Monday, April 20, 2009

more fun from the weekend

sabin went home with a friend to play last friday after school. when it came time to pick her up, i realized i'd not been to that friend's dad's house before and i didn't know where it was, so i had to call him and ask the address. when i called, he said that the girls were about to grill sausages and so i could wait 'til later to pick her up. ahh, the sudden freedom of a few extra hours to myself and from the responsibility of having to have that friday evening meal ready. bliss.

husband came home rather late and we started some coals for our own dinner and then went to pick up sabin. her friend's dad lives a little ways out of town on a small farm. they have two ponies and a couple of extremely wooly sheep. he was in the midst of cutting up a couple of old trees that he had knocked down with his big giant digger machine thingie (i think that's the technical term). i wish we'd been there to see that.  he had a big bonfire going and it was there the girls had roasted sausages for dinner. yum. there's just something so good about food cooked outdoors.

while we were waiting for the girls to finish up playing, we got to chatting with the dad. he asked if we'd like some of the wood. husband couldn't believe his ears--free wood for our two woodburning stoves! how cool is that? so he eagerly accepted and spent the entire weekend going back and forth with a trailer and pretty much cleaning up those two trees.

and he had plans for them, that didn't just involve them ending up as firewood.  husband often has grand schemes in the garden. like a little fireplace area for roasting marshmallows and bread on a stick (snobrød, in danish):


and using some of the thicker bits of tree stump to line a new vegetable bed in the upper garden:


we have serious slug problems here in denmark, so we always have to think about raised beds and areas of sand/gravel that slugs don't like around the outside of the beds.

another cool thing that sabin's friend's dad showed us was an old fiat abarth that he had recently finished restoring. i'm not really into cars and know very little about them, but this was just too cute:


the light wasn't great in the garage, so these shots aren't as good as i'd have liked them to be. but you can see from the person standing at the back exactly how TINY this little automobile is. i know mr. bean's car was a morse mini, but this reminded me very much of mr. bean. he started it up and it was LOUD! it would be SO much fun to go down the road in it. super cute.

6 comments:

beth said...

don't you just love days that end up being filled with a surprise or two??...

Anonymous said...

i'm missing my large garden in my previous home. your pictures remind me of it...

Elizabeth said...

Oh, I love that car. In Holland we called it An Egg. Nice to hear that in your part of Denmark you have the same problem as in my part SLUGS. And therefore we also have raised beds.
Well thanks again for the carpictures, they made me smile.

Char said...

what fun!!! and great way to repurpose the trees cut down. I love how the stumps line the beds. and yes, food grilled out - we're doing that today with a smoked pork loin.

Pattern and Perspective said...

Cute car, but I would rather drive an old Aston Martin (like 007). Mr. Bean cracks me up, too.

It sounds like Sabin has a great childhood -- horses, ponies, wooly sheep. What fun!

I do miss living over there. Remember it like yesterday (Germany), but it was a while ago. Over 20 years. I loved Kindereggs. The chocolate is wonderful, but I loved those darn toys as a child.

Magpie said...

That car is sweet.