We drove Bruce’s wheels, Pepe Le Pew, down to the Stadtgarten
to talk to Stephan about them coming to pick up the lemon and orange trees for
the winter. It was quite fun and we garnered many smiles, you see I sit on his knees and since he can't see through me, I drive, we do look unusual I'm sure.
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| Pretty red berries, don't know what they are, along the way. |
The people from Stadtgarten came and took away the
lemon and orange trees, so sad, the patio looks rather empty now. The orange is
blooming and the smell a real reminder of Sevilla, why we got them in the first
place. So they get to live in a greenhouse for the winter because they are not good under about
7 degrees C and it does get that cold here in Freiburg. Must remember
to tell our upstairs neighbours, they look down on the patio and comment on the
care we are, or not, giving them. Don’t want them to think they’ve been stolen,
now, that would be pretty hard to do! Moved Peli, our pelican sculpture into the
winter garden as well because if her/his beak gets filled with water and freezes it will
crack the concrete.
Another oops, Saturday Nov 1st, I look
in my calendar and I’ve written All Saints Day, didn’t think too much more
about it until we passed the empty local outdoor market and realized all stores
are closed, stat holiday. Should have remembered from last year but didn’t.
Luckily we have all this soup!
Having September like weather the last few days and
it’s very much appreciated! The fall colours are vibrant!
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| Ivy on a telephone pole |
At the same time walked by a neighbour who was mowing his lawn, the smell of fresh mown lawn is unexpected for me, in November but we’ve had some sunny, cool days.
Food once again, Spring is Spargel (asparagus);
Summer is Pfifferling, (mushrooms); Fall is Kuerbis (pumpkin), haven’t been
here in real Winter so don’t know about that season. In Canada we have seasonal
vegetable of course but entire menus are not built around them, the way it is
here. More on this a bit later in the post.
I brought up all our clothing from storage. Bruce has about five containers, I had two. A bit sad when the man of the house has so much more clothing than you do, but I think a lot of it is sentimental or something to him. Actually, he just doesn’t want to shop for new stuff, got it. Got mine sorted into keep, give away and trash. Will start on his tomorrow as suggestions.
Forecasted last nice day of fall so we went down to Mundenhof again, for lunch basically and always, another view of the variety of animals. This time we took a slightly different route and encountered deer. Such lovely brown eyes they have. There are even Canadian Geese in the park, Bruce said they aren’t Canadian they are Irish, haha…
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| Not a deer or goose, a monkey |
I was trying to avoid a child riding with what I thought was no control on a mini-bike. I guess she had more control than thought, she targeted me and started running through my legs. I put a hand out to stop her which came to her face, thankfully her mom saw the whole thing and apologized to me, and I said it’s okay. Glad my hand didn’t hurt the kid is all, a bit weird.
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| They pick at the ground to eat grubs I guess |
A method of cleaning drains a plumber told me about years ago is put down some baking soda followed by white vinegar. The concoction bubbles and cleans whatever it encounters. I’ve used this to clean coffee pots etc, etc. When I looked for baking soda about six times in the grocers baking section, couldn’t find. Finally asked and they have small packets of it. Guess it it isn’t used in German baking although they have to use something to make their bread rise, mystery to me. Talking it over with Bruce, we do talk about the most trivial of things, he noted that there aren’t a lot of quick breads here, breads are all made with yeast. Good point.
Went downtown for lunch and then Bruce wanted to look for a part for the kinetic sculpture he has started working on again, the one with marbles that move around a sculpture, pushed by a water pump. If you want to know more, ask him. Quite complicated but he’s enjoying the creation of it. Smart minds need to stay busy to stay smart.
We ended up walking quite a long way and through many stores before we were done, didn’t find what he wanted but had a good time looking. Understand my previous posts about hating shopping apply to clothes, not something unique which we were looking for that day. There is a store in Germany, and maybe elsewhere called Idee, went to one in Heidelberg also. It’s a artists, craft person’s store with more interesting product, than a Michael’s in Canada but similar so you get the idea, pun intended. Now I don’t describe myself as either crafty or artistic but just walking through the store makes me want to try Something!
Went to our local Indian food restaurant and have to say we think they do a better job of it than one of them downtown. They have a sister restaurant we’ve never eaten at but has good reviews. Ah, the taste of spice was just wonderful!
We had a flea market at the neighbourhood main square on a Saturday. If you are looking for ski gear for any age this would be a real bonus, or coats, lovely coats of every style. I was tempted by a couple but have enough already. Should have set up a table for the clothing I put in the recycle box same day. Tables were not uniform so whatever one brought and monies made I don’t think was regulated at all. Quite a lot of children’s clothing of course.
There is a blogger I sometimes read from Helsinki, Sweden. I like this quote she uses on her site, although I didn’t know where it came from “...so dance while you still have feet and smile while you still have teeth.” It’s from a band called Caesars, song, Burn the City Down, Googled it. Her blog can be read at http://amateursventuresonlife.blogspot.de Sometimes she just outlines life at the moment, other times she talks about trips taken previously but I like her style. Since we are living in Freiburg with no real trips planned except day trips on Thursdays with Christoph until beginning of December when we go to Sevilla sometimes the blog cannot be all about travelling, but just about living in Europe, as this post is.
Aside, at the Mundenhof I used to get white, nicely herbed, sausage with a bretzel and wonderful mustard. As of two weeks ago or so white sausage doesn’t seem to be available anywhere, in the stores, so I guess it is another seasonal thing although I wouldn’t have thought of sausage that way. Right now it’s all about the Kuerbis – squash everything, especially soup. I reckon that making use of what is available in the season means much more here in Europe than Canada. I suppose Canada will come back to that tradition with movements like the “100 mile diet” relearning what it is to use what is available in the season.
Lexi needed more food so off to Zoo Burkart again.
They have rodents of types, most ones we can’t identify but they are fun to
watch.
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| Busy little rodent running his wheel, he'd run, stop, eat, run... |
We also needed new nail clippers for Lexi, we all are really bad about clipping, she hates it and screams "blue murder" so we hate it too. Thought a new set of clippers might help. A fellow in the store took my finger to demonstrate how to use them – yes, I’ve still got all my fingers!
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