Blooming fields of rapeseed

Czech Republic, middle of May:

Four years later

Four years to the day of our wedding, we borrowed some bikes from my aunt and uncle's collection and biked from their place to the hotel where the wedding reception had been. Martin had a bike with no speeds but with a kids seat near the handlebars, making for a very awkward biking, which required his knees to be way out so he wouldn't hit them on the kids seat. Any slightly bigger hill required him to get off the bike since there was no lower speed to shift into. Luckily there were not that many on the 45 minute bike ride. I had a nicer bike, and put Emily in the long wrap-around sling on my back. Luckily she didn't wiggle too much. My mom joined us for the occasion, and paid our lunch. Thanks, mom! Afterwards, naked Sonja and almost naked Martin frolicked in a nearby pond.

So far here is what we have been doing on the wedding anniversary:
- year 1: very busy with arrival of Sonja a couple weeks before the anniversary
- year 2: I forgot but Martin called me from Greenland to wish me a happy anniversary. I couldn't believe he would remember while I forgot, and thought that Jason reminded him. And indeed he had.
- year 3: I remembered the day before but not the day of, since a two year old and a couple dogs and my prego body made for a busy day. Martin called from Greenland. Apparently he was not reminded by Jason this year.
- year 4: I forgot. Martin remembered. I blame it on having to take care of two kids for a couple weeks while Martin was in Greenland. OK, so by the anniversary, he was back, but I was still recuperating.
Based on the count, Martin sure is doing better than me remembering this day :)

My grandfather's grandmother loved to read

We came back from a trip to the Czech Republic last night. I talked with my grandfather and aunts and uncles, and other relatives. I hope to write down some of the things I learned from my grandfather. Here is one.

***

My grandfather's grandmother loved to read. And that is what she missed most when she got old and her eyes gave out, according to my grandfather. Like my grandfather right now, ninety three years old.

My grandfather's grandmother went to school for one week. Apparently in those days (1860's?), kids from poorer families were sent to wealthier families in the village, to help out in any which way. Initially to help care for the youngest ones of the family, or to herd geese or goats, whatever work they could do on the farm. In exchange, they got a roof over their head (since they slept on the farm) and food. School was not mandatory. It was the farmer's decision about how long the kid servants/helpers went to school. My great-great-grandmother went to school for one week only, because the farmer she worked for took her out after that.

Somehow she learned to read nevertheless. But not to write. According to my grandfather, she was an avid reader throughout her 96 (?) year life, until she lost too much eyesight due to old age to be able to read. Reading was what she missed most in the old age.

I will think of this when Sonja asks me to read some book or another yet again.

***

Aside: Now with my grandfather's sight too frail to read, I thought I would send him a cassette with greetings that he could listen to, and possibly a blank cassette for his reply to us. Unfortunately, no regular electronics shop in Zurich that I visited sells cassette recorders anymore. Dead technology. Too bad. I think that "modern" technology misses the easiness with which cassettes could be recorded and then listened to again. Everything that I can think of that would do the same either requires a computer to record (e.g. a CD) or has a small display that has to be read - neither really accessible to my grandfather. (The CD would be fine for sending to my grandfather, but not for him recording a reply.) May be I will go look through pawn shops for some of this old technology.

Our Sonja is Three

Our Sonja is three:


Martin is off the glacier back to Illulisat, a city in Greenland, and is heading here in the next several days. We are heading for two weeks to the Czech Republic today. Hopefully he will join us there.

And when we get back, we might make a nice grill party at a park with swings and sandpit and water for Sonja, to make a nice birthday celebration.

Bathing on porch

and playing together

Sonja self portraits

We are slowly moving to living on our balcony. The days are beautiful and hot. The balcony is quiet, has a nice view. Not necessarily cool, but it does have an awning that makes some shade. And we are documenting it. Or rather, Sonja is documenting it. She loves the timer that makes a picture with a ten second delay. I love it too, without it, she shot three pictures per second instead of one to two per minute. Here are some of her self-portraits:


Here is the picture I took, much to the chagrin of Sonja:

She now considers the camera hers. She was rather upset when I was taking the above photo, and was telling me: "give me back my camera, mama!"

And, we are enjoying strawberries. In our mouths. On our mouths. On our face. On our shirts. Underneath the high chairs. You name it, we probably have strawberry pieces on it:

Twenty years of dirt

My dad bought me a pretty good sleeping bag back in 1987. I have been using it ever since. It has been all over the place: Europe, North America, Hawaii, South America, and I forget whether China and Japan also. I washed it for the first time today. Decided to do it in the bathtub instead of the washing machine. That allowed me to see that it was a bit overdue for a wash. Just a bit. Like fifteen years. But hey, it was just camping dirt. Clean dirt. :)

And, of course by Murphy's law, after a whole week of beautifully sunny skies, I managed to finish the wash one hour before a thunderstorm rolled through. So much for getting a good portion of the sleeping bag dry using solar power. We will see what tomorrow brings. In the worst case, we have a dryer downstairs.