When last I wrote here, Leah was visiting. She was able to stay for three weeks, and although we were all working for much of that time, we still had lots of fun. We spent a few beautiful, sunny days in London, the kind of days that remind you how great London is. (Yes, I love London in the rain, too; but there is something glorious about a sunny day there.) We saw an exhibit of German expressionists at the Tate Modern, ate at Borough Market, and walked all over the place.

Now, we are on holiday, and as with last year, we are following a Lake theme. We went first to Geneva, where we stayed with our friend, Julie, with whom we always have great conversations, good food, and fun. We spent the day of Doug’s birthday in the town of Yvoire, a small medieval village on the French shore of the Lake Geneva. It was a beautiful day, with very blue skies, and we enjoyed a lovely walk through the village and gardens, and ate fantastic fresh fish by the lake.

We then took a beautiful train ride across Switzerland to the German side of Lake Konstanz, to visit friends who live near Radolfzell. It is so green and lush here this time of year. with rolling fields and orchards bursting with fruit, and miles and miles of gorgeous lakeside walks, lovely views, charming cities, and beautiful wine.

I have spent my mornings sitting on the balcony with my knitting and a coffee, looking out over green hills.

You would think I would have lots of knitting to report on, but I seem to be in a state of knitting interruptus right now. I interrupt one project to start another, and then interrupt it in turn to start yet another. I must have 5-6 projects on the go right now, quite a lot for me. I hope to be able to finish something soon, but I am indulging my process knitting side currently, so who knows? Perhaps I will cast on even more projects. The big news on the knitting front is that I am going on another Country House Knitting retreat in mid-September. I have twice been on this retreat before and am really excited to be going again. On both previous occasions, I was there in November and it was cold and rainy out. This time, I decided to go in September with the hopes of seeing early autumn in the Lake District. (I wrote about my other two retreats here and here.)

We have spent two entire days this week lounging in a truly remarkable lakeside sauna resort, swimming in the lake, reading in the sun, and indulging in the numerous saunas, not to mention the steam room, salt bath, and hot rock pool. We had a number of different sauna rituals, including the Finnish sauna vasta, which involves being beaten with birch branches in a very hot sauna (which is much nicer than it sounds). If this paints a picture of lazy indulgence, than I have expressed it well. Today, the weather has taken a bit of a turn here on Lake Konstanz, and so I will continue the lazy theme, although I will replace the birch branches with knitting needles.

I struggled to come up with a title for this post. I blame the sauna. The runner-up was: “In which I relax by knitting and being beaten with birch branches. (Not at the same time.)”