Oops, Where Did September Go?

So I totally thought I would manage to get more posted his month. I scarcely scratched he surface of our trip, and still have endless photos to share. But life is what it is. Fall has come to Oregon in full force, bringing with it the beginning of the holiday season, which is joyfully a busy time in retail. Add a rise in work responsibilities, and the slow burning effects of jet lag, I've gotten lazy in the evenings and fallen behind.

September is coming to a close, and I still have a number of goLs to reach. My book has made a little progress, but there is still a considerable amount of rewriting to finish, as well as cover art and a final decision on publishg media to make. I remain determined to finish it up before mid November, as well as needing to get some crocheting projects underway for the shop. Life doesn't let up much, but I like the fast pace, and look forward to seeing what the season will bring, although I wouldn't mind if the stormy weather cleared up ;)

A Glimpse into the Garden

Amazing how quickly life gets busy, and all those little things that aren't on the must do list get pushed aside. I still have loads of pictures to share, but I have this feeling that they're going to be spread out farther than I had hoped at first.

I've shared quite a few photos of the garden in the past. If you're curious, click on the links to "cottage" posts at the bottom of the page to review what it used to look like. This has been a project that has been going on for around ten years, so we were really glad to help make more strides forward.

The fruits of our labor were very much appreciated. We raided the peach tree, the plum tree, and even found a few blueberries and a strawberry or two. Near the end of the trip I also had my first experience with fresh hazelnuts.

We made some new friends while we were at the garden. The first one was not the least bit bothered by having us take a closer look.

Those random bugs in the second picture found a heavenly elixir on those plants and stayed in the same positions the entire time we were in Czech. Very strange.

Our final friends were by far the cuddliest...

The babies were really skittish at first, and even puffed up and hissed at me, but the Mamma Cat walked back and forth between me and them many times to show them that I was safe. Eventually they warmed up to me. One of them started licking my hand, and let me pick it up, although it was still nervous. Unfortunately, the next day when I went to find them again, they had disappeared.

Now for some pictures of all the hardcore work that we participated in, beginning with the dirt that we ran through a giant sieve to clear out the rocks so it will be good for growing things.

When I was wandering amidst the other gardens I took pictures of the flowers growing there, which gives a little idea of what might happen in "our" garden someday.

Now, for a final look at the cottage, which is really the star of the show :)

Hope you enjoyed a little time in the garden :) It was a lot of work, but was definitely worth it.

We Have Success!

So here goes. I've got a seriously large amount of photos to share, and a lot more stories to write, so I'm hoping to do a bit of journal/blogging backlog. Perhaps my daily life has become to normal, perhaps I feel hesitant to write much about my general daily drama because I have the whole business thing going on, or perhaps I just lack the drive to be transparent about how exhausting it is to be a business owner. Okay, it's probably a mix of all these things. Basically, I just think travel stories are more interesting, so that's what you're going to get :)

On a three week trip, everything is more intense. Every day has to be taken advantage of, because there are so few of them. While a three week holiday might end up feeling long, a three week trip home quickly becomes a blur. And with jet lag to deal with, getting on schedule quickly is essential.

In order to keep ourselves awake, after an excessively long day of travel, as soon as we got to Marianske Lazne, we went for a walk. Being back in that comfortable place had a magical effect on both of us. It was as though several years evaporated and we were young lovers once more. We walked through the parks, holding hands and remembering dreams of making the abandoned ruins our future homes.



Amazingly, this little beauty is actually for sale. Can you imagine turning this palatial building into a home? Sounds fabulous to me. Maybe someday...

We remembered the beauty of peaceful parks and healthy springs:



Now, after all the effort to get my blog to work, my computer is nearly out of power. In order to make sure I get this posted I'll just add one last photo and give it a rest for now. I just want you to picture living in a town where this is a detail on the police station:

This is Only a Test

One of these days, I'm hoping that things will all work out smoothly, and I'll be freely adding pictures the way I want to, but thus far I've been facing issue after issue, and it's sorta driving me crazy. So I'm going to give this a go and see if I can finally get some of my pictures up on the blog.



All right, it looks like this is going to work, which means you'll be seeing my transit photos from the beginning of our trip. We've got an early morning view of PDX, a couple outdoor shots of the JFK terminal, and an attempt at artsy. I know, I know, it can all get a little overdone, but I have far too much fun taking photos, so hopefully other people can be amused at me as I am at myself. Let's give it a go, and see if I can finally get this photo blog up and running again.

How Long Can I Blame Jet Lag?

Well, we've been back stateside for a week, and I'm still dragging, still waking up between 4 and 5:30 AM, and still scarcely able to keep my eyes open past 10 PM. While this means regular workouts and journal updates have been happening, I still don't feel quite myself.

Our three weeks in Czech were truly amazing. They were both hard working, and relaxing. It was good to have a total change, and to reconnect with people and familiar locations that are near and dear to our hearts. Now we just need to keep motivated, and work extra hard to make the store flourish, enabling us to travel more often :)


I do still intend to write picture posts of our trip, allowing me to live it all again, and letting everyone else enjoy the beauty of our other home. I have been adding pictures to my Instagram account gradually, not wanting to inundate everyone too quickly. If you have an account you can find me there @morbidbeauty to get a preview. Hopefully I'll be lively enough one of these evenings to get things onto a computer so I can share more love in photo form. For now, I'm just enjoying having summer around for a little while longer here in the Pacific Northwest :)

Moje Kopf Spins

Nothing like a weekend spent mixing three languages to really make your brain whirl. Let me also note, that while standing up or walking might not usually feel fast paced, when your head comes into contact with an immovable object (i.e. a shelf) it seems a little different. I manage to smack my head once on each side, only adding to my lingual confusion, and leaving me feeling awkward, stupid, and in pain. Not my finest moment.

English is definitely my strongest (make that my only) language, but when you mix it up with German and Czech, I can follow about 70% of the conversation (if I'm lucky and know the main topic). When it comes to speaking, on the other hand, it's a mess for everyone involved. I throw languages together, which works okay, since the family can understand both, but it definitely doesn't make me look intelligent in the least, and is particularly confusing for the six year old twins.

All this to say, the trip to visit my husband's sister and her family went well, but I can't say my language skills improved much. Thankfully, there was a cute dog there, which always helps to alleviate the tension of feeling incompetent. Everyone who cares at all can speak the language of dogs. It's not hard to read their looks of curiosity, especially when food is involved.

Perhaps I hit my head harder than I thought, because this is all coming out weak and confused, but I'm trying to squeeze all the writing in that I can before we leave. It's not very late, but the added thinking required to communicate with a houseful of non English speakers is exhausting. Now for a good night's sleep before the trip to see Babi (Grandma) tomorrow.

One final note, while my general speaking skills might not have been I passively, I did enjoy showing the kids that's could count to ten in six languages. Not a very useful skill, but at least something :)

Here Come the Lasts

Three weeks I not much time to be home. It is so short that some of the firsts were also lasts. I was blessed to have visits with three special friends, but there were many others that were missed this time around. I am not ready for our time here to be over, even though I know there are so many things to do back on the other side. These days have been so precious, and I feel as though I am breathing better, and seeing things more clearly than I have in a long time.

Today was our last day working in the garden. We have filled holes and dug them, sifted rocks from dirt to create usable soil, mixed and moved cement for a stair base, eaten loads of fresh fruit, pulled countless (my autocorrect just chose the word pointless for countless, hmmmmm) weeds, and today we got a load of premixed cement that we hauled to fill the base of the future green house. We also spent time studying and following ant trails, we found a giant toad and an enormous grasshopper, and yesterday I discovered a mamma cat and her tow adorable kittens. There wer some long days, and seriously back aching work, and today was the last.

Yesterday was my last train ride, my last visit with friends, and my last time in Cheb. The moments I spend with dear people will remain with me, but it is always hard to say goodbye.

And, of course, in the next four days there are more lasts to come. We head to Germany tomorrow for some time with my sister-in-law and her family (this means ultra goulash in my head as I deal with Czech speaking parents, German speaking kids, and the bliss of occasional English from my husby.) On Sunday we're heading south to Susice to visit Grandma. Sadly, the dear elderly man who was her companion for the past few years passed on a couple months ago, but it will be lovely to see Babi again.

Then Monday will come. There will be packing, last minute shopping, and hopefully everything fitting before early Tuesday morning when we will get back on an airplane. Did I mention yet that I hate goodbyes? But that is one of the prices to be paid when you live life as a transient drifter. I have dear ones spread across the globe, which is a beautiful and heart wrenching thing all mixed up at the same time. I'm just going to hope these next few days slow down so the lasts don't pile up quite so fast.