LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

Now that we have been back from Europe for almost two weeks and I have regained control over my house hold and most importantly sorted trough the thousands of photos that I took overseas, I can sit down and reflect on this wonderful summer in Austria and England.

After an anxious, very early start (fear of flying !!!), Finley and I arrived save and HAPPY in Heathrow. All fears about crash landing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,having to survive days without food and water, bound to a small raft, in blistering heat, a sun burnt, dehydrated child clinging to its mothers breast, were instantaneously forgotten the moment the 767 touched down.
My religion teacher would have been proud of me, hearing all those prayers that suddenly found their way back into my head, but once on safe ground it was like...Jesus WHO???
Anyway, we made it there and this feeling of happiness and home coming took over my soul and made way to bloody annoyance as we were coming up to Tower Bridge and Windsor Castle in what must have been the 500th circle around London.

The first five days in Henley flew by and by the time I said hello to Stephen's family, made a quick shopping trip to Reading, had Finley utterly spoiled by his Granny and Grandad and fitted in the first of many pints of lager, we were on our way again to the airport and off to my beloved home of Waldhausen, my childhood paradise and home to so many people I love dearly.

My two favorite sisters Ida and Gitti picked us up from Vienna and whilst Finley slept through most of it, I was getting myself ready for a summer of fun.
And a summer of fun it was indeed, filled with sunshine and rain, walks around the lake and to the homecoming cross, horse riding and riding in horse drawn carriages, fun fares, stag dues and hen nights, weddings, christenings, rock concerts on Hader Gottfried's stage in the lake, yoga lessons at the pool, waitressing on BBQ nights, visiting castles and old friends, eating grilled fish on sticks on the lake side terasse, having friends over from England, taking hundreds of pictures on a small country horse show and admiring a 95 year old pipe smoking man watching the world go by from the height of his horse drawn carriage.
All this and more took place in a small matter of 4 weeks and needs to last for the rest of the year. If I could stick all those memories in a bottle, just to open it from time to time and smell the sweet smell of summer in Waldhausen, I would be the happiest person alive. Instead I have captured some of those memories on film and whenever I look at the photos it's almost taking me right back to this magic place called home.

Lot's of love to all you guys overseas!!!!!

Holiday!!!

Summer's here and with it vacation time;-)))
A wedding invitation to what turned out to be a glorious 4th of July event in the midst of this wonderful state they nicknamed 'God's country', took us across seven states, right into the beautiful setting of 'The mountain Top Inn' in Vermont.
On a hot and humid Saturday morning we loaded our car full to the brim with 'essentials;-)))' , little Finley, ourselves and of course Kate, our trusted GPS, and headed of North towards New York. Kate, the Darling, planned this amazing route for us, which made sure we never hit traffic, cruised leisurely through the countryside and where able to find perfect locations for our little roadside picnics, as we had with us a little fridge full with healthy snacks and goodies.
Sorry Ronald, no business from us on this road trip;-)

Finley was really patient and tolerated having a car strapped to his back for endless hours until we reached the Holland Tunnel and with it an hour of standstill traffic, which Kate did not tell us about. As we crawled, inch by inch towards one of the few options into the Big Apple, I tried everything to amuse our son, but it was too late...he had enough and not even the silliest things mommy did made him laugh. After realizing that there was nothing I could do, I started taking photos of the little grumpy git and lots of other really interesting things...as you do.
We did eventually reach the tunnel, together with everyone else coming from 27 lanes into two lanes going into the tunnel. By the way, before you enter, you pay $5.00 toll. Let me quickly do some maths here...there were about a million cars all around us and it was a Saturday evening. If one million cars go through that tunnel every day paying $5.00 each they would make enough money in a week to build 25 more lanes underneath the Hudson????!!!!!!

Hey, not my problem, we managed to get through and Kate found us the right way to Sarah's apartment in a flash;-), where we stayed for a couple of nights, before we headed further north on Monday morning.
Staying with Sarah enabled us to see New York from a non tourist point of View as we ate ourselves through Manhattans posh eateries and strolling leisurely through the Village and Meat Packing District. By the way Sarah, we loved being there with you and we will forgive you that you never mentioned the fact that you and Gerard had planned to get married a week later in Vegas in a drive through ceremony. It was probably more of a torture for you anyway you naughty minx;-))))

We left New York early...because we had to. There is no parking after eight around Wall Street unless you want your car towed or pay $10.50 for half an hour (and that's a special???)
With Kate's help, we were able to find our way out of a crazy Monday morning Big Apple traffic...SCARY!! Sarah's apartment was almost restored to its previous state even though it looked a bit like the streets of Baghdad after Finley finished his Indiana Jones trail of destruction.
Leaving the big city behind us, we cruised up to Vermont over the next few hours and never hesitated to stop for any little thing that caught our eye. We saw beautiful little villages, where nearly everything had a for sale sign attached to it, which we found rater odd, but also there were lots of great treasures like covered bridges, monuments, outlet malls and gorgeous B&B's, one of which, the black swan by the lake we spent a night in before we arrived at 'The Mountain Top Inn'.

The moment we arrived, we knew we were gonna love that place and we did. All the other guests had arrived already and Pam and Mark Landry, the bride's parents had invited everyone to a very scrumptious BBQ at the main house overlooking the lake and the lush scenery.
Before the evening festivities started, we set up camp in our picturesque four bedroom cottage surrounded by paddocks full with horses, red squirrels (they were not in paddocks!!) chipmunks and all kinds of other wild and not wild life...and no sound apart from singing birds and woodcocks and the annoying next door cottage neighbour who had to cut hit tiles while I tried to soak in the beauty of the land on the wooden planks of our front porch as we never got the deck chairs we asked for;-)))

However, nothing could cloud my happiness for I felt I had just entered paradise and all the wedding guests must have indeed felt the same, as the wedding was a truly magnificent event, planned and executed to perfection. We were made incredibly welcome and at times I felt I was getting married myself. Thank you Phil and Erin for an awesome party and I hope you had a wonderful Honeymoon in St. Lucia.

Our last evening in Vermont was crowned by a performance of the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra hosted by the Mountain top Inn Resort.
The orchestra took their stage in front of an audience viewing not only the musicians, but also the magnificent scenery behind them. As the evening mist slowly crept down from the mountains and across the lake accompanied by Mozart, Bach and Brahms to name but a few, three glorious days in 'God's country' drew to a breathtaking finale pared with the most amazing firework.

Of course, I saw nothing of that, apart from the firework which I glimpsed trough my bedroom window while being tucked up in bed with half a box of Tylenol, suffering from a nasty case of the squirts and some awful stomach bug that kept me up pretty much all of the previous night due to food poisoning from some awful smelling cheese (I should have known than). By the way, I brought the cheese with me from Richmond...nothing to do with the food from the wedding.
I could however hear the music and inspired by Wordsworth's 'Prelude' and the fact that 'Nature is the father of man', I put all my imagination to good use and drew this picture of a very different America, one that I had not seen before and one that I definitely like to see again. Needless to say, we departed rather reluctantly, turning our backs on Vermont, The Mountain Top Inn, all its lovely people who served us day after day with a smile on their faces, the wonderful people from the wedding party, the families of the bride and groom and of course Phil and Erin themselves.

We drove back on Friday...going non stop (apart from gas and letting Finley out to run around with the dogs) and arrived back in Richmond at midnight, had a day rest and went to the South African food festival on Sunday where we stuffed ourselves with lots of SA goodies and played Rugby!!!;-)))))))

Ingrid

Juni News

Fast schon wieder ein Monat seit meinem letzten Eintrag, viel ist nicht passiert seit Mai, nur unser Gartenhäuschen/Pergola ist endlich fertig und Finley und ich können es uns nach Herzenslust darin gemütlich machen☺☺♥♥
Alles grünt und blüht und wächst wie verrückt, Finley hat einen Einmann Swimmingpool wo gerade mal er und sein Schiff drin Platz haben☻☻, aber da er ja jetzt schon super mobil ist und sich seit zwei Wochen wie seine Steinzeitvorväter von vier, auf zwei Beine umgestellt hat, gehen wir des öfteren auch ins Schwimmbad oder zu den Wasserfontänen...ein Mordsspass - vor allem für die Mamma die ihn immer aus der Mitte der Wasserfälle raushohlen muss wenn es ihm zuviel wird.
Ansonsten tut sich eigentlich nicht so viel, Oma aus England war da für eine Woche und ich hatte viel Zeit ander Sachen zu tun...vor allem Yoga und Pitaiyo.
Im August gibts beim Ettlinger einen Pitaiyo kurs, ist ganz neu aus...Amerika natürlich und für alle Fitnessfanatiker und Körperbewussten eine hervorragende Art in Schwung zu kommen mit einer gut abgestimmten Mischung aus Pilates, Tai Chi und Yoga, Atemübungen und Meditation. Also für alle die es interessiert, ab August, 4x pro Woche beim E.

So das wärs einstweilen, in zwei Wochen fahren wir nach Vermont und New York, da gibts dann wieder mehr zu berichten.

Namaste