because he was going to the next Madame Butterfly rehearsal and had to leave early. 

finding an orange on a fish hook.

Felix was picked up early because, due to an error, he hadn't really needed to be there. He had 3 bars of chocolate with him. His stage-father had asked what his favorite kind was and Felix told him 70%dark chocolate with orange. So it was. 

Only bad thing about the day was the very end, the very very end, watching the first presidential debate. it was soooo soooo soooo terrible.

french evening (272/365d)

 Another non-sick day for the kids, where they were corona-obliged to stay home. I had things to do though. I went to various libraries and picked up Felix from school while Theodore and Henry made spaghetti for dinner. I like having them cook food for us. It's fun.

Pauli came over for a cup of tea, and took me to the spar to buy ingredients for creme-brulee, which we need for our French evening tonight.

Felix had his first madame-butterfly rehearsal. He was very excited and a tiny bit nervous. Brian had choir rehearsal and I left to pick him up shortly after 8, we got home before 9 and he went right to sleep. Everyone else had already gotten ready for bed and I left Edward in charge of lights out but Theodore and Henry somehow got him to stay up till I got home with Felix, reading and playing chess. I got pretty mad, but it's hard to be mad at kids who stall brushing their teeth by playing Bach preludes and stall going to bed by playing chess with their uncle.  

I got home in time for Amelie and French wine (that Manuela had brought for me once). Barbara and Centa and Edward watched with me, although Edward was up and down the whole movie, running back to check on his computer because he was trying to do a project that somehow didn't work out in the end, which was making him a bit sad. We asked Bruno to translate the text on the wine-bottle from French but he couldn't because the French was too wine-technical. The movie unfortunately *only* had German subtitles, so even I had to concentrate a lot. Our French evening was a little bit in honor of the corona-fact that right now quintet should be playing concerts in Paris, which was what we had been planning in March when the lockdown started.

about to crack!

home not-sick (271/365d)

 So new-corona living has started for us. A few sniffles and a half a cough had both kids home from school, when last year the same symptoms wouldn't have even been a blip on anyone's radar. 

In the middle of the day, Henry suddenly jumped up energetically and said he wanted SALAD! It was supposedly because I told a story that included salad. We did story writing time for homeschool because we had to do SOMETHING. 

He really meant it about the salad. He made it himself, and then proceeded to make pizza from start to finish. When he's determined and (not too) hungry he can do anything.

After we finished writing stories I realized how much they need to learn about touch-typing so I gave them a program to learn a bit on.

learning to type very slowly

SALAD!

It was a perfectly wonderful day, despite the kids being "sick". We'll see who goes to school tomorrow.

choir voices from above (270/365d)

Felix was sick this morning, so I didn't even try to convince him to come with us. It was hard enough to motivate myself or Henry to go to see Theodore sing in church this morning, but we did it. I'm so glad we did! Theodore even had some solos - i haven't even known that he had them, they were a surprise to me! It was strange to see everyone in masks, and see the chorus sing so far apart from one another. Theodore is the youngest and smallest in his new youth-choir, from grades 5-12, but he is such a dependable singer and had no problem standing at the front of the choir loft looking down over one of the largest churches in town.

We waited for Theodore to come out afterwards, and he just didn't come. Finally I looked out on the street, and there he was on the other side, having ice-cream with the rest of the choir. They had gone down a back way. We joined in the ice-cream extravaganza, and by the end the shade had caught up to us and we were shivering like crazy. 

post service research for edward's next video 
he's needs skulls for a flamenco music video
with theme of death that should not include crosses.

movie afternoon (269/365d)

 Everyone was excited about our afternoon viewing of Doppelte Lottchen from 1950. We headed over to the Foerster house to watched, and were surprised to meeting them out walking... They were on their way over to us, so the upshot was we ended up here at home watching the movie with lots of arabic sweets. I made a fennel salad for Jacky that I have been intending to make for her for more than a year but I am always missing something or she is not around. Jacky and I didn't watch, we just played with Vito and talked. The kids loved the movie, which is essentially exactly the book. 

sunny dinner time

It was supposed to rain today but it was just absolutely gorgeous. It was a pity even to be inside for the movie but the kids seemed to like it and when the movie was over they hid upstairs in the dark playing games with balloons. We couldn't convince them to brave the sunshine.

climbing the shakiest ladder in the world (268/365d)

 more morning meditation, brought me ... here.....

the ladder was too shaky to get to the top
and when i got there, the match was too big

the kids were at stattegg for orchestra for the first time since the concert. meanwhile, felix was at the playground. then we spent the evening finishing Kastner's doppelte Lottchen, which means we can watch the movie tomorrow. - suggested by Jacky months ago... :)

woman writes about woman writer (267/365d)

 I was going to be totally productive today, but I was a bit distracted by logistics, as happens at this time of year, I guess. I brought Felix to singschule, for example, carrying my laptop, and ended up standing outside talking to other moms for an hour, until Felix was done. 

I sent Felix home by himself on the bus. Felix waved to me from the window, and I waved back. The bus doors didn't close and the bus didn't leave. Then the bus driver came to the back of the bus and asked me if I was going to come with or not? When I told him that Felix was going on his own, he said, oh ok then, and went back to his seat and closed the door and rode away. I guess Felix just looks a bit small for his age. Theodore always went on his own at 6 (Felix is 7 now) and nobody ever asked him where his mother was or why he was alone.

Women edit Wikipedia evening tonight at Nina's work. She was so tired from work she didn't want to stay the whole time, but somehow she did. I created a new article about Friermood. (update from 1.10... it's been accepted! my first new wiki article on the english language wiki!) 

5 boys at bedtime

At bedtime, Edward read aloud from the wonderclock.

fully engaged

poor judgment rain day (266/365d)

 I thought I was being efficient today, get away during judo to get the kids their year tickets for the city public transportation. i did that, and on the way out, ran into nina on her way out. we decided to mozy back together-ish, and got caught in a terrible rain storm with me unprepared to deal with it. i made a very poor choice to "wait it out" because it should have been a minute shower. but it took longer and ever longer and eventually when i thought it was too late for me to get there, i asked brian to get there by running. it was an extra bad call because actually the kids should have been picked up 15 minutes earlier than i even knew, and, even worse, i was geographically challenged.

well, they got soaked coming home. i got soaked too, because it didn't quite give up on me either. 

we warmed up and dried off, and joined caroline's pickwick club zoom meeting that she started last year in the us. we were there for the first time, listening to stories. afterwards we watched some cartoons.

I paid my four bits to see the high-diving act ...
...and I'm a-gonna see the high diving act

it was a very relaxing evening after a unnecessarily stressful rainy afternoon.

sushi and sunshine (265/365d)

 Many happy returns of the day to Nina! We had a beautifully relaxed celebration outside in perfect weather... sushi and sunshine...

Felix had casting for the child's role in Madame Butterfly... Since he can sometimes be a little bit unpredictable, I was nervous that he would get angry or sad, but we had a good experience, and he was very happy to tell me all about what he thought afterwards. 

the most exciting visual moment
a really beautiful ice-cube

edward and centa and i stayed up talking to papa over skype, which is always a wonderful occasion.

very new words to a very old tune (264/365d)

 First lesson this school-year with Elke. It was very nice to see her again, but I just realized how much more I need to practice, and I really have been neglecting that.

Brian started using this thing called "end procrastination" - a new way of keeping track of things to do during the day. - making a flow-chart instead of a list. it seems that it is actually quite effective... 

Felix broke a mirror by throwing a chess piece in anger. We tried to explain that chess is not supposed to be an agressive game. He claimed *he* didn't break the mirror, the rook did.

ta-da! la-la!

I had time to go quick night-time shopping with Theodore to get a missing school note-book because my buffaloes rehearsal was cancelled again, because they haven't gotten the mixer to work yet. Only grocery stores are open after 6pm, so we went there. The first grocery store had no notebooks, so I bought a lot of flower bulbs instead. The second grocery store had them but only one kind, so there was no choice. Theodore pointed out that he had really not needed to be with me on a bike-ride through the dark just for that.

Centa composed new words to a catch by Lord Mornington, which we are convinced will be the next youtube sensation, as soon as we are able to sing it, and can record it. and then Centa rounded off the evening with baking a cake. She outlasts me, I'm fried.

the last wedding (263/365d)

 the last wedding for a long time, if people are to be believed about this corona/covid stuff... It was just Klaus and Barbara and me and Iva playing quartets, and it was a bit weird... cookie cutter wedding with matching his (clip-art mustache) and hers (clip-art lips) wedding-themed masks... and yet we were sooo happy to get to play outside on a perfect day. 

...Luckily Edward got here and wasn't detained at the border or anything. He arrived after several weeks in Slovenia. 

this still life makes me hungry

We sang one of the rounds Felix is supposed to practice for sing-schule - four part harmony in the kitchen! and then later we just hung out and chatted in the evening, no special entertainment needed.

checkmate against the computer (262/365d)

 We had planned on going roller-blading today, but sometimes plans don't work out. Instead some neighborhood kids stopped by to see Theodore (who is in Pöllau) and stayed for several hours to play with Henry and Felix. When they were getting a bit rambunctious, I had them cut apples for apple-sauce. That worked out pretty well to keep them entertained.

when the other kids had gone home, Henry and Felix entertained themselves with playing chess against the computer. (the board is one that rainer used to play with back in the old days) - felix's new trick, don't checkmate the king when you can, instead get as many pawns to the other side while the king has to keep moving one cell at a time.

ultra-checkmate
...since the pawns are all queens

When us adults were still awake, Brian with an 11pm work meeting, and i worked on researching two women's authors that i used to love as a kid (jean kellogg and elisabeth friermood) 

Then Brian skyped with his parents and Centa and I tried out a mornington round/catch till midnight.

surprise in the mail (261/365d)

 Theodore has no locker yet, but all his books arrived today, so I picked him up from school just to carry his stuff. He must have felt weightless because he jogged home.

He was very excited to get his homework done, and his packing for his weekend choir trip to Pöllau tonight. I then picked up a surprise package that Bruno had sent from the postoffice (I guess we have to replace the batteries on the doorbell, which has stopped working)

Always read the note first then open the present.

It was a game of "Pinguins" (which in English is "Hey, that's my Fish!") and Felix and Henry and I played it together while Brian had late work meetings...

i leave things till the last minute even though i hate that (260/365d)

Brian and I sat on the porch stairs this morning with our beverages (coffee for me, tea for him) and admired the truly beautiful clouds. a raven came and settled on the roof across, seemingly posing for a photo. I got my camera, and he was gone. Brian went in to work, and I stubbornly sat there, waiting for the raven, but he came... nevermore.

i was bored of waiting...
theodore sees 2 of me
felix says he sees 3 of me

When it finally started pouring, I went in and worked on my music for Fabuli, finally choosing to record with a mandolin taking the place of the piano. Of course, playing the mandolin carries its own difficulties. Almost finished what I wanted to record before quartet (not quintet!) rehearsal for our wedding Sunday. At rehearsal, we heard from the national press-conference that after Sunday there would be more private parties with more than 10 people, so I guess this wedding is pretty much the last thing we will play for the foreseeable future.

Fabuli, sketches, musical sketches, instrument and microphone

Finished my recording when I got home, and went to Renate's, where we I showed her my recording draft, and then we meditated for nearly an entire hour. It was past my limit, I kind of gave up after 35 minutes. 

digging in the dirt... (259/365d)

Ingrid from next door called me early in the morning to ask if we "needed dirt" ... she is digging up her yard to add insulation to her basement, and sent us over several wheelbarrows full of top-soil. Our wheelbarrow had potatoes growing in it, so we dumped those out before we collected the dirt from next door and added it to our garden.

still life:
potato. freshly dug.

Pauli and I hung out for an hour while the kids were at Judo - first biking around like mad, then at das gramm, then getting stood up trying to buy shoes from willhaben. After getting home again, I talked to the willhaben seller and he appologied for not being there, so I biked back again, and Pauli and I played a Bach tocatta with 4 hands (instead of the normal needed 2) while Brian did bath night. The shoes I brought back ended up being too small for Theodore anyways, but Henry is very happy for surprise new running shoes.

a glance into the past (258/365d)

brian walked them to and from school early in the morning, then went back to bed himself, and slept nearly the whole time they were at school.

i practiced & wasted some time (also some more avril coleridge-taylor research) for a while... i think sometimes that's all that can happen with alone time.

brian had chorus in the evening, overlapping with me being at an info-session for a photo-academy which i want to join, so i can learn to take photos. .... to take photos *properly*

....for henry i went and got some photos printed, including some from *last* year, so he could show his class what he did for vacation at pokljuka.

adorable from last year
and i don't think it even made the cut back then

centa read hiawatha before i got home, and i read doppelte lottchen, sitting on the floor in the kitchen while the kids listened.

first day of school (257/365d)

we went back to school today. everyone got ready right away and easily even though the lack of sleep was very noticable. as soon as we had quiet alone time, Brian and I went into kitchen cleaning mode.

I took Theodore with me when I dropped off Henry and Felix at chorus (they are now together) and then he and I went shopping for Theodore's new school - with a long list of things, one list from each teacher. All the teachers are referred to only by initials, and he hasn't even met them all yet, so we weren't even sure which things we needed. We randomly ran into the nerf-gun friends from yesterday. Each kid had a donut in their hand, and a brand new nerf-gun (because 4 for 2 kids isn't enough) because... that's what you get for the first day of school. #nojudgement

hiawatha reading with centa
followed by cake

i went straight to my buffaloes rehearsal, and then straight home again, since our equipment had gotten water damage and didn't work, so we couldn't really practice. my instrument and the drums are the only things that work without electricity. i arrived home to find centa reading hiawatha with the kids before bedtime.

not ready for school tomorrow (256/365d)

Visited a family, that we considered trying to make friends with. pros, they like music and speak english. cons they love nerf guns, video games, and diary of a wimpy kid.

 

lazy morning, reading and checkers

during our visit, we got a call from centa saying she found a cauliflower-fire in our oven. (a fact that doesn't probably elicit sympathy from my papa, but it was a bit disappointing for me)

baked bread in the late evening, to be ready for tomorrow morning's school lunch boxes, which i'm sure will be packed with plenty of sleep deprivation.

beginning of the end of summer (255/365d)

brian went to farmer's market in the morning, all by himself, since nobody wanted to go with him.

we did a lot of clean-up time during the day - culminating in the delightful moment of dropping an entire huge stack of dishes on the floor after finishing washing them.

theodore had more story club and henry had nadja and i played piano duets with felix.

story time.... 
...soon we will learn to write

centa made end of summer cake with garden raspberries and read hiawatha...

so pretty

the raspberry collectors get first choice

(centa later found hiawatha oratorio by samuel coleridge-taylor, and we spent till way too late looking up more information about his daughter avril, who was also a composer!)

museum morning (254/365d)

 Brian took Felix to the dentist this morning and Nina and the rest of us met them at the museum downtown. It was a beautiful day outside but we didn't spend so many hours inside there. Nice to look at some art again, since the museum was closed for so long. But wearing a mask for a long time is not so fun.

Boring! (said Felix, at first)
My camera had no memory card

Dinner at home with Nina and Centa, then sing-schule and abenteuerspielplatz for the kids, leaving me with a bit of alone time. - good for things like reading Siddhartha - the newest reading project... i read the book and listen to the audio book at the same time, to make the german less difficult. 

Then Michi and Marko had us over for evening snacks on their balcony. Brian came an hour and a half after me because Felix still needed some snuggles and tender loving care. Stayed out a bit too late, but 

new story club (253/365d)

Theodore met up with Abigail (my friend Alex's daughter from boston) online and together they started a story club. It was adorable to see them start shyly, without knowing anything, and then relatively quickly blossom out into complicated time-traveling story ideas. Next step: include Henry.

Walked through the city to get to sing-schule with Henry and Theodore. Henry was annoyed we got off the tram early - it was too crowded and stuffy for me - and walked instead. I picked up Felix and we walked back the longer-ish way, through the schlossberg tunnel.

My afternoon off while the kids were singing at the opera/playing at the asp I spent on updating my blog finally.

there are always outliers...

Brian initiated what he intends to turn into daily family meetings - he wants to aim for 5 minutes a day to give everyone a chance to describe their roses, thorns and general thoughts and needs. I think it's a good idea

sturm is back... next up, drang (252/365d)

Played tennis with felix this morning, and was going to watch barbara's kids, but her student cancelled, so she and her kids joined us. theodore and henry were busy canoeing with the asp people. i do not play tennis very well, not even against felix.

i brought felix to his sing-schule, and spent my time there in the herren garderobe editing pictures (there was an outlet there. when felix got out, he threw a mini tantrum that i wasn't *downstairs* waiting, but rather upstairs. i only figured out what the tantrum was about much later: so i explained that we need to improve communication... "what IS communication?" he asks, a few minutes later.

bought the things to make white russians - centa and irma both find cream and don't find kahlua. irma finds kaluha right before the store closes, but realizes i forgot about ice.  brian goes to get ice at five minutes before 10pm right before *that* store closes (taking note that STURM is back - summer is officially coming to an end)

on top of the to-watch pile.

Watched the Big Lebowski with Barbara, Jackie, Lukas, a masterpiece of a movie, but definitely not my style. I don't have to love everything.

what would you recommend? (251/365d)

All morning, that is, hours and hours, we went systematically through all the school stuff from last year (some of it has been lying around and/or on the floor all summer) and sorted out what could still be used this year, and made a final list of things that we would need to buy. 

Singschule started up for everyone today, and it was Felix's very first one. Henry and I brought him there, then he and I went shopping for the school stuff, which means I was carrying around this crazy bag of stuff everywhere. I picked up Felix and dropped him off at the asp and then met up with Pauli at the library, where I got some stuff out. He asked for book recommendations and movie recommendations, but didn't take a single thing I recommended. He asked for movie recommendations from a guy working there, and, although the guy recommended weird horror movies - not at all in line with what Pauli was looking for - he took every single recommended movie out. "I probably won't watch these..." he said.

Felix said he wanted a new Werkkoffer - case for his school crafting supplies. He thought his was ugly (it had a picture of a very anime looking fairy with purple hair, that he denies having insisted on last year) but I'm allergic to new stuff, so we made his old box into the very prettiest new box using vinyl sheeting that I got from the asp. I couldn't find it anywhere to buy myself - they they got theirs as donations from a shop that works on signs, posters and billboards. 

from above

from the side

Centa, Brian and I watched Captain Fantastic tonight - on the basis of several recommendations (including Pauli's) ... I must say, I see that there is a family in the woods that may remind people of ours, but we are not completely insane like the family depicted in the movie either....

mushroom hunting with kids (250/365d)

I have been so in the moods to be back to the woods, so I packed up my kids, called the Foersters, and we all headed to Andritz to hunt for mushrooms. I have never seen such VARIETY of fungi! I has been raining though. I saw kinds I have never seen. There were a few tasty edibles, that I took with us, but mostly we walked very slowly looking at the ground. Andi took the smallest kids home early, but we kept Ronja, and we hiked the long way around down Falkenweg (which was technically closed due to recent rock slides, but we stepped over the caution tape and chanced it anyways)

scientific name is Salamandra salamandra
how cute is that?

last ones "standing"

Spent much of the afternoon fighting and becoming angry with blogger, which has just updated to "new blogger" - changing things like timezones on previously published posts. Thanks new blogger!

under troubleshoot Blogger:
"suicide prevention resources"
...........................?????
i mean, I'm upset, but not *that* upset!

Leonskaja the legend (249/365d)

Started the day with a lovely Thailand chat with Rainer and my kids, where he showed us all his newest tree-house additions. I climbed Jacobsleiter with Michi - my knee is feeling better - and it was a lovely time. 

Theodore spent most of his day in the basement building a car out of foraged license plates and some kind of stroller-wheels collected from the trash.

Brigitta picked me up pretty early to take me to the concert tonight. Leonskaja played beautifully, it was extremely inspiring to watch her make real music out of mozart. Corona meant that the audience was very small and very spread out - I felt like Leonskaja was playing directly to me. 

last minute of calm
it started pouring as i was taking this picture

Driving back in the rainstorm was an adventure: sheets of rain, back roads with 100kmh speed limits and no street lights. 

We celebrated our return with Brigitta's first G&T, and listening to Schulhoff and Wyschnegradsky.

nostalgic (248/365d)

First things first, I guided another meditation with Bruno.

Then I took a walk and had coffee with Brigitta, although we didn't go into the woods like I wanted, because i had woken up with a very sore knee (for no reason that I know of) and I felt like staying on level ground, just to be sure.

Brigitta called the ticket-office in Deutschlandsberg, and we scored the last two tickets for tomorrow's concert with Elisabeth Leonskaja. 

Getting back inside, Centa was skyping with Rainer, and I got a chance to catch up a bit too.

taught my kids to draw the easy e-c (the impossible trident) on the porch, and then they grew restless and walked to a farther away playground because the asp is always closed on the weekends. Felix came back with a touch of heat-stroke... But all in all they were happy

While getting other school things ready (we are early for a change!) i came across an old picture that Felix had made with crayons. I am filled with nostalgia!

Patchwork tractor

architecture design

new books for all (247/365d)

 nina came over for coffee just as we were all getting ready to go to the book-fleamarket. generally, as far as variety and interest of books, it was a bit underwhelming but it was wonderful to watch the kids picking out and paying for their own books. 

they all ran ahead to go home while brian and i went to the farmer's market for dinner things.

while the kids were all at the asp playground centa, brian, nina and i watched the epic Russian Arc. It was nice to get done with a movie night right about when they got back from the playground. I then strong-armed everyone through nearly half an hour of Widmann's viola concerto, which was just really fun for me.

Also... with Theodore starting gymnasium (secondary school) soon, he needed a new backpack. It's my old college backpack, that I convinced him to decorate with pins. Centa had some in her arsenal and Theodore has several that he's amassed in the past few years.

decorating with the contents of the treasure box

final result

After bedtime, I had the luxury of a very long online talk with my Papa.

second hand shopping is the best (246/365d)

Manuela had a work meeting early in the morning before it was time for them to head back to Germany. We said our goodbyes at Kalvarienberg right before the concert on the last day of Theodore's summer music camp.

post-pachelbel

chatting with people afterwards was very nice. there's even a family who just got back from 5 years in the US with whom our kids want to exchange books.

Manuela had left us croissants for when we got back, which we enjoyed for lunch, and then I took Henry clothes shopping. On the way we stopped to water plants for Barbara, and took a few minutes to enjoy her balcony and the view of the city. 

I took a nap at home and woke up disoriented... Centa was installing new bling-y lights for her tricycle.

 Briand and I wandered over to Jackie and Andi's late at night for a short chatty evening and saved a frog from being squashed by cars on the street on our way. Brian was the hero for daring to touch the huge slimy thing.

we got the memo (245/365d)

 Theodore had summer came again, and when it was time for him to get picked up I roller bladed there with Henry and Felix ... A bit nerve wracking, but the streets were not crowded and so it wasn't that bad.

They asked me to help out tomorrow with their playing of a simplified version of Pachelbel's canon. 

At home we practiced our canon with Centa and Henry, and it was magnificent. 

Felix accuses his own father!

We made toasted breads, and played Werewolf (by extreme special desire of Felix) when Manuela and Dorian got back for the evening and after the kids went to sleep we read Havel's Memorandum aloud, which I thought would be faster, but took a little over 2 hours altogether. It was quite fun, but we were up waaay too late.

Grüner See (244/365d)

Before we left on our hike Manuela brought us croissants for breakfast, and Theodore went to day two of his camp. 

Badly auto-stitched panorama of the entrance to the green lake.

Rain was predicted... and it only rained when we were at our destination. We kept our hike short and simple. one and a half times around the lake. It didn't fulfill my rule of hiking time being a minimum of twice the driving time, but I didn't mind, because the lake was so beautiful, and we had it nearly all to ourselves because of the rain. As soon as we left the parking lot the sun came out again.

Some photo impressions of our trip:

the skies breaking

from under the umbrella

droplets

manuela and dorian

cute little mushrooms

Everyone was busy with abenteuerspielplatz and Harry Potter all day - I'll be so happy when the tedious Harry Potter phase is over.

M&D had an evening out, and we had planned on one of our own too, but instead we just stayed in and there's nothing wrong with that.