Lysá nad Labem

We went to see this place, it is a little town half an hour from Prague, few odd streets, old square, church with baroque sculptures looking down on you from the wall, chateau, turned into an old peoples house, romantic park and French park, view into the river Labe valley. The park was a big surprise, so nice and grand and so little known. We had to find it, it was part of the thing, a discovery. We made it up the hill, strolled in the grass in the wilder side of the park and then, finally, when I was almost to give up, I saw it, bony sculptures set among trimmed trees. 18th century.

What I remember

The summer has been too short. I am having a post summer spleen. Although I like autumn in general. I like to curl in warm sweaters. Maybe, if I went and bought a new autumn sweater I would get rid off my late August melancholy.

Company

It was good to have bigger girls around. They were good for doing my projects, batiking, drawing, picking flowers. How to make a nice bouquet like the one Marketka made: grab flowers and whatever comes under your hands with full fists. Domik liked his cousins, he was rolling and crawling on them like crazy. He didn't need me at all. First I liked it but later I was sorry. It was closest to the feeling son leaving his mummy. I knew everything would be back to normal soon and I would wish for having the girls around again. And so it is.

Mushroom Hunting

I recognize only boleti, it is the only mushroom I can pick. Well, maybe two or three other kinds but I don't see them often. I actually don't see many mushrooms at all, I mean those edible ones that every one knows and goes hunting for. My aunt used to be a specialist in mushroom picking. But my uncle didn't believe her knowledge and used to go hunting for his own mushrooms. In their house, they had two jars of dried mushrooms, one belonged to him, the other one to my aunt.

Romare Bearden

More pictures from New York on request. With collages from Metropolitan Museum and one collaged photograph between them.

I am having my second holiday right now. It is raining. When it is not raining we go mushroom hunting. We dont find much because everybody goes and all of them get up earlier than we do. Domík says that we want to pick happy mushrooms and when he sees one that has been eaten by animals he calls it an angry mushroom. When it is not raining we ride a bycicle, sit at the river and throw stones in water. We are expecting Domík's cousins so that Domík can go crazy with them. If it is not raining tomorow we go to see a puppet show at the castle. I made Domík an ordinary pair of sweatpants and a teddy-bear from the leftover. It looks like a fox.

Report from the trip

I received a refund from Paypal, it was faster than I expected.

Rivane Neunschwander

We visited New York for three days. I wrote to someone that we stayed in the very heart of Manhattan. Only later I could see that Manhattan has several hearts. How naive I had been. Everyone wants to be on that piece of land, no wonder that all the nice and interesting things are piled up in several rows and several layers. I was curious about the spirit of the parts of New York and they are particular at every street, no deaf spaces between them. I can also see how neurotic the city could be. For all the reasons mentioned above.

We stayed in East Village, right in St. Marks Place. Above a noisy pizzeria and punk girls begging for food for their dog, they said. The apartment had nice architectonic features from the turn of the centuries. On the last day I found a mouse trap bellow a sink, realized the dark side of the city and was ready to go home.

We didn't take little guy on this trip. Instead, he had a good time with his grandparents. I like that the first picture looks like taken from over the meadows and fields around the city. In reality, it is from a roof top of the Metropolitan museum.

PAYPAL ROBBERY

Welcome back from holiday and find out that your account has been hacked. How does that feel? I am talking about paypal. So almost all the money that I made on Etsy are gone, somebody stole them and there is nothing I can do about it. I can scream out of the window like a crazy. Go complain at the train station. Write e-mails frenetically to paypal and imagine how they laugh out loud.

What is more, one of the parcels I had sent before my departure, never got to its destination. I am obliged to refund it somehow. Which I will, but considering all the circumstances, I feel bitterness on my tongue.

I want to complain how all that embroidery business of mine was all in vain.

I went into the cupboard and found out that somebody has defrauded all the liquor too. While I was gone. A woman who watered the plants?