Busy Bee - that's me

May 30/09 .....4:31 p.m.

Really have been buzzing around today. First biketour with Herr Hund (fortunately his paw looks very good, the awn must have come out by itself) to pick up fresh aspargus and strawberries at our local farmer, then mowing the lawn and watering flowers and shrubs, then another biketour into village, this time minus Herr Hund , he is always such a slowpoke, sniffing no end and making me wait for him continiously - a pain in the neck. Had to pick up some small forgotten things and as a reward treated myself to a delicious icecream- cone from the Italian icecream parlor, feeling like a kid, dripping icecream all over my fingers and licking it off. Then at home I prepared some strawberry shortcakes with whipped cream, which we just devoured. Feeling a bit like a glutton, but never mind, had enough excercise, so I don't have a bad concience. Will go easy tonite and just prepare a nice green salad ,with tomatoes ,garlic bread crumbs and hard boiled eggs and fresh french bred alongside, a treat. - Enough food talk for now, enjoy my beautiful rose, it is still blooming in my garden!

Season`s Opening

May 28/09......6:66 p.m.

Yes, my friends, our Herr Hund had been the one, opening up the season being the first of awn victims. That's what the vet said anyway and that usually they fill in much later in the season. Well, Herr Hund had to live up to his name, country dog! - Fortunately the thing sits or sat, one can not really tell, between his toes and this way has no chance of migrating. Amazingly our patient does not limp, otherwise he would be good company to his master. For the time being no bandage, just antibiotics and we have to wait and see. Maybe we are lucky and the thing does not have to be cut out. So, keep your fingers crossed for us!

Summer Impressions

May 24/09.....4:18 p.m.

Landfrau promised herself a real "effn" lazy day today. Kept my promise up to now. Have to come inside for a while, soaking up sun while reading two papers made me kind of sweatty (but not smelly,haha) - a pool would be nice but all we have, is the pond, where at the moment we have the ultimative fish mortality, there are two leftovers to go but I bet that in the end we are stuck with one bugger who does not want to die and then pity grabs my heart and I go out and buy another couple of companions and the whole story starts anew. Well, such is life, or in this case rather the death of fish. This way we can stick to our neverending fishstories. The money we have spent on replacements could buy us a real good fishmeal by now. -
Last nite we had friends in for BBQ and foodwise everything turned out perfect, exept for the "test- grilled" sausages, which Herr Husband burned and Landfrau refused to eat. Our guests had been more brave, even claiming they were alright. The politeness of the invited! Herr Hund got mine and did not complain either.
So, if it would not be hate- monday tomorrow and we had a pool, life could be perfect.

Country Life

May 16/09 ...2:24 p.m.

I know, I know, I am repeating myself, but to enjoy living outside of a big city but having it close nevertheless has something. This morning Herr Hund and Landfrau went by bike (Landfrau - bike, not Herr Hund) to pick up aspergus, strawberries and potoatoes from a local farmer, freshly harvested. On the way through the fields and bushes we came eye to eye with a deer, so close I almost could have touched it. We stood there, staring at each other and I tried even to keep my breath, that I would not chase it away. Fortunately Herr Hund had been practicing his usual slow poke tour, by the time he arrived at my side, the deer had gone. Also I enjoy the horses, which have been turned out by now upon the various meadows, they so much enjoy the fresh air and joung grass, frolicing around. Now I will peel my aspargus and then dolly up, dinner date with my brother and sister-in-law.
At times life can be enjoyable!

Crybaby

May 11/09 ....9:20 p.m.

Complain often enough, loud enough, sometimes it helps. My little garden fork is on its way, daugther no. 1 took pity on poor mom, put it in the mail today. And I still have a promise on flowers (to be planted) from daughter no.2, made today at birthday party of son-in-law. Good food,good wine & good company, joung folks, love that! Evening had been a bit chilly,though, Herr Husband had today's sunshine mistaken for summer, he wanted to leave before he turned into an icicle, dressed too summerly. Grandson ran around in short sleeves, that kid must have fishblood!

Same Procedure as every Year, James!

May710/09...... 2:16 p.m.

What am I talking about? Well, look at the date,glorious mother's day! Up to now I got an electronic card which did not arrive. - It had been cute, when the kids had been small, hiding them for days & then coming up with the most atrocious little gifts, you had to be hilariously joyful about.
Not that I really take much notice of the occasion nowadays, only thing is, that I start teasing Herr Husband the day before, like I expect at least breakfast in bed (hate it, crumbs!) and he goes haywire, because he hates preparing breakfast, what am I saying is, he hates doing things around the house which involve hands, and that does not leave much to do. We had times it escalated in such a way that he started yelling at me that I was not his mother and me beeing pissed off in the end at his attitude.
Yesterday I did some garden work and my little handfork broke. So I said that I wanted a mother's day fork for a present . I DID NOT GET ONE!
Now we will take the bikes and drive for an icecream, it is a great sunny day, but not over yet *ggg*!

This is just too funny!

May 5/09 ...6:57 p.m.

For all my friends, who do not have the opportunity to watch our little video in YouTube! -Gives you a little impression about action around here. - Now, this will be it for now, this is not a baby blog *g* .

Little Miss Sunshine Content

May 2/09 ..11:22 p.m.

Having a toddler in the house is a somewhat different experience. Has one forgotten already the time when our kids had been small, having the run of the house? - Most of the "untouchables" had been put away, but in the garden a terracotta bowl had been a victim, calling ball,ball, grabbing and throwing it had been done so fast you did not have time to blink. Well, not too bad for collateral damage during 3 days, I would say, oh yes, a lump on the head from a headover tumble from the couch, which my heart made skip a beat for a moment. An adult falling like that would have broken his or her neck, I bet. Certainly the little queen had us dancing around her galore but can you say no to such a doll? Anyway, we enjoyed it , but honestly, every day and all the time would let us reach our limits. -

One thing is for sure, mother nature knows why she does not favour older women with offspring anymore and if older men think they still must father and raise kids, its their own fault.

Let's see if I still can do it!

April 25/09 ...3:50 p.m.

What? Well, writing something without having to cut myself down to 140 characters. Thank you, twitter, you really make me minimalize myself, Landfrau sometimes has the weird feeling of even talking in tweets. Not that I have too much to say,anyway. Bought first aspargus of the season at our farmer, freshly cut this morning and we will have it with new potatoes, sce. hollandaise, baked ham and buttered crumbs tonite. Since aspargus is a real diet food I have the hidden hope, that all the other goodies on my plate also will turn into diet food miraculously. Scale will tell tomorrow morning, I might just cheat and show it the finger - there!
Fishwise there is another addition to our pond, could not resist a tiny coi when I had been out buying plants for the garden, and I am telling you, this fish can not swim, sitting on the ground most of the time, might turn into an amphibian.time will tell. -
And next week we will have visit from little Miss Sunshine and mom for a few days, looking forward to that and we are curious how much she has developed since X-mas, when we saw her last. Before I have to roam the house with a big basket, collecting all the "untouchables" and I hope that Herr Hund behaves better this time and does not think that he is the leader of the pack.

Just Music....

April 21/09 ...8:37 p.m.
.....for listening to on a nice spring-summer evening, enjoying a glass of wine!


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Lazy Saturday

April 18/09 ....2:59 p.m.

Listening to Herr Husband talking baby talk to baby on the phone. Drives me nuts! lol ! - Aside from that we are down to one dog, our guest dog, mad Max, has reluctantly left us, Herr Hund does not seem to be too unhappy about it, he is a spoiled "Einzelkind". And we have another,or rather, one more variety of our fish stories. Now we have four again, the longtime vanished "tester" has reappeared. If there ever should be five in the near future, I begin to believe that somehow Jesus is around, preparing to feed another 5000 with one fish. - Whatever. -

A bright ,promising sun had been out this morning, now it is raining again and darn cold on top. Landfrau is not satisfied. The short,warm period and then the follow-up rain has caused an explosion of green naturewise - green hell it is. The skiing gang is back home safe and sound from Austria, I always breathe a secret breath of relieve, they might drop in later. Landfrau will now switch back to twitter, but I try not to develop into a tweet addict.

Ivan the Horrible,the Antichrist or Cat Attack

April 12/09....9:14 p.m.

Things happen, which in my modest opinion only happen to Herr Husband. Today, beeing Easter, great weather and a lazy day altogether we decided to have dinner out at the Molzmühle, about a forty min. drive from our home towards the Dutch border, set very picturesque in the middle of woods. We know the owner, a very nice lady and a good cook to boot, quite well, she got some restaurant stars from various testers. We got a nice table at the first floor and while waiting for our food to arrive, we got a visit from the cat of the house, named Ivan (from now on the Horrible), a tomcat the size of a small black cougar and black he was, like the antichrist. Herr Husband talked to him very nicely like- who are you, nice kitty and so forth, while dangling his left hand at his side. Mind you, he did not even touch that minature tiger, and suddenly Ivan started to scratch, bite and beat up the hand of Herr Husband. Landfrau, like in situations like that, sorry - had a laughing fit and Herr Husband's hand had been bleeding like hell. He is taking bloodthinning medicamentation on account of his heart condition. We were supplied with some band aid and now here at home Landfrau administered some desinfection and we are thinking of a tetanus shot tomorrow, depending on the situation.
Nevertheless, dinner had been great and now we have sitting an army of chocolate bunnies around, one Easter Bunny Landfrau gave to Herr Husband, 2 from our daughter, 1 which sat in front of our gate (donnor unknown up to now )and one from Ivan the Horrible. Chocolate galore, or, like one of my twitter friends calls it, chocolate thunder.

So this has been our Easter up to now, there is one more day to come, hopefully in a way more relaxing, we can not cope with too much excitement anymore.

EASTER

April 12/09

HAPPY EASTER !

Easter and the vanishing Things

April 11/09....2:50 p.m.



Easter is the time to hide things, right? mostly eggs and sometimes you find them about 6 months later! Around our house we have the story of the vanishing fish and I really did not dare to call it "Another fishstory" in my headline! If you have followed up my fish stories, you might remember, that after our icy time during winter only one of our fish survived, the smallest goldfish, called the 5-incher. Now both of us, Herr Husband and Landfrau, started to feel sorry for the lonely bugger, so Herr Husband went out to get him a companion. Orders from Landfrau had been:JUST ONE FISH! Since this fish had been so small we named him the tester. It took a few days and the tester had vanished. We kind of fished around in the pond, no luck, gone. I even took out the pump. Well, the next day, there was the tester for a glorious 2 days, then, zilch - vanished. And this time it did not show up any more. So Herr Husband went out and got another 2 fish, this time disobeying my strict orders for getting only one. To make a long story short, 2 days later they had vanished, all three of them. Neighbour told us she had seen a heron around. So Landfrau took a deep breath of relief, end of the fishstory, no more fish.
You might not believe it, 2 days later they were back , all three of them! Happy Easter!

Fly me to the Moon

April 8/09 ....7:44 p.m.

Since there are easter holidays, our grandson had a time window for his grandparents and we went to see that facinating expo at the gasometer in Oberhausen in the middle of the industrial area of the Ruhrgebiet. Many of the former industrial places are not needed any more in our modern times, so they have been turned into momuments. A great idea,so coming generations are able to have a look at the working places of older times. The gasometer has converted into a place where they have expositions and also presentations and performances, very interesting. So, today we have been looking at the biggest artificial moon in existence and there was a demonstration about all the moon phases in fast motion. A real "wow" effect. Many other interesting things to see, I could have walked around for hours. Spooky too to listen to a tape of the call from the Russian base talking to the first space victim and suddenly there had been nothing anymore. A human lost in space and his last words forever preserved.

And to top it off, we went to the top. There is a -very windy - observation platform 100 meters high, where you had a terrific view all around and grandson spied a little amusement parc right at the foot in the surounding grounds belonging to a big mall and we naturally had to drive there right away, but after a late lunch with snail waiters (they only looked like humans) it had started to rain and the temperature had dropped considerably. So our freezing grandson let us take him home - 45 min. drive, after all - and we were lucky to avoid the evening traffic.

My Summer Trauma?

April 2/09 ....7:33 p.m.

Have been a very busy Landfrau today and an early bird on top. Had an appointment for the once a year nuisance of " health inspection". I call it the pee- run, three guesses why. And in the afternoon I kind of raided the local flower market. My efforts to give the unloved new fence a personal touch. Hope I will be satisfied with the results at the end of this summer, have to wait and see. Our weather right now is like the icing on a cake, smooth. For me it can stay that way, and I think other people don't mind either. Will have daughter's dog, mad Max, as a houseguest over Easter, if running with two dogs won't do the trick of turning me into someone slim and trimm, then I give up. -
Queen Elizabeth has been wrapped into the arm of the First Lady Obama, the British court is in uproar, but the queen obviously did not mind beeing touched the democratic way and Herr Husband fell under his car, while unloading a bag of garden soil from the back compartment. Got rescued by a lady neighbour, because he could not get up by himself anymore. He gave her a hard time, beeing half his size. So, these were the most important news of the day. - And have you been April fools yesterday? I know of at least two, but not Landfrau, mind you!

Spring,Spring, Spring and no April Fool

March 31/09.....6:35 p.m.

Now outdoor activities start to be fun again and not just a must just to air Herr Hund. On our morning bike run Landfrau and Herr Hund have been passing deep green horse pastures. The horses are not out yet but the green looks so tempting that Landfrau would almost like to be a horse. Well, actually I am a horse, big @$$ and big mane - just joking folks - not such a big mane after all. Oh, STOP THAT NOW, LANDFRAU! Enough is enough! -

Last weekend with lousiest weather ever our son-in-law had to transfer his boat from the harbour where he bought it in Holland to the harbour where he has rented a box. It had been a rough long run and just before arriving at their destination the motor conked out and they had to run into the harbour under sails, and that in the dark. They managed bravourously and even hit the right box, but that had been pure luck. So both, the captain and the boat passed the test, minor things still will have to be done and the motor has to be looked after by an expert. Old ex-sailor father- in-law is looking forward to be taken along for a sail, Landfrau is looking forward to a nice hotel at the seaside, I always have been more of a horse woman, water has no beams!

Buy me a Monkey!

March 25/09.....2:46 p.m.



Our new fence, no, don't like it, really have to get used to it. And our "Felsenbirne", I think you call it juneberry, but do not take me up on it, is now proudly presenting it's four naked stems or trunks, whatever, against the naked fence. Before there had been that overgrown Ivy background, Now it looks like one of those climbing trees for monkeys in zoological gardens. So, Landfrau should install a monkey, but it has to come with the guarantee,that it does not bite faces and limbs off people. Will be hard to find, I reckon.
Ah shucks, I better stick to the further monkey business making this cotton pickin' fence representable. We shall see.

I am not Snow White!

March 24/09 ....11:20 a.m.

.....and Landfrau hopes that she is not yet the bad queen. Although "mirror" Twitter slowly but surely makes me feel like it. Lately in the guise of followers shows me the real me. Who is following me? Cooks, wine drinkers and now, to top it all off, a WEIGHTREDUCER! Made me cry. Fits in so perfectly with my thoughts during my walk with Herr Hund just half an hour ago, where I had been turning over in my mind that all my life I had wished for long, terrific legs. And what am I gifted with, short, muscular stems, bawl.....
I have given up the hope that I still might grow a few inches or so, will stick to high heels (in public) as long as I am still able to stagger around with them.
Have been an early bird today, new garden fence is set up in our kitchen garden, in my opinion useless spending of money I would have a million different ideas to spend on. But it has been a must before our "friendly" neighbour would have been getting at us with a gun. Nasty "follower" for real.

The Sunday Pic

March 22/09 ....10:23 a.m.

Smart Landfrau has been wrecking her little brain, how not to deprive my twitter friends of their promised sunday pic (as if someone cares, lol) and voila, here it is! I just adore white roses.