poetry found and unfound (201/365g)

I had big plans to go for an early morning walk on the beech, but I slept late and woke to the smell of french toast and fresh maple syrup. After breakfast, I read my book and kept falling asleep. 

We had a photoshoot in the afternoon for family pictures, where the photographer was incredibly fast efficient.

Matt C. and Nina and James visited me from their vacation in Maine. I just had a feeling they were here, and my brother Ed was the go-between so that we could talk to each other. the final plan was a picnic on the beach. this gigantic house has something like 20 beach chairs, so we lugged them an an enormous wagon full of food the 30 yards to the sand, where the kids built a table out of rocks and we drank "alcohol-free" wine. At some point it got toooooo cold, so we came back inside, where our kids showed off various talents. James showed us some iron-work he had done, felix wrote poetry, theodore played the piano, and henry tried his best to get matt to read aloud from a raunchy women's romance he had found in the house somewhere.

throughout the day we had tried the concept of "found poetry" on various people, giving them books and opening them at random, and creating from what was found on the page. here is a collection of the results:

three from irma:

a little squeeze of gratitude
back my hand
jumpy; agitated
timorous; troubled
the tiniest step back
I was no threat.
reach out for a handshake
trembling fingers
Please don't walk away
would I walk away?
what did I feel?

start with a loving
start with the wealth
a wealthy old man
was more in love
over the years
magnified, i dreamed
build our legacy
our foundation
we'd be so much closer

locked behind with me
sweet mercy
as much pleasure
after a long time
under the light 
stepped
covering
throwing
laughing
catapulted
waiting for this moment:
don't rush.
bar the door

one from tara:

First song all clapping
do whatever
win Oscars
head back
laughing, clapping
I don't know
so much chaos
a fleeting moment
I forgot who I was
I forgot who I'm with
I forgot myself
A fleeting moment gone.

one from nina:

the human mind
wonderful abundance
as it wills
will return what's planted
futile, mysterious land
worthwhile goal or confusion

and two independent poems by felix:

a picnic on the beach
they all laughed and ate a peach
swam around in the sea
spread the honey of a bee
onto a piece of bread
which they threw at each others' head
it bounced onto the king's head
and do you know what he said?
"Do not come back to my beach.
and do not eat another peach"

orange blossom on a tree
getting watered by the sea
i have really no idea
why in sea there is no "c"
over here i can see
the orange tree being pollinated by a bee
now the oranges will grow
but they will grow so very slow
i'll pick my orange by the sea
next year i'll plant a lemon tree.

switching off between walking and lazing (201/365g)

Breakfast in the morning was chaotic, with nobody knowing how to make coffee with the machines, and everyone wanting oatmeal their own way. I slept very late - we had to sleep backwards on our bed because the floor is not level and with our heads at the headboard they would be lower than our feet. Tara arrived! Her cat had been bitten by a snake on Wednesday, and she's taken the last few days to make sure it's back on its feet.

I read and lazed around for a bit, while other people walked around. It's pretty easy to be lost in this big house, or just not found by others. 

Most important for Felix and Tara was the soccer final today. Hooray. We had to plan around that. We took a delightful ice-cream run, before rushing back to switch on the TV. I hid away from the game and read some more.

Making dinner for 15 people in an unknown kitchen was an adventure. I made 5 cups of rice, and had no idea how long it would take for the water to boil on a stove that seems to go unreasonably slowly.

Long walk on the beach near sunset after dinner, which was most relaxing, and more reading and lazing before bed. Not so bad if you like that sort of thing. Was wonderful to dip our feet in the Atlantic again!

heading to maine (200/365g)

Woke up sore, all lopsided from contra, around 7, and Brian was already on the train to Framingham to do a 5k park run there. He got back around noon. 

Felix couldn't wait to get to the library to get the second book of a series that he finished yesterday. They didn't have that, but papa was delighted that he found the entire herodotus history audiobook which can stream on his phone. We got out other books in the children's room, and walked out with a huge stack of books. 

Back to bjs to return the clothes that I bought yesterday in the wrong size. 

Did some borax treating against ants, we had lunch, and packed, leaving later than Brian wanted. It started raining while I was drinking a cup of coffee with papa. Meanwhile, Rainer and the boys invented a bucket ball game, trying to get the bucket to flip upright by shooting a basketball into it. 

We packed all the boys into the teeny tiny mini Cooper, and drove up to Maine,stopping at the library again for Felix, where he happily got his second book. 

The house in York is unbelievably huge. After that cramped ride in the mini, we all really enjoyed being able to stretch our legs.

Felix settled right onto the couch with Kevin to watch the world cup 3rd place game, which ended 6-4 England vs France. He and Henry stayed back while Kevin Brian and I went another 70 miles north to contra in topsham. Ultimate luxury: two nights in a row contra dancing. This one was small but molto-energetic. The clementines were playing, and they kept the mood up. 

early run + late dance = sleepy (199/365g)

Brian and I woke I stupid early again and Brian was just heading out for a November project bancroft tower walk/run, so I went with him. We did that for an hour and then stopped at price chopper for bagels because Brian had a craving. We brought the toaster outside and the boys devoured those bagels completely. That was a big hit. 

Papa and I went to bjs where we bought fruit that was devoured the second we arrived home. 

Rainer Centa Theodore and Henry went to batting cages for the evening. 

Felix and Brian and I went to Contra in the evening, driving an hour and a half to get there. We ran into the caller will m's partner that we met in Normandy. She was the last person I danced with in Europe and the first I danced with in the US. Walking into the Montague town hall, she looked at me funny and I looked at her funny and then she said, do I know you from France?? 

We took a selfie and sent it to will who was really sweet and offered us admittance to Ashokan dance that he's calling at with jay ungar and molly mason- which we had to unfortunately turn down. 

I couldn't stop falling asleep on the drive back and Brian kept waking me up with loud hiccups.

nostalgia (198/365g)

reminiscing today on the patio Papa told a few entertaining stories about Uncle Lenny, grandpa's brother, who I didn't really know very well, despite his living in syracuse and living longer than my grandfather.

The story goes that Uncle Lenny was extremely intelligent and very quick to learn, but rigorously opposed to showing off. He would answer questions correctly on tests until he got to where he knew he passed and then just stop answering from then on. He passed all his classes with the barest minimum. This kind of behavior got him sent to the army, where, with his academic background, they wanted to make him a lieutenant, but he told them he'd rather be an enlisted man, and begin as a private. He had to learn to drive a tank despite being 6foot five and very broad, and barely fitting in the tank. His team had to learn how to extricate him from the tank in an emergency, by breaking his legs, but that never ended up happening.

His wife, Esther, after having been married for several, perhaps 10 or 15 years, in the family, pointed out one day to my great grandmother, lenny's mother, that she had never heard her play. Her first job was playing for silent films, and there was a piano in the room. Papa was there too, it was just his grandmother, Aunt Esther and him, and his grandmother sat down and said, "these are wildflowers" and played, "not any kind of specific piece, but it sounded like wildflowers."

...

It was a lazy kind of day, except for Brian, who ran 21km round trip in the blistering heat to Auburn, right next to the mass pike, to update his ez-pass, and return our 20 year old transponder that is no longer connected to any account.

I went through old papers in the basement this morning, and stumbled across some photocopies of music that I played with Theodore, Henry and Edward. 

Centa was wearing my dress to work, which was a weird thing to see - the one I bought for Danielle's wedding - I guess it's just hanging in the closet.

The wildfire-haze is still hanging over the NE, which just feels weird. The kids played pool and risk and  lots of basketball (i was awakened at 7am by dribbling outside the window), and I read the book Phil gave me and took photos, and fell asleep in the greenhouse for 3 hours.

hoops and dreams (197/365g)

many days missing for technical reasons.

but here i am again, here we are again. we have landed in the usa and are ready to begin our summer of paradise beneath the wildfire suns (there are wildfires in canada which is making the air hazy here, and the sun appear strange - appocalyptic, rainer calls it).

due to jet lag we were up at 5 am. 

first thing (with coffee) was to play a bit of the new banjo.

EVERYTHING IS BIGGER HERE!

(also the thrift stores!) walking around savers with henry and edward i ran into christine who was there with her kids walter and donald, donald celebrating his 13th birthday today. what a coincidence. i bought 10 books for no particular reason.

reading: all my friends are dead

for edwards birthday LAST year, he had gotten a sweet basketball hoop that just needed assembly. no problem, would go quickly - a few minutes. ended up taking edward, henry and me 4 hours, and we needed all the help we could get from grandpapa, brian, theodore, felix and rainer.

cooked dinner in the evening, and then went off alone to have a spot of beer and download some open source programs for my new laptop. 

still don't know how to use my cpl filter, but i'll figure it out i hope. now i will just read one of these new books and fall asleep.

supposed to be able to control reflections

like a line (98/365g)

i went to vienna to see renate's ausstellung in page 84 - actually the office of an advertising agency with the motto "„Out on the edge you see all kind of things you can’t see from the center. Big, undreamed-of-things – the people on the edge see them first.“ their name and motto they got by opening vonnegut's Player Piano to a random page (page 84)... Her ausstellung was really beautiful.

talked to maria organ about henry and found some possibilities for him to play but she was thinking they are too difficult - we'll see what he ends up with. 

right when i got to vienna, otto was waiting for me at the oenb, where he had pre-reserved a piece "kassandras ruf" for me at the musiksammelung. we spent some time photographing the score for personal reasons only, and then went together to a lovely coffee shop in the sun, where we payed more than 30 euros for 2 coffees and a single kaiserschmarrn. i had invited magda(lena) from contra to the gallery, and so we hung out together a bit, including for a pizza dinner. altogether i spent 5 hours in the train today, almost all of which was updating and editing my blog. there are no quick tasks. but i did it and now i feel good! - next up, pictures!

tuesday is the new monday i guess (97/365g)

the whole day today felt like monday. now the week feels too short! also, today was the first day since the time-change where we had to really wake up early enough. the workers for the rollos got here at 7:30 and hammered and banged around till the afternoon, finishing the job in record time. i went to work and then to ysop with only 2 people (not including philipp came over for a little bit in there) and we argued about payment, because i really don't want them to pay extra when not so many people come - i feel like that's not fair. this time i won the argument. 

theodore practiced calling a contra dance when he got back from singschule after 9pm. 

felix had a soccer tournament at school and apparently his team won every match. that was pretty cool for him. 

sadly vacation is over already (96/365g)

easter monday was fun and stress-free. 

mary and her family headed out in the afternoon after a wonderful walk to the mur where we fed the ducks and threw rocks in the river. we did a woodcut photoshoot where theodore got to release the shutter of the hasselbad. we played some tunes and got ready for some contra stuff, and also tried some songs for a potential gig.

easter sunday (95/365g)

first easter in years that i had no gig of any kind. first easter in years with nice weather. honestly the best and nicest easter in years. 

brian sang mass in the morning, i got all the kids to even go with me! it was an absolutely perfect day. we waited to eat until mary and family got here. the kids made an egg hunt that may have been a bit too difficult for jacob, but he was excited about it just the same. got jacob to eat vegetables (apparently that is amazing!). watched the pirate, an absolutely terrible movie, but everyone watched the whole way through, so i guess that's something.

we made the world's shortest easter fire 24 hours late: everyone threw one piece of christmas tree in the fire and we sang dona nobis pacem, then i put the fire out and we all went back inside - i was more nervous than usual about the rules. 

the easter bread is rising beautifully shortly before midnight (94/365g)

worlds shortest session with phil - brought him fisher's hornpipe the book to read, and we played a song or two before he had to leave for hauptbahnhof. 

we started the easter bread, wrote on easter eggs. theodore and i went online shopping for a banjo on craigslist in worcester. ended up ordering one online to be delivered. this summer trip is getting expensive - fiddle stompbox banjo etc.

we didn't make an easter fire. mary called after 10pm telling us that they were arriving tomorrow after all, so we were overjoyed. these holiday preparations always take a strong toll on my mental health, i realize that i am the only one who cares enough to make the things happen, but i am totally sad if they don't happen, and i wish anyone else cared about something enough to make it happen at any cost. 

chagrined (93/365g)

met with renate for lunch after lunch, (that is, i had lunch at home, and then i met renate and her friend.)

she gifted me a box of chopsticks that includes 5 pairs of chopsticks - perfect for our family. i also got 2 hardboiled eggs. no we won't make that 3 hard boiled eggs. then i totally fell asleep reading, and meanwhile Sinan from echos academy, brought me back my viola that I loaned him before asking me while he was standing in the doorway leaving, if he could borrow it again. haha. of course i said yes.

i fixed my transcription of godman's bottoms because phil noticed that it was consistently one beat off. at first i denied it but then when i listened carefully i realized he was completely right. chagrined! 

last supper (92/365g)

this time i took the lastenrad to work and brought renate's gallery stuff to her home afterwards. the wind was against me the whole time, i almost fell of the bike, and i was worried about breaking the artwork, but i got it there finally. also finally threw away the microwave which needed to be brought to the special recycling place. it was a tough ride is all i'm saying. 

then centa and theodore and i went to the last supper mass. on the way home i stopped at akdag (officially closed already but they always let people keep buying while they clean up) and got olives and bread and zaataar and feta for our little last supper. i suggested everyone eat in their shoes, but only theodore and i did that. 

and i had a late night fiddle jam session with phil at his place in the evening were we just drank red wine and philosophised about happiness. not so musical but we did make a set list for an upcoming (in july) gig.

no jokes on april fool's - no joke! (91/365g)

worked at kunstgarten and it got later and later and later. at the end of my work day i had to get irmi's hearing aids cleaned, and pick up my knives which took so long that i almost didn't make it to the buffaloes meetup where i found out that werner will not playing with us anymore - definitely haven't written to him yet, because i don't know what to write. 

i went to the irish session at the dublin road in the evening, and had fun, but left when my tolerance for noise was reached.

not enough abstract watercolors in the world! (90/365g)

did art with nina, first i met her after work and printed some posters (btw anais was annoyed that we found a typo on the thing she made) and we printed some poetry on fancy paper. we also used fancy paper to print that poem josef sent me a few days ago. first i had to cut the edges off the paper so it didn't wreck the printer - then i had to rough the edges back up so i had that handmade look again.

then we took separate ways home, brian went to shape singing and nina came to me and we had prosecco and painted. i was very unzufrieden with my abstract watercolors - nick told me years ago that there is not enough abstract water colors in the world - i tend to agree.

10 minute job will take at least 10 days (89/365g)

Brian didn't manage to fix the front gate latch. I didn't want that to be the whole day, but I guess it takes that long. I got the kids to clean up a whole bag of paper junk from years gone by, and I also finished the de-painting the bathroom door finally. Baked bread. Made buckwheat pancakes. Still have a low grade headache (4th day!) I was super tired and lay down with Kristin Lavransdotir which is such a difficult book to read because it is soooo physically large and heavy that it always falls on my face.

 
With Sina I we did a work evening. For him i biked like an insane person to the camera store at südtirolerpl only to find that the manual focus lens that he wanted from there before closing time was actually not there. got a different one instead - those manual lenses are still kind of the best i think. increadible the fotos he was taking with his adapter ring. 

palm sunday (88/365g)

Palm Sunday - Theodore and Brian sang in the mass. I couldn't convince Henry and Felix to come along. The acoustics outside, where they began the mass, were terrible. It is still unbelievably windy. Brian went for a 25km run with some park-run friends - he went half of the way on his own, because he left nearly an hour late because we hadn't changed all the clocks forward by an hour yet. Went to the Foersters to grill, but it was too windy to be outside. The adults watched Tampopo while the kids spent the time not agreeing to do any one thing - great, but very weird, movie.

On the way there, we missed the bus by a hair, and had to wait more than 10 minutes, which gave me enough time to write a tune. While looking for a title, I saw on the info-screen that it was the 140th anniversary of Steinitz winning the first world chess championship, so the tune got named in his honor... Steinitz's Rag. It's a pretty great little tune, if I do say so myself.

no more angel voices (87/365g)

ferien are here! end of singschul! Brian and I got a message from Andrea saying that "ab sofort" Theodore and Henry were no longer supposed to come to Gruppe 3. She's never kept any boys after stimmbruch before but I guess this last weekend in Salzburg really clinched the deal for her. Henry and Theodore were disappointed but accepted the inevitable. 

The Zorns were having a birthday party for Artur which we went to in Eggenberg. The kids did bow and arrow shooting and I lay lazily in the sun. My head is quite hurty from the little bit of sleep-deprivation and I think also the weather. Literally under the weather.  we watched Zelig this evening. despite everyone being seemingly entranced the whole movie, they all told me it was "quite boring" when it finished... eh, that's ok.

hornstrauch (86/365g)

I essentially didn't sleep at all last night, the wind kept me up and actually even scared me a bit. In the morning I think every pine cone from the tree was on the floor. I filled the bio-trash almost to the brim with downed pine needles and cones and branches. Josef and I wrote back and forth to each other, because I sent him my poem from a few days ago and he wrote a translation - which I think is even better than the original. - i say that really unwillingly but it is true - it expresses my ideas better than i did myself in english. - you be the judge... i do very much like the word "dogwood" 

I made bärlauch pesto from the garden. I cooked as fast as I could so the kids would be able to eat before they moved on to their next stuff. Theodore got home with incredible Math Olympiad results - 4th in Styria/Kärnten with the privilege of going on to the next round. We need to celebrate! Theodore and Henry were at quartet with me, and we actually did a lot - they even totally participated! Met up with Niko and walked around. It was really windy and my head was hurting. Eventually we got ourselves a tea. He told me about how medieval parliament works and I told him about the differences between butterfly bush and lilacs.  Weird gig at Café Wolf in the evening. I was pretty nervous about it actually, but when I got there and saw how disorganized everything was I spent the time being a bit bored and speed sketching the other participants. it was essentially a glorified open-mic night. 

expectation: the band play three pieces and i play with them. reality: band plays ten pieces, i play two.
expectation: we start at 8. reality: we started at 10
expectation: i play no solos. reality: he points at me and says "go" ... err... half the band goes on, the other half doesnt,  eww.

cute little diminutions (85/365g)

Brian and I walked Theodore to the hauptbahnhof this morning to send him off to Leibnitz to participate in the Math Olympiad pre-round. He definitely doesn't need us to walk with him, but we went for the fun of spending a tiny bit of time together. Went directly from there to work where I wrote a application for a grant in luxemburg. Didn't play a note in my baroque violin lesson - instead we talked about diminutions. Stayed for kammermusik, and when I was finally home Brian had a Circle Mirror Transformations rehearsal.