Last summer was a Salad Summer. This one, so far, is a Pizza Summer. How many delicious variations can I make? Tonight's is a Pizza Mandala. Potatoes spiral inwards. Second level, tomatoes to infinity. Then cheese, gently. Salt. And I'm going out to pick some of the chard I've grown, to saute with olive oil and white wine, and then put on top. Chard:
With drops from a recent rain shower. I had a rehearsal this afternoon, and during a break we opened a window, and there was rain, but there was also thunder like I've never heard. For several minutes I asked my colleagues if it was thunder, or someone rolling a dumpster down the street, because it just didn't stop. On and on, rumbling, no cracking, and nearly constant. I really thought it was someone with a dumpster. But then I looked, and the street was deserted. The sound seemed to be coming from all around. The it started to hail. Summer! The rehearsal was for a recital in which I'll be playing, of renaissance consort music. It's great. I'm playing "consort bass" which is the renaissance equivalent of the g-violone from a couple posts ago; it's got 5 strings, instead of 6, but the string order, and fingering, is the same. All the viols were made by the same maker, and I'm sorry to say it but they've got faces that only a mother would love. They sound great, though! Playing in a consort is amazing. It's so different from anything else I've ever done. My part is equal to the other parts, and there are only 5 of us. Rhythm and melody are much different from later music, and playing the instrument is challenging but in a way that helps me play better. I can feel myself becoming more adept throughout the course of a rehearsal. Skills! Happening.
Since I won't have the chance to go home for the summer, my mom will come for two weeks. She arrives on Tuesday, and though I'll be pretty busy while she's here I think we'll be able to do some fun things. Especially if she enjoys all the concerts I'll be playing. The day after she gets here I'll be playing in Thun, a very beautiful town on a picturesque lake, surrounded by Alps, in what is known as the Berner Oberland (the high land near Bern). She'll also get a chance to see the consort concert (I've been waiting for the chance to write that). And to eat some of my chard. Maybe I'll have peas by then?
I have some more pictures for you. We get a lot of moths flying in the windows at night, this was one of them, in a jar, just before I released it out of a window on the other side of the house:
Last night my roommate Diego had his Master's recital. Someone gave him some incredibly beautiful flowers. Peonies?
I spent some time in Copenhagen recently visiting Andrew, and then he came to see me here. We had some really nice weather, in both places.
Copenhagen spring is a little behind Basel spring. It's still pretty nice.
And, what's that? BABY DUCKS? Yes.
Back in Basel, we found this bike that hasn't seen a lot of action recently.
Then we took a walk in the big hike & bike area near my house, the Lange Erlen. Look, it's me.
Sorry this blog is nothing but news lately. It's not that I don't have as much to say. I think going on those tours made me a little anti-computer and I've never really gotten back into it. In other news, I got a pretty cool bloodstain on the book I'm reading when I crushed a mosquito against the wall at 5:30 this morning. Take THAT, you little jerk.
Promising, again, to write more, better, sooner. Or, at least, imagining that might be a nice thing to do. Encourage me? It helps.
