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the villages of the drôme provençale
this summer heat has got me thinking about one year ago on our holiday in provence. i wrote a little bit about the stay at our cottage in the drôme region and a day in arles, but nothing much about the many, many provençal villages we visited. the most known area of provence is perhaps the luberon, thanks to the popularity of a year in provence by peter mayle (a book which i highly, highly recommend if you’re going to provence at all), but we ended up staying in the northern drôme (southeastern france about halfway between marseilles and lyon) which was even more beautiful than i ever could have imagined. every day we would…
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in berlin: teufelsberg
have you ever heard about a place that so captures your interest and imagination that you end up thinking about it all the time and even dreaming about it? that’s how teufelsberg in berlin was for me for years (similar to seljavallalaug, which i finally went to in 2016!) and as today’s beautiful, crisp sunny autumn weather seemed like a perfect sort of day to go to grünewald (the large swath of forest to the southwest of the city where teufelsberg is located), i thought of it today. and writing about it. but you might be wondering – what is teufelsberg? those who don’t have a knowledge of german language…
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SEPTEMBER LATELY (& bake off week 2+3)
hi friends! some happenings of the past couple of weeks… SELF-STUDY maybe it’s the back to school fervor combined with more time than usual before all my courses start again, but i’ve been positively swept up in a very literary and studious obsession lately. between furiously reading the best book i’ve read in years and trying to finish my german course book from the summer before my lessons begin next week (with a bit of herbal studies sprinkled in when time allowed), september has been very scholarly for me. of course, the amount of language study still can’t compare with doing the intensive course and homework last month, but i’ve still…
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at summer’s end, 2018
now that summer’s in its last week, it’s time for some looking back at the best season of the year with my annual “at summer’s end” post. i guess i’m ready as i’ll ever be! what did you do this summer? i spent a third of this summer abroad, which is more than usual considering we didn’t fly to the united states this year – it was truly an amazing summer i’ll always remember! right after the school year ended, we flew to southern france and spent a week and a half mostly at a fantastic cottage in the drome provencale (+ a few days by the sea!). we then…
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august in berlin, week three
in the last full week in berlin, i started to get a little frazzled because we had by that point finally decided when we were going to head back to budejovice – we had to be back by the end of august to temporarily renew our visas, so the end was near, as it were, and there were still (as ever) far too many things on my wish list. there is something about this city that makes me want to be out every day, doing as much as i can, going as far as i can… but i had to learn to let it be and relax a little bit. …
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happy september, indeed! + bake along #1 (biscuits)
well, we’ve made it to six years in europe, y’all. i don’t know how it happened and this year, it was certainly against all possible odds, but it did. that’s right! our major visa issues have been resolved thanks to the wonderful people we know here in budejovice and apparently, they are the right sorts of people to know. i am ever so grateful. i’ve heard about others in the same situation as us not having quite the luck we did and that it had been the end of the road. but for us, not today. cynthia and alex are going to keep this crazy thing going into year seven.…
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august in berlin, week two
happy september (aka “back to hogwarts” day), friends! i am relishing this anything-but-lazy saturday morning, planning to tidy a bit, do my first bake along with this year’s great british bake off which just started this week, and finally, some work continuing my german studies. in order to finish the current textbook i’m revising and working through by the time i start again with my lessons, i’ve calculated i have to do one textbook unit every three days… challenge accepted! so it is “back to books” a bit this month for me. anyone else going “back to school” somehow? continuing speaking about august in berlin experience – catch up on week one here.week…
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august, lately: the first week in berlin
phewww. what a month! i didn’t have time to write this past month (save for that one post about traveling with your dog – check it out if you missed it!) because from the beginning of august, i was immersed in a berlin-language study-do all the things whirlwind! i left my inbox almost fully unattended until i couldn’t possibly put things off any longer while we were away for most of august in berlin, i working on my studies and alex starting his next writing project on his pretty portable olivetta lettera (above) he dragged all the way from budejovice in this sweet little kollwitzkiez flat that i termed “the treehouse” because of…
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summer reclaimed (& this month’s travels)
i have a lot to say lately, it seems! so far, this has been, by and large, a good summer. but the day after the solstice, i found out some immigration news that has made me become an incredibly stressed person for the next month. i was able to mitigate this stress while on vacation in france by just sort of hitting pause and enjoying the holiday we had planned for so, so many months. that’s the thing about worry: it’s stupid. either you can either do something about it, or you can’t. if you can do something, do that thing. if you can’t, don’t worry. especially when you spend…
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cardamom oatmeal with roasted plums (recipe!)
we had a particularly dreary winter this year. it was long. it was neon grey (am i in seattle?). it was cold. it was a bit lonely. so upon the first of april, the earth woke up. immediately we were launched into one of the warmest and sunniest springs i’ve ever experienced. because of how warm and dry it has been for the past four months, our growing season here in south bohemia was accelerated and everything started ripening extremely early. my tomatoes were ready to eat in early july! squash is already in season, for example. one fruit that i always associate with autumn here in bohemia is plums.…
