Fall is here,..and thank God this summer is over,..

Well, the leaves are fading from the red and yellows to muted browns and covering the ground. It is getting down to almost freezing at night and is still chilly during the day. I have started teaching my classes at the University and Ken is going through tubes of orange and red paint as he tries to capture the mountains in full fall colors.
Just for those of you who still believe that everything is bigger in the US, take a look at these mushrooms that we found while out "houby" hunting with some friends in the Jesinek mountains. Yes, they are edible! This was not a great year for mushrooms so we have only a few to get us through the winter.
We are thankful that the summer is over. What a summer! It was certainly the worst of times and we are still waiting for government agencies, landlords, building permits and lots of other issues to be resolved about the flood and the future of our shop.
September brought the best of times with a wonderful trip to Italy. Our dear friends Dennis and Leslie joined us for a week in wine country in Tuscany and then a week on the Adriatic north of Venice. It was a wonderful mixture of museums, sightseeing, great restaurants, wine tasting and just relaxing with a bottle of wine (or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5) and watching the sun set in the Tuscan mountains. Probably one of the best vacations we have ever had. This is a photo of the view from our patio. It was just beautiful.
A few weeks later we met our good friends from Germany, Susan and Detlef, in a small town just west of the Czech border. There are so many small towns that are filled with delights that I don't think we can possibly visit even all of the ones in the Czech Republic.
This weekend saw the gathering of my Czech relatives. They came to visit us and we prepared BBQ ribs, Boston baked beans, potato salad and apple pie. A real American feast. We even managed to spend the day conversing in our poor Czech and their faulty English. My adventure with the Czech Language school was somewhat successful this summer and Ken now has a man that he exchanges Czech for English with. So hopefully our language skills will continue to improve.
Next week is Halloween. Not a big holiday here. Last year I did not have a single trick or treater. Too bad,..I really enjoy the holiday. So for now we continue and once again promise to be more diligent in postings!