Brrrrrr

Just as I was reveling in NOT being in Minnesota for the early autumn snow, it turned chilly here too.  As a matter of fact, it turned cold at 2:51 p.m. Monday afternoon - about 21 minutes into a two hour biking quest for plums to make dumplings.  The chill has continued accompanied by rain on Monday, sleet on Tuesday, and snow on Wednesday.  Here are a couple of little stories of the cold.

Undaunted by our lack of success Saturday, Caleb and I went south to where there were confirmed sightings of plum trees along the roads.  The plum dumpling made with a potato dough is a classic late summer peasant food.  During the trip we were hit by high winds and waves of light rain.  But when we finally made it the 14 km (8.6 miles) to Opalice, we found that the only remaining plums were high in the trees  Just then, it started pouring.  Hands stiff from the cold, muscles chilled, we limped home with a single plum.

Tuesday, Lucy and I were walking about running some errands when we got caught in a sleet downpour.  We were lucky.  We would have been soaked had it been rain, as it is we just got very wet.  We ended the trip by purchasing the last nice looking fresh strawberries we could find and had strawberry dumplings instead of plum.

Wednesday, Kristine and I were both truly penitent that we had gloated about avoiding the Minnesota weather as the temperature hovered around 0 degrees Celsius (32 F) and snow was falling.

We're gearing up now for a trip to the Šumava - a low mountain (big hill) range along the border with Germany and Austria - this weekend.  We will be staying at a cottage with our old friend Madla, her mom Maruška, sister Lucinka, and two nephews.  It will be cold.

Peter