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...is a waste of time. Yesterday it read `tropical nights for the east, cool with possible rain for the rest of the country. At eight, when I was about going down to watch TV, we had 13 degrees in the bedroom, sama as outside. I opened the balcony door and the windows and sat next to hubby for a docu. The glass rods of the lamp made in hell were merrily jingling in the fresh breeze coming from outside, though it felt somewhat cosy. That alone should have risen the red flag- bad weather (save for thunderstorms) never come from that direction. At ten I went upstairs- the bedroom felt too warm all of a sudden, but 27 degrees? I looked at the weather app- temperatures had not gone down but up, we had 27 now. Well, too late to turn the aircon on for hubby, who needs cool air for sleeping. At three thirty, when I was off with daughter, we were still up to 26 degrees. So much about no tropical night in the west. Not even when we had 39 degrees during day the nights had been that warm! But that´s what foehn does to us...
Strangely, I did not sleep in but got up with hubby, but only after having watched the video of Suisse´s win on penalties. That´s how games get won- one must not play good football, only the result is that counts! During breakfast the rain front finally arrived, and temperatures dropped quickly down to 17. Would have preferred them to do so way earlier!
While on kitchen-cleaning duty I heard the sound of helicopter circling. Too near, I thought, and went out onto the terrace to have a look. Oh no, not another one! But some minutes later they brought down a body bag containing the unlucky one who had fallen to his death- the third person this year, and probably not the last. Some drop out of the wand when climbing, some jump. Hate, hate, hate it- this happens at our very door! Even one of my schoolfriends committed suicide that way, only that she jumped off the higher mountain beside.
Son has kept a lot of those cooking books I intended to give away and will take them to Graz bit by bit. The first of them went with him yesterday. What´s left I have placed onto his desk, giving the same a good cleaning before. I hope the glass will hold- I have culled ten more of those books, intending to keep only the big, interesting ones like the Culinaria series. I think in my best days I must have owned around 300 cooking books, give or take! Probably even more! Still way to many of them on the shelves, especially since a lot of recipes now get found on FB!
Apropos FB: For a while I wondered why I got to see so many Halloween decorations all of a sudden. That was before I got to know that a lot of US Americans start decorating for Halloween just after Independence Day- and we wonder how people can even think of voting a rabid carrot for president. Now we got to know that quite a lot of very strange people must inhabit this country...

Son had to go back to Graz today. So while hubby was at number two´s house doing more shed building (as if, they haven´t even finished the floor plate) I rummaged in the freezer for beef, because son wanted a selfmade beef broth with vegetables and Frittaten (stripes of pancakes). A typical meal for cold days, only that we got 30 degrees today, before cool weather will hit again tomorrow. Number four spent the morning in bed, a bed he usually does not like at all- too narrow (140 is not enough?), too firm (okay, that´s true, I tried to sleep there once and woke with a stiff neck and my back hurting). With son in bed I had a lot of cutting to do, while the beef was cooking. There was one mishap, when I banged my fingers on the metal pot and, to keep me from swearing (Dil has complained that the boys use swearwords all of a sudden) propped my hand onto the next hard surface and started to count to ten. Did not make it, because the hard surface had been the still hot stove top. The burn is not that bad, but my swearing woke number four, who finally showed up, gave me a plaster then cut the leek and the parsley. Hubby came back and made the Frittaten (one of the few things I won´t do, because it involves hot oil, which always leads to breathing problems with me). I have to admit that I completely forgot about daughter´s first early shift in July, so when she showed up just after lunchtime I was a bit flabbergasted. But she brought cake (lemon, ny favourite) and my favourite buns for tomorrow´s breakfast, while hubby bought cherry cake for snack break- oh yes, hubby loves sweets...
I cleaned the conservatory to be able to do the next jigsaw (it was less tidying but more spider hunting), watered the few plants that are inside at the moment then let daughter sort out the pieces for the frame while I helped son find the things number four needed to take back to Graz but was not able to find. That man is such a chaotic person, the opposite pole to his sister, who has a to-do list she will meticulously work off. Honestly, I was so done when son finally left that I was no big help with building the frame. Besides, it was hot and sweat inducing up to the moment we finished, then the clouds started to sail in and temperatures began to drop. Wish this would have happened sooner! Hubby, who had been sitting on the terrace for sunbathing went back in to watch football. Apropos football: First thing at four in the morning, when I woke for a tour de loo, was looking for the result of last night´s game. We have been discussing the Big Orange´s idiocy while pondering how long a corrupt Infantini will be able to keep his position. Hubby mentioned (for fun, at least I hope so) that surely Orange will do another phone call to reverse the result, because someone hadn´t told the teams where the goal they should place the ball into was located. My oh my...

We made it back from St.Pölten safe and sound thanks to hubby´s heroic acting, when my glasses broke out of the blue- he took them and went to Fielmann, where they found a new optical frame similar to the old one and adapted the lenses. He did so definitely not only out of compassion, but because he had planned to have a few glasses of non-water at the party, as did son number four. No problem with the new glasses, the only problem was the seating arrangement in the car- hubby had to take the seat between the boys´ children´s seats, and hubby is tall, even though he might have lost two or three centimetres with age. He´s still too tall to fit into that place lengthwise but bony enough to can be seated there. I did not want for the boys to take the dickeys in the back row, which was good, because at some point the two decided to colour and do arithmetics and whatever books they had been given by their father (their mum had been asleep up to the moment they had to leave their house to get to number three). No quarrels, no loud talking, the biggest problem was Cassian exercising his whistling skills, which number four in the front row did not tolerate well. The night with the boys was (almost) perfect, the older woke at five but went back to sleep again, and at seven they both journeyed to the marital bed for some tablet watching, while hubby got up and prepared breakfast. I tried to sleep along, because I had watched last night´s football game, were a brute team tried to literally kick out the French, which fortunately did not happen. Sometimes I wonder why they have referees, if such brute performance gets tolerated anyways...
Of course, hubby had invited family number two for lunch. A lunch they took home, because they had had breakfast at one- Dil does nothing but sleep in after such a hard night of vernissageing. Flavius delivered another act of freaking out, and mum did exactly nothing to stop him. Poor Cassian had to do a lot of searching for smashed Lego in the lawn. I am glad that Flavius does not provide such freak shows more often, or I´d be worried. Oh well, maybe I am worried, but it´s mummyy who has the saying! After the family had left the three of us did a lengthy rest. Mine was the longest, I only woke when hubby turned the coffee maker on- I had slept for two hours then! Then again, the weather was cool, dark and rainy, so I did not miss much. We barely made it up to 20 degrees and even got an impressive thunderstorm at five in the afternoon. Hubby got completely soaked by the downpour, when he tried to save the pool water, which had turned a nice shade of green in the space of four days. Apparently he forgot to turn the salt master on after the cleaning. Or that darn thing has finally died, it pretends to do so at least twice during the pool season. That thing is ancient....

The party was fun, grandchildren had a field day. Prasselkuchen was a hit- I baked it in the morning, all in all it took thirty minutes. But I was the lucky one who had to do the drive back home, because the big boys had beer aplenty. I also was the one who put Cassian and Flavius to bed, later than usual, because we arrived after their bedtime. Now everything is quiet again, and I poured me a glass of wine, and one more to follow...

And annoying to no end. I have a 'ton' of cowboy butter to make. There's a cake that needs baking (found an easy recipe called Prasselkuchen, to which I will add currants). In the morning I vacuumed the upper floor, changed all beddings then was off to get all ingredients for tomorrow's party afterwards. Came back home, made lunch (pork fillet, shallot sauce and potatoes) and was supposed to have a nice after-lunch nap then- impossible when there's one call after another coming in. Nothing of importence- sis wanted to come for a visit tomorrow (we aren't at home), friend wanted to visit (same). It's as if everyone is awake again after dozing through the heat days! So I got up, went to the bathroom to change the towels, and on the way out my glasses fell. To be correct, a side fell, the rest stayed on my nose. Broken off. The only pair left, and they were only two and a half years old. And just before I am supposed to do some car driving tomorrow, which won't happen now, since I am blind like a bat without glasses. Hmm... I fear that baking might be an interesting experience. At least, I won't turn blind when I open the door of the oven to see if the cake is ready!

knitting: done
flowers: sewed on
threads: darned in
washing of the jumpers: done
Now all I have to do is take a photo. Might do so this evening, in case that all jumpers and the top have dried and hubby deigns to clear the table of the tools he has spread there. I always thought that we are supposed to have our meals there, but no...
I did some decluttering, not much, but another drawer of the old writing desk got cleared, things wandering directly into the dustbin, before hubby would be able to protest. Then I selected a recipe for the lemon tiramisu I intended to do, only to have hubby tell me that family number three does not want tiramisu but some other cake- and that he wanted to tell son which one I would do now. I told him to get off and that I definitely won´t tell him. If son (or DiL) wanted a special cake they´d have to do it themselves. And please, do not tell me that it´s because of Elsa and Matthäus- the two haven´t eaten any cake on their plate, as far as I have seen. Could be because they had eaten way too many sweets already when cake got served! At the moment I am looking for another cake recipe which is easy to make, does not contain alcohol and won´t die on the way to St. Pölten- weather forecast for Saturday tells me that temperatures will already be considerably higher. And no alcohol, because Cassian and Flavius are cake addicts. They smell one the way a vulture will smell carrion- from far away!

Finally! It took quite a while for the thunderstorms to arrive. When in the dark kitchen last evening I was able to watch a show of lightnings- impressive, but the thunderstorm did never make it over here. But at five in the morning te time for cooling down had come in form of a huge one, which made hubby and me run to close all open windows, which were many. Absolutely no fun, because this was the third time we were up, because Marlene woke us with her football-induced war cries. That lady is a menace to our health. Still don´t know how she does it, but I think she brings Konstanze over to the grandparents, drives Charlotte to school then sleeps, until it´s time to do lunch. Three more weeks, then it´s over, and we can sleep safely again.
You won´t believe it, but chances are that I will finish Elsa´s top in time- today I did the borders, threaded in and crocheted twenty tiny flower heads I will sew on tomorrow. Then the top will go into the washing machine and hopefully dry up till Saturday. Friday I will do Cowboy butter and lemon tiramisu for the birthday party. I still miss my cold box which got taken to Romania but never made it back! Will have to make do with cold packs and a plastic box then for the drive to son number three.
During day it got pleasantly cool inside the house- we had only 19 degrees outside in the afternoon. The strong winds made us hang the washing in the living room. Bad idea, because for a while air moisture went through the roof, and life was miserable even though the temperature inside was down to 23. Since we had salmon spaghetti for lunch a good airing was called for, which solved the issue. I had a long, unplanned nap after lunch and only woke two hours later, when hubby turned the coffee maker on- he, too, had overslept. No wonder, today it´s such a dark day that we decided to make good for last night´s lost sleep! Which reminds me that there´s a mosquito in the bedroom I have to deal with. I heard the beast, grabbed the bug spray, listened some more then fell asleep again. Repeat. I think I did this thrice but never caught it. The mosquite was more successful, I have brandnew bug bites. Why always me, when there´s a hubby sleeping nearby?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my studio
Current Music: Peer Gynt

This day got mostly spent with knitting and crocheting. Elsa is a tall girl and I decided late (too late?) on doing a summer top for her. It all depended on how work was going with the boys´s jumpers, which went exceedingly well. We will be to number three´s birthday party in Lower Austria on Saturday, means that all handicrafting has to be finished then, or we will get a very grumpy young lady. Daughter had asked me what I was knitting, and all I could tell her at that moment was I do not know, but it´s rather big already. I do not use knitting instructions, I need a shirt or a jumper in the actual size of the recipient and a picture of a jumper I like, and that´s all. Usually it will work, but this time I wasn´t sure. Turned out that the top will look nice, question is: Will I be able to finish it! Hubby was a lifesaver, he tidied the kitchen, did housework but only after he had put up a nice outdoor working place for me, airy but thoroughly shaded to keep my eyes out of danger. Brought me fruits and coffee. Cooked shop-bought pelmeni, I only had to add sour cream sauce and cabbage salad. Uncovered the pool for swimming- the heavy thunderstorms we were promised in the late morning did not come, but it was terribly humid though far from hot (29 degrees only). I think hubby wants a happy Elsa on Saturday, not a beasty (hence extremely loud) one. But knitting at such humidity is definitely not an easy task- the yarn got stuck around my fingers all the time. Tomorrow we are promised 21 degrees- not my favourite temperature for summer, but after such a hot period our house needs a cooling down, before the next heat wave will set in (it´s already on the way they say).
The ducks are back, now it´s two males with females. God forbid they will breed- I love ducklings, but neighbour´s garden is full of badly behaving cats hunting all day all night. Building nests on the bank of the pond will turn into disaster! I already suggested to let the nice young man who works at the business build a nesting place in the middle of the water, but then the ducks were off, and now that they are back it´s too late.
Hubby was off in the evening to record a musical birthday greeting for the orchestra´s old conductor. Now I wonder if he has locked the garage and barricaded the door to the stairs that lead down to the basement. Yesterday I had to do all this during the heavy storm that came with the thunderstorm. That was definitely no fun!

Yesterday evening we were supposed to have one, but all we got was strong winds. And afterwards the warmest night of this hot June- 24 degrees, which is abnormal for our region. Usually we are down to 18-20, even when it´s very hot. Hail to our aircon, again!
My eyes were better in the morning but far from okay. Me and sun glasses, oh my! I wore them all day long, even inside, because the day was sunny, even though they had promised us rain and thunderstorms and strong winds. I mostly kept to helping hubby with the red currant jam. Those berries had to be parted from the stems- two kilos of the red menace! It took me quite a while, and afterwards there was a lot of floor cleaning to do, because those berries are not only blood red but bolting if they have the chance. And hubby never looks at what he steps on! After jam making it was knitting (Elsa´s top now) and putting Matthäus´s one into the washing machine.
Since it was still too hot though far from yesterday´s hotness (we only made it to 32 degrees), cooking was another shortcut- gnocchi and pesto rosso straight from the grocery shop. In the afternoon I put on my bathing costume and did a bit of swimming- always on the shaded side of the pool, thank God that our neighbours have planted apple trees! Hubby was off to Cassian and Flavius at six. Parents have an appointment, so he is the one who will put the boys to bed. I wish him luck! I wanted to watch the football game, but the moment it started an impressive thunderstorm arrived. I had to secure the garage door (hubby forgot), close all windows (too late for the bathroom, then again, this room is surely accustomed to get a bit wet). Now that the house is safe from getting flooded inside, I decided that football is overrated anyway and turned my PC on. For the first time in recent days I was able to do this without the help of the aircon- poor Ashmael does not tolerate heat well...

I spent too much time in the pool without sun glasses. Now my eyes have a sunburn- that hurts! And all that after a night of horrors- the boys slept badly, even though the aircon was on, I did a lot of coughing because the aircon was on. We got a public disco from two to four done by some neighbour, there was a public viewing party for the football game going on afterwards, and when the viewers went back home, thoroughly drunk and bawling, we were already down having breakfast. From then on we were mostly outside pooling or reading, hence the sunburn. No more sun, no more reading for me. And no TV watching, of course. A dark room and closed eyes it will be...

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