Two bikes good, three bikes better!

 I can give you one more reason to hate spam calls. Waking up to one at 3 am, when I thought I had do not disturb on. The kids were a bit taken aback to find me asleep when they came downstairs, and unwilling to get up immediately. 

After breakfast, upstairs became a music video studio, which sounded like it was going quite well. About a half hour of recording, then a break for editing, then some more recording. I think it will be very nice when it’s done. Also, when we can start listening to a different piece. 

In the afternoon we headed back to the trails by the river, to a once-a-week bike flea market. I had scouted an option for a bike that was about an hour’s walk away from the flea market, but in the end decided the extra hike was not worth it, and bought one of theirs. Then we sat by some nice log tables overlooking a wild weedy garden and the river, and had a bit of a picnic while big glamorous clouds sailed across the sky. A black and white cat from the farm house came over and said hello. Pining for some animal cuddles, the kids were delighted to pet it and it enjoyed the attention, for a brief, catlike while. We overheard some people talking - a old man making very energetic opinions about how the press has sold everyone on the dangers of covid and how they are all lying, and an outdoorsy older couple listening with that kind quiet politeness but probably wondering how much longer the person will rant on if you just let them talk and don’t fan the flames, hopefully not much longer, or perhaps we’ll have to make some excuse. We finished our sandwiches before he was quite done. For the kids, or mainly Petra, overhearing these types of conversations is interesting. She had a hard time understanding the older man and asked me to “translate” or explain a few times, which I tried to do very quietly, as we didn’t really want to invite a repeat of the entire point of view. 

Now, with everyone one bikes we scouted a little further on the roads crisscrossing the fields. Petra spotted a young fox trotting in one. We watched it and though it was quite skinny, probably this year’s younger one, and saw it hunt and catch some small rodent in the grass. We hope it gets fluffed up for the winter! seems it has still some while to go to build up fur and fat.

When we are out, Petra says that she quite likes living in the city, and I have to agree that it is in many ways quite lovely. However, it is easy to love places in fine, fair, end-of-summer weather. We’ll need to make sure that we enjoy all those things we most enjoy, like the freedom of bike riding, and the many yet untasted ice cream flavors. Speaking of which, we came back home and had some more ice cream. The container is too big - by now we’d like to be on to another flavor! 

Between the moments of fun, the day did seem a bit long. I tried reading a professional development book, but didn’t get very far. I tried to read a novel I was halfway through, and that also didn’t quite keep my attention. I watched a bit of tv (with headphones, so as to not disturb the video productions upstairs), and in the end decided to practice my afternoon nap technique. 

I figured this was a day to have a favorite dinner of pasta and sauce, to keep at least some things familiar and accessible. Markus had been on a dive trip and stopped by to pick up some fluffy princess tutus for Isla, but only half, as we’ll want to give the rest in person when we see them. 

As the sun was setting the clouds decided to fling some drops our way, but we hope tomorrow will still be another dry day, with hopefully more bike adventures as well. Brian facetimed with the kids to catch them before bed time, and Petra fell asleep on the sofa! I guess she really was very tired, and she was reluctant to get off and be taken up to bed. 

PS. for those who don’t know, THIS is a drying cupboard - a staple feature of almost every kitchen in this country.