friday

let's see... 

laundry, old halloween decorations, henry home with me day, jenga, uno, battleship, yogurt drink, pizza dough.  

and two pictures from 4:30 tonight.  it was a misty evening.

i'm realizing i wrote '4:30 tonight' without even thinking about it.  it's sure starting to feel that way.

on gray days, tired, rain, with a hint of snow.

you can have multiple gray days in a row and they are enough to make you not only forget about the sun but also forget about the rain.  and then you wake up and it's raining and it rains for most of the day and you think, 'why was i thinking these gray days were as bad as it gets?  you can add rain and make it worse!'

not that it's so bad once you actually get out there, provided of course, you're dressed for it.  this, i haven't forgotten, and it's truly something i've learned by living here.  so long as i'm dressed for it, once i'm out there, it won't be as bad as it looks.  okay, sometimes trying to ride your bicycle through driving snow actually is as bad as it looks or when the cold is permeating through two sets of gloves, but these rainy days, i mean.  they're OK.

i didn't get any pictures today, however.  but you can take any recent picture and add some water to it.  or, you can imagine me in too much of a hurry to take the time to stop, even though the rain eventually did.

so, a short, pictureless post.  my goal is to go to sleep before 11 o'clock tonight.  i have been trying to stretch the limits of my energy these days, and the bone-weary fatigue i've been feeling by early evening every day recently is telling me that i'm pushing too hard.  it is a form of tired i've only become well acquainted with because of cancer treatment.  that is to say, i feel quite certain i wouldn't know tiredness like this if i hadn't been put through the wringer so to speak (and maybe if i didn't push myself). anyway, it's not bad.  it just is.  like the gray outside, i can become so accustomed to it i forget what it's like to feel better-- and what it's like to feel worse.

pilgrim on a bike path

the cows don't seem to mind a cloudy day... 

yesterday i was on a different bike path.  the one with the shaggy cows.  when i'm riding home, they're in a field to my right, but yesterday i looked toward some community gardens on my left and there was one of the shaggy cows walking in my direction!  what was he doing on the other side of the bike path?!  did he have a garden plot over there?? i was so (happily) surprised that as i passed and with a huge smile on my face, shouted 'hi!!'  at that very moment, i realized there was an older woman pushing a wheelbarrow in between the cow and me.  it didn't seem like she realized the cow was behind her and thus it didn't seem like she realized my enthusiastic greeting was directed at the cow.  i imagine it must have gone down in her personal history book as one of the most spirited (and earnest) salutations she's ever received by a total stranger passing by on a bicycle.  (until she eventually must have noticed the cow, but by then i was on my merry way.)

two days in a row now i've passed an orange cat watching the cows in the picture.

i don't care that annie dillard says you can't see through to their brains as you can with other animals.  it isn't true.  neither the cat nor i would be drawn to a field of shoes.

tuesday

fall colors north of copenhagen today... 

it didn't turn out to be the sunny day that was promised in the forecast, but i was happy that whoever owns this piece of property hasn't rushed out to rake up the leaves because it added a good amount of color to my walk and to an otherwise gray day.

in two sentences

just friends building a robot.  a handful of kids, some cardboard, horse chestnuts, markers and a lot of glue sticks.

first day of november

i wouldn't say grudgingly, but i put on (that free pair of) sweatpants this morning trying not to think in too much detail about the fact that i'd agreed to run (though maybe more of a walk, which is all right with me) the first sunday of the month's 3k race with the boys while greg ran one of the longer races (6, 9, or 12k).  maybe you remember back to october 1-- the boys and greg ran the 3k, henry wondering for days if he'd won the race (well... if it were opposite day, he would have come in second... just behind greg) and me, eating my oatmeal.  

but as the time got closer this morning, henry decided he did not want to go to the race.  greg left to pick up william from a sleepover (and go to the race with him) and henry and i played jenga.  and then we biked over to weekend kid's gymnastics.  

greg got the only picture of the day, at william's suggestion.  this is nearish to the race.  the race actually takes place near the ski hill in the far background.  this was taken after the race on a little expedition on their way home... 

i was so tired out from a big enough weekend that after we were all home i sat the boys and myself down in front of a pippi longstocking movie from 1969 and we very drowsily watched it (and i occasionally closed my eyes).

and then, what was meant to be a simple "let's make a dahl for dinner' turned into a 'let's make a dahl, naan, spiced rice, potatoes, greens, and mango lassi for dinner'... all hands on deck.  phew!  done. cleaned up.  tired.

goodnight!

halloween

halloween.  one of my best memories as a kid was my mom bringing her sewing machine into the living room and making my halloween costume each year.  i can still picture her tailoring a pair of my stepdad's old pants so i could have my wish of being a "nerdy boy" in the third grade.  before that, it was a clown and a witch.  after, it was a 50s sock hop girl.  somewhere in between it was baby freddy krueger-- (she may not have had a lot to do with that one).

me-- i have totally failed in the homemade halloween costume department.  william was a bat the first two years of his life thanks to gifted costumes from neighbors, and for the last three he's been a ninja with the magically-fitting-for-three-years-in-a-row ninja costume we got at, i think, a thrift store the first year we were here.   this year, i took them to the toy store on the day they got haircuts and they each picked out a costume.  

william chose this spooky guy... 

and henry chose a werewolf costume, which he has not allowed us to photograph.  here he is, without the mask (truly the best part and quite endearing), when asked to stand nicely for a photo, just one photo... 

and i can't help but post this picture because it makes me laugh.  my friend, her son, and me, and our reaction to henry's dramatic response to being asked to take a picture.  i believe her son is thinking, "listen bucko, you're ruining my halloween." ah, but they had plenty of fun after the photo shoot.  

(new addition to my standard uniform: an awesome cowl another friend of mine made for me.  you're going to be seeing an awful lot of it for the next few months!)

 look here, i tried to sneak a photo, and it didn't really work...

after trick-or-treating our community had a halloween dinner.  here's the dining room all laid out...

and there was a delicious salad with something that translated to 'sea herb' which i find being called 'samphire', 'sea beans', 'glasswort', 'pickleweed' and 'salicornia'.  i had never encountered it before.  it has a salty flavor and is apparently a coastal herb.  has anyone tried this?  if not, keep your eye out.  looks like it's big in england right now.

well, it's once again quite late (for someone mid-thirties, two children, that sort of thing).  so, i will say happy halloween and see you in november!

happy halloween!  see you in november!