Jottem!!!

A quick, picture-heavy post to mark the occasion of S's first birthday in a foreign land which happened to coincide with our holidays in ze Alps in August. Photos in no particular order. You'll notice a distinct lack of "action" shots with calf muscles glistening in the Alpine heat - that's because our expeditionary group was overcome with a blitzcokken attack of Jelly Legs and sunstroke on our first outing, a setback from which we never really tried to recover :)

Schmitten

John the Rabbit, Yes Man!

Group Shot (without Siamak who was at the hospital with a suspected broken toe)

Shutup I Am Dreaming Of Carbohydrates

Friends for Now

Breakfast at Jottem!!!

Pre-Meltdown at the Glacier

Zell Am See

Our Chalet from the Valley (*WINK*)

Group Shot (without Linda who was out jogging or e-biking I think)

Not enough shoulders to cry on

Jumpin' in my garden (Yes, ma'am)

Cheeseless Cheese of the Year Awards, Pinzgau

Bringer of Jelly Legs

Home of the Pinzgau Fart

In the Belly Belly

Relaxing at the Frankfurt Business Hotel

Attack of the Icecream Zombies

Die gullewagon

Today Was A Good Day

The weather and a crackin' picnic by the river inspired me to post some photos of the day and borrow from photos of other days. Will try and arrange more picnics and post more often for the rest of the Summer.

Before And After

Gunther and Bunty And Hard Bolied Eggs

D has taken to making up songs as she plays the guitar. She'll choose a theme, add some words while she tries out a few melodies, and then pick a bit she likes and turn it into the chorus. It inevitably ends up with us all joining in and then falling about the place laughing. Today she wrote a classic :


"This is a song about when me and S escaped in a balloon..... It's an instrumental one." That's a direct quote. Sometimes we wonder where in the name of God she gets her inspirations from. She listened to this (obviously very attentitvely) in the car earlier today and it seems to have made an impression. She has always had a thing for balloons and Gunther and his multi-coloured hot air balloon regularly rescues her from mountaintops at the end of lots of her bed time stories. So yeah, 3 years old and already writing conceptual / improvisational instrumental pieces. And she's already gone electric. We're such proud (and completely terrified) parents.

Buke and Gass

Wheeeeeee! Shanty

Some days off work so some mild adventures, photos and the ongoing search for the perfect wheee!

Bolo

MutElla Fitzgerald

Swingin'

I Wish I Was Swingin'

I wishawishawish I was Swingin'

Ad placement

Divilment At Rest

"..Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe..!"

There's a funny story attached to the hat. When I was in Seattle it was snowing and I needed a functional, warm hat to cover my head while walking in and out of the office. So in a sale in a gale , I picked up a wooly hat which covered my ears and it was indeed functional and warm and I thought no more about it. When I came home D took an inordinate shine to this blue wooly peaked hat and of course I told her I'd shopped high and low for this very special hat for my daughter. Since then D and the hat have become inseperable. Aswell as the obvious fashion statement (or sub-clause) it makes, it serves many additional uses. She can be seen above using the hat to keep her hair out of her eyes while eating her breakfast. And also using it as an authentic prop in her Makem and Clancy routine.

Pentatonic Free Jazz

Saturday morning discos have been going unplugged for the past couple of weeks. It's not easy playing along to Kanye West with a Fisher Price Xylophone and a small red guitar, but sure, if it was easy everybody'd be doing it. Some more photos from this truly unique session below.....

Anyway, eat up!

This song needs a melodica solo...

Technical difficulties

Bressist in Balaclavas

Getting off to a bit of a slow start this year. I've been travelling a bit with work and have been pretty busy. I didn't bring my camera on my travels either, which isn't like me. But I did get home to celebrate the 3rd birthday of the lady of the house.

Same cake, over and over

...and indulge in a spot of outdoor breakfastin' with some kids in balaclavas...