Check this out:   This is my mom’s oven. Or rather, it used to be my mom’s oven (she just got a brand-new oven, and so my dad had just put this old one in the backyard before he takes care to dispose of it). And the little guy in there is a pigeon. A rather curious pigeon that decided that a discarded oven would be a much more fashionable home than whatever used to be his home so far. So, promptly, he took possession of this thing, and spent not only the rest of the day in it (despite the fact that we were busy all around him), he even stayed over night. But I’m sad to disappoint you, because this story doesn’t have a happy end. The pigeon’s new home was gone the next day, and Pigeon needs to look for another home once more.

Guess what this is:   Yes, you’re right. It’s a tractor, on a field, during harvest. But you see, this is not just any tractor, and it’s also not just any field. It’s actually an onion harvesting tractor on an onion field. Note the “onion” here. Now, I’m not one who dislikes onion per se. In fact, onions can be a very delicious addition when it comes to your cooking; and they can be most welcome in such cases. In this case, however, I wasn’t too happy about the onions and the field, and the tractor, and the fact that these onions grow in immediate proximity to our home. You see, all summer long there’s been that peculiar smell in the air. The smell of onions. But you can’t just take these onions and put them away in a closet; or throw them in the trash, or cover them up. No, these onions are, more than anything, in your nose, and that’s where they’ll stay until they’re gone. So, today, the big secret that has …

When it cooled down not long ago, I thought summer had waved us its final good-bye – meaning it’s going to stay cool and get colder and colder as the year progresses. What I didn’t expect was that summer would give us quite the comeback. And so, these days it’s been all glorious sunshine, blue skies, nice temperatures, just as perfectly summer as perfect can get, in terms of summer!

My aunt has a cup. Not just any cup. It’s a very special cup. Not only does it look rather skew-whiffed (as if it had to stand the tide, barely making it), it even comes with rather peculiar abilities. It can tell you the tide. Yes, that’s right. It’ll always tell you quite accurately whether there’s high tide (Flut) or low tide (Ebbe) in the cup! Smart thing! No wonder it’s been quite a favorite of my mom’s, though I must confess that drinking from this skew-whiffed thing can be quite the challenge for my not so seafaring little person!