"What is your favorite refugee?"

My son has been learning English at school since September and I am thrilled that he is very slowly beginning to come up with sentences that he has constructed by himself. Instead of asking "what is your favorite color?", which they had learned in the book, he came up with the question above when we were talking about refugee politics, the shaky and strange EU deal with Turkey and how all this is going to affect politics in Germany. He then continued to list his five favorite refugees from the people whom we have met and got to know here in our town. (Although I have seriously cut back on my involvement in the volunteer network, I am, of course, still involved with some of the people who are indeed interested in learning German, finding a job, making a living here and becoming part of society. Can't let them down after getting to know them closer for the entire past year. But this year I took care of a little birthday party myself, no lavish barbecue with hours of preparations.) It almost made me cry when my son listed his five favorite refugees - if everybody in Germany would take a stand like that, could name his or her five favorite refugees and be willing to do just a little bit for them, I think the entire country would be much better of!

We have enjoyed a few days of sunshine and a little bit of warmer weather. This winter has been strange and certainly March and April did not feel like 'the warmest since the beginning of weather records' as was talked about in the news.

I have submitted another last-minute entry (the Fine Art Masters at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham) and am now waiting for the verdict, I have been thinking about which shows I want to try to enter. I am working on an entry for the Ste. Marie-aux-Mines challenge, despite my - well, how should I call them, mixed experiences - with entering that challenge? I'm wondering how difficult it is going to be this year - right now I am slightly suspicious that 'size matters' might once again turn out to be the problem.

But who knows. Perhaps it will easily fit into the prescribed size limit when it comes to cutting off at the edges after quilting. We shall see.