Still Looking for the Silver Lining---

-- but it's a bit better.

Surgery was accomplished, two nights in the hospital survived, home again and now in a boot. A BIG boot.

It reminds me of the Storm Troopers garb in Star Wars and I do believe that a light sabre and a helmet would make a more than passable Halloween costume. But I'd have to walk, and that's tricky.

So I cocoon.  The weather has been mostly lovely, sunny cool days with glorious blue skies. Werner sets up a chair in front where I can sit and air out and take in some sunshine. And he found a bunch of fall flowers to brighten our space. What wonderful colors!

And there are still apples from the fateful day, here arranged with walnuts from friends' trees.  Nice friends!!  The walnuts (many, many more in the living room) are still drying out so they'll be in perfect shape  for Christmas baking.  I'm thinking of doing a walnut pie with the pecan pie recipe.  Might be good ......

And the apples - so unbelievably crisp!  We just eat them fresh of course, but we've made baked apples, too.  Tomorrow we'll have Tarte Tatin.  And earlier in the week we had Beutlewurst mit Apfelmuß - Blood sausage with applesauce.  Don't knock it till you've tried it.  The "sausage" is made up and pressed - lots of grain in it gives it a rich flavor - fat helps too.  Sliced thick and fried it the pan, served with warm home-made applesauce, it's a cool weather treat. Ohhhh!

Looking for the Silver Lining

Here's my new life-changing event.

It's not dramatic in terms of LIFE life, and certainly not life-threatening.  But it nevertheless changes everything.

                No driving.
                No teaching.
                No classes.
                No sewing.
                No stair-climbing.
                No cooking.
                No shopping.
                No baths.
                No dancing.

Well, we weren't dancing all that much anyway, so that's not a major change.  But you get the idea.

A mili-second of not paying attention, a small misstep, and I'm suddenly on the floor.  And it hurts.  But of course I think it will be OK but then later I want to be sure.  Now I am waiting for the next x-ray appointment to see if the bones that aren't together anymore are still in the same place or not.  If not, then surgery and 6 weeks in a cast.  If so, then no surgery and 6 weeks in a cast.  The difference doesn't impress me.

Here's my "living" room at the moment.  I think I can add No guests to the list.

The big NO is No biking.  Which means no biking trip along the Danube.  That's a huge disappointment and one that is as hard to manage as patience.

But I will try - I don't have a choice.

Biking Weekend

We've had this spate of wonderful weather and though there were other things calling (the sewing machine, the garden, the grass between the stones needing to be pulled), we didn't listen.  We got out the bikes.

Of course, we need to be in shape.  The big trip starts in just 2+ weeks. Yikes.
Friday the trip was around the River Wumme.

Where the Wumme and the River Hamme merge,  they become the Lesum which flows into the Weser which is of course just down the road from us. But it is a ride.  In fact, we cheated a bit and took the train to Burg Lesum to begin our tour.  There, we looked at the bridge over the Lesum that needs replacing.  What a mess.  It doesn't really look like it, but it is a suspension bridge, so they can't just take it apart where it is, otherwise it would fall into the river a make a mess of traffic.  So they have to PULL it to one bank and THEN take it apart!  It's jacked up but the pulling part has run into snags, so to say.  It is stuck.  Interesting.

 
We've done all of this tour one time or another and it is just so nice.

Cut hay drying in the fields.

The farmhouses.

 
The farmhouses! How idyllic!! Really, flowers and sunshine and thatched roofs and homemade bread and jams for sale.  It's right out of a picture book.  I cannot resist the goodies. We got two jars for Mutti and one for us. (Mutti eats a lot of jam!)

 
45 kilometers later, we got home to see the sun go down.

Saturday was market and taking care of Mutti and stuff around the house.  But Sunday?  Sunday, back on the bikes.

There's a nice little museum in Delmenhorst, just 15K or so from here, so we decided to check out their current exhibition.  First, we ferry over the river where we could stare open mouthed at the three LUXURY yachts being serviced across the river (two here in the haze). The largest is 240 ft long.  Words fail me.

 
It's always a chance - the shows at this museum - but there was a connection to Edvard Munch and the class we're taking at the moment, so we went. The artist had spent some months at Munch's house in Norway and many charcoal sketches of his impressions of the house were there, framed.  OK.  Ok.  ok. Werner could have done them all.  I could have done half of them.  Man, I want artists to do SO much better than I think I can do!

 But the setting is lovely, and just visiting the museum is a soothing experience. 

Afterwards, we explored the old industrial area near the museum.  Most of the spaces have been converted to business or school use, but some for townhouses.  These look great. Lots of character, quiet surroundings. 

Heading back home over tree-shaded country roads was the icing on the weekend.

As Werner says:  Darling, never forget how lucky we are.

We are.  (I know that's a repeat, but worth repeating.)