We woke up rather latish the next morning, everyone had already been up for hours, and all were in fact gone. I found a note from Jennifer saying she had to run to the school, but she would be back soon with pastries. I made myself a cup of tea, picked a book off the shelf, and settled into the couch with “Eat Pray Love”.
In about half an hour Jennifer returned, and she and I sat at the table and chatted while I sampled the pastries. She is on a raw diet, and thus doesn’t eat such things. Sven wasn’t around as he had taken the first chance he had to put on his raincoat and trudge outside to look for mushroom in the woods that surround the house. He later came back rather wet but happy, pulling a few chanterelles out of his pocket to show us his bounty.
Sometime after 11:00 we went down to the town to pick up Max from school. It was still raining, so when Sven and I were going to watch Max while Jennifer spoke to his teacher we headed over to the Pfleger after picking up some umbrellas from the trunk. In the Pfleger (a café), we ordered coffees and an Austrian pastry and settled into a table. I enjoyed watching Max eat his bread with his rosy cheeks and long lashes, and listening to him finally begin to speak around us with his voice that sounds so deep, loud and clear for his six years. In fact, his and his sister’s voices are quite striking in unique in those qualities, and their unique stressing of certain syllables. They sound very similar to each other. Anyway, after we finished up we went back past the big beige church with its terracotta colored roof and clock tower to the school to wait for Jennifer. Max had fun splashing around in the puddles. When she came out a few minutes later, Nicole was done too and all got in the car and went back to the house. As soon as we pulled up Nicole and Sven excitedly ran off into the woods to look for big parasol mushrooms of the area.
Meanwhile, Jennifer and I prepped chicken schnitzel, roasted potatoes (from Jennifer’s garden) with rosemary and carrots, and a big salad full of delicious vegetables. I did the schnitzel, first coating the pounded breasts with flour, then dipping them in beaten egg, coating them in breadcrumbs with lemon zest and finally sliding them into the hot oil.
We added the chopped dark green pumpkin seeds of the region to the breadcrumbs for the schnitzels Sven and I were going to eat. When it was all done, we sat down to our meal. If you will remember, this is the main meal of the day, so we sat down to our plates with gusto. Georg was working, so it was the five of us. It was delicious, crispy and succulent, and the pumpkin seeds added a nice rich nutty flavor. The salad tasted so good, and it felt so good too. It included the local pumpkin seed oil as well.
After lunch I felt so full I felt like I just wanted to take a nap and fall asleep. However, I read a bit and later emerged from the bedroom to workout with Jennifer. Now, Jennifer is both a kickboxing and yoga instructor, and she has always been the one in the best shape of anyone I knew personally. Its true. Whenever she came to visit, or when I visited her, she would teach us a kickboxing class and work our asses into shape. I mean, I worked out all spring and many mornings of the summer in anticipation of working out with Jennifer. However, the last month in Belgium Semriach
After we worked out, we all piled in the car to go “shopping”. This included driving down the hill through the light rain to the egg lady, to buy fresh eggs while the kids tried to play with the chickens, and then down the road to the cheese lady to buy a fresh brick of mild cheese. On the way back I enjoyed talking to the kids about bears and mountain lions while I sat between them. I thought it was sweet how Max would lean his head on my shoulder.
For dinner we had the traditional meats, cheese, breads, vegetables and beer. I love it. The cheese was great too, simple flavor, but it doesn’t kill you with rich triple cream-ness. We talked about Bavarians and Oktoberfest and such things. Then I was off to bed.
