I'm ready

All the Christmas cards are already on its way, so I can finally show them. My first attempts at quilling.

 Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. I rushed taking pictures before sending them.

This one is for the Goth in me :-)

And I'm Santa is ready for Christmas.

Whoa..

How many times in a winter can weather change from +12 to -5 C in a day and a couple of days later change from -8 to +12 degrees C in a day only to change back a few days later?

Update: here are the official data. Not for my hometown, but it's similarly crazy here. Notice the timescale!

Picture stolen from ARSO

I mean, I love crazy and windy and cold weather but come on...

On a different note, ultraviolet is the colour of the year!

When I first heard it, I was amused, perplexed and really wondered how one can make something invisible the colour of the year.

Well, it turned out this was just a name. The colour is a plain normal violet. Nothing ultra about it. I'm not yet sure I like it, but I surely don't dislike it as that millennial pink that still lingers around.

Oooh, but I really do like the Desert Sunset combination!

Winter :-)

The igloo in the front yard is finished.
Christmas wreath is hanging on the doors. 
Christmas wheat is growing nicely.

And I'm finally making Christmas cards. Just a teaser for now:

December!

Well, the winter started and I'm loving it!

We are getting ready for Christmas. A poinsettia and an advent calendar are already on the dining table.

And MiniMojcek Nr. 2 has once again proven to be a genius. Although he is very familiar with the idea of advent calendar and the 24 days one has to wait for Chrismas... he quickly realised that 24 is actually the number of hours in one day and that instead of waiting till the 24th, he could open a number every hour of today :-)

Zipper war

No, it's not a moment in 19th century history.

It's a battle I'm fighting right now.

In the last few weeks I had to exchange or repair a zip on MiniMojcek Nr.1's school backpack, a zip on MiniMojcek Nr.2's school backpack, two zips on my backpacks, a zip on MiniMojcek Nr.1's sweater and two zips on MiniMojcek Nr.2's jackets.

Enough zips for a while!

So, so true.

What a joy walking is. All the cares of life, all the hopeless, inept fuckwits that God has strewn along the Bill Bryson Highway of Life suddenly seem far away and harmless, and the world becomes tranquil and welcoming and good. And to walk with old friends multiplies the pleasure a hundredfold.

B. B., The Road to Little Dribbling

Just checking...

The raspberries are ripe.

The strawberries are blossoming.

The roses are in bloom.

Either climate changes are really happening or I've got some weird genetically modified organisms... because it's the middle of November!

And, yes, all the shops are full of Christmassy stuff. And yes, I'm slightly panicking because I don't even have a prototype of this year's Christmas cards ready!

I love you too!

Photos not by me, these are screenshots from Youtube.

I was enjoying the whole thing way too much to bother with the phone.

But mostly I curl up inside my typewriter with my housefly and cry
I tell my housefly not to cry
My housefly tells me not to die
Because someone’s gotta sing the stars
And someone’s gotta sing the rain
And someone’s gotta sing the blood
And someone’s gotta sing the pain.
N. Cave

Unfair!

We visited the island of Elba and all the time we watched the Montecristo Island.

So I decided to read the Count of Monte Cristo. Appropriately, right?

I went to the local bookstore and the only translation they had (I don't feel like reading the French original) was a shortened version for children and well... ok, I got it.

The book was quite enjoyable until I reached page 142. It has a footnote:

"Till this sentence, the text is, although a bit shortened, a faithful copy of the first part of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo. The end of the first part as well as the second and third parts were omitted by the translator, who also added her own ending, which differs from the original."

I kid you not.

Science, again

Don't you just love science? So that we can explain exactly why this happens?

Add a linear polarizer and one line disappears...

Now turn the polarizer and the other line appears.

No, no magic. Just birefringence :-)

Lovely autumn

After a very rainy September (the wettest in the last 50 years), October started just lovely...

The brave ones climbed and swam in the sea.

More puzzles

It took me all summer to finally clean my desk - and the moment I did it, I bought a new puzzle :-)

Great picture, btw!

I'm just looking ...

1. No, I'm not SUPing. I'm just looking.

2. No, I'm not swimming. I'm just looking.

However, Mr. Mojcek did swim.

 And won silver medal in his first open-water swimming event :-)

3. No, I'm not cooking. I'm just eating.

We stumbled upon a potato festival, organised by the  

Society for the Recognition of a Sautéed Potatoes as a Main Dish.

No, I'm not joking.

4. No, I'm not fighting. I'm just looking.

Did you know that the first documented boatmen's fight 

on Ljubljanica river took place in 1092! 

I also learned the distinction between Krakovo and Trnovo: 

in Krakovo, there were fishermen and in Trnovo boatmen.

5. But I am taking photographs :-)

Iška

The temperature in Iška Gorge is probably around 10 degrees lower that in Ljubljana. So the place is ideal to visit in the heat of the summer (instead of 40, you only get 30 degrees :-).

Well, if you visit it in late summer, when there is only 28 deg in the city, you end up with just 19 deg in the gorge. So no, we did not take a swim. 

But it's always a nice stroll along the river.

Technical museum

We continued our trips in Bistra. Now a technical museum, it used to be a monastery. Founded in 1225!

What I loved are the wooden models of old Slovenian cottages, granaries, and hayracks.

The highlights, however, are the cars.

 

Whales!

Well, we decided not to go to Garda this year but rather to explore what's in the neighbourhood. So we started with Arboretum, where an exhibition of whales took place.

The crazy clouds (slightly exaggerated by Gimp) looked ... heavenly.

A new pendant

If I were younger or ... different ... I'd probably have the logo of 30 Seconds to Mars tattooed. But since I'm not, I've only got a pendant :-)

I actually had the wooden piece laser-cut and then painted it black.

And no, I don't care too much about symbolism, I just really like the band and the shape.

That's what friends are for

Well, no, friends are here for all the other reasons. But... if they give you a hand and help you finish a project you started a while ago, I'm not complaining.

So, finally, I have new wooden floors on my tiny balcony!

Time for a longer update

1. The conference that I co-organised was a huuuge success with some unforgettable moments.

Photo not by me. I was enjoying dinner :-)

2. I learned that physicists are very discreet people. And I'm going to be discreet as well, so no photos :-)

3. I've rock-climbed for the first time in over 10, probably 15 years. It felt soooo good to feel the rock again.

That's not me. But I did it as well.

4. I've paddled in a single kayak for the first time in over 10 years. It felt a bit wobbly at the beginning (as I'm used to heavier inflatable kayaks) but so much fun! I don't have any photos as I kept my camera/phone far away from water.

5. Museum of Optical Illusions is quite trippy.

6. Did I mention that Escape Rooms are great fun?

A loose screw

A loose screw ... or a lot of them.

Literally.

When tidying up the workshop/garage we found several boxes of all sorts of screws. A couple of hours later, (almost) all the screws were (almost) sorted.

Now I need to use them.

Holidays!

My absence is excused...