Barbarians At The Gate of Grandpa

So today we bumrushed grandpa's house in Seeshaupt (did anybody use the word "bumrush" since 1988? It does describe a certain assertive form of visit very well though). Henri was again quite taken by the various forms of nature found in the vicinity of the patio (Ants! Bugs! A caterpillar!). While Karl recruited grandpa for reading duty right away. But hold the cuteness! I promised you blatant disregard for community standards of decency. So here you go (lower part of image censored due to transatlantic conflict of legal standards). This is the moment Henri discovered the excursion boat circling the lake during summer months. And quite a discovery it was for the young man.



On the way back to the car Karl found a creek that had a junglish enough vibe to count as adventure...



...although the real adventure started, when grandpa drafted him for elderflower harvesting in the forresty back of the garden.



I guess there is no better bonding with a three year old than teaching him an activity that combines three age inappropriate activities into one, i.e. climbing a high ladder, using a sharp object on top of aforementioned ladder, and using aforementioned sharp object to mutilate plants. It wasn't just the thrill of danger, Karl loves to make himself useful these days (could this phase please last something like a few decades, please?). So doing some actual harvesting of a plant that will be turned into elderflower syrup was a real kicker. They had a real mission - cut 25 elderflowers and put them into a jug of water to turn into syrup in three days. Karl got to take a bottle of syrup from the last batch home. Aaaah, the pride, when he showed off the bounty of an afternoon spent in dangerous altitudes. I guess we'll be seeing quite a bit of homemade elderflower syrup consumed in the coming weeks (what is that then? Halfmoonshine?)



The rest of the evening was crowned with an asparagus dinner and some wrestling matches with grandpa, some of the promised property damage and lotsa noise that made Henri kinda nervous. Nooo, he only looks like he's calling mom to get him outta there.