In the times of corona parents taught their offspring how to sneeze or cough without endangering those around them. The precaution must have completely passed family number three, because the children as well as their parents spread their germs generously, always leaving out the elbow trick. This morning at four I woke because of a really weird dream, and because I had to do a tour to the loo. But mostly, because my throat was burning. The germ spreaders have been successful, I should write them a thank-you card. Needless to say that I did not fall asleep easily afterwards, throtteling this bunch of idiots who gave me their cold in my mind. That´s by worst the most careless and ruthless family I have come to know. Not even my pleas did any good. I dread to think that they plan another visit at the end of November, and that they will be here for Christmas this year. Maybe I will decorate my private Christmas tree in the studio and charter a cook for Christmassy dinners, might be better for my health. The weird dreams I had did not make me feel any better- first I dreamed that our neighbour, the one with the cancer, had died. Well, it is a distinct possibility that this will happen any time soon- she has been brought to the hospital by helicopter three weeks ago, spent two weeks in the main hospital in Salzburg then got brought to a local one nearby. This does not mean that I want to dream this occurance twice- same topic, same people (me and daughter´s godmother), different locations. My next dream was so bizarre that I won´t retell it, but it involved an Austrian ski racer (female but looking a bit manly and secretly married to a woman) and her cat, which turned into a girl the moment she was with her mother. Yay, an animagus, forced by the coach, who had forbidden same-gender marriages among the racers. I must have read too many articles about the topic lately...
Needless to say that I spent most of the day sulking along and resting- in bed, on my recliner, on the sofa, covered by a blanket, because the house felt cold though it wasn´t. At some point I remembered that I had a new box of Boxagrippal in my drawer- my mind is a vast desert a times. Had I taken the pills sooner I would have felt better during day. Not that I would have dragged the darn lemon trees into the house by myself (too big, too heavy) because hubby was off all morning long, grocery shopping (two items), picking DiL2 and grandsons up at the trainstation and bringing them home (yay, they are back, double yay, they will be in school and kindergarten from tomorrow on). No cooking got done, we had leftovers aplenty, because neither Elsa nor Matthäus ate the Grammelknödel hubby had warmed. I had to make Topfenknödel for them, which they loved. Their mother not so much, because the rascals thought them way better than the ones she does. I told her to mix a slice of soft butter into the dough, which will enhance the taste, that´s all.
And finally, in the late afternoon, Charlotte and Konstanze returned from vacation. Girls are back, dog is back, what more could one want? You could also say the Huns are back- the two put an end to the row of quiet days we had during autumn holidays. I already dread tomorrow morning, when Charlotte´s cries of distress will wake us again...

Hubby has already removed most of the Halloween decoration, but I managed to take some pictures of the entrance area. Now you know whereto those knitted pumpkins went!

...about hackers. And family. And maybe about a few more things I won´t write about. I was half dead yesterday evening after having to get up so early. As usual, I wasn´t able to fall asleep quickly after being back to bed at four thirty, yet the obligatory reading of fanfic on AO3 won´t happen after the hacker attack, probably not for weeks. It had been such a delight to plow into those fics, even though some of them led to laughing fits beyond control. Yet after a short while I´d put my tablet away and sleep. Now I am mimicking hubby- a windmill discarded in a marital bed. I cannot even fathom how intense hatred towards fanfiction must be to even start such an attack, but the world has gone mad, so...
This morning I got woken by our grandchildren´s war cries- the two won´t fight often, but early mornings seem to be their favourite time to dig up the hatchet. Hubby stormed down to the living room to see what happened, and he was like a rhino in attacking mood. Which also meant that I had to give up on sleeping in. Turned out that the children were hungry, mum and dad were in the guestroom resting and had not allowed their offspring to turn the TV on. An effective way to get the grandparents out of bed and stay in bed themselves! But Matthäus, clumsy as he is, smashed two coffee cups when he wanted to bring them to the table. That sound and the ensuing howling made the parents leave their sanctuary, but only to console their howling child- it was hubby who did the sweeping up. For breakfast we had three different jars of jam- Elsa wanted apricot only, Matthäus raspberry, and hubby ate the one we had the last days, which was strawberry jam, the sort not one of the two will eat. I made me a roll with ham and rolled to the TV nook, being aware that I´d be followed. The remaining of breakfast got spent with chasing sticky fingers off the couch, while hubby, son and DiL had a quiet time. So, family life as usual...
Blessedly the family was off after lunch. For me the time of boxing Halloween decoration had begun, and that´s when it downed on me- some of the decoration DiL had sacked had been mine. Matthäus had been in love with the white baby ghost and the glowing spider (and the singing pumpkin, but that one had been Elsa´s favourite), but that does not mean that those things will turn automatically into his possession. Another lesson learned- mark your belongings off, or they will change ownership without you even noticing it! I won´t even blame the boy- it´s his parents (first and foremost his mum, who did the packing) who should have noticed the error. Well, they did, when they were halfway home and finally started asking questions...
Weather was very wet and cool today. Blessedly no snow, as weather forecast had feared it might come down, but still... I watered the lemon trees and put a foil over them. From tomorrow on the conservatory will be their hibernation quarter again, the Yuccas have to go to the mudroom, the palms will stay on the terrace a while longer. Only the strong survive...

...in the form of family number three invading at eleven in the morning. We got woken by some heavy birds doing a hop-along on our roof at seven, got up early to do last preparations, we warmed the goulash we had stored in the freezer, so no lunch cooking had to be done. From then on my poor ears were ringing because of the steady nattering of too many people in a house too small, even though Elsa was doing a lot of finger knitting and made one woolen hose after another, using up quite a lot of my good yarn while ignoring the one I gave her. But that´s Elsa, it cannot be helped. Hubby, son and grandson went to number two´s house to help out but did not come back for a long while. It was already getting dark when they reappeared (okay, the weather had detoriated a bit), and most of the preparations for Halloween snacks had been dealt with. Meanwhile DiL had incessantly talked about her new job and I had a severe headache. Not even typing today´s rather unimportant entry could be done in quiet, because our grandchildren seemed to be glued to me- apparently I am the better version of a grandparent. Now it´s back to the kitchen to do the ghosts in a blanket, before the youngsters will be out for trick or treating. BTW: my ghost in the lantern, mostly unoccupied the last weeks, was perpetually spooking along (which involves a lot of howling), since Elsa found the button to turn it on. I think that darn thing will go to the next church flea market in March- I do not want to cope with the same infernal noise next Halloween...

Today I finally made it out of the house, and three times at that! Granted, it was mostly by driving in my car, but still- progress, progress! I will not let autumn depression bring me down! Today hubby´s car was in for tyre change, but he had lost his lug nut socket and the repair shop did not know which one to use, so he had to go to VW first, to find the correct one. Back at the repair shop hubby´s slot had already expired and he needed a new one. So first thing I did was bring husband mine back to our home, because around lunch time we were supposed to get a visit from a company worker- our entry door, bought a few years ago, does not close properly anymore. One can lock it without problems, but cold air and wind make it into the entrance area easily. The mudroom is always icy in winter now, even though we have underfloor heating. At first we did not think much about it. Then we installed a heating panel, which started up, when temperatures in the room went under 14 degrees, which was pretty much all the time in winter. Some weeks ago hubby did a proper examination of the door and found that it was bent at both ends. He contacted the firm, and today was the day a worker would inspect the darn thing. Since hubby had to stay at home, I went to number one, had a friendly talk with him and his wife, got to see young Konrad but not the older boys, who are sick (and I did not want to pick up their germs, too old for this) then drove back home. Hubby and I had a very late lunch, then I brought him to the repair shop and made a beeline to Aldi to get some groceries I need for Saturday evening. Ghosts in a blanket, spider eggs, hubby will do spooky bacon, and that´s it. My guess is that Mrs Ozempic (DiL 3) will be in bed at eight, because she always does. And she is also used to take Elsa with her, even though her daughter would love to stay up late. While Matthäus would love to go to bed with his mum but must do so with his pa, which often ends with both coming back after half an hour- daddy fuming, his son grumpy, because he is so very tired. At this point I will pour me a glass of wine and retire to the conservatory, snitchig one of hubby´s Cuban cigars on the way out and have a good time. Maybe I will open a window to let in some ghost- no, that won´t work, Cassian told me lately the poor ghost would come in pixelated because of the fly screen, and ghosts might be spooky but never dumb :))

During the drive back home from Germany I had a so-called tee-hee moment. I am not a slowpoke when driving, more likely the opposite, but I try to keep to speed limits. So when I drove the obligate 105 km/h, when 100 is permitted, and got passed by a car driving 120 at least I remembered my good intents and did not chase after him but reduced my own speed to under 100. Two kilometres along the car that had passed me got stopped by the police. I must have grinned like a lunatic when passing by the police car...

Mood
amused
Music
HBP
Location
studio

...and I should definitely not scratch it during sleep. This morning I had to change the bedding again, because I bled all over it. It wasn´t even a big wound, but bled profusely. And I´m not even taking blood thinners! I hate changing the bedding- one day it will completely ruin my back!
Daughter´s flat got looked at: Yes, there is a bit of a water damage but barely seeable, humidity is a bit higher than usual but should go down now that the roof is repaired, the painter will come next week and hubby plans to install a new insect screen, since there´s still scaffolding in front of the window. I would not do it, not for all the money in the world, because daughter lives on the 7th floor. Looking out of the window alone does make me dizzy!
Another day spent inside the house- when I came back from the airport I saw the hunter´s moon clearly- next to no clouds in the sky, one day late, which is so typical, because I wanted to try out the handy tips I found on FB for taking better pictures on a mobile! yesterday night I was energetic, tonight I was tired and demotivated. When I got up, the sky had clouded over, and soon after the rain started. I tidied the guestroom, crocheted a bit (stocking number one is finished now), napped, warmed what was left of yesterday´s lunch, but all in all I was good for nothing. Too cold, too dark, definitely not my favourite season! I hope this apathy won´t stick- daughter will be back on Friday for baking Halloween muffins for her workmates and another early shift come Saturday morning. I so hope that family number three will realise that they won´t miss much when they will come only on Halloween day and hopefully go back to St. Pölten on All Saints Day, because one never knows, there´s one more day of autumn holidays on the second of November...
My car needs more repair work, and hubby will arrange it- means I will get to know the exact date two days before, because he surely will forget to tell me, as always. Only that I need to get out more often next week- appointment at my bank, dentist, Tedi and Action- vitally important, because Christmas is near and I need a few (or more) things for deco crafting. I studied the leaflets, and they look promising.
Halloween decoration will be off on the first, I will let Elsa and Matthäus do a hunt for skulls and the like (like an Easter egg hunt)- the winner gets what´s left of the Halloween candies. Elsa will win, of course, but she always shares with her brother, be it sweets, be it germs. And I can sit and watch, or crochet. I opt for the latter...

...that the demolition work will switch over to building work soonest. Today was the last day of the old floor plate, the geometrician did a final measuring, from tomorrow on the excavator can start with digging out the antifrost layer for the new plate, which will be considerably bigger- there´ll be two houses, one even with flats. The old garden with its fruit trees will be sorely missed. Poor neighbours, who will get a building instead of green to look at from now on!
Early morning drive to the airport was boring, the only interesting thing to see the hunter´s moon showing among clouds. Soon after we had more rainfall, which finally stopped around seven, when I finally woke after more strange dreams, not that I´d ever have not-strange ones. Today I was back to the flat I grew up, sorting out books with my lover. Considering that in my parent´s living room there´d been one long wall filled with books up to the ceiling a tediuos affair. I sorted exactly three books out, before I reverted to my bedroom, this one, too, full of books. And a bed. And a lover. Hubby got kicked in the shin, because I wanted my peace. Only that he did not know which peace, because he hadn´t done anything improper.
The late-autumnal weather is driving me insane. After dark, wet days we got a drier but still dark day. It was a bit warmer, but not warm enough to make me go outside and give the hydrangea paniculate a first pruning back before the big one that will come in February. Needs to be done, or the branches might snap if there´s snow and strong winds. The other hydrangeas are safe until spring, their branches are more robust. Unfortunately the next days will be considerably colder even, with temperatures mostly under ten degrees, so preparing the garden for winter is priority now. The bad thing is that with the cold there´ll also be rain, plenty of. That might be a bit of a hindrance- I´m like a cat, prefer to stay in the warmth when the weather is bad!
Daughter came back from work livid- her landlady forgot to inform her that an evaluation of a water damage in her flat, caused by a leaking roof, was planned for tomorrow morning, when she will be at work and hubby has to bring car and trailer for service. That landlady is a special case of mental confusion. Not the first time she forgot about important affairs. Daughter spent the afternoon on her phone, calling landladies, evaluators, the construction company. Hubby will go to daughter´s flat tomorrow in the morning- he thinks he´s the only one competent enough to deal with the evaluator. Which means he thinks that I am incompetent, since I had consented to help out. Mister caretaker strikes again. Just let him...

He must have apprenticed to DiL2, who often brings home foreign groceries and makes her poor husband try out new recipes she wants to taste but definitely not cook. Well, I am pretty sure that I wasn´t the one who bought the pomegranates. I also wasn´t the one who presented a new, Persian recipe. And I definitly did not rummage in the drawers for walnuts, at a time when all shops here had already closed and weren´t to open for the next two days. So when I came down this morning to have breakfast and found a bowl with pomegranate seeds and hubby telling me that I was the lucky one who had to do the fesenjan I was mightily baffled. After all hubby had been studying the recipe for days then. And had I known the outcome I´d have ordered advieh, to not have to tinker about the seasoning. Though the hardest part of it was not if we had all those spices but where hubby had hidden them. He truly is a master of making things disappear! The good thing was that it was not difficult to do the recipe. It did not even take much time. But my take is that if one so clearly insists on doing a meal and buys the ingredients, he can also do the cooking. And not bragging about cooking skills (as hubby had done in front of the two ladies on visit) then backpedal!
For the first time there´s snow on the mountain we can see from our bedroom window. Snow came down to 1200 metres (my guess). And it´s also cold down in the valley- nine degrees. Appropriate to October, they say. ´Don´t want it´- that´s what I say. Hubby was out just before lunch, to rake the leaves together which had come down during the attack of strong winds. The construction firm sent a worker who re-erected the site fence. I watched those outdoor activities, made me another cup of coffee and supervised the chicken simmering in pomegranate-walnut sauce. I think the recipe has potential to make it onto the will-do-again list. Even though I am not a fan of people chewing on pomegranate seed!
Hubby was off after a short period of resting- he needs to help son with taking down and storing the boys´ trampoline. I continued crocheting a Christmas stocking with absolutely no clue how to do the heel. Another try and error process ahead. Now let´s see how long it will take for me to figure it out- might take a while...
Daughter arrived in the afternoon for coffee, crossword puzzles and a late lunch, bringing fresh germs into our household. Vienna´s weather must have been as unpleasant as ours, and forgetting to take a warm coat with her did not exactly help. Even if her friend volunteered to give her one of hers- that friends is more than twenty centimetres shorter than daughter mine! So I might have to battle another cold soon...

We had a rather windy and cold day, never made it over eight degrees and also got some rain. Hubby and I dragged along- yesterday evening was not that bad but lasted longer that we would have liked. The two ladies left at eleven, I went to bed and hubby followed soon after- one cannot quit watching the last part of a 6-episode film!
In the morning hubby tested the new heater in the bathroom while he took a shower and decided that it worked better than expected, I changed the bedding and turned the washing machine on, then we cooked lunch. Oh joy, baking flatbread! With yeast on top of that! Never again, there surely are shops selling those! After lunch we rested, I under the duvet, because it was only 17 degrees in the bedroom. Hubby turned the heating to non-stop service for the duration of the cold spell, apparently one gets chilled more easily when getting old. That´s okay, in a few days temperatures will rise again...
Typing on my PC was still a ´cool´ thing, because even with the radiators giving off warmth the cold was creeping through the cracks of the balcony door. So I quit, and husband mine put on a sealing strip which should help with the draught. only that it took almost two hours for the room to heat back up then. And just when I sat down in front of my PC again, all hell broke loose. So the strong winds hadn´t been the predicted storm, this was it! Since it was so dark already we did not get to see much what made it into our garden for disposal. The only thing we definitely know is that building firm will have to re-erect the construction site fence, it blocks the street on both sides of the u-turn. At the moment we would not be able to leave. Not that we´d want to- too much rain, winds too strong, we too tired...

Short entry, because things turned from not so good to worse- neighbour Whatsapped yesterday to ask me if we could postpone her visit to today. I was barely able to read her message because of the many typos. So I wrote her back that Saturday had been the day she herself had decided to come for a visit, even showed her the message she wrote. She informed me that this was great and that she would bring another neighbour with her. Now I am truly screwed- two of the sort? Hubby will surely panic, he does not like the two of them. Me, neither. At least, not much.
So today was mostly a day for tidying for me and grocery shopping for hubby. Since we will have two days with shops closed (Sunday, as usual, and Monday because of Austrian National Day) we will try two new recipes to celebrate- shawarma and fesenjan. Why hubby has bought so many pomegranates I don´t know. What I know is that he can peel and deseed them by himself, though I am the one who got instructed how to do it by a Turkish friend. That does not mean that I have to like the process. Daughter, who will come to us on Monday, will surely love the Persian dish- after all I kindled her love for foreign dining and did not insist on cooking à la Mutti! Because in my case that would have turned out really bad- my mum had been a horrible cook!

It takes a very long time for the website to load, if at all. There are days I think it would be better to completely switch over to Dreamwidth. Not that this page had no faults, but it´s a bit more stable. My mobile doesn´t load LJ at all. Happened all of a sudden. One moment I was reading posts, the next the page was off. Turned off. Blocked. No clue what happened. LJ still works on my PC and the tablet, which is a bit of relief...
This night was the coldest we had this autumn- one degree. Hubby hadn´t read the weather prognosis and dashed to the basement to bring in the bacon, which must not be kept for smoking under such cold temperatures. When I came down in the morning and wanted to put on my slippers I noticed that the floor wasn´t icy anymore- hubby had turned the heating on. Finally! It really was about time! We are seldomly over twelve degrees during day now, which is apparently still too high for the middle of October!
Not much got done- no cooking (hubby did), only a bit of housework, and three of my fingernails died during my attempts at getting the label off (of?) a huge glass bottle son bought for me at a flea market. I was at a loss today, torn between what I had wanted and what I got. My plan had been get up, take a shower then drive to Kitzbühel to the only Jysk shop which still sells the Christmas bedding I want. But hubby protested vehemently that we did not need any new bedding and that driving there will cost a small fortune. Says the man who is off by car thrice a day if not more often. Kitzbühel is not that far away and there are some very appealing restaurants in between. However, when hubby says no it is definitely a no...
Daughter is off to Vienna this weekend, to visit a friend who just moved into a new flat. She has swapped two early shifts with another friend but forgot to tell me. That means that I cannot tell off our neighbour, who invited herself over to have a drink with me. I know how that goes- hubby will be in bed before she will finally leave. She is the only person I know who will insist on having coffee after ten in the evening. Sometimes I will hear her when she rummages in her flat at three in the morning. Or calls for her cats (she has three now, so there´s a lot of calling). Or sings children´s songs. She´s a brick short of a load. But she likes me, which is very unfortunate...

I hate days like today- windy, cool and very, very dark. We did not get any rain, though we should have. Hubby lit a fire in the late morning, because it was too cool in the living room. And no, 20 degrees in the living room is not enough to get through the cold season, as a climate scientist did tell us. She also told us that soon we´d have to do without house and car and live in flats in town. I cannot write what I´d tell her, should I ever meet her! Not even husband dearest left the house save for bringing the paper collection bin back. We had had early breakfast, because at seven demolition work started anew- what is it with hubby declaring ´Two day, three at most, and all will be done´? The walls of the old house are gone now, the floor plate remains. Then there´ll be excavation work to get the power line underground, means that our street will be blocked for some time. The architects of the new objects are swarming to get signatures of all residents affected, to finally be able to start building work. I fear the noise won´t stop for quite a while...
Not much got done during day: hubby read, I solved crossword puzzles and decorated the conservatory. The moment I turn around more skulls will miraculously appear and need a place where they can spook along. Only after after-lunch resting hubby and I were ready for a bit of housework. I resorted my table cloths, put them in baskets and shelved them in the rack the monstera is placed on- until yesterday I wasn´t even able to reach those compartments! I only had to eliminate two spiders to make them usable! Meanwhile hubby cleared out the bathroom cabinet, which stood a bit lopsided he said. I hadn´t noticed, my guess is that husband mine, self-declared caretaker, was bored- again. Good thing is that I am not bored easily, so I will leave lots of work to him, and he loves it! And just when I was about finishing this entry my sense of hearing noticed the soft murmur of rainfall. That´s good- I won´t have to water the plants remaining in the garden, and the palm trees won´t get more water to drown again, because they are safely stored on the terrace...

... that three young ladies (not that young, they are all over 25) can win the literary quiz of the local library when none of them does actually read? But daughter and her friends managed to do so- their only preparation was doing literary quizzes online until three in the morning the night before. But they made it, and all that after I had a laughing fit of epic proportions during the drive to the airport, when she told me of their endeavour. Good grieve, what is it with today´s world...
Today I woke at six thirty to the sound of the excavator banging against the few remaining walls of the old house. I ignored the noise and slept till eight- have been up to watch the first three parts of a 6-episode series, so went to bed rather later than earlier, absolutely not what I had originally planned.
The day was sunny and mild from morning on, but not as warm as they had promised. Hubby was off to sister dearest, who was not able to operate their heating. So there was plenty of time for me to do the remaining pruning of the monstera- half of the plant went into the organic bin. I did not wear garden gloves and have some itching red spots on my forearms now- should have googled early enough to realise that the plant´s juice is toxic. I also cleaned the windows in the bathroom and reorganised the plants on the windowsill, so that poor monstera will get more light. Did the same with the plants in the kitchen. Sorted out foodstuff that had made it over expiry date. Quite a lot of it followed the monstera leaves, I won´t risk a bad stomach. No cooking today- hubby had bought Grammelknödel at our butcher- the best ones I have eaten by far! And then I rested a bit. I only woke, when my toes felt cold, because the sun was already behind the mountain range and the window was still wide open. I quickly closed it- not that the lot of ladybugs sitting on the window frame would make it into our bedroom! The late afternoon was spent with carpet beating (new hobby) and cutting some of the hydrangea blooms I want to spray black for Halloween decoration. The house is ready, even though it´s most frequent guests will be absent. I think I just have started to hate the dratted autumn holidays...

Yesterday the father of a friend died at the ripe age of 89.

wiseheart might or might have not seen him on TV many years ago in one of those court shows everyone seemed to watch then. Well, not me, I must have been otherwise occupied! He was a barrister and author of law books, a funny person, only that the last years had been hard on him (his wife in a wheelchair after a heavy stroke, one of his daughters admitted to a mental health clinic). When dementia hit him hard it was a blessing for him, but definitely not for our friend. I still vividly remember those long evenings spent at the lake shore with plenty of food and wine... when we left for our lodgings, he was talking Salzburger dialect and I Frankish. And he had those strange eyebrows with longish hair, a few of them growing straight upwards, which gave him a bit of a diabolic look. We won´t do the 350 kilometres drive for the funeral- we are simply too old for such bleak occasions. There´s enough of those going on in our neighbourhood...
I was lucky that the drive to the airport was done without fog. On the drive back home I noticed tiny drops of wetness covering the windscreen, and when I got up at eight everything was grey and stayed this way all day long, even though we were supposed to get sun from midday on. Well, maybe tomorrow, the last day of this year´s golden October, before real autumn with fog and darkness will strike. I do not even want to think of the oncoming weekend, when we will switch back to standard time, and evening will fall in after five in the afternoon. At least the trees are rather rebellious this year, quite a lot of them refuse to change from green to brownish colours. That´s strange, and even more so because the rebellious ones live up the hills, while the trees in the gardens around are quicker with changing colours.
I did some decorating in the conservatory, to distract myself from being bone tired. Found that the batteries of the hanging candles have to be changed- where is hubby, when I need him? Surely you won´t want me climb a ladder! Oh well, hubby was outside in the garden, dragging the palm trees from the garden wall onto the terrace. That was nice of him, even though temperatures won´t drop that much during night. Four degrees even the lemon trees can endure, before they have to get brought inside!
What is it with the pattern tutorials on Facebook? Found a new one which looked promising. But only until I noticed that part of the instruction for doing the heel was missing. Definitely not funny- must be the newest trick- draw clicks then steer people over to Etsy and make them pay for the pattern. Bite me! I can figure the pattern out by studying the pictures! Will do so tomorrow, when I am more awake!

Demolition work started at eight in the morning. Digger operator must have a heart for all those elderly people around. Aren´t many here which are not yet in retirement. Another reason that work started late was that it is so dark already in the morning. Today I got up at seven fifteen and had to turn the lights on for the walk down to the kitchen. Prepared breakfast, read the newspaper, did a tricky sudoku. I did care little about the noise outside, but the cats of our neighbours did. They came from the terrace, from the entrance door, sat on the windowsills and meowed loudly to be let in. Only Fini stayed at home, which is good. Fini is the bane of all other cats here- taller, fatter, very dominant. I´ve seen only one fight she did not win- it was the fight for the salmon´s skin. So one cat after another entered, got petted, got a goodie meant for Sony, left, came back soon after. Maybe they wanted to watch me finish the cat scarf, probably it was too loud for them outside or the digger blocked their hunting grounds- how would I know! But it´s nice to have cats for petting without having to feed them!
Today was a very nice day. Sunny, warm (20 degrees), and since the cats wanted in anyway the terrace door stayed open until four in the afternoon, when the sun hid behind the range of hills. After lunch I was off in my car to buy a book in the bookstore, which they needed to order. So nothing new then. I now know why so many people order at Amazon. Had I done so, the book would be here in our house on Monday. In the shop it´s Tuesday, and only if I am lucky. And I have to drive- again. I am pretty sure that the new tax for parcels our government established will only go into the public purse but won´t help local traders...
Back home I stitched the cat head onto the scarf and darned in the last threads. The picture I will take tomorrow. Hubby has sent me one, but things are acting up again, my mobile won´t let me open LJ and hides all Whatsapp photos from my PC. Not even the path hubby sent me to follow does work anymore. I think I want a new mobile...

Rain started during night. Usually, I will get a decent sleep then, because I love the sound of raindrops hitting the roof of the carport. Well, not today- hubby insisted that he needed to close the bedroom window- it was too cold, he said. We had twelve degrees during night. The night before we had been down to four, and he did not complain. I should insist on separate bedrooms! I already dread those long months of winter and early spring, when the windows will stay closed all night long, and all I will get will be hubby softly or not so softly snoring!

Rain did not go away until late afternoon. Hubby harvested three apples I had overseen (the only ones with no tiny caterpillars aka butterflies-to-be inside) and came back in, spreading mud all over the tiles. At least I had a job to do when he was off to do grocery shopping. Even knitting did not work out as it should have- when I measured the scarf yesterday it had the length I needed. Over night that darn thing must have shrunk and I had to add twenty more rows. Besides, it was a rather dark day and knitting needs light, especially when black yarn is involved. It got better in the afternoon, so I skipped my after-lunch nap and unsettled hubby by keeping up my knitting. At least, one paw and the tail got finished. Son number three called in the early afternoon and invited his family for the holidays. With DiL2 and her prodigy off to Romania I thought hubby and I would finally have a quiet Halloween evening, with only a few youngsters coming for trick-or-treating. Now family number three will act as a substitute. Elsa can very well vocally replace her absent cousins…

BTW: Hubby forgot to tell me that Flavius missed his second cello lesson yesterday afternoon. His mum found him covered with pustules in the morning and had his poor brother walk back home from clarinet lesson all alone, to be able to stay with her youngest. That is a long walk, indeed! Well, hubby would have gladly picked the boy up to bring him home! Now DiL is very upset that the mysterious illness might spread over to Cassian after incubation period. With a skin like this he would not be allowed to board a plane. This would be a veritable disaster (even though Cassian has made it clear that he wants to stay at home). Poor girl was up at an ungodly hour- she posted on FB at nine, probably sitting in the waiting room of their paediatrician. She did not tell us which illness has befallen her son, and what to expect for the near future. Maybe her sister, a make-up artist, can give her tips how to cover those pustules with make-up!

...it was a good day. Only a bit of housework, my friend´s (private) hairdresser came over to give me a haircut. I tried her out for the first time but was not impressed, given the price and the outcome. My hair looks just as it had before- mostly missing! I cleaned the upper bathroom, especially the window area, so that I finally was able to place back the freshly potted orchids, one of them still dying. The monstera was due to a proper pruning- too big, in danger of tipping over, yellowing leaves because of not enough light from the window (thanks to orchids not dying quickly enough). I was not able to locate my garden shears, which was strange, because I had given them a safe heaven in one of the drawers of my table for seasonal decoration. When I remembered where I might find them it was too dark already to do a proper searching- hubby had painted the table grey like the rest of the wood on and around the house and must have taken the shears out to hoard them in the garage from then on. Since he was off all afternoon long to groom the family grave for All Saint- sister dearest had promised to do this work this year, but hubby, self-proclaimed groundskeeper, would not let this happen- I was not able to question him. And I definitely was not ready to dwell in the dark garage for too long- spiders, spiders, and even more spiders in search of a dry, warmer place for hibernating! The Lord of the shears- hubby would like that title! He can bear it until tomorrow, when I will confiscate what is mine!
I boxed what was left of today´s lunch for tomorrow and did what I like best at the moment- knitting! The scarf is 110 centimetres now and will get hind legs and a tail tomorrow. Well, maybe not all of it! Then I will have to ponder about how to do the cat face. There will be white, even though Sony is mostly grey. I definitely will not do an early tour to the shopping centre beyond the border to get dark grey wool. Light grey I found aplenty in my wool container, there´s a bit of dark grey left from the body of the scarf, so white and black highlighting will take place to fill in the rest. There´s not a lot of time left, before Flavius will leave for Bucharest, and he so wanted a cat scarf, too, since Cassian won´t share his one! And I also won´t have to do a trip to Ikea for new boxes- hubby gave me two he had accidentally hoarded in the basement. Accidentally, Haha! Now clue where those came from, but they have the right colour and will do, even though they need a bit of airing...
BTW: Airing was what DiL wanted to do with the suitcases. Only that she was not able to open them, which was strange, because hubby had already aired them. A bit. Turned out that the boys had been playing with the combination locks. We had to wait for daughter to return home and tell us the numbers, because she had been the one who had set them...

MOMENTANER AUFENTHALTSORT: studio
STIMMUNG: confused
MUSIK: Janáček sinfonietta- only to remind me why I don´t like his compositions

Dil2 is in need...

...of suitcases. Always ours, I think the family possesses not a single acceptable one. Those they have must have come direectly from Romanian ancestors or a flea market, so worn and ugly they are. This morning DiL called to tell us she´d pick the green suitcases up, poison green suitcases daughter got for her year abroad in Finland. Easy to locate on a baggage conveyor belt at the airport. That was until we noticed that a lot of people thought the same and bought similar colours. That´s how we came into possession of rather modern but dead-ugly suitcases, which are not so easy to locate, because many people have the same...
As usual, DiL was late. She must have come for her progeny at the last possible moment, just before after school care locked up their entrance door. She rang the bell, took the suitcases and wanted to leave quickly, before we would ask her awkward questions about her tip to Bucharest. It did not work, because she had not added the boys into the equation. The moment the car stopped they loosened their seatbelts and were out of the car and swarming the house, happily declaring their undying love for their grandparents (especially me). I have to admit that it sounded strange. They will be off next Thursday, plenty of opportunities to get deposited at our house for mummy to be finally able to pack!
Otherwise it was a quiet day with a bit of housework but mostly knitting along. Good that Cassian had his scarf with him and I was able to measure its length- half of it done already! After the boys were off I finally tackled the problem with the knitted sweaters and cardigans. I have way too many of them, but until today I wasn´t able to part with some. Today I sorted them by colour then kept the prettier one. One big bag ready to go to the clothing drive and lots of room now in the wardrobe. Unfortunately one of the boxes supposed to hold the summer clothing ripped and was a case for the dustbin then. Which forces me to do a trip to Ikea and buy a new, same one. Those boxes are kept on top of my wardrobe and I do not want a hotchpotch of different ones!
Hubby made a fundamental error when he hung up the freshly washed clothing on the terrace. Half an hour later the farmer who is supposed to have given all cows away manured his field. When hubby took the drying rack in, the whole living room stank of manure- laundry is back to the washing machine, and I will take a look into the farmer´s stable building the next days. People here must have a wanton imagination or simply tell lies. No cows in the stable, ha!
LJ is definitely blocked on my mobile, and I have no clue why. It works on my PC, it works on my tablet, albeit slow. I really, really hate my mobile...

Day three of early morning drives meant that I was mostly ill-tempered all day long, constantly hungry and otherwise useless. I had come back home at five in the morning, was no more able to fall properly asleep (half an hour of sleep, twice interupted by a walk to the loo, do not count) and finally got up at seven thirty. Hubby was the first victim of my bad temper- he had just started to make his Sunday breakfast with scrambled eggs. I really do not like that smell at such an hour, especially after not enough sleep! No housework for me today, I preferred a bit of knitting and left things as they were- there wouldn´t be any visitors today. And if there were I´d frighten them away. Flavius´s scarf has front paws now and some real scarf part already. The problem is that I am in need of more wool, which I always buy in a shop on the other side of the border. A shop I have been to just a few days ago, when I had not yet noticed that I needed more of the wool. That´so typical! I definitely will have to wait until the end of the month, when a next drive to this shopping centre will be on my menue. Besides, the boys will be off from next week on, so no need to hurry. Flavius won´t be here to bemoan that Cassian has a cat scarf while he has not...
To add insult to injury hubby told me that I had to be the one to pick daughter up at the airport, because he needed more time for cooking. So I fried my chicken breast early, poored wine over it and let it simmer, while husband dearest turned the content of our freezer upside down, because he could not find the spaetzle. My head threatened to explode because of all the freezer´s beeping (too warm, too warm!), the kitchen had turned from moderately warm to quite cool and my temper flared quite hotly. Besides, the roast venison had begun to spread its scents all over the house, and there´s only one scent I hate more, that of cauliflower cooking. Yuck, yuck, yuck! At one thirty I was at the airport to bring daughter home for lunch. Then we rested in front of the TV while watching some obscure documentation about mountain lakes, which suffered greatly because of too many hikers visiting. Mind you, visiting, mostly passing by only, because ten degrees aren´t exactly inviting for bathing in the lakes. Since there had been only minimal garbage been found in and around the lakes, harm must have come because of the hot looks of those hikers...
Later in the afternoon hubby stoked up a fire, since it was quite cool then, only ten degrees with no sun but plenty of clouds, like last night, when we ought to see Northern lights, alas, it was clouds and rain only. At least they told us just in time that there might be auroral lights to be seen...
Daughter got brought back to her flat by hubby at six in the evening. She took with her what was left of the roast venison and lots of other goodies (that´s why she needed a car to get back home). Since I still have half of a roast chicken breast left, hubby will have to warm himself Frankfurter for tomorrw´s lunch- I am unwilling to do cooking for the next days. There has been too much of it going on the last week...

First of all- I almost did not make it to Flavius´s birthday party. My stomach decided not to behave and I already wanted to call son, when daughter gave me some pills and I finally felt better. At son´s there were a lot of children and a family I had never met before. Turned out the mother was from Romania, hence the constant use of Romanian language done by DiL. We brought son a pumpkin for carving. Turned out that he did not need one, because DiL got her way and will leave for Bucharest on the 22nd. Cassian will miss two days of school- holidays will start on October 24th only. Son will stay at home, as should have the rest of the family, but no. I told hubby quite amused that I had won the next bet between us, and Dil was not amused. Her friend talked German a bit better than DiL does, but when she told that she was teaching at a nearby school I had to ask hubby how this was even possible- shouldn´t teachers here be perfect in German? No wonder that Dil thinks that speaking German language is largely overrated! We left at six, when the first children got picked up by their parents. By then I was half deaf and had a veritable head ache...
This morning hubby picked the boys up at eleven, to take them to Smyths Toys and exchange daughter´s birthday present for her nephew- he had gotten the same by a friend. Flavius opted for another package of Kinetic sand- blessedly they had a rather big selection. Then they picked daughter up at the airport, hubby delivered the boys, and just when I put the salmon into the frying pan they were here. Hubby hated the cross skin, while daughter and I loved it. So he put his outside for the cats. One hour later we had a huge catfight on the terrace, neighbour´s Finele heavily involved. But the winner was the grey cat, usually off when Finele aka Baronin enters the stage. Not this time, apparently there´s nothing better than salmon skin for grey cat!
At four in the afternoon sister mine and her husband came, discussing music and theatre for more than two hours with hubby, while I twiddled my thumbs- for me there are more urgent topics to discuss, which mostly involve common sense and bodily work, which isn´t sister´s forte. Honestly, sis and I are sitting on two different ends of a spectrum, but it has always been this way.
Last night daughter gave me a gummi bear with melatonin so that I´d be able to fall asleep quickly. Had to be taken one hour before I planned to drop off. Only that it was intent on lulling me to sleep after a few minutes, which I did not want, because I had not yet finished the story I had been reading. And when I wanted to doze off I was no more able to and even less so, because hubby came to the bedroom early. With hubby in the room falling asleep is really hard, he is a windmill personified. Not good, since I had to get up at three in the morning. I will give the gummi bears another try this evening. Maybe it will work correctly this time...

Until today we got spared of too much rain and cold. Even today we had sun and nice temperatures, which made enduring this time of the year so much easier. But after lunch, just during our after-lunch resting in front of the TV, strong winds came up, and it got considerably cooler even inside, because the window of the TV nook was wide open to let the pleasing sun-warmed air in. No more warmth for some days, I fear. The building work at neighbour´s came to a stop, when the rain filled the pit so quickly that for some time it looked like a giant swimming pool-to-be. Which makes me wonder why the new houses will have a basement at all, when all people living here got told that no insurance will insure their basements because of high possibility of flooding. Besides, the old building (still standing) did not have one either...
At four in the afternoon daughter decided that we needed candles to make the day brighter. I think that she really enjoys to be at home for a few days, even though her old room is in a shambles. At least we managed to sort out her clothing- two more bags for the clothing drive, change the bedding and shake the carpets. And now that hubby has finally managed to bring down the last box with winter clothes there might soon be a third bag- more of my summer shirts will go, since I haven´t used them all summer long, because too narrow, too wide, wrong colour, wrong cut. You know how this goes! But I noticed that I will have to do a purchase of jumpers, sweatshirts and one or two new slacks. Slacks which I can wear inside and outside the house. Formal trousers I seem to have aplenty but hate them all...
Since last night had been a hectic one due to the consumption of Krautsuppe by three people I will have to quit prime time programme today and go to bed earlier than usual (or I won´t be able to watch dumb FB reels)- three early morning drives are looming ahead. Then there´s the thing with Flavius´s birthday party tomorrow. We are invited and as grandparents have to attend (so DiL says). But seeing the same people, carefully picked out by her, and hearing the pack of children turn the house upside down makes me wonder why we always surrender to her whims instead of simply giving the boy his presents, have a cup of coffee (sans cake) then kiss the boy goodbye and leave. It would be so much easier on our sense of hearing! And honestly, neither birthday boy nor his brother won´t mind, because they´ll be so occupied with taking the house down!

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: studio
Current Music: sound of silence

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Page generated Nov. 4th, 2026 08:29 am

We´re all mad here

Welcome to the asylum

Recent Entries

Damn it

Still beyond angry ...

Halloween arrived early...

No more lazing about!

My skin is old

It´s confirmed...

Hubby has learned a new trick!

Whoa!

It gets even worse

(no subject)

October at its finest

How can it be...

Dark, darker, October

Oh, those cats!

Rainy day

All things considered...

(no subject)

Dil2 is in need...

Good for nothing

I misbehaved... again

Real autumn has arrived