in the mail i received...

...a wedding invitation in ottawa this august.

ooh, in a moment i was searching for flights home this summer, wondering just out of curiosity how much it would cost for me to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks in august. i had no plans to go home until the holidays next christmas, but maybe things change! thinking, thinking.

i love the granny smith apple design of the invitations, thats what i really wanted to share. nice navy blue, green and white. my cousin has good taste.

Tweet

sundays, might perhaps be my favourite day of the week.

last sunday: david and i baked rye faccacia bread all by ourselves. we've been meaning to bake our own bread for a while since we used to do it in peterborough but we also had a lot more time to keep an eye on rising dough. so we gave it a try. i used a recipe from heike at frogpondfarm. her daughter would bake foccacia bread someimes on weekends to sell at the winery. it was so delicious and it turned out nonetheless delicious for us. it was almost twenty degrees, no reason not to inaugurate picnic season with some sandwiches, orange juice, greek olives and apples from granny's house on the steps of the national museum.

this sunday: david and i went searching for gruyere cheese. i wanted so badly to make the perfect french onion soup. i couldnt find a real french baguette anywhere so i settled for a nice loaf of german bread. we found a nice bottle of cabernet franc and then the cheese. we tried three grocers and a gourmet cheese shop. of course they had it.. for the price of an arm and a leg. actually im not even sure my arm is worth so much. it costs 49$/kg! all i needed was a cup, but gasp. i decided to settle with a smoked french emmantal. the soup turned out delicious and fragrant. perfect with some thyme and david's perfect crutons. delicious food makes katie happy.

and alas since i had my film camera with me, there are no digital ones.

need to get film developped. need to find a scanner.

Tweet

little shots that i like.

little shots that i like.

Tweet

il y etait un statue criant dans le parc.

il y etait un statue criant dans le parc.

his cheeks are etched with forever tears.

maybe from the rain maybe just from age. a hat of melting snow too many dripped down his face in spring. he is an old cement man, you can already see his foundation cracking, the ivy loves to get her tendrils inside to grip and hold forever more and climb up, curling herself around his fare. its too early for that though. too early in spring for that. the ivy will cover in june. for now, it is just me and this cement man in a quiet forest. you can hear a peacock squawk in the background from the petting zoo. lets keep walking.

and so this cement man cries in the forest.

Tweet

gypsy trash on a sunday afternoon.

david and i try to explore a new part of town every weekend. we look up a monument or a neighbourhood and poke our heads around to see what we can find. i have recently been enlightened to the street rules of garbage and gypsies. last week i witnessed groups of them late at night "squatting" on a pile of trash they claimed as theirs. they hold it and during the day they sort it for the valuables or useful items which they then sell from the other side of the sidewalk. they walk around waiting for garbage days to rotate and as soon as a new pile emerges they're on it. well. sunday was garbage day on ferenc körút and i spotted a really old suitcase still in good condition. we looked around and no gypsies were looking so we scooped it and started running the other way! one guy asked, 'hey do you know those two?' and starting to come after us. we took the first side street and lost ourselves quickly in the back streets.

we brought it home and fixed it all up, put some boot polish on the leather and its really a charm. it will fit nicely in our flat with our other vintage finds from here and there. from the label inside we were able to track down the story of the suitcase maker, a 'master' who taught 78 students his trunk making craft. hungarians are incredible artisans and you can tell this suitcase was made with care. Csango was the name of this suitcase company, you can see the ads we were able to find from google images. the text reads: Casango Henrik / master suitcase maker / Museum street 5 / The address is important, it is the only location to buy these suitcases, all others are fakes. (give or take, its a paraphrase from david's translation).

it is covered in travel stickers from hungary, austrian and germany from hotels to resorts. a nice collection and a nice find to say the least. i love little treasures like this and im actually impressed how much we were able to find out about our suitcase from the internet. its incredible. thanks gypsies for looking the other way.

Tweet

once upon a time in peterborough

i lived in an old house downtown. with sometimes nine other people and a collie named molly. i am still not really getting it that i dont go to school anymore. when someone asks me what i do, student, is the first word out of my mouth even though its not true. now? i have the romantic title or writer, and the machine that goes with it. i sometimes imagine how romantic it must have been to write on a typewriter looking out through an open window to the street or a park. i hate sometimes to admit i sit in an office at a wheely chair and a desk with four legs, even if my computer work is interesting and i find little joys in knowing about destinations far far away and what airlines can take me there. a bird flies by and im distracted already. little sparrows and little swallows.

i still read texts my professors recommended and i follow syllabus (syllabi?) from classes im not taking, just because i love the structure of a reading course and what some friends are taking at school. here is my book collection in hungary at the moment. it was totally painstaking to choose which books to take and which to leave. but a recently acquired library card has solved it all thank you british council library. a few i took out are for an english class im teaching now. my first student.. ever.

Tweet

granny's bedroom.

granny's room is full of little figurines that sparkle in the spring light, little mirrors and unfinished cross-stitches. train model boxes full of wedding photographs of couples she doesn't remember. david's granny was so beautiful when she was my age, when she got married. now i see her face more and more, her eyes are still young and her humour still fresh, even if i dont understand it sometimes. 

susi and i spent an afternoon on monday digging through old skirts and sweaters that have been stashed in the garage for nearly ten years. i brought a few skirts, a dress and a sweater back to budapest, washed them and i hope there are no little animals living in them. they still kind of smell. i wonder how to take out the smell.. perhaps a wash with baking soda on top of the detergent?

ideas.

a nice tea party with david, granny and sus. ginger cookies too. she always serves her tea on a silver platter. she has them in several sizes. granny has great taste, she did good keeping a hold on the pretty things she liked when she was younger. they are trendy again.

Tweet