it's done - we survived 9 long weeks of summer holidays:) if you don't have a moping teenage son at home, you might not know what I mean - I do wonder how we'll manage next year, with 3 months of summer hols looming:(( who's idea was it anyway???
so today is the first day of 5 long years in secondary school for DS. everything is fresh and new and I hope he won't only suffer with homework and such, but have some fun as well! we did have several shopping trips for this, new uniform, new school bag, heaps of books and all the rest that is needed to learn arithmancy and ancient runes (or in modern life business studies and all the rest of the stuff:)). look at this mountain (13 kg!) of knowledge:
I wish it was all in his head - a lot of knowledge he has to cram in! on the other hand - I love new books of all kinds and wouldn't mind another few years in school! maybe not with maths, I could do without that:)) but the rest I'd have no problem, as a matter of fact I already read through bits and pieces of this stuff!
of course you need more than just books and a bit of paper: we bought heaps of pencils, rulers, a compass etc.... in fact it's so much that he'll have to bring in two school bags tomorrow to get it all in! luckily they do get a locker to keep some of the stuff.... 
in the weather we've had all summer everything is "upside down" - we have strawberries now, but only had a handful during strawberry season... those are supposedly "decorative", but they don't only sport pink flowers, they also produce strawbs.... we'll see about the taste! I also "found" 4 small plantlets of "mara de bois" in an overgrown bed, which I put into pots to plant them out again, when the bed is freshly "made"... 
of course we do have some seasonal berries - my one (and so far only) blueberry bush has ripening berries, not a large amount yet, but it's only from last year, so I was quite happy with the result.
in the header pic you can see "bad weather" coming closer... I had high hopes for a real thunderstorm - but unfortunately this is something that doesn't happen often here. we usually only get a bit of thunder (I seem to miss the lightning beforehand:(() and rain. and funny clouds - shortly after the thunder had passed we had this formation in the sky, which looks like somebody's tea kettle boiling wildly:))
this is the leaf of an "eddoe" - an edible tuber that I found in the supermarket last year. I had plans to boil it, but then never did - until I noticed sprouts coming out of one end. I decided to plant all 4 tubers, and they all grew well for a while - in the glass house! they even kept their leaves during winter, but eventually the two in one of the pots died. this one has been in a pot outside since may and the leaves look big and healthy. they are very smooth and the water forms pretty beads after every rain....
on the textile "front" I am still working on the green/yellow cuddle blanket I started months ago - because I just couldn't decide on another larger project after the grey sweater! I wanted to knit a tunic for myself, but the yarn is fine and it would take time to work on it - and christmas, even though not exactly "looming" yet, is coming closer! and with it the need for presents... I think I'd better start on one of those to avoid a bad rush later in the year.... I did however fnish the next house, this time it's a "pub", which I had to rename for a pub in our town. pity though that our "hazel" doesn't have such nice colours, never mind such pretty flowers! the last pic is a sunflower I embroidered for a birthday card; if we don't have a proper sun I'll just embroider one myself:)
8 comments:
Beautiful pics-my son misses the thunder storms we get, too (he is in Seattle where they have tons of rain and clouds and no boomers!) Tell DS to have a great year at school!
Du meine Güte! 9 Wochen Sommerferien. Wie hast Du das ausgehalten? Mir haben drei Wochen Kindergartenferien schon gereicht.
*lach*
Bei uns hat es vor drei Tagen ordentlich gewittert und geblitzt. Davon war ich aber nicht so begeistert, weil die Gewitter immer dann kommen, wenn meine Mädchen ins Bett gehen sollen und sie dann nicht gut einschlafen.
LG von Juliane
We've had a couple of wild thunderstorms this year, which I'd be more than happy to send to you if I could! Oh I've barely thought about Christmas projects yet. I find it hard to do when it's still warm out! I hope your strawberries are yummy. My small pot of strawbs has produced but something keeps eating them before they're quite ripe!
Gosh, it's been awhile, but I do remember those days. You probably know we homeschooled, but the interesting thing is that both kids opted for a year round curriculum rather than having a long summer break. We only took 6 weeks off in summer, and really, it worked better that way. Have to mention that I love the cross stitch!
Cindy - thanks, I let him know - but he just rolled his eyes and said that he could do without school:)) no gratitude there....
Nina, the one strawberry we tried was quite tasty! I just hope that the rest makes it before the autumn comes - though this year the difference will barely be noticable:((
Leigh - we thought about homeschooling for a while. but DS is an only child and there aren't many companions for him around. so we figured being in contact with children would outweigh some of our concerns. also, we wouldn't have a problem with the curriculum of a primary school, but reaching the leaving cert level would be impossible to teach in some ares - eg. irish! he needs to sit the leaving cert to be allowed to go to college/university and having private tutors for one or even several things would be outrageously costly:(( so school it had to be... to be honest I'd rather go for 6 weeks in summer (or even just 4?) and have less hours in the normal school day instead! I find, that school over 7 hours plus around 2 (sometimes more!) hours of homework is rather long.... that's more than is expected from most workers!!
with the cross stitch I have a split mind: I like it sometimes, because during embroidery it is more or less "mindless", but depending on what else I do as textile project, sometimes I prefer to do free embroidery instead. filling in larger areas in cross stitch can be a bit boring:))
It looks like your son is going to be busy this year! Enjoy your blueberries-they taste that much better when you've grown them yourself:-)
Judy - they do! unfortunately I still only have one shrub, so by now I "have taken care" of all the berries I could find:)) I am hoping to get another few to increase our pickings! and yes, Stefan is alredy busy with homework and such, but right now he is enjoying his first weekend off:))
Yes, it's almost time for the children to go back to school here. Will be nice when they are back. The holidays are too long.
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