may, lately

hey, it’s may!
may sure starts quiet slow and cool but boy does it ramp up quickly! especially when you live in the czech republic which has a holiday two weeks in a row. i don’t know about you guys, but i can already feel the slowing of the school year and delighting in the approach of the second half of spring (the better half).

here are some things that have been making me smile lately…

our hiking holiday at the end of april really got the spring/warm weather mood going! i posted the above photo in that particular post but it’s just too darned cute not to share again.

london only a week later was a whirlwind of delicious food, city walking, top-notch music and all the makings of a perfectly memorable weekend. i have another london post in the works – there’s more i have to get off my mind before the memory starts slowly dissipating – you know how that is.

last week, i celebrated my birthday and it was pretty lush. i slept in, alex made me fluffy american-style pancakes, then we went to

český

krumlov to check out what was going on at the egon schiele centrum, my favorite art museum. we gazed at the interesting paintings, then went and had a picnic in the park behind the castle (below) which is extremely idyllic as well as quiet and devoid of tourists, and continued our talk about what we saw at the museum. later back in budejovice, we went out for a chill dinner and sat outside, watching the canal and some older gentlemen fishing from their bicycles (fascinating) and had a little party in the evening. i’m now in that post-birthday happy/grateful phase – it was a relaxed but such a nice day.

i’ve started gardening at my new garden plot! i spent a few hours this and last friday weeding half of the bed and planted some tomatoes and pumpkins, today some greens seedlings. i can’t overstate how much having a garden (my first plot) means to me. i have balcony and windowsill gardened for a few years now and although it’s been alright, i haven’t done well outside of the herbs and flowers department. so now that i’ve got my permanent residence and worked up the resolve to make it happen (thanks in part to two lovely friends for making it possible!), i am ready to see what this first-time plot gardener bringing in loads of fresh can-do energy will yield come summer. i’ll surely update you on the progress as the summer goes on.

(nothing much to see here – the state of things as i left it day one, only tomatoes and pumpkins in the ground)

it’s also been fun watching my second eurovision – if you have never seen it, it’s a long-running europe-wide song contest: three minutes of the most over-the-top pop song performances you can think of. this year i am extra stoked as one of my favorite icelandic bands hatari is competing in the finals! i probably won’t be watching the finals live as i’ve got concert tickets for that very evening… but a belated watching will be necessary. 

also trying all the natural and herbal remedies as my several year old allergy meds kicking around are probably expired and i don’t yet feel like going to the lékárna for more. tried the extremely local honey method which may have worked… already allergies are far better than yesterday, so (shrug). also drinking a tea blend i mixed up containing stinging nettle leaf as that may also help.

and that’s about it for this friday! the weather should be great this weekend so we’re off to prague for some music, good eats, and spring in the big city vibes. hope all is well and happy weekend, friends.