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Happy Earth Day!

Or not. Most important mantra should be instant freezing of population number. That won´t happen, look at the population explosion in many countries! Renewable energies simply won´t do the trick! I for myself closed the door behind our youngests then went upstairs and took a book to read, a real one, not an e-book. Saves energy when used during daylight. Not so much if you have to turn the lights on. No mobile, no tablet, no PC, no lamps until it´s getting dark outside. And that was my contribution to World Earth Day. Sorry, but only few of us older people spend hours on a mobile or a PC or in front of a TV. Okay, let´s leave the TV out. We also do not ride around in our cars. Maybe we have once upon a time, but that time is long gone. We have downsized with age yet get told that we are to downsize even more. Get knotted!
Honestly, hubby as well as I were done after our youngest had left for their respective homes, even though we had lots of fun together. The two get along very well, a thing that cannot be said about number three, who rubs his siblings the wrong way. Husband mine has still high hopes that number three won´t be able to come for a visit this weekend- they still haven´t finished the demolition work on Dil´s inherited stables, the ones last year´s flood has undermined so that they had to go. Well, we will see...
BTW, tonight´s dream was extremely strange: hubby and I had to spend the night in front of our bedroom door, together with the boys, on mattresses. The younger boy did not behave and wreaked havoc, and hubby went off to get some peace. I found him on our marital bed, dead drunk and sleeping. On the sidewall of the bedroom there were more beds filled with tourists I did not dare to wake up. Next thing I knew was that I had a suitcase and was entering the bus that parked in front of our house- and left hubby with the boys... There was another, even more idiotic dream I had during night, which has faded away. I often dream the same things twice with only slight alterations so chances are good that I will be able to relive-dream the situation. The only thing I remember is that like in the first dream I handed the boys over to husband and made away. Apparently getting constantly harassed by grandchildren makes me bolt, though in dreams only...

He taught us...

...to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love...
It was not a good way to start Easter Monday with the news of the Pope's death. Roman-Catholic church is going through a difficult time since quite a while, and the pope did what he could do, or was allowed to do, to steer us towards more modern times. We definitely have had worse Holy Fathers. Only the timing of his death was a bit unfortunate!
I felt somewhat melancholic and did not accompany hubby and my youngest offspring to a visit to family number one. Besides, I had to peel one and a half kilo asparagus, not to mention the potatoes for the side dish. The Easter ham needed warming up in a vegetable broth then got put under the grill in the oven. I climbed onto the exercise bike and tried to steel my body (haha, that was a good one), and lunch was ready when the rest of the family came back home. In the afternoon I did a tour along the garden. Daffodils, grape hyacinths and the few tulips I have planted have withered. Magnolias and cherry blossom tree lost practically all their blossoms during the foehn storms we had a few days ago- the ground is pink, littered with petals gone too early, it looks like a veritable battlefield. Yet the dominant colour here is green, only interrupted by a few patches of daisies and forget-me-nots. Each dandelion which dares to sprout gets immediately plucked by hubby. Our apple tree is in sparse flower, so few apples for the maggots this year. No lice yet, which means no ants. No wonder that the beasts have plenty of time for a visit inside!
I continued with crocheting- two thirds of the shawl are done now. The colours are atrocious, I should have gone with the first combination of colours. Well, too late now! Hubby has cooked shawarma for dinner. Not for me, of course, because no meals after five. Tomorrow it's hubby again who will do the cooking- Dutch croquettes with beef. Beef hubby has fried in the afternoon- our house has been turned into a non-stop cook-shop. No wonder that neither number four nor number five did go back to their respective homes as envisaged! Maybe tomorrow evening we will be free again- until number three and family will turn everything upside down again!

Happy Easter!

T'was a nice, warm day with lots of sunshine. Idiot neighbour number one woke me at 5:30, I climbed my stepstool and watched him going along the vegetable beds, clunking his shovel against the frames. Nice sound I must say! I was ready to wring the fool's neck but went back to bed instead and slept until eight, when vice mayor finally let her grandchildren loose to let them search for Easter eggs. Honestly, I missed not having Elsa with us- for about half an hour, just as long as Charlotte and Constanze were jubilating at each new found. Then I was glad that we had a quiet Easter until lunch at son's, which turned out busy, as always. We had liver in bread dough and filled tomatoes, beef and lamb with Parmesan potatoes, dumplings, green and white asparagus and green beans with bacon plus baklava and strawberry tarte with coffee. After lunch everybody sat down and rested- too much to eat! We went into the garden then and I got lectured about deer invading the vegetable beds and ticks all around in the grass. I still wonder how sis and I survived our youth in our grandma's garden with all the vermin looming in the grass and on the trees- Cassian and Flavius had to wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers plus wellies and both got sprayed with insect repellant to fend off the ticks...
We came back home at six, and first thing I did was ignore sis's call. She wrote that she'd try again around eight. No, family life is not easy for me, because there's too much of family sometimes!
Daughter mine will finally be able to visit sis in her flat now- her school nemesis (the one who bought the flat above sis's) will play ice hockey in Graz next season. Those two meeting in the house might have ended in another duel of shouts. They managed to do so in school for eight years straight. Not exactly a romantic relationship!
I was resting then and realised that now the best time of the year is upon me- the time of the ribbitting frogs- just heard the first one outside in neighbour's huge pond. Those little buggers can be quite loud, yet I think the sound somewhat calming, just like the sound of the church bells tolling for the resurrection service, around midnight, when I was in bed already...

The return of the ants

Son number four got picked up at the trainstation yesterday evening. As usual, he was hungry and warmed his Italian noodles in the microwave. Seconds later I heard his cry of outrage- the lemons I had cut off my lemon trees were covered with ants, lots of them. We threw them into a bowl with hot water, to drown the beasts. Darn, I never thought ants to be active durinng night. First thing this morning was buying new ant traps- and warning hubby to never ever throw these away before he was allowed to. Then I carefully cleaned the area between sink and cupboard, even sprayed it with instant death for insects. The beasts must be immune, each time I had a look I found new ones. Hopefully the new ant traps will work!
I cooked the lemon rice son loves, added roasted chicken mostly for hubby. Son would eat rice without it, the whole pot if possible. Then son and I drove to Aldi, while hubby mowed the lawn so that the boys would be able to run along. Alas, we will have Easter dinner at number two tomorrow. DiL2 decided to take Cassian to the Orthodox resurrection service- at eleven in the evening. None of the two will be up before noon next day, number two fears. So it's him alone to do the roasting of the meat and take care of Flavius- with a plaster hand at that. Of course we will do the side dishes at our house, and the baklava is already safely hidden in the fridge in the basement to hinder ants from having fun with the cake.
Today will be early bedtime for me, all that ruckus we had this morning made me leave the bed at six thirty in the morning. The neighbours at the backside of the house are getting a new roof for the garage, those in front of the house a new balcony. The one to the left started planing the boards for the garden wall. The vice-mayors husband started digging up the vegetable bed at six!!!. Idiot neighbour was appalled- no matter what he did, the others were louder. Must have been a downer for him. Now I wonder how he is planning his revenge!

Back to usual

Gone are the days when I was able to choose the TV programme and the time for going to bed. Now I will bring my drinking glass to the kitchen at nine fortyfive then race upstairs, brush my teeth and do my evening ablution before I enter the bedroom to take my pills and sink onto the bed, hubby already on my heels- best way to not let me sleep. Yet I am glad that he is back- never seen a man who loves vacuuming and mopping as much as he does. And he does a great breakfast, if he feels like it. But he does not give a sh.. on Roman-Catholic tradition and had bacon for breakfast. Must be the residual aversion towards bigotry, stemming from the time he had to live with his mother, a rabid member of Jehovah´s Witnesses. During breakfast hubby talked about his trip and the awful landing at Salzburg airport. I was just reading the newspapers and found out that we had wind speeds of 110 km/h. No wnder that the window panes of the house were rattling nonstop and that landing a plane was not so easy! Today the weather was a bit wet and quite cool- we never made it over nine degrees. Foehn and headache are gone, but I had to light a fire in the wood burner. Yet the weather was great for bringing the palm- and lemon trees out. Those are still on the terrace, sheltered from wind and rain, but will go to the garden wall tomorrow, when sun will be back. Son will come in the evening, so I dusted his room and put fresh bedding on. Did not do so yesterday, was a bit disappointed that he postponed his visit for a day. Housework for Easter is done now, so tomorrow will be a day of rest. At least I will not leave the house for shopping- on top of my car is a slide Cassian and Flavius will get for Easter. A bit unpractical to drive along this way!

Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod...

In English it's Dativ kills Genitiv, which happens quite often in German. Darn People tend to confuse those cases, even though it's very easy, or have you ever heard of the word wemwegen? That will help you get the right case. I am even correcting my progeny when they post on Whatsapp, because I hate them maiming our native language, even though I think they do it on purpose, because they think my way of correcting them is funny. Well, one has to have principles...
I did another moth raid- found some when vacuuming number four´s room. Those beast have to be very clever- there are two moth traps in the room, with not a single moth caught inside. The carpet is now out, airing in the carport. I am so mad at those darn beasts!
I prepared lunch for hubby. His plane was to arrive a quarter to two in the afternoon. Had a bit of delay and landed at two thirty. Hubby was glad about being back home (weather in Amsterdam had been quite cold). Yet there was a problem he was not able to solve, because the bank had closed already. So tomorrow´s first way will be going there and ask who had withdrawn money from his account. When waiting for the plane in Amsterdam someone had taken 1000 euro from his account. Not a transfer but a cash withdrawal at the bank counter. Absolutely not funny!
Today was the third day with foehn, and it was worse than ever. Only one window per storey could be opened, or doors would bang when not properly closed, and loose things inside got sent flying. My consumption of headache pills has skyrocketed, I am glad that daughter mine left me some of hers- at least I won´t get a stomachache when taking them. In the evening foehn should get superseded by a short cold spell- from 26 (today) to twelve tomorrow, before early summer will be back.
Do you want to know what husband´s first action was after having lunch? Yes, he wrote a shopping list for tomorrow. I have to say that I have not missed this. But hubby loves it, needs it. When the list got longer and longer I left for the studio. Another thing I loved during those short grass widow days- I did never feel remorse when going upstairs to read, to turn my PC on, to do whatever I wanted- without annoying husband mine. Now we are back to usual...

No way!

Yesterday I found the cast list for the new HP series on FB. So glad that I am old and wise and in no need to follow this show, because Severus Snape- is black from now on. The one character who is described as white. Not that any actor will be able to meet the requirements after the perfect portrayal done by Rickman, but here comes the aspect of racism, too. And believe me, those who will watch the show will get a lot of it! A black character played by a dark-skinned actor who gets bullied by white classmates will inevitably lead to political indoctrination, young folk will fall in love with the poor, harrassed Snape and pardon his atrocious behaviour. Or not. I certainly won´t watch this farce!
Today was housework day- I put on fresh bedding and put the old one into the washing machine, descaled both shower cabinets, did vacuum and wipe the ground floor, did a ´wet´ dusting of the book shelves and some more- but no cooking. Will have to resume doing lunch tomorrow, because hubby will be back in the early afternoon, and son number four will come in the evening. Who won´t come for Easter is family number three, the problematic one- Elsa fell ill, and the parents want her to recuperate, before she will tear our house down the weekend after Easter. I had a hard time to not shout out in rapture, but one family less means also means less stress for me, and aunt Lil will definitely come for Easter then. She usually never skips festive meals! So tomorrow I will do meatballs and coconut rice for lunch in the hope that there will be enough leftovers for son. One never knows- could be that hubby has been on a no-lunch diet when away. I definitely was, save for yesterday´s spaghetti!

It gets better each day

Daughter and I both got up late and had a breakfast with salmon, smoked trout and other delicacies. Not as good as breakfast at former George Hotel in London, but still. Is it really that long that we were there twice a year with a friend of ours? Afterwards we did grocery shopping at a nearby supermarket which is ´only´four kilometres away and had a cup of icecream in the restaurant. Something you can´t do with hubby. he only lives from coffee and cake and icecream when on holidays. I found it quite relaxing, to sit and watch people shopping from above...
Afterwards we had spa time then lunch cooking. While I cut the Guanciale and grated Parmesan and Pecorino daughter had put the last HP Blu ray disc into the player. She loves to torture me. Not that I won´t love the film, quite the opposite- perfect actors, wonderful soundtrack. but it´s dark, very dark. The books I did not like much, especially not in German. It´s children´s books, no matter how dark those will be in the end. But I value the author´s steadfastness when she was confronted with the exaggerated wokeness of some people, who turned out more ignorant than the author herself. After lunch daughter and I watched Galaxy Quest- hilarious! I wish there´d be more days we could do such movie watching!
Daughter left in the late afternoon, taking the last strudel with her in exchange for headache pills, because hers are better than mine.
Today I will do it- go to sleep early. Ten is early. Only that I did so twice and stayed up until one in the morning watching TV. No wonder that sleeping in is so very tempting!

Nothing

I did practically nothing all day long. Daughter cancelled lunch, because she still had a meal to consume at her home. I did not cook for me alone but had canned tuna. Then I made the strudel for afternoon coffee. Neighbour rang the doorbell to tell me that he intended to enlarge the garden wall- he wants to install a pool and needs some privacy. Fine with me, it's his wall. Besides, conversation with him is always funny! Then came sister's attack- fortunately my voice is still hoarse enough from coughing, so she refrained from coming for a visit. Bad enough that she called hubby in Amsterdam. Our conversation lasted for almost an hour...
For a while I sat on the terrace in the strangely coloured light of the sun- it was warm, but there was Saharan dust again, lots of it!
When daughter arrived, we did a lot of talking and watched a film. At ten we both were knackered and decided to go to bed. No wonder, we both were up till one in the morning- yes, I was tired the evening before. But TV programme was very tempting last night, and I decided to not give in to tiredness but give TV programme a try instead. Hail to the TV set in the studio!

No big posting

...today. I did some work in the conservatory, mostly sorting the plants that will have to go out this week, so that the extended family will have room enough to celebrate Easter. Then we had lunch, and shortly afterwards hubby drove my car to the airport, which in hindsight was a bad idea- he managed to get a 50 euro ticket, because they recently changed the 50km/h to a 30 one and he drove 52. We had coffee and cake at Wolfgang's, then daughter put her things (wine, a comfy jump suit and a pot with mint) into my car and took the bus to her flat while I went home. I was not home long, I went to a neighbour and had lots of fun. Just came back home and am tired now. Felt like in the old days, when hubby was doing evening concerts and I was able to get out of the house more often...

Too much hassle going on

Hubby is panicking. Does so each time he makes a trip. It is like ´have you seen´, ´where have you put´ all day long. The guestroom looks as if Huns had built a camp- clothes, toiletries, shoes strewn on the guestbed, one suitcase right in the middle. Slowly things got sorted out by wandering into the suitcase or back into the wardrobe. That´s when the shit hit the fan. I asked hubby to consider that the suitcase had a combination lock and that he should write the number down. Hubby, as always, closed the lid, turned the numbers then went back to the old ones. Or what he thought were the old ones. What is so bad about writing down? He was lucky that he found the right combination after half an hour of testing. Last year son wrote from Tunisia that Cassian must have changed the numbers, becasue no one was able to open their main suitcase. Turned out that he only forgot about recording the correct number. Son sat for half a day to get to his belongings...
I did a long plant-watering tour in the morning, since the weather was so warm and dry. The lemon trees have begun to shed the lemons in spe- I forgot to take care of them in time. Well, there will be new blossoms and new lemons if I treat them with care from now on!
Cassian did a call of his own (never show a child how to use a mobile) and ordered me to keep my fingers from Diagon Alley- the boy is obsessed with Lego building, only that it´s mostly my Lego he builds, but he lays down the rules. Rules are Never build without Cassian. This puts me under pressure- I want to finish, before Elsa snows in, but cannot. Unless I will pick the boy up, when hubby is off and the house is peaceful and quiet. No,no, no...
The ants are back. I already suspected so, when I found two next to the sugar caster in the morning, the exact place I found a few some days ago. I immediately started another ant hunt and found quite a lot of them housing in the kitchen near the window. Turned out that hubby had removed the anttrap, thinking that someone had unwittingly dropped a piece of plastic outside the kitchen window. As if he´d never seen an anttrap! Or maybe he hasn´t, in the old house he searched for the location of the anthill in question and poured boiling water on it. Anttraps are more decent for killing and also more effective. I do not care about anthills as long as the critters stay out of the house, but they better not come in! So first way on Monday will be a drive to the garden centre for new anttraps, because it´s Saturday evening, and most shops close at six, only the Diy and garden markets one hour earlier.
Hubby did a last minute shopping- he intends to do an early cooking tomorrow, before he has to leave, and needed some salad. He came back with two kilo of salmon for cooking. Half price, because it will expire on Monday. It´s in the fridge now, replaced the meat hubby took out for tomorrow´s cooking. I will bring husband to the airport after lunch, where we will meet up with daughter mine. She will get a portion of breaded spider steak (panierte Fledermaus in German). In return she will invite us for coffee and cake- she has collected a vast number of coupons for the cafeteria and finally wants to make use of them.
It´s also spider time. No clue why those critters want into the house, when the insects they live from are mostly outside- I must have killed at least five of them. The worst sat in the mudroom, where it happily bit a relatively big beetle to death. Both dead now. To be on the safe side I had a look at the weather forecast. It will get cooler towards the middle of next week. But cooler does not mean cold, the foremost reason a spider would want inside. And what did I forget when shopping in Germany? More insect spray, of course! It´s half the price beyond the border...

From cold to cool to too warm

We had 22 degrees in the afternoon- the only constant was the strong winds we still have. I spent a good part of the morning with body care then dusting (who the heck does open the kitchen windows, when dust, sand and pollen snow into the house with all that wind) then crocheting, before I went to my PC to finally answer some of the mails I got during the last days. Writing mails is definitely not my forte! Then I had to snip the ungodly amount of soup vegetables hubby had bought. Not my favourite job, but now we will have a base for soups and sauces for quite a while- hubby does vacuum-seal the vegetables then freeze them for later use. Afterwards I continiued with the shawl- I am at the crucial stage again- easy to crochet, but even easier to overlook stitches. The moment husband mine was off for Action market for luggage tags I climbed the exercise bike. Unfortunately suffering from a cold has definitely reduced my already limited fitness- I can do only half of the exercises, before I will fall off the bike. Takes me quite a while to recover my breath at the moment!
No cooking got done today, we only had cheesy toast and salad and a prolonged after-lunch nap. I got woken after two hour of peaceful sleeping by hubby turning the coffee maker on, then dressed for shopping a toy for Matthäus- did not get a fitting one. What I got was a free rat- during the Christmas season Peter the rat went into hiding- my guess is that one of the boys took him out of the cabinet to play with, Peter fell onto the carpet and got eaten by the vacuum cleaner. In the shop there was a rat-only wrapper, the character of Ron absent already. I asked a shop assistent if they did not have the complete set, which they had not. When I told her of the misising rat she took the tiny animal out of the box and gave it to me for free. Apparently no one wanted the rat without Ron, so they would have discarded the wrapper. Good for me! I also bought my monthly magazines and a new puzzle book. Daughter wants to come for a visit and spaghetti carbonara (the authentic ones) and lots of crossword puzzles. I already bought guanciale (cost me an arm and a leg, but is totally worth it), Parmesan and Pecorino. On the way home fatigue caught me again. I wish I´d be able to sleep more than two hours straight during night. I got out of the car, and it took only one look at the table under the kitchen window to notice that something was amiss- hubby had the order to bring the potted flowers to the cemetery. He thought the flowers looked a bit meagre, so he planted the hyacinths that decorated the table amidst the pansies and was off with the flower bowl. Now it´s the table which looks meagre...

Poor hubby!

Today was definitely not his day. First my lungs decided that the cough-blocking syrup had quit working and tried to get out what the syrup had kept inside, then my sinuses did the same, which ended with an endless stream of coughing and nose-blowing and a fairly irate husband who wanted to go back to sleep. At least, the headache was gone then! Then hubby hung the washing out on the terrace, which ended in the drying rack being blown down onto the lawn- four times at that, but hubby is persistent and a tad too optimistic, thinking that at one point the wind would give up. Well, it didn´t! Husband´s daily cycling tour had to be cancelled also- it simply was too cold and windy, and he did not want to risk catching a cold, when he will listen to two concerts in Amsterdam. People with cough are not wanted in a concert hall! In the afternoon hubby dragged the wheelie bin to the main street and promptly ran into the one neighbour who tried to enter our house two days ago. Her visit then had had a reason- she needed husband mine to do janitor repair work. Her water pump in the cellar does not work anymore and she is no more able to do her washing. But before he went to work hubby had to drive to the DIY market (by car) to buy a new door stopper for our terrace door. We found Schnuckele happily wandering around in the house, after hubby had went outside to lift the drying rack back onto the terrace and the wind blew the door open. That cat is experienced in sneaking into the house and hide for a while, before the little tuxedo will start exploring, and often enough we will find her dozing in places she is not allowed to doze, like the marital bed. With the new door stopper neither cat nor wind will be able to push the door open anymore. Hubby did not need much time to realise that there was no possibility to repair a pump that had died- poor neighbour will have to buy a new one. Installation will get done by hubby, of course, and neighbour will recompense him by giving him a crate of beer he won´t drink because of gout.
Daughter had wanted to leave after breakfast but stayed for lunch she helped me cook- strudel filled with minced meat and champignons (properly roasted without oil, to get the best flavour, a cooking method husband mine always ignores). Hubby contributed what he does best- green salad. Only that he used too much of salt and not enough vinegar, which got him a hefty rebuke by daughter mine because of the harmfulness of too much salt. Husband also smashed the sugar caster, when he found an ant parading on the shelf, an ant followed by another and another. The hunt was on, daughter operating the insect spray, hubby the kitchen roll to squish as many ants as possible. Same procedure as every year, that´s what you get when you live in a rural area! Daughter missed the bus she intended to take, but it was worth it- we found the place the ants used for invasion and put an ant trap there. When daughter finally left her backpack was full to the brim with groceries hubby had given her, so no wonder that her bank account is nicely filled- she won´t have to shop for groceries the next days! Now I wonder when I made the wrong turn- my mother had a fairly high pension, but often let me pay for her expenses. Should I try the same thing with dearest daughter mine? I think I´d quickly meet with a rebuff...

Too tired

...for a longer entry. Daughter and I were off at nine in the morning and back home at two. Unfortunately I rang the door bell then and woke Flavius, who had just started a late nap. Well, he did not continue with his nap but joined the rest of the family. We had a late lunch we had bought at the Turkish take-out. The boys loved it, daughter and I not so much. Afterwards I went to the bedroom for resting, and hubby kept grandsons with him, afraid that the two might catch my germs. Haha, where does he think my cold did come from?
What we bought today: three pairs of comfy shoes, two very stylish Nike backpacks, a decent sweater in spring colours, the one book for Elsa we did not find on Amazon (is that even possible?), a raspberry cake, quite a lot of toiletries, a few groceries. Amazon delivered my Bellatrix wand. When hubby is off Lil and I will do some handicraft work to present the wands we have. HP meets LotR is the motto. Daughter has booked tickets for the Cursed Child, so we will be thoroughly entertained when in London. Now I am resting again. My head still hurts. I have sore muscles because of all that coughing. Otherwise I am fine. Yet I might stay in bed and follow the discussion concerning the cast of the future HP series. There's a bit too much of wokeness going on- the new Snape is- dark-skinned! The only character who is definitely white! Good luck with this actor! I and many others quit watching The Rings of Power when the same wokeness happened in the series...

Headache day

Headache day always comes around the end of the first week of coughing, when the cough turns from wet to dry, and one sounds like a machine gun. So I only cleaned the bathroom showers and the kitchen floor, took my shawl-in-spe and retired to the couch. Damn, had I known the vast amount of errors I did produce when crocheting I'd have turned the TV on only, and that's it! I chose the pattern, because it seemed easy. Have done it often enough when crocheting the throws! But honeycomb cables done with such a thin wool are the horror! And the crochet hook needs replacement, because it's old and napped and tears the wool. Will buy a new one on Wednesday, when daughter and I will do a shopping tour to Germany. Until then I will have to suffer from double headache caused by coughing and crocheting. At least I did not have to cook- hubby defrosted the minced meat Mexican style and filled it into tortillas by adding cheese and roasted onions.
Yesterday evening I was dead sure that the cold would spare us- it was four degrees at ten in the evening. When I got up at seven we were down to minus five, and some of the plants did not like the low temperatures. I wonder if the fig tree will survive. Figs are supposed to be frost resistant, but mine is young and got just dragged from the conservatory onto the terrace! Bad enough that hubby had placed the pot on top of the shelf inside, where only he was able to water it but forgot now and then. When he took the pot down the tree had already shed this year's first harvest of figs! Might be that I will have to buy a new one- I so love fresh figs!
In the afternoon Amazon driver delivered hubby's smart watch. Oh boy, hubby was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things he had to set but was not able to- I heard either hubby swearing or the watch loudly beeping, at worst both at the same time. That was so very annoying that I gave up on doing nothing and went up to the bedroom and turned my tablet PC on. Haven't had a look at my abos for ages!

Cold, but dry

Instead of staying inside to avoid the cold today´s agenda for hubby was doing work outside- clean the dustbin (who cares if it´s a bit dirty), the organic waste bin and the entrance area. He even braved the four degrees to get to the cemetery and pick up the big planter he was supposed to bring to our house more than a month ago, when the pansies had not yet given up on flowering, while I did my daily exercises. So now there´s the planter filled with fresh flower soil but no flowers to plant. I will have to buy new ones tomorrow, after searching the shops for dyed Easter eggs- not so easy to get to a reasonable price this year. No way I will do the dying myself, now that I have neatly cleaned the kitchen with the steam cleaner. The surfaces at least, inside the cupboards there´s still room for improvement. So eggs then plants then planting it is, so that husband mine can switch from housework (such as dragging heavy planters across the cemetery) to personal chores like going to the hairdresser or to the outlet centre for new clothes- the polos and trousers he found in his wardrobe are no more to his liking. He wants to cut a fine figure when in Amsterdam! My hope is that hubby has not caught a cold when in the cold. A sneezing hubby in a plane- oh, dear God! An emergency landing cannot be ruled out, because hubby´s sneezing sounds like a bomb exploding. Neighbour´s three houses afar will shout bless you when they hear the specific sound!
My peaceful Easter got killed this morning- all of a sudden family number three decided to come for the holidays, when the house is already full with guests. Means that number four and five might decide to not come, because they cannot stand the hubbub. Family number two will be here but will have to do more cooking, as have I. And our neighbours will be delighted, when children like Elsa and Matthäus will be let into the garden for egg hunt at six in the morning and get a repeat, when Cassian and Flavius will arrive and Elsa will be out with them to help them search their ggs and presents. To fill the cup to the brim the family will stay one day longer than expected, to make sound use of Hotel Mama. Mama is tempted to pack a suitcase and check out for some spa days as an alternative Easter programme, but papa does not let her do so. That´s vile, vile, vile...

(no subject)

Hubby went to the flea market alone. I was simply too tired to get up so early, take a shower then be off. When he came back he had bought some educational games (for Cassian mostly), more cars, one remote-controlled not working (he brought it back later and got his money back) and two jigsaws- one of them exactly the same he had bought for me a year ago (no exchange, of course). For a short time I entertainded the idea of going to the fleamarket when I finally fetched medication from the nearby apothecary, then saw the vast number of cars there and those who had not yet reached destination- and promptly turned tail. There´s no way I want to deal with crowds at the moment!
Back home I did my daily training then took the shawl I am crocheting- and noticed that I had made a big, big mistake. I had to unravel three rows of hard work, and even unravelling was a hard job. More than once the wool was on the brink of ripping- not good when one is short of that special colour! After disaster I went to the kitchen for cooking. It was fish-only day declared by hubby, which would be fine with me had I ordered my medication, which I had not. I found two measly tablets in my handbag, enough to make it through lunch without problems. Hubby better not insist on more fish the next days! Then husband was off to son, to drag the plan cabinet up to DiL´s studio with the help of a friend, a strong one hopefully, because that thing is extremely heavy! Meanwhile I turned my PC on to do some online shopping. I noticed that the mouse did not work as prompt as usual and decided to update the driver. Could not find it, so I updated all drivers I found and did a Windows update, too. One can call it overkill, and I am glad that Ashmael is still working. At least my antivirus programme does not cry for driver updates anymore! Online shopping did not happen because hubby forgot to tell me the title of the book I am supposed to order. That´s the problem- hubby has Amazon Prime, I have not. To not have to pay shipping feas the order must be 40 plus euro, so I combine my purchase with others. Of course, hubby always wants me to order via his account. I can bet my life on it that the moment husband mine sees what I have ordered the Spanish Inquisition will move into our house...
I took some photos to show that there, too, is colour in our garden, although not much. Of the pink at the backside of the house I will take pictures tomorrow- hubby has barricaded the way with ladders and a work station. I have absolutely no clue what he is about to do, and I do not even want to know it...
Upload od the photos did not work out, no clue why. Will try again tomorrow. Livejournal does not work properly for me since two days now...

Survival mode

Did not sleep until two in the morning last night but had to get up at three, trying to not wake Cassian up in the wake. Fortunately the boy slept like a log. I was back home around four fifteen, took the obligatory early-shift picture and had a short but fruitless fight with Schnuckele cat. I had to search for the furry beast, who had sneaked into the house and went into hiding. At four thirty I was in bed again and tried to catch up on sleep- did not even hear Cassian getting up at seven. But I very well heard hubby discussing with the boys, so I got up, too, helped husband dress the two and did breakfast. The three were out of the house before eight- finally! I did not do any housework save for tidy the kitchen and cook lunch- essentiell, because daughter was back at twelve. We decided to skip the shopping part we had wanted to do- we both were simply too tired for so much action. Will do so next week. Besides, one of the things daughter was looking for was a new wallet- when she went in search for the batteries hubby needed for his new alarm clock she found an amazing one- unused, decent colour, made of finest leather. No clue who the owner is or was, guess it must have been me, because it´s clearly made for females. My guess is that it came as a present from Romania with one of the relatives. Now it´s daughter´s...
Hubby brought two more cardboard boxes to the neighbouring church. Tomorrow there´ll be fleamarket time, unfortunately without me. Definitely not getting up early again! I need my beauty rest, and since it won´t happen during night because of more playing taxi for daughter I will take what I can get during morning. BTW: Today I almost killed two running!!! birds at not yet four in the morning. Sorry, but the last running birds I had to cope with were in NZ, and definitely not up at four in the morning in early spring!

Next time...

...I will accept the invitation to DiL´s vernissage. Will marvel at the paintings, have one or two glasses of sparkling wine then take a cab back home, where husband mine will hopefully have put the boys to bed. Because DiL complained that I never was there with her. Now that´s strange, because first she parks her offspring at our house then whines because we won´t come? Today I told Cassian that he is supposed to stay off me when he has a cold, because I do not need more sneezing and coughing. Boy told me that he is too young to stay at home alone, and that his mum has to bring him to our house, because she is so busy. With cold or without (the boy). Boys aren´t allowed to go to exhibitions, mum has told him. Says the woman who drags her offspring into museums and exhibitions, be it in Italy, Romania or wherever the family has travelled. I have plenty of photos of Cassian in a museum or a church. I do not have any of the boy on a children´s playground. Playgrounds are for beginners...
I had a shortened fitness programme (ten minutes on the exercise bike, a bit of stretching) in the morning- my cold is so annoying, especially the cough. I made lunch- meatballs and roasted potatoes- then did a bit of crocheting. On the left side of the shawl I lost two or three stitches I have to smuggle back in, before the next round of the pattern begins. Had to do the Staubmäuse game with the boys, which always involves lots of screeching, did build another bag of Lego- took us quite a while, because I had to find and correct a mistake. And then the day was practically over. Hubby was nice and brushed teeth with the boys and made them put their pyjamas on, otherwise I would not have been able to do this entry. It´s really hard to carve out some free time for me the moment the boys are in the house....

Current Mood: angry
Current Location: at home
Current Music: none

Slow-going

More decluttering got done during day, albeit it was a complicated process, with questions such as do I want to keep it, will I probably need that thing? In the end I gave less away than I should have and kept more than will be good for the state of my cupboards. And since almost everything I do seems to get done in slow motion I turned my PC on and searched for a pattern for the last of the sock wool I found in a hidden box in the guest room. Found The Phoenix- one can always make use of a new shawl! I was so confident that I knew most of the patterns. What I did not anticipate was that I did all of them with relatively thick wool and a 6 mm hook. Now the hook is a 3,5 mm and the wool is very thin. My fingers are old and tired and definitely not used to shift the delicate strangs of treble crochets, which is essential. In other words: this is by far the slowest progress I ever had when crocheting. But I am determined to pull through, even though I had to unravel twice as often as usual. And believe me, I have to unravel often enough. But I like crocheting to the lady´s instruction, almost always accompanied by the sound of water (the sea? a lake? no clue!)
I did a carrot-ginger-coconut soup for early lunch- hubby was off soon after to fetch the plan cabinet DiL2 had bought on Willhaben. At first he thought that he would have to wait for Friday (the only day the seller would be able to help with the transport except for today), because it was merrily snowing along. All of a sudden the sun came out, and hubby rejoyced- Friday is his favourite shopping day, and having to drive 50 kilometres for a cabinet that does not even belong to him did not sound like fun. Meanwhile I continued with crocheting, hung the washing up and realised in the very last moment that I had to order prescriptions- my general physician does accept such orders only Tuesday and Thursday from one to three PM. It´s always hard to get through, since a lot of people will call at the same time, but I made it! Later in the afternoon I felt another cold coming on- runny nose, scratchy throat, some coughing. Damn, the last one, the one which did not want to go away, I had had in February! And now another one? Cassian had been coughing a bit, when he had been with us last Friday. Damn, why must he always spread his germs! Tomorrow I will see the boys again for another sleep-over and more germs-picking, and daughter will be here, too, for making use of me playing early shift taxi, and twice in a row at that. There goes my restful nights...