Category Archives: Folk traditions
A Fish out of Water
Leaf Fall
The leaves have started to change in Germany. That’s a very big deal to this Texas girl because where I come from the leaves don’t bother to fall off the trees until spring. We rake live oak leaves from February …
Zwiebelkuchen
Just like many an American who shops in the German stores close to base, I have been looking at this sign next to the supermarket off the Opel circle for years now, and every time I’ve seen it, I’ve said: …
It’s been rainy and chilly. Last night was a crisp 43 degrees F (6 degrees C). Today is beautiful, though, sunny and hot–unseasonably warm for September. But it isn’t the start of Indian summer, as my friend Heidi points out. …
My Last Garden, continued
Joe and I found the example graves at the Koblenz National Garden Show completely fascinating. They were so unlike anything we’d seen. Some were as elaborate and elegant as a Japanese flower arrangement. Others were just downright different. Joe’s favorite …
My Last Garden
Graves. Headstones. Birth and death dates. Are we in a cemetery? No, we’re back at the Koblenz National Garden Show, where the program assures us, “a romantic woodland glade is the perfect setting for cemetery landscapers and stonemasons to demonstrate …
Carried Off by a Chill
This weekend, I woke up with a cold. My body ached, my nose was stuffy, and I felt weak and miserable. Now, the American thing to do is to think about where I picked up the germ, so I thought …
More whimsical Germany
Speaking of that sense of magical fun and good humor that often emerges in German public art, here is a little charmer who resides two doors down from my apartment. She’s peeping out at the world from underneath the mailbox, …