Kitchen redesign, tomato sauce

I've had a bench stashed in my shed since I hauled all of my stuff out of storage.

Not because I wanted it there - but because that's the only place it would fit where it was protected. It wouldn't fit in the house - darn eastern architecture that wasn't meant for wide furniture. It's been a real pain in the neck having it in there since it takes up a whole half of the shed. Getting bicycles in and out, and lawn mowers etc. was a pain in the neck. I had asked Jeff if he could take it apart and put it back together - he said no. So last weekend, in the beautiful weather, I decided to ignore all of the other things I should have been doing, and I took my cordless drill, my wood carving tools, hammer, and rubber mallet into the shed... and let's just say, where there's a will there's a way. I did get it apart. And to my amazement it was only because I am both an artist and a do-it-your-selfer. I had quite a bit of trouble getting the visible screws out because a lot of them were stripped. The worse one I had to just carve out of the wood with my wood carving tools. Worked just fine!Sadly I didn't realize there were two hidden screws under some molding and the wood split a bit underneath that part. But when I put it back together the problem is invisible. When it came apart and I was that thrilled to be able to get it upstairs into the kitchen. BUT I had to wait until Tuesday. That's when I had help getting the two parts up the stairs. And it looks great! I am surprised to find that I really missed this bench. It is incredibly comfortable. The wood feels good and it's really nice to lounge on it. I'm so glad to have it back.

Here it is from the front view - which is fine:

However, the back view will change.

The plan is to make a deal with myself to get some other very necessary things finished around the house ~ then I can make the fun kitchen island. I still need to finish the shutters on the first floor. That project is approaching some urgency now that winter is coming and the windows will need to be closed and winter-ized. The other project which is approaching urgency is the basement. I need a new de-humidifier (the other one died after one year down there) I need to parge the basement and I need to redirect the downspout gutters so that they empty away from the house. At the moment my basement is damp damp damp. yuck. Once I've finished those two vital projects, I can build another counter which will be behind the bench. I want to design it - á la Ken. Ken made the bench and the table, and he also design the most wonderful kitchen islands. He will be the inspiration for mine. More on that later, when I'm inspired.

Of course my adventure of getting the bench upstairs wasn't without it's usual brush with the Philadelphia wildlife. Oh yes, when I went to tip the bench on it's other side so that I could get to the screws on the other side, something heavy sort of rolled out and away from the bench.

This poor unfortunate little guy decided to make a nest in one of the drawers of the bench. It must have been a lovely nest. It was full of dried leaves, shredded plastic bags, and two of my gardening gloves I'd been missing for a few weeks! I did scare the heck out of him though. And he finally felt that going underneath the shed was a good idea.

Tonight I made my first batch of tomato sauce. And it was a success! Let me tell you!

I used 11 of my own home grown tomatoes, a huge onion, a bit of garlic, olive oil, my own fresh rosemary, basil and some dried bay leaves. A little salt and, on a co-workers tip, a tiny bit of sugar. Yeah, it's pretty darn good.

I have a great picture of the sauce bubbling away in my pot but for some reason it keep loading up sideways. So I cut it out.

Here is the first batch of great sauce. It will be perfect for anything. I just hope I get enough tomatoes to make more. I'd love to make another batch of my own stuff and have it all winter.

Like I said, I love being a farmer.

In the mean time.....

Happy October everyone!

I've been doing a ton of things, but at the moment I've been tying up loose ends on the Pink Scarf Knit-a-thon. This is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. A friend of mine and I decided to run a blog to knit some pink scarves to donate to the Susan B. Komen Foundation chapter in Philadelphia. Check out all of the beautiful scarves at www.pinkknit-a-thon.blogspot.com

Danish Family, New windows 3rd Floor, Nightblooming Cereus

And there is probably much much more to cover than just that. Lots has happened since I raved about being a farmer (which is still great, by the way).

Background: In 1994 I spent the fall semester of my junior year abroad in Denmark. I stayed with a Danish host family, Kirsten, Ebbe and 15-year-old Michael. About a month ago, Michael contacted me to say they were going to be in New York and could they come visit for a few days. Of course, YES! was the answer.

I just spent the last two days with Sina, Laurits and Michael. Laurits is the most adorable baby! He has so much energy though. It's like there is a wind-up key in him somewhere and he goes and goes full speed (for a few hours) until he crashes and sleeps for an hour. He is so curious, everything is fascinating. We went to Ben Franklin's Printshop where they give printing demonstrations. I was holding him. When the presenter smacked the ink daubers together, he froze in fascination for about three minutes. I think that was the stillest he was when I was holding him.f I also think that he realized I was speaking a funny language. The first day he was here he kept looking at me with a completely puzzled and confused look. English must sound very strange to him. But by today I was validated. Every time he looked at me there was a big smile. What a sweetie.

It was so nice to meet Sina too. She is really great and she and Michael are really great parents. We had quite the adventures getting around Philadelphia with a baby carriage. I learned where all the ramps were, elevators on the subway etc. It was a new experience for me, let me tell you. AND - it was an interesting experience having a baby in Philadelphia. People really soften when there is a little one to deal with. People helped with strollers, doors, they were much nicer to us completely.... I was amazed. I had a new adventure as well. I finally made it out to Bartram's Gardens. We took the trolley and it was packed. Brave Michael had to deal with the carriage which had to be folded up to get in and out of the doors, and then we were told that the trolley line was interrupted, and we would have to get off and get on a bus. Turned out it wasn't and the trolley just kept going. I thought I had just gotten us lost in a not-so-great part of town. But we ended up getting out at exactly the right stop. Whew! Bartram's Garden is really really cool. My intrepid intern Alina also works there. She generously spent an hour with us showing us all of her treasures. There was a Hawthorne tree fruiting so we tried some, we passed an Osage Orange tree and she found one on the ground. We talked about the tornado that hit us in the summer which knocked down a ton of trees there. Bartram's is the oldest horticultural center in north America. The grounds and buildings have never changed. Isn't that amazing? They also host several plants which are extinct in the wild. There are beautiful gardens there. They have different exhibits including bog plants, carnivorous plants, lichen, and a pond with lotus flower. I'm so glad we went there and I can't wait to take other people there as well.

We were completely pooped out by last night though. We decided to have a good old fashioned BBQ, gin and tonics, potato salad and blue berry pie. Yum. Then we dragged out the dvd projector and watched National Treasure on the back wall until it started raining on us. It was a great evening.

So it was really sad to see them all go this morning. You know it was a good visit when you think... they could have stayed a few more days and I would have been very happy. :) But we will just have to visit again, either here or in Denmark. :)

One other reason they should have stayed is that my Nightblooming Cereus bloomed tonight.

It went from this:

and this:
to this:

in about two hours. It will bloom for only one night.

The whole flower is about the size of a soccer ball. I tried to find out more about this plant online but I'm not sure I was successful. All I know is it is considered one of the most beautiful flowers in the world, and the perfume... wow. It is amazing. It is incredibly strong and I can't describe it to you, even though I think I've smelled something like it before. I'm sitting here trying to write this blog and scent is extremely distracting. It's a cactus from the Sonora Desert. And because I kept it inside for the winter and then put it out in a sunny spot this spring I got a blossom! I've been watching it all evening. I read somewhere... maybe it will bloom for two nights - so I'm hopeful. Then I have to hope for another blossom next year. It is so exciting when things like this happen. I love it.

And yes, Jeff was here again last week, finishing up the window frames on the third floor, putting the bracket back up to keep the raccoons out (finally!) and fixing a corner that leaked. Now I can spend more money to ask Wally to come and do some pointing on that part of the wall. sigh. It really never ends. The term "the money pit" comes to mind... anyway - I'll post pictures of that next because this blog is supposed to be about what I'm doing to my house not just how I'm living in it... but I keep forgetting to take pictures of that work in daylight.

Other things are going splendidly. Last weekend I prepped for a studio visit with a curator from the DCCA (Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts.) She chose a piece to put into a show which opens in December. I'm very excited about it because she chose the newest piece - a video piece where the book performs itself. Maybe I'll upload it at some point. So that was great! It also made me get my rear in gear and do some cleanup in my studio. The shutters have been on hold for a while now. But I need to get to them before it's too cold to have windows open again. Maybe this weekend. Maybe.

I love being a farmer

My harvest from last night. An enormous bowl of cherry tomatoes, a small bowl of the second raspberry crop, thyme, my first green onion which was ready to pull - and after two months of anticipation, the first cantaloupe.

I was just beginning to wonder how I would tell when the cantaloupes were ripe when I was looking at them yesterday evening. One of them still has dark green stripes, but this one is completely covered with the "net". So I lifted it to smell it (that's how I always check them out in the grocery stores, and the perfume that come off of it - wow! Perfect cantaloupe scent. When I went to put it back because I though, oh, maybe one more day - I realized, the thing had picked it self. It was not longer connected to the vine. I guess that answers that question.

But I probably should have let it sit on the counter a bit longer. The flavor isn't quite there yet. There were little hints of it - but not quite right. It's still incredibly satisfying to pick and eat something you've grown yourself.

Laboring on Labor Day

Sounds appropriate don't you think? Laboring on Labor Day? Okay, well, to be honest, I didn't labor too much on Labor Day. We had a BBQ which was fun. But the day before - I spent the entire day painting the kitchen on the third floor. I'm really pleased with it and as I expected pictures just can't do it justice. There is something about the sun shining in in the afternoon which just can't be captured on camera. I finished painting on Tuesday evening and ever since then I've been doing the last little bits. The insides of the closets, the door with ultra high gloss etc. Now I'm cleaning. I wanted to clean all of today and get it finished, but I got a bit side tracked. I also think I overdid things a bit. I'm exhausted. Around noon I took an hour and a half nap. It was really great.

Yesterday I found this beautiful spider web on my front porch.

Little by Little

Remember this? The tree that took over most of the back yard? It got trimmed:
Now I just need to get grass to grow underneath it. (for now). This has been a long time coming! In the snow storms last winder the tree really spread out and cast too much shade in the yard. I actually wanted to have the whole thing taken down. But Hal (the arborist) convinced me to just cut the bottom branches out and thin out the top. What a smart man!Now I've got the most ideal situation possible. My bedroom is still looking into only greenery, but the yard will have so much more sun. The only unfortunate thing is that I have a lovely view of my neighbors yard - ahem - dump. He claims he's going to build a garage there - that was supposed to happen three weeks ago. I'm going to have to grow some quick growing vines there to hide that mess.

Worked on my windows last night too. I washed them.
They are not quite clear because I also need to wash the inside. But all of the filth and dirt that was making it very foggy when the light was coming through is gone. And it looks great.
Here's a good shot of the wood as well. It was too hot last week to work on them. So I took a hiatus. I'm getting my school stuff started, people visiting, cleaning, getting the apartment rented. Its all a ton of work.

Maybe the coolest website ever!

At 4am this morning, it was too hot to sleep. So I got up to write email and stuff. My friend Mary just bought a house and she wants to paint blue/purple pinstripes in her bedroom. To me, this sounds like a nightmare project. At 4am you get some pretty hair-brained ideas though, and I thought, well, hey - why not print out wall paper instead? We're artists, we can do that. Mary is the professional paste maker anyway (one of her many talents). But THEN the thought followed, What if we don't need to make our own? Maybe some genius has already designed what she wants. And the web gave me one step better. There is a site that let's YOU design your own. Pick your pattern, pick your colors - oh this site could be very dangerous in a time-consuming way.

www.alluminare.com Enjoy.

Eew.

The worms are gross.

I thought this was going to be so easy. Badabing, badaboom and presto: compost. Yeah, no.

I should have known I was in trouble when the guy giving the workshop said, "now, your worms are like a 2-year-old. They each batch is different. Some like somethings and other don't. You've got to watch them and take care of them and figure out what your group likes." I was working in my studio tonight (where the worms are at present because it's coolest) and suddenly realized there were an awful lot of little flies. I had checked on my worms yesterday to find several crawling up the sides of the bin. This, I was told, is a bad sign. They want to get away from something. As I looked closer, there they were, little tiny maggots. Eew. I found myself sorting worms and newsprint. Those worms can really scamper when they don't want to be caught. But as I continued I found that the majority of the worms are indeed at the bottom enjoying my coffee grounds and eggshells. It's only a few that are unhappy. So I'm not going to change the whole thing out. I did try to wipe out as many maggots as possible and pulled out things they were clearly not interested in. Beets, some lettuce ends (that's a surprise) and something moldy I couldn't identify. I will check them again this weekend. Let's hope they regulate themselves and stay put. I really don't to have to sort a pound of worms from newsprint. Blech.

The Worms

The worms. Yes, I'll get to that.

But here is my finger. Can you believe it? That's all it is. That little cut. But it's deep enough to be a big pain in the neck. It does really hurt - still - three days later. The entire knuckle was green for most of today. I'm doing fine without bandages (even typing!) but every once in a while I bend it to much or expect it to do too much for what it can do. The cure? Three cheers for arnica!
But yes, the worms. I finally was able to make them a home this evening. It's a good thing I'm an artist. We were told to drill very small holes into the lid and base of the bin. Well! yours truly has all of the tiniest drill bits you can imagine. Probably more than the guy at Green's Grow could imagine. This is also good because I can't find my drill bits! Grr. They must be around here somewhere!

Anyway - here I am drilling holes (that the worms can't escape through) in the lid.
My worms are spoiled. They don't just get newspaper, they actually get newsprint without any printing on it. It's shredded and moistened and supposedly they will eat this too. Hmm, talk about a high fiber diet.
Added my composting:
It was about time. Some interesting things happening in there. I just think I'll have more than just worms in there by the time I'm done.

Below is their little home now.
So - at some point I should be getting amazing fertilizer out of them, if they make it through this week. It's supposed to be hot hot hot again. Yay.

Unbelievable

Third time in the emergency room this summer. This is getting ridiculous, and expensive. What did I do now? I was trying to fix things! I went into the basement to find that my de-humidifier was, well, not de-humidifying. There was a huge puddle on the floor underneath it because the thing was leaking somehow. In trying to get it off it's prop, and to pull off the hose which was stuck on with silicon (barely), it came off harder than I thought, and my hand flew back and the middle knuckle of my left ring finger whacked against the edge of the metal type cabinet which was behind me. I looked at it - it looked like a paper cut. And then.... I bent my finger - and I'll spare you the gory details. At any rate, I knew, I couldn't help myself. Talk about being really irritated with myself. I had to walk over to the hospital again. Three hours later, I didn't even get stitches, just tape. I'm all taped up, my finger really hurts, and I'm ticked because I wasted another 3 hours sitting in the emergency room. I read a lot of the Secret Garden though.

This is not what I wanted to blog about either! Here's what I really wanted to post:

Last night I bought $20 worth of worms.

Yup, red wigglers. This is so that I can start my wormacompost (I don't think that's actually how it's spelled). Apparently this stuff makes the best fertilizer ever and they eat a lot of your table scraps so that's good. I took a little workshop at Green's Grow, a local nursery that has a lot of great stuff. Too bad I cut my finger today because I wasn't able to get the bin going today the way I wanted to. Tomorrow. I'll let you know how they do for my garden.

We've had two beautiful days in a row. The class last night was held outside in the evening sunlight. The butterflies were all over the "butterfly" bush, a little black kitty kept trying to steal the show from the instructor, who was very cute. Half way through the class a flock of bright yellow orioles flew over the garden. I also wanted to buy some plant-able garlic, but apparently it hadn't come in yet. I'd love to have my own garlic growing. You have to plant it now, harvest next June!

In other news, I changed the buttons on my white sweater. These are some I bought with Dietlind in Germany. I really like them.
Here's the sweater I knitted from last week while I was recovering from my pulled muscle. I really like it, but while trying to take the photos tonight, I realized I sewed it together inside out. Now I get to take that apart again and sew it together properly.

And I have a new neighbor. I don't even know his name yet. But he sure is cute. He and Jacques encountered each other today though. It was loathing at first sight.

I hope this little guy doesn't get too neglected. He's got fleas and I think something in his ears and a huge lump on the top of his head. I don't know if he's been fed in the last few days either. Ugh. There should be some sort of competency test for keeping pets.

A real Vacation

Ah Yes, I did. I took a real vacation. This past week. I didn't really do it on purpose, but I'm sort of glad that it happened.

This vacation was sort of imposed on me by mother nature? Or the fates? Whoever's in charge of pulled muscles made me do it. As I was getting on the plane to come home, I stepped into my narrow row of seats, and facing the back of the plane, tried to lean forward to get my backpack off my back. There wasn't enough room for me to bend my knees, so I just leaned, straight-legged, forward and felt it. It was a snap in my lower left leg, and then something like a bungee chord rippling up my leg. No pain.... but the thought, this can't be good. So I unpacked things I needed for the flight, and sure enough when I stepped back out in the aisle to put my back pack up in the compartment, wow. I decided to get some ice. Thank goodness I was almost to the back of the plane anyway or it would have been a very painful walk. The flight attendants were very nice and gave me a pack of ice. But when I got back to my seat all of the worst thoughts started coming into my head; emergency surgery, crutches for the next six months, permanent injury for the rest of my life.... But there wasn't much to do about it for the next 8 hours. The ice helped a bit, but then later I had to get up again and when I got the back of the plane I new something else - there was no way I was going to make it from the plane to any baggage claim. So the nice flight attendants gave me a hot pack this time, and said they would order me a wheel chair.

Long Story Short: this is the fastest way to get through customs ever. There was an enormous line - and I got wheeled right past all of them and was through security in a blink. My luggage was there already and the nice lady who had to push me all over the place got me into a cab. I got home, the nice cab driver helped get my stuff into my house and took me straight to an emergency room. And to still keep it short - after a two hour wait in the emergency room, all I have is a pulled muscle. But I got ace bandages and crutches and instructions to take 600mg of Ibuprofen. (Which I thought was the same stuff I was supposed to take for my eye - where they gave me another drug to keep me from having stomach bleeding. Can that be true? I'll have to go back and check.) I ignored the Ibuprofen, and just used up a whole tube of arnica. The pain was only there where I tried to walk on it anyway. So, for injuries this summer that makes 3, emergency room visits, 2. I'm done for a while I think.

Thus the imposed vacation. I decided to just go with it. I had movies and knitting and I think I really did need the break. I also looked in my own library and decided I needed to re-read The Secret Garden. I remembered that I had loved that book for a few years and then got over it. Re-reading it now reminds me why I loved it. By Tuesday I was walking without any crutches, but carefully. Stairs and moving fast are still a problem. Not too bad, but I still have to be careful. Not so much standing for me at work this week either.

While I did check out for quite a bit this week I managed to get my syllabus done! Shocking! A whole week and a half early. I just need to fine tune the course book, make some corrections, add some new things and all will be good.

Friday I spent the day with my friend Mary, who just bought a house and quite her job to start her own business. Go Mary! So what do you need to do in that case? Spend money! We went to IKEA to get chairs and supplies for her, and a new set of kitchen knives for me.

It turns out I have been cutting with .... I can't even come up with a good word for it - My old knives, while pretty colors (on the right) are just dull, dull, dull. I've always tried to do the fancy chef cutting of veggies, where they leave the knife tip on the cutting board and I was never able to do it. That's because I always had to saw through everything. With these new knives, holy cow, they just glide through things like butter. I feel like a grown up now.

And then the garden.

Yes, after three weeks of neglect it had pretty much turned into a jungle. Ugh. So I tackled that yesterday But the garden is doing beautifully. I have tons of tomatoes, flowers and... cantaloupes!

Okay, I only have three so far, but I've got high hopes. This vine went crazy and is about 5ftx5ft. It was attacking everything in sight, tomato plant, forsythia, pine tree. I think if I would have let it, it would just have taken over everywhere.

And my celosias are just gorgeous. I will have these all the time in my garden. They are funny lookin' flowers aren't they?

Pictures really don't do them justice. I know I can dry them and if I remember correctly they seed really well. Maybe then I can save some money on the seeds. There was also this funny bug on the stalk. I tried to identify it on whatsthatbug.com but I couldn't find it. Maybe I'll send them the picture and ask.

And Jacques? He's fine. He's happy I'm back. He was fine spending every morning in his basket next to me. But in the afternoons he wanted out. There are always things to guard, cats to chase, and sounds to try to figure out.

And wheel goes round and round

Here I am at the end of my visit with my aunt and uncle. They've really pulled at my heartstrings this time.

Sitting in her room for a week for hours at a time gave me time to make a sweater: It's short-sleeved, and while I love the buttons I'm not entirely convinced. There's a button store in Mainz I might take a look at. It's got to be something really special.

But back to my aunt and uncle. Things were pretty peaceful most of the time. Between all of us. My uncle and I usually butt heads, and they usually fight like cats and dogs. But that just didn't happen this time. My aunt comes and goes. I got some stuff that's similar to Ensure - and she drank it over the weekend, and on Monday was pretty with it. But then on Tuesday and Wednesday slowed down a lot. I wish I could be here to help manage what's going on. They really need a baby sitter. It took me a few days to figure out that if you offer my aunt three things to eat, she'll choose one. If you just ask her what she wants, she'll say she doesn't want anything. And then, my uncle has been feeding her and if you do that she'll eat three bites and say she's done. But it turns out if you put a few things on a plate and let her eat it (with her fingers!) she will finish everything. She'll clean the plate. Tonight at the end of it all I realized now I should have bought some baby wipes to help her clean her hands. I just can't think of everything in such a short amount of time. My uncle has also been really sweet the last few days. He has been very glad that I'm cooking, although I don't think he could admit it. The complaining stopped, and we came to a truce about washing the dishes. I do the dishes in the middle of the day, he does the dishes for coffee. We each do our own dishes for supper. Today really clinched it for me - that despite everything, I wish I were closer: he came in while I was getting "dinner" (eaten in the middle of the day here) ready, and I tried to kick him out of the kitchen because he's always in the way and then if anything drips he freaks out a bit - as if a drip is a permanent blemish on the counter. But today he stood there picking his fingernails and said in a very small voice, like a little boy, "Would you also peel the sausage for me?" (sausage is made the old fashioned way here - and yeah, you always take the 'peal' off). It really broke my heart, because it showed me that he was allowing me to take care of him, and that more than that - he really needs someone to take care of him! For the first time ever - I really do wish I were closer.... I said, yes of course I would peel it for him - no problem!

For her birthday, I bought my aunt a prism. It's about two inches across, huge, and it throws rainbows all over the room. Now if only I had time to clean the window....

Spending Time with my Aunt

My Tante Ursula turned 99 today.

99.

So far it's actually been an okay visit. She's not doing well, as far as her physical health is concerned - and some could argue her mental health - except that she is still in good spirits. She still laughs, she jokes and teases, and I've only heard her complain once about pain. I actually don't think she's in any which is really good. She's tired of lying in bed all the time and today I did some physical stuff with her. She was pretty happy about it.

My uncle on the other hand is a mess. He worries and worries, and he cannot give up on the German rules of living. Everything on the plate must be eaten. One must not get oneself dirty. Cake must be eaten with a fork, not with the fingers! We go round and round (all three of us sometimes) and I'm trying to convince him - that if she can and wants to eat her cake with her fingers - who cares if she gets a few crumbs on her self!? Good Grief! you can clean those up and she still has a little dignity in that she can eat by herself. And the poor guy, we had to argue about how a straw with the flexible end works. He was convinced it was a one-way straw. He tried to explain to me how the folds would only let the liquid go one way. I tried very hard to keep a straight face as I explained that that was only to let the top part of the straw bend, nothing more. I wanted him to turn it around because it would make it easier for my aunt to drink out of a glass. And then with food. Oh brother - he complains that I bring too much, cook too much but then, everything I put on a plate for him - he eats. And yesterday was really sweet. I'd asked on Friday if he would eat Weisse Wurst (this is really really yummy stuff - but if you are in Bavaria you must eat this before noon - and you must eat it with sweet mustard! There. Now you know.) Ya - sure he would eat that. And what should we eat with it? Oh - I don't need any more - I said, Bratkartoffle? (fried potatoes) - oh child, you make too much, it's all too much, I can't eat that much! Well, Sunday I asked again if I should pick up fresh Weisse Wurst on Monday. Yes. And what should we eat with that? Without missing a beat he says, "well, if you make Bratkartoffle, I can eat some too" in a way that made me think - he's been thinking about this a bit. I made Bratkartoffle (fried potatoes) but he had a conniption fit about how many onions were in it. He said, I've never eaten Bratkartoffle with onions. There's always a first time and he ate two plates full. I think he's pretty hungry - he doesn't want to admit it. And I think he's thrilled to get food that's different than what he's been eating day-in-day-out. This makes me so sad - I wish I could convince him to get meals on wheels he would love it. But when you are old and set in your ways.... So I will cook up a storm in the next few days and hopefully that will keep them going a bit longer. If I lived here - I could at least bring them some of what I cooked everyday. But Philadelphia's a helluva commute to Frankfurt.

Time is going by very slowly here. I brought yarn from home to knit a sweater and I'm almost done. I just have to knit one more sleeve and the collar tomorrow. Then I'm allowed to go purchase buttons here. We mostly sit in silence. My aunt talks in her sleep and when she's awake she talks in any language she feels like - German, Spanish or English. My uncle probably also needs a hearing aide now, as he has a hard time understanding her - or deciphering which language we're in at the moment. But things have been mostly peaceful.

The last few days it didn't rain in the morning, so I walked down to the edge of the Saale, the "river" (to me it's more like a creek than a river) that runs through the town, and did some yoga. It's beautiful in the morning (see above). The light here is pretty fantastic. There are a pair of swans with two young ones, and a lot of mallards with all of their little ones too - it seems a bit late for that doesn't it? They are super cute. Doing yoga on the edge of the river in the early morning light is wonderful. It's still a bit cool, there is still dew on the grass, and it's very quiet. All you hear is a bit of the river and the little fish jumping to catch the bugs. Maybe that is helping with a peaceful visit as well? Who knows. But I am noticing - for whatever reason - I'm enjoying this time with them. I'm usually counting the hours. But this time - I found my self not thinking about the time at all, just enjoying the moments. I am glad for this.

Berlin - expanded

Berlin is just the coolest city in the world. Really. I think so. New York is too big and dirty. Philadelphia is too small. Berlin is both old and new, it's a Pheonix at the moment. Maybe that is why it is so exciting.

I was lucky enough to be able to meet with a friend. We met several years ago at UArts while I was in grad school. He's involved with the book arts world through a periodical he publishes for experimental text and images. He's originally from East Germany and so having his perspective on things and the development of Berlin was extremely interesting. He's also a bit of an architecture buff. The best tour guide I ever had. We walked all over the place the first evening, back and forth between east and west Berlin. The new Hauptbahnhof is incredible. It's beautiful structurally, and HUGE. It's the large station in Europe now. Uwe told me about the plans that made it all possible which were first proposed in 1904 - but because of one thing and another - weren't possible until just now. They built a tunnel under the city and apparently it's been very sucessful.

One of my favorite things he showed me, just because of the sheer brilliance of it was the Memorial to all of the Jews who died in WWII. Conceptually it ranks right up there with the Vietnam memorial. It's incredibly moving and brilliantly designed.

When one first approaches it, it looks like it is a flat surface which different heights of these blocks which represent sort of tombs or crypts one would find in cemetaries. They are these grey cement blocks at different heights. But as you start walking among them, you realize that the ground slopes down. Quite deep.

Here's Uwe standing deep in the middle of it. You get a good idea of the height of the things around you. And it's amazing. if a person turns the corner - they dissapear. You absolutely cannot see them. It's extremely impressive - in the sense that it leaves its mark - makes an impression upon you.

On a lighter note, there were other things we stumbled on which were pretty fun. After dinner the first night we walked back to my hotel and ran across Senefelder Platz. Senefelder is the guy who invented lithography. Imagine a country that names a whole little corner of their city for an artist! What a concept, eh?

I also like this sculpture because of the small details. If you look closely - the angle on the left is writing Senefelder's name backwards. It has to be backwards on the stone in order to print correctly on paper. The other little angle holds a mirror up to it so that he can read it correctly. how sweet is that?

But probably my favorite thing we just happened to see was the Ritter Sport store. Now, if you don't know Ritter Sport, you need to find out about it. You can actually get it in the states.

In Philadelphia you can get it in the little fake Wawa's and such and in California I've seen it at Cost Plus - or World Market- or whatever it's called now. It's a square bar of amazing chocolate. Anyway - we stumbled on a whole store. A whole store! Just with this chocolate!

So many amazing flavors. I did break down and buy my favorite, Dark Chocolate with Marzipan. Hmmmm. Yup - it always tastes better here - wonder why? We wandered around there and were amazed at all the different sorts we could buy - bigger tablets than we've ever seen, little tiny ones, single squares, yogurt tablets, you name it - they had it. The front of the store was some kind of (what looked like to me) frozen yogurt bar of sorts. However - when I went back before I left Berlin to pick up a few things I discovered that that "bar" is a create-your-own-chocolate-bar bar!!! OMG! How cool is that!? You can mix and match your own flavors (up to four) into a bar of half-bitter chocolate. It's melted and then they pour it into a form. It's ready in about 1/2 and hour. If only there would have been more time. sigh. What a fabulous idea! I'm going to have to go back just for this.

Uwe also mentioned that Olafur Eliasson was having a big show at the Gropius Bau - which is a big art museum. And I love his work. He is a contemporary artist born in Denmark, grew up in Iceland and his work has a lot to do with light and playing with the properties of light. This show was incredible. I don't know how it will travel though, unfortunatly I don't think it will. Eliasson lives in Berlin and the show is very much about that. The title of the show is a play on words. The title is Innen Stadt Aussen. Innen Stadt means inner city - or city center. Aussen mean outside. However, the word Stadt written with a capital S means "city." But written with a small s the word mean "instead of". So the title can be read both ways and it just doesn't translate to English. But it's brilliant.

He set up so many things for people to interact with. A lot of mirrors, lights, shadows, playing with light and color light. Different colors of light which cancel each other out. In one room there is a circular prism hanging from the ceiling, turning slowly. A bright light shines through it and so you get the shadow of the ring on the wall where it should be, a huge circular rainbow which moves around the room, and then a white circle of light which somehow moves and twists down to the infinity sign. This light slips through the shadow of the ring on the wall and opens back up again to the circle of light. In another room he has set up so many mirrors and strange angles that it would be easy if you were along to lose your balance. I liked this peace because of what else it gave us. At the same time this show was up there was a Frida Kahlo exhibit. People were waiting in line for five hours to see that show. But if you looked at the outside of the mirror room, you could see the reflection of some of the Kahlo paintings. Most visible was the one of Frida with the two monkeys. I wonder how many people caught that.

Finally that last mind blowing part of the show was the fog room. It was actually three rooms with "fog" probably dry ice I imagine. The fog was so dense you couldn't see more than a foot in front of you. But you had to move forward to see the change in the light. The whole thing was lit with different colored lights - and of course the light was all around you - you were completely consumed by a particular color. At one point as you walk through a color of red/orange that is so bright and hot that it invades your head. I had to close my eyes. I turned around and walked back into a blue light and felt my eyes relax, the heat went away and I could look around me again. It was also amazing to just stand still and watch people moving around. They would appear out of nowhere and then dissappear.

If you double click on the image above you can probably get a better idea of what I saw. That is a guard I accidently photographed - and then he walked over to me just as I was putting my camera away. Of course I got totally sucked into this room and lost complete track of time. So I was late meeting up with Uwe. But he still took me out to Potsdam to see the Einstein Turm. This is the observatory build by Mendelsson so that Einstein could prove his theory of relativity. It's really a cool little building. Still in use. And when you walk around it - it really looks like a space ship.

We walked around Potsdam a bit to get an idea of the city as well. It's so different from Berlin - which you can walk to from there. It's like West Philly and Center City - but drastically different. Different Architecture - different feeling. The difference is more like the difference between Center City and, oh I don't know maybe Bryn Mawr. It's like the country and the city, but right next to each other.

That evening I got to see another friend of mine I haven't seen in years and years. It was great to see him too, and then.....

To see my great aunt. She is not doing well at all. Last night she pulled herself together a bit for me, but today I saw what was really going on. She's on an air mattress - doesn't leave the bed at all. I found that her thought processes were still pretty clear - but Erich doesn't understand her - and doesn't try to either - so he keeps saying she is talking nonsense. Well, she's not if you pay attention. And wether they like it or not, things go better when she wears the hearing aides. She also still has her sense of humor. Thank god. Even in her much slowed down state of mind, she can tease and make little jokes. So I'll hang onto those things.

And finally - say a little prayer for my Jacques.

Poor Christie (my intrepid intern who is staying in the house - despite the fact that it turns out she's allergic to cats) had to take him to the vet on the train because he had a little bladder infection. Now she has to pill him. So, well, maybe you should say a little prayer for Christie instead. Christie - Ritter Sport is definelty coming your way! :)