It's start of October, and as usual I am on the last market/event of the season, in Tannenberg. I'll be taking my spinning project and of course the market stall will be open.
Otherwise, I am looking forward to some quiet time with friends that I don't see too often during the year, and hopefully some relaxed hanging out in the autumn sun, as the last weeks were quite exciting but also... quite exhausting.

After Tannenberg, I'm on my way to give a lecture at Aarhus University, so there's some more traveling for me to do. The blog will thus resume its regular function on Monday, October 14.

Until then, have a nice time and enjoy the (hopefully golden) autumn!

I'm in the sprint to the finish line - I will be away for some work stuff, and then I will have a nice little summer break, so (as usual before a break) the chunk of things on my to-do list to actually do before I don't do stuff for a while has grown to a frightening size. And it's deadlined stuff, too, nothing that can wait until I come back.

This is partly because it's just what happens, and partly because while I did some semi-careful planning, some things have been shifted about on short notice, and some things were delayed in the different phases of planning before now, so my available time for doing things before not doing things for a while... has actually shrunk.

Which means that I am going to nix my plans of blogging for you until right before my actual break, and maybe even writing and scheduling a few blogposts to make the blog hiatus a little shorter. I will do exactly the contrary: I'll call the hiatus in early, starting now. Sorry - but I'm sure you will have important summer things to do, too, and won't even miss me much.

The blog will be back to its regular schedule of posts on August 14. Until then, I wish you a wonderful summer with just the right amounts and the right timing of sun, rain, breeze, coffee, cake, ice cream and lakes or rivers for bathing and frolicking!

Not only the time of year that presents me with tulips springing up in the garden and the cat's unbridled happiness at being able to go outside and enjoy the sun and the hunting of mice - it's the time of year when the season starts.

So I will be off to Freienfels tomorrow, which means no blogging for a few days. I will be back on the blogboat on Friday next week. Until then, have a good time - and maybe I'll see you in Freienfels!

Due to my internet access not going as planned, combined with a little forgetfulness, you are now getting a very, very late blog post for today.

I am back from the IRM where I spent the weekend together with Sabine, and though I can't say exactly why, it was really, utterly exhausting. Some of that might be due to the lack of oxygen in the rooms (as is often the case, you get the choice between freezing but fresh air and being warm and cozy, but having bad air). Some of it might also be due to a few weird encounters that left me standing there and wondering what that was about (or why).

In any case, I'm really glad to be back home and enjoy a quiet day tomorrow before we start the preparations for the next event - Freienfels.

I will be away from home this week, looking at a nice old bit o' textile as well as visiting a friend, and then there's Easter to be celebrated - always a lovely excuse to meet with family and have a few lazy days.

So regular blogging will resume on Tuesday next week.

I am amazed that I can sniffle and sneeze (due to hay fever) when the day before there was snowy sleet coming down.

I am amazed that simple (or seemingly simple) tasks can take up so much time, and energy, and nerves.

I am amazed that time is rushing by so quickly. (It's not getting better either! Why can't time slow down for a change?)

I am amazed that so much stuff is accumulating, for example on my workdesk, and here I am trying hard to get it sorted out to make some more space.

I am amazed by the number of (work-related) books that I have, and that I still have not sorted them all (which is partly due to the lack of some shelf space, but mostly to my strategy of working on it just a very little at a time).

I am amazed on how much time one can sink into personalising and installing and adjusting stuff onto a smartphone which is not even going to be used as a phone - just as a media centre and small, lightweight, serves-in-a-pinch internet access thingie.

Maybe I should work on being less amaze-able? And on writing more amazing blog posts, not those about me being amazed?

(Clearly, the word of the week: amazed. And I promise that tomorrow I will get some coffee before posting here.)

... to slide into the festive season!

And then, the year's end will be fast approaching, and with it the new year, and with that the January conference in Cardiff, so the first days of next year, I will be quite busy getting my paper into its final shape, and packing my bags.

Which means that I will now go on blog pause for the last days of the year, as usual - but this time, the blog pause will be a bit longer due to the conference and include a healthy chunk of January. Regular blogging will resume on January 16.

I wish you all a good festive season with lots of nice food, lovely people and a pleasant warm feeling in your heart, a wonderful New Year's Eve and a happy and healthy start into the year 2013. I'm looking forward to see what next year will bring us!

See you on the flip side!