These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

In order to combat the dreariness of an overabundance of bad news in the world, Sarah Vance-Tompkins challenged everyone to come up with twenty favorite things that cheer them up.

image by s j carey via flickr

Here are mine.

1. Resting my head on my husband's chest as we lie on the couch
2. Managing to jog almost as much as I walk during my hour long "walk"
3. Homemade brownies and chocolate chip cookies
4. Watching my son dance and laugh
5. Watching my son sleep
6. Watching my daughter play sports – she's such a fighter
7. Cuddling with dogs and cats
8. The way my chest vibrates inside when I listen to Breaking Benjamin really loud
9. DVD Nights with my husband
10. Reading books that take me away from the world
11. Old cars
12. Seeing how much my kids love their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins
13. "Good morning hugs" from my kids
14. Being urged by my daughter to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory faster because it's so exciting
15. Laughing so hard my stomach hurts
16. Windy days
17. Lakes, rivers, ponds - any body of water that reflects the sky
18. A sparkling Christmas tree in an otherwise dark room
19. Halloween costumes
20. When a story I'm writing captivates my concentration so much that I miss real-world things.

It turned out even easier than I'd expected. In fact, I could have gone on and on. What are some of the things that can brighten your day?

The Meeting of the Bards

At the beginning of every August, the city of Nuremberg puts on the Bardentreffen - The Meeting of the Bards. 

Stage in the ruin of St. Katharina's

The Bardentreffen is a three-day series of free concerts on eight stages set up in town. Each year has a different theme, whether geographically based, like when Africa or Australia were the themes, or as in this year's War and Peace theme, where the festival dealt with musical reflections of current war/crisis zones of the world.

Indian band on the stage on the market square, with the Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) at the right.

This year, 96 musicians or groups were on the official program, with several more performing in the streets. The artists came from Ghana, Israel, Italy, Brazil, Australia, Germany, and many other countries.

Street performer making bubbles for the kids in front of St. Lorenz

Mongolian (I think) band in front of St. Lorenz

All pictures on this page taken by me, early, before many guests arrived. For details and more professional pictures, see the official website.

Bonus pic: when the kids got tired, we aimlessly rode Nuremberg's driverless subway.