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While there had been rain and snow yesterday, we woke to perfect sunshine this morning. What a manifestation of spring! But first things first: Number one rang the bell at eight in the morning. He had brought Xaver to school and was here to pick Konrad´s birthday present up- today is our youngest grandson´s first birthday. Not that we have seen that much of the boy during his first year, with his mother mentally sick and clinging to him as if glued on- we did not want to risk a mental breakdown of DiL too often. She´s still a mess, but son´s hope is that it will get better now that she has two months of work in hospital to do, before she´s back home again, because she forgot to enroll her offspring at the hospital´s toddler group by accident. Ha, double ha! By accident, so very funny! Konrad will start in September then. Maybe. Depends on the mother, but at the moment bets are on that she will not make over the first week of work. And no one knows what will happen in autumn, when she has to work full time again, after staying at home unpaid till September!
After son´s visit I tested if pruning was possible but decided to wait till the weekend, when the boys are here and can carry the cut branches to the trailer- less work for me and fun for them! I removed what was left of winter decoration, planted the pink daisies hubby had found at Lidl and checked the pots in front of the house for spring life. Unfortunately most of the grape hyacinths are dead, their leaves, sprouted in late autumn, frozen to death during the cold period. I should not have left them in those pots too small- the plants in the lawn at the back of the house did survive! Darn winter! And darn spring pollen, I was practically rubbing my eyes out! So I went back into the house and made three wreaths with colourful plastic eggs for the terrace, fervently hoping that we won´t get strong winds any time soon- those eggs are quite loud when bumping against each other, and bump they will when hung on the porch rafters!
After cooking today´s lunch (Italian tomato soup and cheesy toasts) all my energy was spent. I went to the bedroom, had a short nap then did a superficial cleaning of the studio- dusting and vacuuming and not a bit more. Big cleaning will happen when the boys are off again. If I survive their visit- seems that hubby has planned to go to a concert Friday evening. Only forgot about it when he said yes to DiL´s request. Means that I will be the lucky one to put the rascals to bed. As if it isn´t hard enough to do that job by twos- so typically hubby...

I woke a few times during night, because we had strong winds and the rain was coming down hard. Our street was a mess all day long: too much water coming from a neighbour´s driveway that did not seep away- maybe we should invest in a stand-up paddle board in the future! Since it got colder instead of warm it even started snowing now and then. Only a bit, but still! So no pruning of the plum tree today. And I had been so motivated to finally get out of the house (less pollen after all that rain) and do some work which won´t involve house cleaning! I opted for a quick dusting instead then started to decorate for Easter, even though those cute resin rabbits I bought many years ago were nowhere to be found. I really hope that I haven´t sorted them out! One never knows with me! At least there are ceramic rabbits all over the ground floor now. Maybe not that good, when the boys will be here again on Friday- boys and ceramic are at odds with each other!
When I brought the can with coconut milk out hubby got nervous. Completely in vain, because I only intended to cook ginger-carrot soup (too much ginger and carrots in the vegetable rack)! Easy to do, easy to digest! While hubby was shifting the seats in my car for the transportation of his bike to the next repair class in town, I tried a new way to fold our bed sheets. Either I am to dumb for this or Youtube is telling lies- the new folding caused that I needed more room for the sheets instead of less. I gave up and reverted to throttling them and crammed them into the drawer the usual way. That darn PC mouse, which had scattered its plastic innards on my desk when handled without care (but lots of force) noticed its replacement and decided to work perfectly from then on. I hate it when this happens, because I know that I won´t dump the old one then. At least not as long as the batteries will work. I am such a wimp! My desk is littered with old notebooks, even though the new ones are way prettier. Same with biros and pencils. That's why I did a late-afternoon raid on them and threw away what did not reach the height of 15 centimetres or write at the first attempt (the biros). No more blowing moist air onto the tip in combination with gentle spurring ons! Still pencils enough in the box, only the biro needs back-up...
Hubby left at five in the afternoon, so no more need of pretending to do housewifely duties then. First I turned my PC on to find a way to change the background. Have done this so often, and now it won´t work anymore? Not on my watch! Problem got solved soon after, and I took out my mobile- but only after half an hour of searching it. The poor thing spent the day in a drawer in the upper bathroom. I must have put it there when cleaning the mirror and the sink. I read what I had missed (Amazon deliveries coming earlier than expected) then called a friend, who will undergo surgery on her vocal cords on Friday. And I wondered why she was clearing her throat continually- she has polyps!

I had too much fish and not enough medication yesterday, hence the hard night I had. I got up at four, read the newspaper, did the daily sudoku then fell asleep on the sofa in the living room until seven, when I prepared breakfast. Since son had to leave at half past one we had early lunch- Surschnitzel with parsley potatoes done by husband mine. I hate to do Schnitzel- too messy! So I went upstairs, cleaned the windows in bedroom and studio and put up the new curtains I found when decluttering. Then I helped son with packing, which meant we first went through our stash of groceries, to decide what he wanted to take with him. That's because he has to operate on a budget, and I am the one with the fancy things. Plus I like to share, since some of the more exotic spices come in packages fit for restaurants, so there's plenty enough for more than two elderly people in a household.
After son was off I brought out and cleaned the flower paintings mum had inherited. I want to hang those up in the bedroom. Hubby promised to buy hooks as soon as he comes to a DIY market. And finally, I rested. Not napped but rested. A bit of reading got done, a bit of contemplating, then I got up and had a cup of coffee and a slice of cheese cake. The new quiet is disturbing- only hubby and I, no family, no sports. Finally I remembered that I wanted to browse Amazon for a present for Matthäus. I had contacted number three to get a hint at what my godchild might like- son thought that he might want Harry Potter merchandise (since he got those glasses)- or Hot Wheel cars. What I did find was a wand with vibrator function. Hubby came into the room when I started howling with laughter. Oh dear! That's typically me, always thinking the worst instead of opting for a G-rated explanation! I decided to switch to Hot Wheels, definitely safer terrain, and bought a car collecting dinosaur, which will come in handy when it's time to tidy up the playroom.
Today's afternoon was rainy and dark day, but definitely warmer. I went out into the garden, planted the last primroses and cut the tips of the fig trees. One looks dead, the other alive- but neither can live without the other. Well, we'll see what happens now that spring is coming!

Today we were supposed to have late lunch with our two youngest in a sushi restaurant. But yesterday daughter called and said she had a cold. We pondered about what to do, then decided to go anyway- which was good, because this morning daughter felt better already. Make four reservations instead of three was no problem. All this triggered a surreal dream, where all I did was drive a car to restaurants I had been once. With hubby, who met with colleagues but wasn't allowed to the other guestroom, where the colleagues' wives met for dinner (???). Twice I found myself in a classroom waiting for the time to pass, until we had our reservation- all windows in the classroom shaded save for the last, where a giant Rolling Stones T-shirt blocked the sun. At the back of the room was a door leading to a toilet and a cluster of brooms. The second time I was in that classroom the broom cabinet had been turned into a teacher's office and the toilet into another one, for good measure. The new toilets were tiny and had to be pulled out of a cabinet, uncomfortable to sit on because the loo seats were missing- just like in the article in yesterday's daily, where we got told that most of the loo seats in a shopping centre in Vienna had been stolen. Imagine, one enters a loo and comes back out with a toilet seat! And no one seems to notice!
Anyway, we picked daughter up and went to the restaurant, which ironically is located near the airport. Sushi was good, but what I loved most was the dessert- a sweet coconut soup, hard to get here. We brought daughter back to her home then rested in front of the TV, watching the US boys win the last gold medal of the Olympic games. Sorry for Canada, but if you don't take your chances, you'll pay for it! And that's unfortunately exactly what happened!
The rain has not stopped yet. The garden is a mess- I wonder how I am supposed to prune the trees, because I don't own rubber boots. Despite the long cold the cornel tree is on the brink of blooming. As are the many hazels in neighbour's garden and alder trees along the Salzach. Willows will follow, and I am not so happily sneezing along already. I fear that I will have to stock up on tissues...
Tomorrow son will travel back to Graz. Hubby and I will be back to routine. Experimental cooking will have come to an abrupt stop, which is fine with me. Okay, maybe I will do the viral wonton lasagne in case daughter brings the wonton dough sheets from the Chinese grocery shop. Not a day that I won't come across one of those fabulous recipes...

...because something is very wrong with the black menace! When resting after lunch I decided to start writing the daily entry. Took a break to watch the Six Nation rugby game- now that did not go well for England:( Neither did things go well for me, because when I wanted to post the entry, my mobile had deleted today's entry and only showed yesterday's. But first thing I did before writing was to delete the halfwritten entry from the day before (finished it on my PC)- the problem is that my mobile has a quirk all of a sudden and will show web pages twofold. I clicked on restore entry and got the old one, which I thought I had eliminated. Only that I killed the new one. I know, this idiocy is hard to explain... Since I am a lazy person I decided to not rewrite the entry- nothing of importance had happened today. We had heavy rain all night (and day) long, all the snow is gone, I had to take a shower after I took a tumble into the mud in the garden when looking for herbs, I cooked pork fillet Italian style (hence the herbs) with red wine sauce, caramelised shallots and mashed potatoes for lunch, wished for a really small kitchen to put an end to hubby's attempts at monitoring other people's cooking, had too much banana cake and spent a lot of time at my favorite place on the sofa, which was free for the first time since number four had decided to spend ten days at our house. Thank goodness there's an on-off girlfriend he was visiting today, so that this place was free for watching TV! And now I have to google the problem with my mobile- again. Not the first time trying to find a solution...

Or maybe not. I put hubby in charge- I don't eat Krautfleckerl (kraut is bad for my digestive system), so I won't cook this meal. Besides, I do not do cooking à la mutti. So strictly speaking we had Vati doing cooking like mutti today. Hubby ate, son ate a bit, the rest is in the freezer. Why people order such ... in an inn will remain a mystery to me...
But back to my day: We had more snow in the morning. Not much, but I got woken at five by the sound of the snow plough cleaning our street. So I took my tablet to watch my favourites on Youtube (with ear-phones, of course) and was in shock (once again): half of my favs had vanished practically overnight (again)- Youtube must have done another raid and removed lots of videos. I was thoroughly displeased, at Youtube, at myself, because I had not bothered to find a new YT downloader (the old one did not work anymore). I got up late then, because I switched to reading a new novel I had uploaded on my reader. Still not sure if I like it.
After breakfast I did the tricky sudoku and the crossword puzzle in the daily then baked banana-chocolate cake, which turned out too dry, because I was in the basement, to turn the washing machine on, when the alarm went off. Of course, neither son nor husband deigned to take the cake out of the oven. So I made vanilla frosting, since I did not want to do a tour to the shop for heavy cream. Afterwards I started with decluttering the cupboard in the bathroom, the one which has to go. Well, not to go, but which needs stripping then a nice paint, preferably green or greenish-blue to match the rug in the tiny studio. It is supposed to house most of our grandchildren's toys then.
For lunch hubby and son had the ominous Krautfleckerl, while I put pesto rosso over some noodles hubby had left for me. After lunch son and I watched sports on TV- it's hard to find something interesting at the moment that won't involve sports. At some point I dozed off and woke only when it was already getting a bit dark outside. Watched more sports after waking, absolutely not ready to do something of importance. I wasn't even interested in decorating, even though hubby had brought the big box with eggs and rabbits and whatelse of Easter had been stored in the basement. Tomorrow I am to bake a cake again, cheese cake this time. I so hope son will forget about his plan to take a few slices to his on-off girlfriend. What am I to do with so much cake- chocolate cake left from BiL´s birthday, chocolate banana cake and cheese cake. Paradise for hubby, but not for me, since I don´t do sweets so often...

It's worse when I am outside, cleaning the terrace or doing a bit of pruning. Or when I am making the beds then do a bit of reading with the windows wide open. My guess is that the few days we had with warmer weather were enough to bring on the blooming of the willows. Oh joy, it's the yearly allergic reaction. And there's more to come!
Once again, sis entered our house for a visit- disturbing, if she keeps up what little space is left between her visits! Because of her I missed son's video call, when Matthäus wanted to show me his new glasses- now he looks like a mini Potter. But even if the glasses are round, the frame is still too thin and has no colour at all. Hubby and son had fled the scene and went shopping- sis is the living and breathing incorporation of the Spanish Inquisition. The only victim of her constant nagging was my poor self then. When leaving sis said that we should do such meetings more often. Oh my! More often, when she comes at least once, but more often twice a week now?
After sis had left I went upstairs to recuperate. When in the bedroom another fun thing happened which made my day: I was reading about the giant wood moth, overwhelmed because of its very impressive appearance, and was very glad to not live in Australia. All of a sudden I heard a distinctive droning, had a look at the bedside lamp and found a big, black beatle sitting on the shade. I took a tissue and chucked the beatle out straight into the snow flurry. Once again, no clue where those critters come from, since we have insect screens on the windows...

I got up at seven, cleared the dishwasher then opened the blinds. Hurray, more snow we got overnight! And more to come, before spring will push up temperatures to unbelievable fifteen degrees next weekend! Well, it's about time! A few days ago I was in search of daisies in our garden. Last year we had daisies all winter long, this year zero! Daisies are a perfect Easter decoration- dig them out, plant them into an egg shell and put them into a glass container on a bed of moss together with a ceramic rabbit! Looks nice and costs nearly nothing (if you have a container).
After cleaning the upper bathroom (alone, took me one hour almost) and the ground floor together with hubby I continued with the jigsaw, and hubby went to retrieve wraps for lunch- son wanted to try the viral kebab today instead of spaghetti carbonara. Number four does not eat cheese in any form, even though I had promised to add it to hubby and my ration only after he had taken his fill. Doing baking paper doner kebab is fun- one seasons minced beef, puts it between sheets of baking paper, rolls it flat then up and bakes it in the oven. I won't buy kebab at a kebab shop anymore (meat got tested bad too often), nor do I buy at Lidl and other shops. Today the meat was fresh from the butcher and less fat than usual- simply perfect, definitely worth the try!
A neighbour snowed in after lunch and showed us pictures of furniture a friend of hers is giving away for free. Sorry, but we are happily living in a combination of antiques and modern Mexican furniture. We don't do dated alpine style. No, thanks! Who does that nowadays! We advised her to tell the lady to offer her furniture on a FB channel. There are always re-sellers who will pick up such furniture...
Sis whatsapped again- next try to come for a visit and go through the slides. I can't even count the times I told her that we'll need sunny weather, another slide viewer and the conservatory, were I just started the next jigsaw. But that's my sis- very insistent! She must be very bored at the moment by having to watch her ailing husband doing his daily exercises on the bike she bought for him! Maybe she better accept that an 83 old man with pacemaker and hip replacement will not be able to keep up with her, no matter how hard she will force him?

Pancake Day is the day the younger students and kindergarteners will have carnival processions and Faschingskrapfen afterwards. The older ones have to be content with Krapfen only. Well, today all of them had to stay inside, because the weather decided on being abysmal- heavy rain then snow then back to rain in combination with strong winds. At lunchtime, when school was finally over for the youngsters, the sun came out. Seems that weather did not want the children to have a bit of fun. Carnival here is not a big affair. It is said Austrians have a humour bypass when it comes what is called the fifth season in Germany.
Hubby bought ten Faschingskrapfen. Five were still in the box when daughter, who had come for lunch (okonomiyaki Osaka style, because that's easier to do) took two to her flat. That makes five left for tomorrow's first coffee break. After that, I do not want to see Krapfen for the next months...
The good thing with daughter being here was that we started the second bag of the 6000 pieces jigsaw. We had to make use of the radiant heater because of the cold in the conservatory. Yet my nose is running- my guess is that another cold is in the making. Maybe because I switched from winter duvet to the light, summery one too early. I was so done with wrestling the heavy duvet into submission each night, but last night I was freezing a lot, will have to add a blanket to feel comfy!
This evening I will do another test run- hubby has bought shrimps cocktail and crabs for dinner- and I was too lazy to do a drive to the apothecary for medication to be able to properly digest sea food. Now let's see how this will end. You might hear about the outcome tomorrow!

Unfortunately, hubby will be in carnival mode today and tomorrow. I am so delighted, since he brought home a box with Faschingskrapfen- six of them we had to eat today. Because tomorrow he'll buy new ones, from the cake shop then, where one Krapfen costs as much as the whole box at Lidl. And does not taste any better, only drier. I had two of the sugary menace this afternoon and understand now why most parents won't give their offspring too much sweets. Sugar is doping for exactly nothing. I felt strung up yet not ready to do something useful. Should have eaten those Krapfen before I left with number four, to do some Aldi shopping. Apparently cooking the ham casserole has worn myself out. Or was it because I got up at six, because sleep had decided to elude me at four in the morning? First deed of the day was that I cleared the dishwasher and did repair work on it- I had told hubby that the lowest drawer didn't work properly, found the missing wheel under the kitchen isle and re-attached it. Sounds easy but wasn't. I made breakfast then had a long, hot shower in hope that my left shoulder would calm itself (too much knitting will wreak havoc on my ancient body). Afterwards I changed the bedding, had a good, long look at the bed sheet and decided that I´d skip repair work and buy a new sheet at Aldi, in case they still have one. Flavius has lovingly widened a tiny hole to a crater, and since I found four more tiny holes waiting for artistical enlargement I took the holey thing and threw it into the bin. This bed linen has been with us for half a year only and was used regularly only recently. Bad quality, I'd say. After lunch cooking- as I said, a tedious affair, interspersed with lots of cooking errors on my part (too few sour cream, not enough eggs, then hubby doubled the quantity of Fleckerl without telling me and mixed those up with the sauce) I needed a nap before shopping. Son and I left in the afternoon and found ourselves in the midst of not one but two harmless carnival parades on our trip to Aldi. Oh joy! We drivers had to share the road with carnival goers, wayward grannies in the midst of the street and drunkards (at that very same place). No wonder that two of the shops along the street, which we are used to visit regularly, were closed, even though the signs on the doors told Closed on Pancake Day. yei we were glad that Bavarians aren't as keen on Carnival as the rest of the country is, or I'd never set a foot onto German terrain at that date. Back home I finally overcharged my sugar depot with Krapfen, got fidgety but pretty useless for the rest of the day. Good that I recently uploaded a funny novel to my e-book reader. Hubby was not at all upset that I went upstairs and did not annoy him furthermore...