I'm trapped under a pile of plums!!

Help! It's plum season here and trees in the neighborhood are loosing limbs under the weight of the glorious dark purple fruit. We have, so far, been give about 15 pounds of plums. We will soon be eating them sauced, sauteed, baked, and boiled. Send recipes! Quickly!

Recent Pictures

We just finished a lovely (but looong) weekend in Switzerland.

I posted a few action shots of the family. Click here to see them.

Piper will publish a definitive post of recent happenings soon. She's been waiting for pictures from my camera to do that.

I'm back in Frankfurt this week. Next weekend, I plan to sit around the apartment and recover since my travel schedule is pretty out of control this month. No end in sight for a few weeks.

Cleebronn nature park

Another quick Mommy Adventure before school starts (and thank you Andy for financing the fun). This one quick photo shoot at a nearby nature park. This had all the cute stuff, such as deer that come and eat from your hand, and some not as cute stuff (a Mongolian yak), but some vicious stuff as well. Bears and some of the few remaining European wolves. These are more aggressive than their larger but calmer relatives, the timber wolf.

And note, you never, but never want to be a former Alpha. I've never seen wolves at feeding time before. A large bucket of raw meet in the middle. You can see the dominant ones, tails up and patrolling to make sure they eat what they want. Lower status, tails between legs and circling around for a chance to dart in and grab something.

A former alpha wolf is the one wolf that no one allows to eat. His son has taken over the pack now. When he would dart in for a hunk of meet, another wolf would promptly steal it. He survives only because the staff overfeed the pack periodically so there is enough that they won't care if he gets some. Beautiful hawks and falcons as well. Not many photos of these as they are considerably further away than my lens can get a good shot.

We can with my friend Andrea and her children, including TG's German twin, Rebekka.

Black Forest Open Air Museum

As mentioned, we hit a few places before the start of school. One was the Black Forest Open Air Museum. It is a large ground in the northern tip of the forest with gardens, houses, barns and mills from about 1600-1800, plus modern bathrooms and a biergarten.

Mommy time

The children are off, scootering to school with fresh faces, new backpacks and curly hair. But what of Mommy?

Andy suggested locking myself in the apartment with a case of wine. A fine suggestion and one worthy of his wife. However, gentle reader, I have chosen a different path. I cleaned the apartment to a sheen worthy of a German housefrau, and having massaged my environs to my favorite condition, have adjourned to the sofa with Jane Eyre, Graham Greene's Travels with My Aunt, and As you Like it. This is folly, I know, and folly of an unproductive nature. Teaching starts next month. Indeed, I have my first meeting with faculty this very Thursday.
But, as with Rochester I say, "... man meddle not with me."

First day of school

Below are photos of the first day of school. By popular demand, I also enclose an "after" photo of Maddie's new hairstyle.

Click on the photo to view the rest of the pictures.

New Hairstyles