real figs (137/365e)

Nice early morning walk with Brian

Talked to Kris, who is lonely and bitter alone in France. While talking to him I noticed that our fig tree has real life figs. They’re still easily countable on two hands but they’re THERE!

see??!

of course once i'm outside in the sun with my camera.... i gotta take some other shots

Papa, Labeeby, Edward, Centa, and Mary in one big Skype call that I participated in for a little while. I get so easily tired from screens. We started a new kobold game for chores at a family meeting and I wonder how long it will work this time.

For evening entertainment I took a long walk with Michi.

two new cold-storage possibilities (136/365e)

I awoke at 4:30 to the sound of pouring rain. It’s the perfect time to call California so I talked a bit to nick.

Asked the kids this morning about when they thought they would need to not be reminded anymore to take baths and brush their teeth... Felix said when he’s 8 (in a few weeks), Henry said when he’s 10 ½ (in a few months) and Theodore said when he’s 150 (in a “few” years). I guess that answers that question.

Not surprisingly I needed a morning nap before I had my lesson with Elke. Her accompanist Christian sight-read the Coates with me, and I missed Brigitta's musicality terribly.

Brian and I met up together in town afterwards and bought new refrigerators. The one downstairs stopped working this weekend right after it was filled with fish. Smelly. The one upstairs has been a bit weird for a while. I do have photos of the fridge-possibilities, but... I don't think I'm going to hold them hostage for posterity.

Took kids for ice cream. Well, the kids except Theodore, who was busy on his own. Got new watch batteries. One of them cost 15euros, one only 7. I don’t understand.

Maria came over and I cut her hair outside in the yard. She was overjoyed that she wouldn’t have to spend money on a barber, and overjoyed she could just stand out in the sun and have her hair cut spontaneously on her way home.

I spent way too much time deep frying celeriac and everyone complained for one reason or another. That should teach me.

Finished watching the night at the opera AND started watching go west. Lucky kids. Poor Brian worked late.

last minute procrastination (135/365e)

Theodore and 5 of his choir colleages sang so beautifully in the stadtpfarrkirche a few weeks ago that they got immediately invited to sing the same service again in church at st. veit.

We all went to listen and it was truly wonderful. We went the short distance up the hill to the waldkindergarten and hiked around in the woods for a bit, in the delightful weather and with perfect moods.

awww... terrible blurry cellphone photo with brian's broken cellphone camera
but adorable motive

Theodore and Felix and i had coffee outside in the sun with chocolate and repotted plants while Henry and Brian biked the several kilometers to Nadja’s for a lesson.

Gabriel came over and was difficult to deal with and my kids fed off that and were also difficult to deal with. We had dinner with Maria and Gabriel when she came to pick him up, and Centa and Edward also joined us. Henry gave his shark presentation one more time for everyone, and then stayed up till 10pm frantically writing cards for tomorrow.

congratulations to rick and maria (134/365e)

I couldn’t help it… When Pauli came over today, I raved about “bananas” and “the office” and he was so intrigued that we watched the entire movie again at 10am. That was a bit disorienting for Edward, waking up to the sounds of the movie we had just seen last night. Pauli and I rounded off our movie morning with a nice long walk.

We attended uncle Rick’s wedding to our new aunt Maria over zoom. Centa and Edward matched the food that Rick was having – blinis, and horseradish, lox and cream cheese and caviar. We didn’t go that route. We had a giant bowl of pasta and sauce and called it a day. We stayed on and watched for a long time. Sometimes people would talk to us, mostly we were (rightly) ignored. Some random strangers also joined in when we sang happy birthday to Mary. Centa also made a wedding/birthday cake and we sang to Henry a few days late for his birthday.

just married!

birthday cake

watching the wedding festivities unfold

bananas (133/365e)

Tired all day and it was a day off of school. Brigitta and I went on our Friday walk anyway, I took her up to falkenweg because we had more time than normal and we practiced the siegl sonata when we got back to her place.

Henry and his friend Niklas practiced giving their little referate presentations. Henry is finally preparing for that shark thing. They were so cute with their earnestness and nervous tics.

Another stattegg orchestra rehearsal over zoom for Theodore. Henry also had a rehearsal, but his was in real life(!), so Brian took him there. Felix went to the abenteuerspielplatz so I had a small amount of time on my own to try to edit my backlog of photos. I have photos I haven't looked at for months... I just today started a new folder for the month of May. Funny though, I can't stay concentrated even for that short amount of time. I'm completely out of practice staying focused at the computer.

Centa, Edward, Barbara and her husband Jure, Edward and I watched Woody Allen’s amazing movie Bananas. I have deemed it the Funniest Movie I Have Ever Seen.

happy birthday henry (132/365e)

Henry's birthday, and it happens to be a feiertag, which means no school! also high mass for choir singers.

Brian overslept and he had to do a last minute corona test on his way to rehearsal for mass. He ran there without the results and waited outside until I texted him he was negative. I took the kids to mass, and we listened to brian.

We attended Gabriel's birthday party and there were some (very!) badly behaved kids there. I was completely overwhelmed. I had had plans to help entertain the kids, all the other parents sat around and chatted calmly with each other while their kids locked other kids in the bathroom and stupid stuff like that. I was completely dead tired at home - not just me, actually, my kids too.

family zoom meeting to congratulate henry on his birthday - he arrived crying because of something, but soon changed his tune when he found he got a colonial wig, which he used right away to give a mini bach concert to grossmutter.

mama papa, henry irma felix, and peter

Brian and I watched a john oliver episode before bed but our heart wasn't really into it.

skype ping pong and ding-a-dong (131/365e)

Edward walked kids to school... After many days of “I’ll walk with you tomorrow” it finally worked out for all of them.

Henry has a consultation for braces. They took measurement and a cast of his teeth, none of which was fun for the poor little guy. We go back in a while and have them explain what he’ll need.

It was a rainy day and I suggested that Felix take the bus to chorus. Unfortunately he throws a tantrum when Brian meets him there and refuses to go into choir, and instead Brian carries him home.

I also rehearsed a short while with Brigitte, more of that Eric Coates piece. This time we played at her house and her family was actually a bit annoyed.

Talk to papa in the evening over skype while he and mama play ping pong in the driveway, which was just adorable. 

Klaus finished our ding-a-dong video and we all watched it several times. It’s stuck in all of our heads.

a gorge with no water is still beautiful (130/365e)

Very early in the morning, Henry got up and left for school to ask for extension on his shark project. All on his own. I was very proud of him. Of course the teacher was understanding and reasonable and said yes.

Maria came over early too, and we had coffee standing up in the kitchen. Brian and I continued work on the music arts homepage.

We went to Kesselfallklamm with Edward and the guitar and Brian and the kids. There was nearly no water in the klamm but it was absolutely gorgeous there. Anyway.

family photo under the big arch

henry and brian hiking

brian and felix picking stinging nettles for our supper

mach 'mal pause

For theodore’s school chorus there was a “required” info evening for parents, since there have been no rehearsals allowed this year so far. I attended that while Brian had zoom choir. The info-session lasted for THREE hours. I was completely beat, but I got a bit of energy back by talking to Bruno about his ideas for making music based on a Rubik's cube.

fish 1: Hai! fish 2: Wo? (129/365e)

One of papa’s projects for uncle rick’s wedding includes trying to rewrite words to a song by Purcell (“Man is for the woman made”). Brian and I attempted some creativity over tea and coffee, but we didn't have enough time to get very far before my lesson.

Elke helped me work on the Coates, putting in better fingerings and bowings.

Picking up and dropping off of kids, because no organ lessons because Maria is sick, and they have no cell phones which means we have to deliver the messages ourselves.

I made millet balls for dinner, and for whatever reason everyone liked them. Loved them even. sometimes i'm surprised by positive reactions…. i hated making them though, standing there and frying them, and they always STICK

felix didn't want to go for a walk with me and Edward, so Edward went on his own to pauli's to help him hang a pull-up bar in the doorway and they ended up on a very long walk all around the city

Henry threw a big tantrum about his referat (school presentation) about sharks until I calmed him down. He said he would rather never go to school again than have to give a short presentation about sharks. He said he knew nothing about sharks. He said he couldn’t think of a single sentence. we calmly watched some shark videos and made some notes for what he can talk about. I told him if he wanted more time on his project he would have to ask for it himself.

worked on the musicarts website frantically with brian until midnight.

Epically bad Mother’s Day (128/365e)

I couldn’t see Mary and Agnes off on the train this morning because I had a gig. A real gig in real life, playing a mass at church by Christopher Tambling. There were not many people present at the service. At least I made 60 euros.

Henry gave me a present he made in school, a cloth bag he had decorated. That reminded Felix that he had wanted to finish a present for me in school, but had been in quarantine and didn’t get it finished in time. This escalated into a full-fledged tantrum that overshadowed Edward’s so-literally-sweet offer to go for a walk together and buy me ice cream Took a lot of effort to get people to go. In the end everyone went except me and Felix who was completely flipped out.

There was some nice stuff though. Henry and I made a gouache painting together following pretty bad directions on the gouache box.  Edward captured us in time lapse.

Then we played the most epic game ever of “dkt” – that is “Das kaufmännische Talent” – which is Austrian knockoff monopoly. How epic? We set the timer to 30 minutes, and that was going to be the end of the game. The timer went off. Everyone got one more round. Edward was the second to last. He bought houses for his color group. He could only afford 2.He used nearly all his possible money and he laughed at him for wasting his time, since no one could land on it. Brian was the last player and he was on the other side of the board. Brian rolled, he got chance, and the card instructed him to go to Mirabellplatz, which is exactly where Edward had just put a house. Edward had no idea there even was such a card. He shouted and screamed and yelled and laughed we all laughed, and he still was the complete loser of the game, but he still said it was the best game he ever played.

Also I made an epic chocolate cake which were shared in the last minutes of the day with Jacky and Andy. We sat outdoors in the clear warm night eating cake out of the plastic tuperware. We didn’t stay long, they are tired, and their dog Ruby is doing very badly, which keeps them up late at night.

nature and painting - an award winning combination (127/365e)

Added one more string color to our canvas today with Agnes, very early in the morning and then Brian and I headed to the farmer's market with Brian

Pauli came over told us incorrectly about a plant market in our area, so I got everyone ready to go to that, and then found out on our way out that it was not to be. Since the kids were all ready to GO … we WENT. We called it Adventure Day.

the ideal picnic, as chosen by the children

The other adults said they would join us but they never did. It was just Brian and me and the 4 kids and we had so much fun all on a hike that turned into a picnic. Meanwhile Pauli admired Mary’s new painting so much that ended up owning it by buying it with compliments.

Brian picked up Henry’s cello from home and took Henry to his lesson. Theodore and Felix went to the abenteuerspielplatz and Agnes practiced roller skating with me for the first time, as Mary looked on with a mixture of worry, pride, and curiosity.

Centa was a bit annoyed with all of us because she had decided today was Fancy Saturday but nobody was around when she expected us to be. Everything was so pretty and nicely laid out, with the tea-pots matching the table cloth (thank you aunt frieda) and little broetchen that she had made carefully.

Mary and I discovered “guache” for the first time – her birthday present for Henry. It was quite addictive to use. 

awash in gouache!

I’m sad that it’s Mary’s last day, there are so many more things we would want to do together. As it was, we just had a little evening of Night at the opera, and Bath time for everyone. My hair was full of leaves.

I walked Nina home with her painting, each of us holding one handle of a huge plastic bag that was still too small for the canvas. She told me about the Romanian bear that’s been in the news for a few weeks (I don’t really read the local news so I was out of the loop.)

everyone wants to paint! (126/365e)

I went shopping with Agnes. She made us a shopping list of both things we wanted to buy and things I told her I was not buying.

The kids had Stategg for the first time in months.

Meanwhile, I went to the piano house, “streif”, where Brigitta is teaching now. She had an hour teaching-gap that we filled with a rehearsal for Coate’s “First Meeting”… It’s such a special piece and we feel so good after playing it. Then it’s stuck in my head for hours/days afterwards.

I did an epic amount of cooking today... Made Soups and breads and stuff just to have them, and use up stuff in the fridge, and to stave off needing to cook so much for the next couple days (optimistic and unlikely)

Nina came over to paint another bob ross. I was busy running around fetching and carrying paint brushes and holding the lamp and pausing the video to give her more time. She was using a huge canvas this time, so she needed a LOT of extra time and a LOT of extra paint. It turned out pretty great. It also inspired a lot of other little mini painting projects. Agnes and I finished our canvas, made with strings. Mary painted a small canvas on the theme of the four seasons in a spiral shape.

henry helping mary

irma helping nina

In the end we made a kind-of good-by party for Mary and we celebrated Brian's first full week of work with his new company.

agnes day (125/365e)

Felix was cranky all day, starting as soon as he woke up this morning. Sadly crankiness is contagious, and it didn't pass me by! But he went off to school, so other people could deal with it. I had plenty of Agnes time. We all did. Brian and I bought eggs with Agnes at the farmer's market and then she cooked with Edward and me. She and I painted the start of a canvas painting: we just did the background and set it to dry. It was very very cold for this time of year, so there were a lot of indoor activities. Agnes also took crane-making to the next level by making a gigantic crane using for large pieces taped together.

late night kitchen clean up with Brian, while Centa rearranged furniture with Edward, so the living room looks completely different now. I want to move the piano downstairs again.

Mary and I tried to record a piece for viola and cello by Otto Siegl… First we couldn’t really play it properly, then I couldn’t get my microphone to record it properly, then the kids came home and need attention, and then … we just said, “forget it,” because the last straw was finding out that  it’s already on Spotify recorded properly by professionals.

felix's quarantine comes to an end (124/365e)

I woke up pretty late. Sometimes I just need more sleep!

Dinner was käse spätzle that we ate outside. I had some help making it and everyone helped eating it. it was nice to sit all together for dinner

To celebrate the end of Felix’s quarantine, and because we had an ice-cream fund from them children’s frieda “auction” we went to get icecream in the middle of the day as soon as Felix got his negative corona test. We sent him on to chorus and piano and all the rest of his normal activites. 

We finished watching singing in the rain after getting caught and soaked in the rain/wind storm

Agnes has her favorite stuffed animal fox and the nose has been kissed off, so I fixed it with sharpie and kraft glue.

nature cures all ills (123/365e)

Emotions were still running high. I guess people didn't sleep well, and were up too late. the morning was rude, and way too angry. The day improved after that though.

Agnes and Felix and I made rhubarb cake, and then I read them Gina farina. Nina came over with croissants, so we had a lovely little outdoor picnic in the garden.

I went to picked up glass to replace the broken bookshelf door with Agnes, then it took a little extra Brian and Irma patience to screw the door on the hinges correctly. But now it works.

On the way out the door, a mercury thermometer fell off the wall and broke. That was bad. We cleaned it up carefully, it looked like the mercury stayed in the glass tube so we were lucky. I took Mary and Edward to Vogelschutzgebiet with the kids except Felix. We took photos and videos of birds and relaxed in the sun. We didn't stay long. Mary was nervous about getting to the studio on time, to record her part video. 

Stayed up late again with the siblings and the chatting.

either the world's stupidest pen or the world's most cursed pen (122/365e)

today was labeeby's birthday, so we made an extra effort to group-zoom call her.

another corona test for felix, so we hope he's out of quarantine early, but probably he doesn't get the test result early enough.

agnes and i make origami box together. she loved making it, and then she got the bug and started making new ones. she cut her own teeny-tiny square pieces (which weren't quite squares) and colored them individually, and it was a bit heartbreaking that it didn't quite fit together.

the strangest part of the day was the moment when we opened aunt frieda's (probably cursed, let's be honest) jewelry box of not very valuable things and doled them out to the people who were interested. it turns out that felix wanted most a pin and agnes wanted a magnifying glass. we know because mary's idea was to hold a silent auction. we thought for sure it was going the other way around. but the biggest surprise was a stupid old fountain-pen which sparked an unexpected battle between everyone. everyone went nuts about it. we tried making a writing test, but that hurt everyone's feelings. 

we soothed some hurt-feelings by watching singin in the rain, a perennial favorite, and the kids went right to sleep while i stayed up late talking to bruno and manuela.

strike (121/365e)

second day of video shoot. we were all a bit beat today, and nobody wanted to put their shoes back on, or the dresses. my ribs hurt from the whale boning. but we did, and attempted to recreate a big disco party with just the five of us. it was fun, although, again, we have absolutely no sense of time down in the basement in the extreme lighting. halfway though filming irmtraud showed me a video on facebook, bruno had posted the bach video that edward helped film. cool.

we did our strike pretty efficiently. and edward and i walked home at a relaxed pace together. mary went home ahead with irmtraud and a car full of equipment instruments and STUFF. 

the four of us siblings played a game of wizard which mary won, but claimed to not understand at all.

while we were out filming, felix lost his first tooth, although he didn't tell anyone, and refused to show his smile to anybody. i think he wants to figure out if the tooth fairy is real or not.

first day of filming for ding-a-dong (120/365e)

i left earlier than mary and edward to go bring the last of the lights and set things up. then makeup and dressing took a few hours, and we started shooting a bit before noon which was just in time to order pizza. going to pick up the pizza was a bit fun in unbelievably heavy makeup and fancy dresses and sneakers (our feet were already hurting with our high-heels, that we haven't worn for any reason since last year). we got some stares for sure. 

we got into the groove of filming close to when we had to leave. we did most of the scenes were all five of us are playing. but we had to stop by 8pm because of strict corona regulations.

that gave us siblings time to call up matt c for his 50th(!) birthday in worcester, and sing to him as he stood in the parking lot outside a sushi restaurant.