A lovely walk home from school

Doromb Festival

yurt with with exhibition of Alex Horsch's instrument collection

Alex Horsch gives the opening concert inside the yurt

Jon tries out a Balinese enggung during a workshop

More Budapest

Summer Vacation 2010: Vienna

Summer Vacation 2010: Mountain Hike

Since we arrived in Austria the weather has been very strange, shifting from cold and rainy to sunny and warm every few days. So when a sunny day finally came around again we knew we had to make the most of it. We decided to spend an afternoon hiking up one of the surrounding mountains, the Zwölferhorn.

View of St. Gilgen at the start of our hike

Lake Wolfgang

At this point I had to stop and record the wonderful sounds around us. We had recently passed a farm house where someone had just started playing accordion. Meanwhile the cows grazed in the pasture beside us.

At the edge of the pasture stood a water trough fed by fresh mountain water. It was so picturesque we decided to have our picnic lunch right there.

We were close to the top, but we decided to start our descent back into town.

So close!

One thing we have learned about mountain climate is that it changes very quickly. So when we looked up and saw dark clouds moving in, we decided not to risk getting caught in the storm.

pretty purple mountain flower

Thankfully we arrived back in St. Gilgen safe, sound, tired, and dry.

Summer Vacation 2010: Lake Wolfgang, Austria

The Basil-Hungry Caterpillar

I found this little green guy while harvesting basil for some pesto.

Some of our basil plants are enjoying a second summer out on our balcony. The heat in our apartment was so high all winter (We actually opened windows during the day because we couldn't turn it down!) that a few of the plants survived.

We saved and planted seeds from the old plants and now have more than enough basil to treat ourselves to some homemade pesto.