Hiking with a 40 year old Guide Book

So the kids had some time off,  (more about that in the next post) and we decided to go do some hiking.

First, we have to decide where to go. Maps and such. 

STEP 1: Hike is behind a hospital, we go there, but the hospital looks newer than our guide-book, so we just bushwhack up the hill.

Happy at the top. From there we see what we think is the trail ..... that's right ..... back at the bottom of the hill. That's ok.

Nice little pathway.

/

Then followed a logging road

Found some Hirsch on a Hill

and went home. :)

Theodore's Birthday Poem

I've been writing a little poem to him on his birthday most years of his life. Here's this one.

Theodore's six
and knows the tricks
to make us smile
can bike a mile
and loves to run for fun

Theodore's six
and knows the tricks
to swing on boards
and play some chords
and write about his kite.

Theodore's six
and knows the tricks
to invent new things
and tie with strings
he's full of creative ideas.

Happy Birthday, little Theodore!

Birthdays

So we celebrated some February birthdays!

Theodore turned 6, and Cecilia, a leap-year child, turned 7 only three days later.  For a present, Aunt Centa gave her nephew "Now We Are Six" by A.A.Milne. Mary and Martin and Agnes came to visit too!

 We did so much baking for Theodore's birthday.
* Ingrid baked him a cake in the shape of a train, that had a real chimney. It was so big it the photos needed to be stitched into a panorama.

* Theodore baked "apple roses" (rolled up apple and pie dough that gets baked in a muffin tin that looks like flowers, pretty!) for his kindergarten class.
* Theodore also made an Altwiener Patzengugelhupf from a recipe he found in a cookbook, for his own birthday cake.
* Not really baking, but Theodore also made some Spätzle for his dinner.

There was also sheets painting (with fabric paint), and cars playing. Ingrid made her house into a terrific party area just for Theodore, and he loved it. So did his brothers and cousin!

apple roses baking

the littlest ones helping with morning coffee time.

spaetzle making.

Now We Are Six

Theodore's "NEW" (30 year old) instamatic.

Theodore's Gugelhupf.

Henry with cars

Happy Agnes.

Then we went home and played with the Amazon box from Dudidadi and Tante Puk for hours.

 We did so much baking for Cecilia's birthday, too.
She wanted a "typical kid's birthday party" so we went a little crazy on the sweets. Fine by me!

 It's obviously not the season for my birthday, but it felt like my birthday a little bit, because I got a great present - Amanda came to visit me for a few days! She wrote a post that also includes Centa's birthday.

Here's Amanda's version

And she got there just in time to fix my cake. so it looked awesome.

and more importantly, tasted awesome:

Happy birthday Centa!

New Band in Koper

There's a new band in Koper, and in Izola, Slovenia. (look at a map, they are very close together)

They have a webpage: http://poetrio.com/en/

They are incredible.

We took a trip just to see them. Rented a car and left one morning because we heard there was a concert that evening.

My take on the basic concept of their band is to take posthumous poems from a specific friend of the band and set them to music that is somewhere between classical and rock. Then people can submit the "next level" of artwork. - Artwork inspired by the music.

Here is the beginnings. These amazing pencil drawings.

So it turns out, I'm aging, you see, I really went to two concerts in two nights, and was out past midnight ( :-0 ) and then I was a wreck after that. Hats off to these fine musicians who stay up late and produce lovely sounds. They are of course riding waves of adrenaline and applause.

In the lovelier of the two venues I didn't have my camera.

They are called "poetrio": a name they picked when they started 2 years ago. Then they needed more Mary in their lives, and now they are well past "trio" markings, but the name has stuck so far.

There's Mary, with the Sun, the symbol of Koper from their flag, in the background. This sun is everywhere in the Capodistrian region.

The band is dynamic. The percussionist used every percussion instrument under the sun - haha, get it?

Klara, the Klara-netist, quite extraordinaire. I met her mother too, who was in town from Australia, and her mother is quite terrific. We stayed out as a big group the first night, and I went to bed and barely made it up in the morning. I spoke to her the second night, and she told me about how she hadn't gotten to bed till 4am. ! The lady has more endurance than I.

From afar. This is how they looked from the door. 

Lute tuning at a live concert. Also the vocal lead and pianist of this band exudes charisma like nobody else. The biggest smile even while singing the most ethereal-sounding notes.

I just loved him using an old bow to make crazy sounds with the cymbol.  

Brian clearly wants to join the band, or start stealing cellos. You'll have to wait until the next blog-post to find out which he chooses.

We also got cake at the fancy dancy hotel that Poetrio was playing at. The few pictures they have up on their website show that they have spectacular cakes.


More spectacular however, are the names of the cakes.

My favorites.....

"Soup? No, Minestrone!" - - - THIS is the NAME of a CAKE!!
Also, "Cake as Beautiful as Oil"

then this happened.

Theodore (calling to me while running to me, clearly upset):

"Mama! Mama! Felix says this is a picture of Charlie Chaplin, but surely it's a picture of James Joyce." He was referring to a line drawing in a book.

I'd never noticed the resemblance. 

lifting of shops

Every month, we have to bring a snack for the kindergarten. Actually, two, since we have two kids in kindergarten. This month, against my better judgement, I signed up for both kids on the same day, specifically a Monday.

Sundays in Graz are quiet, and everything is closed. So I knew I had to do the shopping before then. Brian was in London all week, but then on Saturday we got some fruit from the farmer, and some cheese from the store, and I figured I'd bake bread on Monday morning, and bring it to the kindergarten by 7AM or so.

Fast forward to Valentines day night, Sunday night, we stay out late and have the fun of being out alone, thanks to my sister reading the kids to sleep.

Monday morning, I forget that I have to bring snacks, so I don't bake bread. At 7:30, I remember, oops, way too late to start that project. Quick, stop at the store on the way and grab some loaves of bread and hurry hurry.

So off I go, in the rain, on the bike. I run inside, grab my 2 things, and while I'm paying the cashier grabs my bag out of my hand and points at the cheese that I bought last week.

OH.

I didn't think of that.

I told him I bought that last week, and he asked if I could prove it. I couldn't.
He asked his coworker if she remembered me buying cheese last week. She couldn't. (of course not!)
I asked if he could prove I didn't have it with me on the way in the store. He couldn't.

So he let me go, thank goodness!

Whew, I was totally innocent of the wrongdoing, and yet I was nervous and stressed out. Imagine those people who are coerced into confessions for big crimes. I totally understand how that can happen. - You know, when you are stopped while driving, and your heart rate goes up up up, and you think of all the things you've done wrong in traffic?

Embarrassing ironic addendum to the story. Later that day, Felix accidentally helped me really take something from the same store. We bought some fruit, and he took one more than I knew about. I noticed when I got home and checked the receipt. Very oops. And very ironic.

corroboration

I didn't make everything up.

Amanda totally baked a cake with me last weekend. :)

A very special meal

Yes another post about food, and a little bit about philosophy - Phoodosophy?

We've been eating pretty much entirely local food. Because, well, it's available, cheap, and tastes amazing. All through the winter, farmers brave the cold, sometimes covering their delicate lettuces with blankets too keep them from freezing. But everyone hits a bit of winter blahs sometimes. I needed summertime tastes. In a cold snap in February.

This meal is not the most amazing meal ever, in terms of taste. But when we made it, the kids, who are used to brushing carrots, washing fruits, coring lettuce, noticed Mama just opening up packages. Why are we making this special meal?

Not photogenic, not the best veggies but.... Let's explain why this is so special.

First up, Quinoa, you traveled the farthest to be here. Produced in Peru, you were imported into the United States, and then brought in a Suitcase to Austria. You're a dry good, so you last a long time. Thanks!

Frozen basil. Probably Italian in origin, though you can't be sure.

This  cheese for garnish, somewhere between dry cheddar and parmesan, you traveled from Italy for sure.

Direct from China, packaged in Germany.

Broccoli "of unknown origin" but they are sure it's "harvest fresh" Hey that's one of our US brand names, what are you doing here?!

Corn from Austria. Ok that's kind of local. Kind of.

And my trusty Greek Olive oil. One of the only things that we regularly grab from out of country.

PLUS, not shown,  a handful of nuts from California, and some Tahini from Egypt.

Assemble them all. 5 continents. lots of countries. non-seasonal. = Underwhelming but overall VERY SPECIAL meal.

We are so lucky that we can have this kind of global possibility and chose not to use it.

Today? Fresh salad and fresh herbs and fresh potatoes and fresh eggs, direct from the farmer lady who calls me "Die Kleine" or "the little one" (debate is still open as to where that nickname came from)

Also green Oil from Pumpkinseeds pressed in the next town. The story's simpler and more boring, but you can taste the vitamins!

Cousins

So my cousins dropped by for a few hours (in January, yes, I'm behind). One from Germany and one from Switzerland. They were visiting their grandmother.

We went out for a few drinks starting at 10pm, and noticed we've gotten older.

Also, I found out that a martini in Graz is not a martini. I am not quite sure what it is though.

Breakfast and much needed strong coffee the next morning, then they were off again.

Somebody's Birthday

Somebody close to me had a birthday on the last day of January. :)

The end of January was pretty warm. It meant we could go for a walk on the Schlossberg, where we started off covered in warm winter clothes and ended up with me carrying all the coats and hats in a bag (I knew that would happen so I was prepared)
We had a dinner party for Brian, where he pretended he was surprised about everything.

One surprise highlight: Papa, don't look in the oven, there's a surprise in there!

Playing together, building ramps for their trains.

Brian has no idea what's in this one.

Or in this one...

Henry setting out with winter coat and hat and mittens...... and when we got there.......

We found crocuses.

And dandelions.

And right after taking this picture, a random guy came running down the Schlossberg barefoot.

This is the hazy view of the city.