Finally fall

The transition from summer to fall is different here in PA.When we lived in Michigan I would dread the end of august where some leaves would start to turn, and in a heartbeat it would all be over and everything would be cold misery. Here in Pennsylvania the summer is looooong and HOT and humid. To the point where you literally ache for just a little bit of chill in the air, and when fall finally arrives it is the best! One thing I did not notice last year are the yellow flowers taking over nature areas

They are literally everywhere. There are even whole fields full of them and in the golden September glow of the evening sun they are magnificent.I have promised myself that I will try and be outdoors as much as possible, because this...... Dog paws and rivers and yellow leaves❤️

Otherwise school is back in full swing. We have installed Luca at the kitchen table (to get him out of the basement.......) and it works quite well.Here he is taking a science class while being super unimpressed with sharing the work space with a real life scientist. Sigh

One of his classes is ceramics and we have cracked many a dumb joke about “ha ha. Are they just gonna send an amazon link to a lump of clay or what?”. Turns out they are packing up supply boxes with clay and tools etc so they can make something at home and bring it back to be burned in the kilns. So overall - despite online schooling - our school district seems to be well prepared.

And I have undergone a significant transformation myself. Every year I have rolled my eyes at those crazy Americans who decorate their homes for fall/Halloween/Christmas/valentines/Easter/whatever like there is no tomorrow. But here in 2020 I literally have to restrain myself from spending hundreds of dollars on decorations. I crave burnt orange and pumpkins and stupid “apple picking this way” signs and fluffy blankets and pumpkin spice everything.

Oh my gosh. Shouldn’t have googled those images! Gotta go shopping. Bye 👋

Back to school. Sort of......

September is here! The nights are full of buzzing insects, loads of toads, and velvety darkness with a hint of cool. Overnight it seems the trees have shifted from green to green-with-a-tinge and you can pop the seeds on jewel weeds. But that’s as far as usual goes otherwise

The beginning of the school year is usually a whirl wind of preparations, last minute shopping for that binder you never knew your kids needed, doctor visits to fill out health forms for school sports, and the agony of waking up in time to catch the school bus. This year? Not so much. We have prepared by having Luca plug in his laptop and update it. His first lesson on the first day of school will start with the arrival of a link in an email 7:30AM on Tuesday. And that’s it! That being said though, it does seem like his middle school has went above and beyond to ensure good teaching, social interactions online, teacher follow ups etc etc, and I think they will do great considering everything is online. They planned for a hybrid option with kids being allowed in school some days, but they quickly realized that the teachers would be spread too thin.

Ulrik on the other hand is back in Michigan. Umich decided to open their campus and even though I am not worried about Ulrik contracting Covid, I doubt they can keep campus open until thanksgiving as planned. He is aware and will try to get as much done in the studios and the few in-person classes as he possibly can. This gave us a chance to be back in Ann Arbor and since working from home is a legit thing these days, we could stay for the week. We have good friends that opened their doors for us with no restrictions. We figured that if one of us actually had the virus and we were sleeping inside their house, face masks and distancing won’t be sufficient anyways. It felt SO good to be able to hang out without restrictions❤️

We celebrated Ulrik’s birthday early with take out dinner and a boat ride with cake

We got to install the joys of flute playing in a new generation of kids (which may or may not have ended with me chasing an angry 4 year old who insisted on torturing everyone’s ears and mental health by her mad recorder blowing skills🙉. Ahem)

And we got to buy dinkelbrot at Zingermans. Best bread ever! Period!

The only one who does not regret being back in the too-quiet house in Doylestown is poor Bailey. Households with crazy puppies are not his thing. Here he is. Trying to hide. Guess who found him anyways.....

Being back I am preparing mentally for a looooooong quiet winter. With the craziest cross stitch pattern. Looks nice, doesn’t it:

Well. Here are the printed instructions:

What have I done to myself????😩