August 2009

I have to say so far this summer break has been very enjoyable. We decided to stay at home and do touristy things here. That was a great idea. I actually did quite a lot of the things on my list.

We rode our bikes, and hiked, and went swimming, and had food from our garden, and made pizza from scratch, and went to Bamberg, and had barbecues, and the weather was fantabulous, and on the days that it wasn’t we sat indoors, making things. As always I haven’t been as productive as I had wanted to, but my piano is all working again (and the sound is much better now, I can’t believe it), and I have knit half an unplanned cardigan.

So, here are a few pictures (Well, quite a lot of pictures but I was amazed at how many things we had done without taking the camera.):

First harvest this year.

Hiking to the Andechs monastery.

Ammersee

Ammersee again (there’s nobody in the picture I know, by the way)

A day later we grilled the fish be bought at the lake, and again some of our own peppers.

We even moved the garden furniture. (And behind the furniture you can see the pots that hold all our tomato, eggplant, pepper, and chili plants. Right before the jungle of zucchini, and beans, and potatoes.)

We made lactose-free pizza from scratch, with spinach,and eggplant from the garden.)

I taught my son how to use a sewing machine, and he made several bags.

I went to the botanical garden.

And it’s hothouses.

We went to Bamberg as every year. (And I have no idea why the weather looks so grey, it really wasn’t.)

My son took a lot of pictures, including this one of me packing.

I read a lot of books, I knit a lot, I spun a lot (and I have to tell you about my new spinning wheel), went to beer gardens a lot, and rode my bike a lot. We’ll be having friends over on the weekend, I’ll prepare my sock knitting class for the German raveler meeting, and will help my husband with his album in the making. He’s been busy recording and mixing for the last few weeks.

Two and a half more weeks to go. We’ve been enjoying our family time so much, I hope we can keep this up when school starts again.

You know how you always think you’ll have more time once summer break starts? That summer break that’s 10 days old today? Yeah. Me, too.

I have been doing things but posting here hasn’t been one of them. I’ve been playing computer games on my ipod, I’ve been ordering and receiving a new spinning wheel, a couple of weeks ago I found out that I probably have ADD, we’ve been making the most of every single non-raining day that we had so far, I found out that not only am I weighing as much again as just after I had the baby (I never was heavier, btw), I’m also completely unfit so that a hike that seemed like a breeze last year left me panting and with sore muscles for days this year (well, I wasn’t panting for days).

I’ve been reading books, watching Torchwood all through for the second time, and Farscape, finished two pair of socks, started two other pairs of socks, frogged back a quarter of an intricate lace shawl only to start something new with the same yarn, decided to also rip back a turtleneck sweater that I’m making (half-finished), decided not to order any books, CDs, DVDs, computer games, yarn, or spinning fiber ’til the end of summer break, only to buy four comics, and another game (it was only 4 Euros I swear).

I have a long list of things I want to do until the middle of September:

work out again (see above)
design and knit a lace shawl for a class I’ll be teaching next fall
install a new version of WordPress on my blog and that of my husband
sew some pillow cases and coasters
write a story about summer in the next ten days
ply the Corriedale I spun up, and spin up some lovely hand-dyed BFL I bought (that’s a sheep breed for those who don’t know, Blue Faced Leicester -I doubt that they really have blue faces, though)
write at least one blog post about “How to be idle” and “Idle Parenting” – for the record, these books are marvelous and eye opening, and very helpful. Now I feel like a revolutionary instead of a lazy person
tidy and maybe clean the house so that some flat surfaces will be visible again
pick up the guitar and play once or twice
ditto with singing and piano
have my piano repaired (which means that there won’t be any piano-playing for a week, since parts of it need to be removed)
go on at least two more hikes
go swimming with my son often so that maybe he will be able to swim at the end of summer
go to a party in Bamberg in two weeks
attend the first German raveler meeting in the middle of September and before that to prepare my class there
use the hammock and enjoy the garden as often as I can

Right now it’s raining, I have to answer a gazillion e-mails, and phone a handful of people but my son is upstairs with his grandma and my husband is recording bass lines. Oh, I’ll do some singing for him soon, too.

You know why I love vacationing at home? If I were somewhere else right now I’d have to sit in a tiny ugly hotel room with both my husband and son, sitting on uncomfortable beds with nothing to do but wait until it stops raining.

First half of summer break

This blog is still on

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