gathering

 Beautiful day with our Irish friends who on the way to Mongolia stopped to teach us some permaculture, spread some wisdom & love. We'll miss them, fly swiftly & safely Swallow Clan!

house update

Here is the story of our hallway - documenting the work progress from December to July. We are moving in next month! Fingers crossed.

birthday boy - again!

There is nothing like a birthday party with our friends, especially when it is a picnic party!

We played badminton, boules and there were giant bubbles, see it for yourself:

birthday boy & birthday granny

We had a very busy weekend celebrating Granny's 90's and Olaf's 5th birthday.  It was all so moving to be together with such a big extended family, rediscovering bonds and seeing everyone aging so beautifully. Big Saturday party was followed by Sunday photo shoot. Here are some backstage pictures we took.

Auntiehood

Brothas

Granny

 Sistas

 Midday madness

 Cake fight

Almost brotherhood

Lucy isn't present due to her soft spot for cherries the day before...

the swarm

I had some visitors today. Right outside our apartment, 2nd floor, city centre, 4pm. The swarm of bees.
They came from miles away I suppose and decided to settle right on my balcony. The cat loved the idea. So I got them all in: kids and cat, locked the door & window, borrowed the watering can, cardboard box, towel and skiing gloves and off I went.
I called some swarm emergency rescue and as directed by them I started spraying them with water and collecting into the box. (Did you know that Polish fireman kills bees if they are called for emergency like that?) Apparently that's not easy, as they were all a bit upset about their long journey. As I later found out, bees carry enough honey with them to keep them going for 3 days.
When the beekeeper arrived we were all relieved: me because the fireman won't get them, Flo: because the beekeeper was a nice fella, kids: because they were allowed outside & they could wear hats. And we got a big jar of honey :)
That's a little photo story shot with my phone - hence poor quality. Apologies for that.

snow in June

Poplars are really tough on our noses this year.