spring has sprung

phase 2

For those of you who mourned the loss of our beautiful tree with us, you will be happy to know that we have moved on and were very happy to see our landlord come this week to finish the job by removing the stump.

It was a monumental task which took a solid 4 hours of hard labour!
This electric chain saw did not contribute much to the success of the operation....


Time for a somewhat coldish beer....
And finally the tree stump was out.

Our neighbour came to assist in heaving that beast into the trailer.
And I made friends with our landlord's grandson, Patrick. What a precious little boy!
Off it went. What a day!

the process

One of the really great things about living in Germany is that twice a year we can put all our junk on the street and it either gets picked up by people "shopping" for treasures, or it gets picked up by the professionals. This kind of thing works out very nicely when one is leaving the country. A few weeks ago it was "Sperrmül" time again and so it was time for us to purge the house. Most of the stuff that went out had been collected from the street at an earlier date, or donated from someone who was getting rid of their junk. So it wasn't too difficult to part with these particular treasures.

This was our pile before it actually went on the street. There was much more in the end. We even had someone come to our door who was looking for antique furniture. Of course we did not tell him about the antique beds in the attic that our landlords have given us!

mixed media

Katy is in a Mixed Media class this semester and is absolutely loving it. Her latest creation had to include some sort of paper or tape and movement.

I think she was successful! What do you think?

the palmies

We had the privilege of having the 11 senior girls from the dorm we sub at over for lunch today. It was so nice to have them all here at one time!

They loved lunch and some of them ate way too much - according to what they told me, not from what I observed!


We are going to miss these lovely young women.....

the tulip phenomenon

I love tulips. I just wish they would last longer once they are in the vase. However, it is quite fun to watch them grow a little taller as each day passes. Yes, it's true. Tulips grow in the vase after they've been cut. It seems that some colours grow more or faster than others. This is shown quite well in this picture. I bought these tulips on the same day and it wasn't long before the white ones had grown past the purple ones. It is a very fascinating phenomenon.

There's nothing better than celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a real Irishman, so that's what we did. It was simple but fun and very green. Sorry I'm a day late with this!

some more interesting sunday sites

As we drove along the secondary highway last Sunday we suddenly came upon this castle that was right beside the road.

And the really strange thing about it was that it was actually a part of a farm! Note the silo.

And the farm equipment...
...and the large doors for farm machinery! Quite the efficient use of a castle!
We love the roads that are lined with trees.
In France a stop sign says STOP! This is in a country where everyone speaks French and not just a minority.....
Back in Germany we saw some brave crocuses. Today they are likely completely open as the snow is gone and the sun was out for a good part of the day.