Somehow, these last few hours of the morning have slipped by without me really noticing it. If you saw the person who stole them, please let me know so I can get them back!

And now for your more-or-less random news: The cat is lying right beside me, sleeping. She has a slighly higher need for cuddles and closeness to her humans since we spent the last weekend away, so she wanted her nap close to me.

The garden is exploding into spring growth, with the roses sprouting stems and leaves. The tulips are nearing the end of their bloom cycle, but the lily-of-the-valley is taking up the baton, joining the forget-me-nots and strawberries. The pansies have been blooming for ages anyways, as have the dead-nettles... so the garden is looking quite full of flowers. So full, in fact, that I had to clear space to plant the tomatoes that I set out yesterday!

The internet has also been exploding into spring growth, or so it seems to me. There's lots of stuff to spend some time watching or reading, for example this:



Or, if you prefer reading, Sarah Goslee of the stringpage blogged a link to out-of-print publications put online by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, freely available to read and download. There's 371 publications available as of today, and Sarah has picked out a few of interest already, so visit her place for direct links.

And finally, if you are tired after all this reading and watching, here is something guaranteed to shock you awake: Google Earth pictures used to record looting at Apamaea, Syria, over the course of less than one year. Looting, my friends, is evil. EVIL.

It's finally spring! Though it's still cool outside, the winter garden gets warm enough during the day to sit there, in a T-shirt, and enjoy the sunshine while working. The first crocuses are in bloom, most of our pruning work has been done, and it's really nice to be out in the garden and get the hands dirty again. Even though the garden is small, there is plenty of opportunity to get dirty hands...

And yesterday I put the first tomato and chili seeds into soil for this year. Much of them was seeds that I took from plants myself last year, so I will have an even harder time waiting for them to sprout than usually - since I cannot be sure that they will sprout. (Due to this, I might have put a few more seeds into the ground. Like usual... good thing we have friends and neighbours and family who do not mind a tomato plant or two in case they all grow!)

I had a wonderful, fun summer break, and now I'm returning to work - the Textile Forum is creeping up and needs some attention as well as some other stuff (as usual).

The weather is still beautiful though, more inviting to have ice coffee in the garden than working. It's a good thing I can sit in the open wintergarden for work and at least enjoy the warmth and fresh air outside, and watch the birds eat the half-ripe kernels from the sunflowers! There's whole flocks of them on one flower at some times. The first few chilis are also ripening, and we have already munched quite a lot of tomatoes and mini-cucumbers (melothria). And there's even a melon going to be ripe soon. (The downside of all that garden joy? Being away for some time and not keeping up with the weeding means catch-up work has to be done there as well. Fortunately it can be done while munching tomatoes and cucumbers...)

I had a truly wonderful weekend - a little bicycle ride for a visit to family, relaxed evenings, having lovely cake with friends and planning our summer holiday trip together, and finally having a nice meal (which included eating this year's harvest of red and white currants).

And now my brain is absolutely free of blog-worthy archaeological or textile-related things. It's summer, and I blame the slack season for slack in my brain as well.

So I will at least share with you my favourite way of eating red currants, which is also a very easy dessert: pluck red currants, wash and de-stalk them, and put them into the bottom of a bowl with a little sugar so they are not incredibly sour (only very sour). Prepare vanilla custard (Vanillepudding) and pour the hot pudding over the currants. Let it cool a little - can be eaten still warm or cold. That's it - a summery dessert that reminds me of my childhood and is something of a comfort food for me.

And next year, I hope our currant bushes will carry enough berries for at least two preparations of this dessert!

It's summer, and we have summer temperatures outside - though luckily we also had at least a little rain earlier this morning. It's by far not as bad as the drought in England, but it's been much too dry for the season here since about March, and by yesterday our water vat for the rainwater was almost empty. (This even though we have been using hose water for the times when we were watering the lawn to return it from "Extra Crispy Summer Edition" back to "Merely Really Very Dry Summer Edition").

Anyways - the flowers are blooming, most of the beds are more or less weeded (I leave in the things I like, since weeds are only unwanted plants), all the tomatoes are set outside, we did a little walking tour with friends through Franconian Switzerland, and yesterday afternoon we went crazy and used a few of our leftover willow rods from the fedge to plant a chair. It's going to take at least two or three years before it's a proper, useable chair (and whether it will be comfy or not is totally unclear), but it was a lot of instantaneous fun to plant it.
The cat, meanwhile, has also settled in well. She now knows all our living space, but she'll have to wait another two to three weeks before she's allowed into the garden, due to the vaccination shots she still needed. Her favourite pastimes: sleeping (naturally) and hoping for something to eat.

And now I'm sitting here with a coffee before me - the week can start. Today's agenda: send off the taxes - the Most Patient Of All Husbands has filled in his part, so I'm out of reasons for procrastinating with the sending-off. And after that... on to organising work for the Textile Forum!

 As promised, some pictures. First of all, a tulip from our garden - most of them are done with their blooming now, but a few last ones - the black ones, mostly - are still holding their own.


And this is the current market stall setup, with the new banner in place. This is how the stall looked at Freienfels, and I'm very happy with it!


And finally... Madonna, hanging out on the living room carpet...