School holidays mean disappearing to the country for extended periods of time - summer is finally upon us and the weeds and grass is growing so fast that you can HEAR it growing if you stop and listen.  Nightingales and cuckoos are singing in the woods beyond the house, and the perfumed air is soft and warm, even when you wander out into the permanent dusk that is "nighttime" in midsummer in this part of Europe.  Midsummer eve is but a week away, and the fields are full of wildflowers...

I think I've mentioned it before, but now is a good time to remind you.  Latvia has the LONGEST SUMMER SCHOOL HOLIDAYS OF ALL THE COUNTRIES IN EUROPE!  And yes, I am well aware that the use of capital letters in a blogging context means I'm yelling.  Three months of freedom.  Pleasure and pain, I tell you. Tiss and Mik had their school/kindy break up parties last week.  I did manage to control the flood of nostalgia because I went to the last kindy events my kids would...

I think I've always been drawn to the asian aesthetic of wabi sabi, but only in the last few years have I put a name to it and done some reading about the philosophy.  Things look best when they are a bit worn, a bit mismatched, a bit wonky, a bit lopsided.  Natural objects with wear patterns  - wood or leather or pottery which have been well made, well loved, well worn are my thing. I found out about the concept in a formal sense at a Korean pottery exhibition at the Queensland...