Happy 2019

Happy New Year!  We did our usual and spent a lovely evening with Ilsemarie, Ulli, Johanna and Klaus, this time an event at the Goethe Theater.  It starts at 7 PM, goes about 2 hours, and then you can stay for the party or party on your own.  We allow to party a bit before and then head home!

After admiring the tree, the new kitchen, and the new landing and steps to the small yard, we made a toast to 2018.  I'm looking forward to a more congenial 2019.

 How about wild boar goulash with fresh Spätzle to start us off?  

The food was predictably delicious and the conversation predictably lively.  We've stopped dancing around the Christmas tree, but it's still lots of fun!

After a fantastic show set around Italian opera aria at the local theater, we sneaked off to Ilsemarie's office nearby and had a glass of bubbly to 2019. And then we all headed home.  Werner and I both have colds (bad) and somehow standing in the middle of rockets and mini-bombs is no longer our favorite thing to do.  And AND staying up to 1 AM is also not on the list.  So, old fogies that we are, we got home, got in our jammies, watched the noise and light from the front window.  The teenagers across the street had lots of fun lighting lots of fireworks. That was enough for us! 

 January 1, 2019.  Sounds like science fiction.

How often have we done this walk around Meyenburg on New Year's Day?  Don't know.  I tried to look back on the blog, but there are only a few mentions.  I take lots of pics, but I don't always post.

A quick look in the picture folder shows walks there in at least 6 of the last 8 years, though somehow we think we have been doing this forever.  Well, maybe not....

But we're keeping up a tradition, however long it is, so off we go to Meyenburg.


In past years, there's been snow, but not this year. We've hardly had any freezing weather, but it was cold and clear this day. The blue skies were more than welcome.

We took our usual path through the fields.

 

Would you believe?  Still, summer flowers blooming.

 And there are still lots of ducks at the mill pond.

We hope your days between Christmas and the New Year were refreshing and renewing.  All the best to all of us for 2019. 

Happy New Year

Yeah, yeah, I know it's late, but I have excuses.  Which to use?  Scraping the stairs?  Sleeping in?  Partying?  Hard to choose, but I'll take them all. 

We have started scraping the stairs (more on that in a later post).   We have slept in.  Sorry, I am not apologizing for that.  We're old(er) and we have the right.  Partying?  Well, that too, and though we had a lovely New Year's Eve theater event with friends and a meal and a fireworks party with half of Bremen, this post is not about that.  It is about the day after.

When we're here on New Year's Day, we like to walk, and it is especially fun when there's a bit of snow.  This year we had snow and once again we drove to the village of Meyenburg to wander the town and the fields. 

And I noticed this year how much people - strangers -  speak to each other on January 1.  Happy New Year! they all say.  Wow!  We should greet each other every day with such smiling faces and good wishes!

Here's a snippet of our New Year's walk in Meyenburg. 

Happy New Year, Best of Health, Joy and Peace to us all. 

Old Mill Day

Today is Pentecost Monday (Pfingstmontag), a federal holiday here in Germany. It is also National Mill Day and most of the old water mills and wind mills are open to visitors. Some had outdoor services and music, some have markets and food. The weather hasn't been great, but we got out early and almost got back before it started raining!

We decided to bike to Meyenburg, a picturesque village not far from here. We've been there often - it's a nice little trip. Along the way, we saw all the fields of grain, many getting close to harvest time, appropriate for Mill Day! When Julia and Larry were here, Werner kept telling them what the different grains were - and here's a little collage of them. Clockwise from the top left: wheat, oats, rye and barley - with the occasional wheat shoot wildly coming up.



It was really crowded at the mill - they had just finished the outdoor service and people were taking little tours of the mill. It's nothing of course like the windmill we visited with Ginny and Barry - it's a water mill after all - but the result was the same: flour for bread and cake.

Here's a little movie of the mill and an accompanying song by Werner (his talents are multi).

Es klappert die Mühle am rauschenden Bach, klippklapp, kilppklapp.
Es mahlet der Müller bei Tag und bei Nacht, klippklapp, kilppklapp, klippklapp.

The bubbling brook makes the mill wheel go round, clip clop, clip clop
The miller works hard till the grain is all ground, clip clop, clip clop, clip clop.

2021

We all love beginnings, but I wonder if we all love them a bit more this year.  Good riddance to 2020 and so many hopes pinned on 2021. Here's to a better year for us all.

Our year started like many in the last few years, and it brings a bit of comfort -- a walk in Meyenburg, a small village nearby.  We can walk thorough bit s of the town and the farmland, enjoy the cobbled streets and the  muddy paths.  On New Year's Day, there are always lots of folks walking and they all say "Moin"  or "Frohes Neues" and there are lots of smiles.  Oh, newness!

It was a bit wet and a bit gray and a bit warm. There have been years with snow and/or sunshine, but not this year.  Kind of middling - mostly dry, a bit of rain at the end, not warm but not really cold, mostly gray with hints of blue.

For me, it was the first long foray on foot after weeks of literally lying around helping my eye heal.  We took it slow and easy.

Things don't change much.  The mill still runs, the ducks still swim and quack. In this year of so much upheaval, that was particularly nice to see.

And at the end, we even got a bit of a sunset!  

Keep in mind, it was 4:00 in the afternoon.  But the days are getting longer, my eye is getting better, the vaccines are coming, and there's hope on the horizon.  

Here's to New.  

Sunday Day Walking

Even though we don't have full-time jobs anymore, there's still plenty enough scheduled during the week that we enjoy the weekends and the time off - expecially now since almost every weekend has some event. This was a free weekend, so today, after the usual late-Sunday-morning breakfast, we chanced the weather and drove to Meyenburg for a walk.

It's one of our favorites (see here) and walking along we came to a sign that said "Kriegesgräbstätte". Germans like to put all the nouns into one word whenever possible, so in English this is War Cemetery. We took the path through the woods and 15 minutes later came upon the site.

It is so far off the beaten path - you have to want to go there. These two huge cypress trees frame the stone memorial to fallen Russians and Serbs of World War I and II and are big enough to have been planted just after the war.

Each grave has a marker - this one for a boy of 20. We don't know why these soldiers were buried here - so far from any war front.

This plaque is at the entrance to the cemetery:

If, wanderer, you come to this place
Do not disturb the quiet and the peace.
For all who lie here deserve their rest
Since they were fated to suffer.

It seemed so appropriate, and not a little soothing, to have seen this rainbow after our walk.