Back in the Saddle

Spring is going full blast here. Trees exploding with blossoms. When you open the windows in the morning, you even smell the blossoms. Today in the teacher's room, a couple of normally dour colleagues--engineers--were marvelling at how much more one notices, as one gets older, the birds singing and the softness and sweetness of the air at this time of year. I notice that i notice these things more since living in a place with a relatively long, grey winter. Another German friend feels that there's no place like Northern Europe in the Spring and i'm beginning to think he may be right, partly just because of the contrast to Winter. But then i've never lived in a place like Montana or Canada.

This was the first long day back at work and i realize that my knee is probably a couple of months away from being back to normal. A former student who didn't know about the operation saw me limping around and asked, "Oh, have we got an owy, owy?"

These Germans are so into Easter! I've known Germans who were still getting Easter baskets from their parents at 50. I must take some pics, e.g. of the giant golden Lindt Bunnyrabbit atop our local supermarket, surrounded by giant hand-made, painted wooden eggs.

I've just had a v relaxing 5 days off from everything. Finally got my flat almost in decent order. The fabrics are all neatly arrayed according to color/project/size. Not exactly photo-worthy, but a great feeling having "a place for everything and everything in its place," as my grandmother used to advise.

The last couple of days, in addition to organizing/cleaning, i got back to work on Imelda's lilypad blocks. Just the lilypads are done, so i can do the appliqué on the train to and from my job in Bremen. I might try making some of the lilies 3-D. I've decided to set them in a sort of random organic pattern over a mosaic of different dark greens. Not sure how that will all work out or whether i'll have enough greens, but am optimistic.