Postings from Germany

New Garden Art .....
and a walk through the golf course and the woods
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We'd been looking for something to fill the very big, very white, very empty space on the terrace between the flower boxes Werner made last spring, and we finally found it last weekend at the craft show. It was too big to carry on the train that day, so we went out to Garlstedt, just a short ride away, to pick it up from the artist's studio.

Naturally, it was a nice place to walk, so off we went.

You can tell by our clothes, it's getting cooler.

Just down the road from the studio is the entrance to a golf and country club headquartered in Bremen, but I think they only have a small 9-hole course in town. (You have towels from there, Joey and Lee.)

Look under the trees on the left and you'll see a rain hut that you won't see in Florida - it has a thatched roof ! Looks like a place where you'd find the seven dwarfs.

It's a pretty course, rather more rustic looking than lots in the US, but that doesn't mean it isn't well groomed. Come visit us, guys, and I'll get you a round!

Golf courses are generally quiet, so when we heard honking, we knew where to look - up! The geese are migrating and these were just re-aligning their formation and telling each other where to go and what to do, I suppose. It's such a pleasant sound; we always stop and watch them fly over.

Past the golf course we got into what seemed like private property, but they were all public "roads" (sometimes you have to use that word loosely here - look at this road!) and ran into an old abandoned water mill. The wheel was gone, there were lots and lots of spider webs on all the windows, and ...........

.... lots of moss and little mushrooms growing on the roof. As moth-eaten as it looks, it was still dry as dust inside, where there was lots of dust to prove it.

I know what you're saying - this is a really bad picture, or a mistake, or she's lost it (more than usual) but it's interesting: you just have to know what you're looking at. (And these are ......?) These're the ruts the wild boar left behind digging in the field for tasty treats - roots, I guess, since they're vegetarians, which should make the golfers happy.

So - enough of the walking and back home again to install our new garden art.

And here it is, with a little bit of sun to cast a shadow on the wall. The two still young clematis will more than triple in size and volume next year and should be a nice and colorful centerpiece to the terrace. Winter heather is in the boxes and will keep a bit of color there until spring comes again.