Pond, poplars, painting, peace

Hello folks,
you might be surprised reading this, because I told you in our last posting that we would go ahead without our little laptop. This is still true, but fortunately we know some people here who were so nice to offer us their computer.
We have already spent a few days in the crazy town called the 'Big Apple'. It is a big, busy and exciting city. Andy, who became our friend during the theater festival in our home town, told us that you will definitely love it above all when you own enough of the two different things that only businessmen call equivalent: time and money. We will try to find out at the end of October if the Big Apple will still be luscious without an abundance of cash in our wallets. More detailed information may be given in a few days.
I think you can easily imagine that traveling around is much fun but after a long period of time also a little exhausting. So, when Andy and Olga offered us to stay one week in their cozy house, located a two hours drive north of NY City and absolutely off the beaten track, it was just the right thing to happen at the right time.
Next to the house we found a tiny pond where we could have a short swim after our running exercise. Birches, beeches (Buchen), maple trees and poplars (Pappeln) reside in the surroundings. Their beautiful colors make our day. Next to their roots thrive bunches of different mushrooms. Many of them hitch hiked in Sabine's basket and ended up on our table as a delicious dinner.
Andy, Olga, her daughter Zoya and her son Max, who stayed with us for a couple of days, are very lovely people. Andy, who works as a composer and professor for music, introduced us to some interesting Jewish rituals and Olga, who works as a visual artist, showed us her latest paintings. Their creative power inspired me to paint a picture with water color about my latest impressions.
After this week of nature and peace we feel rejuvenated and we are looking forward with excitement to the hootenanny (fröhlicher, lauter Liederabend) kicking off tomorrow night in Manhattan.