Saturday, May 06, 2006
After the driving yesterday, we wanted today to be a little more relaxing, so we played outside and just took it easy. Kirk had biked to base earlier and was excited about a new place he wanted to show us, so we grabbed the wagon and took a nice walk.
We live in farm country. Ever other field there are lots of large black and white or brown and white cows. The horses are all perfectly taken care of and absolutely gorgeous. Tiny miniature horses, sheep, and goats of all sizes also take up space in the fields. And where there are not critters, there are perfect squares of crops... spargel (asparagus), sugar beats, and a whole lot of other, yet-to-be-determined things. A question we'd asked a lot recently was what the flowers were. There are countless fields of tall yellow flowers that look a lot like mustard plants. We thought may be they were.
On this walk was passed a large field of these flowers and took pictures. They were very pretty. Mom saw a man taking soil samples and asked him what the flowers were. We never got a name, but found out that they were actually used for fuel! The oils are extracted from the plants, mixed with alcohol, and made into diesel fuel. A few days later we found an article about them in our German insurance magazine.
The other interesting thing on this walk were these extremely large sheep dogs... no, wait... those aren't dogs... those are... COWS! Long haired cows with bangs covering their faces just like the stereotypical goofy sheepdog. They were adorable. I called to one of them and he and his friend came trotting over. They are very friendly. Next time I'll bring apples.
Coming back we passed another very pretty roadside chapel and on the way we'd seen a bench with a cross behind it. I love the display of religious icons here. It feels good and is a nice reminder of what is important and what is not.
We took a longer way back because I'd told the girls that they could get a treat at the bakerei, but it was 1300 and the bakerei was closed for mittagspause (mid-day rest), so we ended up having an impromtu pasta dinner at our pizza place. Now that the weather is nice, they have outdoor seating, so the kids can be a little louder without disturbing others.
So... these photos are of my little town... fields, flowers, cows, and little buildings in the background.
We live in farm country. Ever other field there are lots of large black and white or brown and white cows. The horses are all perfectly taken care of and absolutely gorgeous. Tiny miniature horses, sheep, and goats of all sizes also take up space in the fields. And where there are not critters, there are perfect squares of crops... spargel (asparagus), sugar beats, and a whole lot of other, yet-to-be-determined things. A question we'd asked a lot recently was what the flowers were. There are countless fields of tall yellow flowers that look a lot like mustard plants. We thought may be they were.
On this walk was passed a large field of these flowers and took pictures. They were very pretty. Mom saw a man taking soil samples and asked him what the flowers were. We never got a name, but found out that they were actually used for fuel! The oils are extracted from the plants, mixed with alcohol, and made into diesel fuel. A few days later we found an article about them in our German insurance magazine.
The other interesting thing on this walk were these extremely large sheep dogs... no, wait... those aren't dogs... those are... COWS! Long haired cows with bangs covering their faces just like the stereotypical goofy sheepdog. They were adorable. I called to one of them and he and his friend came trotting over. They are very friendly. Next time I'll bring apples.Coming back we passed another very pretty roadside chapel and on the way we'd seen a bench with a cross behind it. I love the display of religious icons here. It feels good and is a nice reminder of what is important and what is not.
We took a longer way back because I'd told the girls that they could get a treat at the bakerei, but it was 1300 and the bakerei was closed for mittagspause (mid-day rest), so we ended up having an impromtu pasta dinner at our pizza place. Now that the weather is nice, they have outdoor seating, so the kids can be a little louder without disturbing others.So... these photos are of my little town... fields, flowers, cows, and little buildings in the background.
Labels:
Life In Germany
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I LOVE MOO! Creative.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
1 comments:
you must have started all these and saved them....the date is 2 weeks ago but i check your blog almost every day! anyway, i see a couple blogs down that elise is still "plugged"..... :o)