I'm still around!

April 27/11.....5:10 p.m.

I know, I know, I have been neglecting you, my dear blog. But, hanging around, not feeling so super duper on account of my persistant coughing does not make me feel imaginative to tell little tales. At least, after my final visit to a specialist, I aquired a coughing licence, i.e. I know now what I am suffering from - a stupid bronchitis - and now I have to suck powder out of a box once in the morning and once in the evening. Sounds stupid and it is stupid, somehow I always have the tendency to blow into the thing. Let's hope it helps. -

We had a leisurely easter time, the weather had been so great and we enjoyed hanging around on our sundeck , having nice food and drinks and once a while Herr Husband took a drive with  what I baptized his "cripple quad" (a bit mean, I know, but with a wink)  and to give you an impression, here is a little video.

He really turns into"speedy gonzales"!

He did it!

April 10/11......12:18  p.m.

I could not believe my eyes, Herr Husband had made efforts to fabricate a teddy (with a little help, but never mind) and here we have the result: TEDDY FREDDIE

isn't he a cutie?

Curing the Heart

April 3rd/11........3:26 p.m.

too bad,Herr H. does not want to be creative and fabricate a teddy bear!

Yesterday, saturday, daughter 2 and myself took a drive to Waldliesborn, to visit Herr Husband at his clinic- hangout - Klinik Eichholz - an about 2hrs. drive. We took my Mini, but daughter did the driving, Landfrau is not such a great driver on unknown terrain. At least my car had a ball, km 160/h it never had been driven. It did fine, although you have a bit of a go-cart feeling, but not bad alltogether. The weather had been really great, summer temperatures of 25° C and we found our patient at very good shape. He is the hit of the place, envied by many as owner of his  electric luggie. He zooms around like speedy gonzales all over the compound.  - So we had lunch together and later on coffee and cake at one of the outside terraces, very relaxing. And since the place has a big in-outdoor pool (which Herr.H. unfortunately is not allowed to use - it is rather strong sole - ) it also has a little boutique, offering bathing suits. So daugther found a real cute one at a bargain , I fould a nice one too, unfortunately bargains are not to be had in my size, too many heftier customers around! - Late afternoon we decided to drive back home, we wanted to pass by Dortmund before a real important soccer game ended just about the time we were at the spot. We had been lucky, we just made it before being caught up in the fan traffic jam.
Back home Landfrau invited daughter for a drink and a delicious salad at a nearby bistro, our first time sitting outside in the evening.
By then we both had been bushed and my bed saw me pretty early. - It had been a nice day!

No "Blinky Palermo " the 2nd

March 27th/11.....3:52 p.m.

Oh yes, Blinky Palermo! - Faithful readers might remember my post, dripping with envy, about the deal my relatives got. Now, this Landfrau here still has not given up hope to run across her own Blinky Palermo, and yesterday, bingo, thought I had discovered a tiny one. From my childhood, somehow this book of fairytales, made up of collected pictures which you got buying cigarettes of a certain brand, had survived in a miracolous way, considering our migration since the late thirties. A bit beat up, but nevertheless.  So I googled the "Märchen der Völker" and to my surprise got a lot of feedback and among others an ebay page offering said edition for about € 300 . Great -! but when I further dug into the informations I found the edition also offered by antique book sellers for about € 30. So again, there goes my Blinky Palermo,  but I do not give up hope yet.
Thought I owe you something funny to read about, after all the gloomy stuff I have been pushing out lately.

Call me Cassandra

March 14/11.....6:24 p.m.

I suppose you are familiar with that character out of the Greek mythology, the lady who used to predict bad tidings. Well, to tell you, I start feeling like her. Sliding into the year of 2011 I told Herr Husband that I had a weird feeling about the oncoming year in a way that it would not have much good in stock. Up to now, unfortunately I have been right. Herr Husband had been in hospital twice, 2nd time with a heart attack.  The day he had his shunt-OP I had the looniest car accident on the final way home at nite. A guy bumped my car from behind, approaching me while honking his horn wildly, claiming that I had been coming from the right, while I had been driving in the left lane for already at least for 500 meters. The amazing thing,no scratch whatsoever on my car, but his car pretty beat up,which I took pics of right away, they all seemed pretty old marks to me. And the craziest thing, the police which he called and who arrived pretty darn fast, came up to me without even listening to my part of the story,telling me that I had caused the accident. But on the phone had ordered the cars to be moved to the curb.Gave me a fine,which I did not pay and  handed the thing over to my lawer. I have not heard a stich since, neither has my insurance company. The guy phoned me 2 days after the accident and wanted to kow if I had paid. Told him he can talk to my lawer, thats it. The matter stinks!-
By now I am down with a pretty bad cold, started out with no voice for 2 days (could not even fight with Herr H ) and an enoying cough which keeps me waking up about 20 times during the night. Daughter No. 1 caught the same thing, fortunately we had not been in touch. For her it is even worse, since she is normally already suffering from breathing problems.  And then my nephew had a  skiing accident in Austria, with having been unconcious with bad head injuries. Fortunately he is recovering but it will take time.

And the situation in Japan is nothing to rejoice about either - These reactor breakdowns are not finished yet.
Last sunday I met a former riding friend and by telling him my stories he backed away and tod me he was getting depressions. He should have asked me what I had been getting lately.

Good for a Laugh!

March 1/11.....11:00 a.m.

Believe me, in these times, where we have not  so much to laugh about, sometimes something refreshing crosses our path! - (freely translated it says - tip or shut up)

Sunday, Sunday

February 20/11........9:20 a.m.

To put it straight, sunday is not my favoured day of the week. It might have something to do with childhood memories, somehow sunday had been such a day of boredom on one side and  obligations on the other side.  Only thing, one could stay in bed a little longer, but then it started, had to help mother to prepare breakfast, had to help do the dishes, had to go to church during my formative years and then, after a long lunchtime meal, where usually my brothers got to fight over desert who had gotten the bigger portion, had to help with the dishes again. Then, after the afternoon sunday coffee- cake time , the whole family took a long boring walk. Anyway, till my father got his first car. Then it had been long drives into the countryside, sometimes surprising my aunt, who lived about 100 kms away and usually broke out in tears when we showed up, because she hated surprise visits.  I do not blame her. So I got to know the radius of about 100 kms around my parent's home pretty well and by the time we got home from our drive , my parents were in the no talking state, because my mother, who had no driver's license, always knew better and had been giving my father instructions till he blew his top and then my mother sulked.  Well, after sandwich time in the evening, there came the worst part, the whole family assembled around the radio,  later on it had been television, to listen to resp. watch a show and my mother presented a basket of socks full of holes, belonging to my dad and brothers and mom and daughter had to mend the holes. This had been the moment when I wished I had been one of my brothers!  Mind you, dad produced holes big as potatoes and I could have broken out into a screaming fit having to mend them. 

I never repair a sock now-a-days, off into the garbage they go. This is my revenge.

Later on, when I had my own life, sundays could be very pleasant days, only bad thing had been,that the next day had to be monday. But somehow memory of those childhood sundays sticks and they do not brighten up with time.                                                                     

A Touch of Creativity

February 14/11....7:27 p.m.



little Miss Sunshine




a friend





horse of an American friend

  I just love to paint but lately Landfrau has been a bit lame in exercising her creativity. Maybe it is just that our house is too small, all walls are plastered with pictures and paintings somehow and I have taken myself out of the "selling" business. I am just too lazy to paint on comission. But once a while I am intrigued and then I get going and my room is a mess, with all the painting material scattered everywhere.  I hate cleaning up afterwards but sometimes I think the result has been worth it and before I explode in selfpraise, here are some of my latest accomplishments.

Timmendorfer Strand

February 4/11.....11:45 p.m.

Once upon a time...well this is no fairy tale, so let me begin again - a very long time ago we spent a vacation at eastertime with a crowd of riding friends at the kind of "vacation home stable" located at Timmendorfer Strand belonging to the owners of our riding club. What makes me suddenly think of this time? I watched a tv-movie and the setting had been Timmendorfer Strand. So this brought back memories and hilarious ones at such!  We really had been such a great bunch of riding buddies and we outdid ourselves in creating mischief much to the dismay of our hosts. One night we visited a local bar, a pretty funny place, from the bar you could slide into a pool if you had enough to drink and wanted to "sober up" . The mother of one of our friends spent a holiday in Florida at that time and from the bar he called her and she agreed to foot the bill. So you can imagine, we all ended up in the pool. A couple of days before easter we coloured eggs at night and since Herr Husband, having had a few drinks too much , had fallen asleep on a bench in the community room, we decided to paint his face green. The problem had been, that he had a business appointment (at that time he still had been a hard working guy) in the morning in Hamburg and he had a hard time to get the paint of his face and had been very much in panic, that he would not get it off completely -he did not!  - But in the morning, hangover or not, we showed up in time at the stables for cleaning and saddling the horses and we had those great gallopes along the beach to sober up.  One morning I got kicked in the ass by the horse next to mine , fortunately it had no shoes, but for the rest of the time I had been limping around, which however did not keep me from riding. I have been a tough cookie all my life, it helps me now-a-days.

And by the way, the tough cookie is the knight on the white horse!

Vanity contra Stinginess

February 4/11......4:15 p.m.

Here I sit, chewing my nails. - Landfrau discovered an application which enables you to have your blog printed as a book. Of course first I tried in several ways to have the preview saved, but of course they outsmart the "smarties" who want to do that. so PDF is out. Now there I am and I have two souls in my breast. The vanity-soul whispers have it printed but the stinginess-soul shouts: ARE YOU INSANE SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY FOR YOUR SCRIBBLINGS! - Hard decision - what do you think?

I knew it!

January 26/11......1:30 p.m.

I had a hunch what was in store for me when I made that dentist's appointment for inspection and cleaning and bingo, my problem tooth has to go and since I am a person of fast decisions I told my dentist lady lets do it then right away.  So out it went, but unfortunately had to leave a root part in - nasty- which had to be dug out and then I was sitting in that chair bleeding like a slaughtered pig and it would not stop. So finally the hole had to be filled up and mended with a thread and now I am sitting here and dreading the wear off of the anesthetic shots. Up to now I have half a numb face, my nose feels like a snout from a pig and my eye twitches.
I shall be running around for 3 months with a gap in my mouth, so no more smiling let alone laughing before some proper work can be done.
Sob,sob sob.....I FEEL SORRY FOR MYSELF!

Lazy Sunday...

January 23/11.....5:22 p.m.

...is forever better than GLOOMY SUNDAY.  - Herr Husband is home from hospital and is getting adjusted to his nurse (Landfrau) without uniform. Up to now the patient behaves!
Daughter No. 2 dropped in for a short visit and we had latte macchiato and tea for the patient, his favoured, Earl Grey. And Landfrau must admit that she had a sip of champagne, believe me, she deserves it.

I could have gone Places

January 13/11.......4:50 p.m.

The amount of driven kms today could have taken me away to some better places, that's for sure. Started out this morning before 9 a.m. to drive to the doctors place to pick up the papers which one needs to be admitted to hospital. Yeah, it has been time for "beloved" Krefeld again, actually Herr Husband had an appointment tomorrow for a  kidney check-up as day patient, but during the last weeks his lack of breath had been immensely increasing, so we decided to check in already today, to have his lungs and heart taken care off in advance. I loathe the clinic compound, no parking facilities and today pouring rain to boot. So I dropped off the patient at the main entrance including his bag, which he could drag on wheels and the second piece, his heavy breathing machine, I hauled from the far off parking space - and a tow away one at that - which considering my still nasty leg in it's goal keeper wrap had been no piece of cake. I found the patient pantiently waiting in a hallway, aside from having no beds available, the were no sheets etc, the delivery truck got stuck in traffic. Well, we were assured that there would be a bed for him and with that knowledge I rushed off, already about an hour late for my own doctor's appointment at the other side of the river Rhine - needed desperately some shots for my lumbago, which I had supplied myself with last weekend thinking I could clean up our messy gardens and driveway. Not so happy for additional pain in my already damaged leg!
 The whole damn drive around action took me about 5 hours and now I am home, trying to simmer down.  I hope they put Herr Husband insofar into shape again, that he can have some joy out of life. The last few weeks have not been so bright. 
This is where the fun starts with 2011!

While searching for old"Krefeld" posts I got stuck memorizing a lot about Herr Hund, which makes nicer reading matter anyway.

I love Lazy Mornings

January 9/11 ....9:20 a.m.

Above all I love sunday mornings, waking  up, peeking at the weather, listening to the radio for a while , slowly separating myself from my beloved bed  and then it starts to be unpleasant, because my scale is eying me and I know that as soon as I have stepped onto it, I am not so cheerful any more. Did garden work like a maniac yesterday, the grounds really looked poor after the snow had melted and today muscles ache where I did not know I had them. But I can not trick my scale so I will punish it by having a delicious breakfast and that first cup of nespresso is just bliss! - so is blogging about nothing.

No New Years's Resolutions

January 2/11...1:43 p.m.

......None whatsoever. After having limped into 2011 Landfrau can only hope for the better.  Right now I  start to ask myself if  my leg will ever get back to  into shape and painless again and will I ever be able to wear normal shoes  except rubber boots. Otherwise the beginning of a new year only makes me contemplate about things I will never have and do again. There is quite a list. Anyways - useless to cry over spilled milk.
Today for once there is a little bit of sunshine and some blue sky - nice day for a walk - or bike ride, which I hope is one of the things I will be able to do again in the near future. My muscles are turning into fat, slowly but surely.  Aside from hating myself I hate doctors, hospitals, graveyards and people who do not treat their dogs nicely.
So this has been my New Years's speech - I think it beats Angela Merkel's.

Happy New Year!

December 31/10

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,   

and never thought upon;

The flames of Love extinguished,

and fully past and gone:

Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,

that loving Breast of thine;

That thou canst never once reflect

on Old long syne.



CHORUS:

On Old long syne my Jo,

in Old long syne,

That thou canst never once reflect,

on Old long syne.

My Heart is ravisht with delight,

when thee I think upon;

All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,

and speedily is gone;

The bright resemblance of thy Face,

so fills this, Heart of mine;

That Force nor Fate can me displease,

for Old long syne.



CHORUS

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,

when from thee I am gone;

will not thy presence yield relief,

to this sad Heart of mine:

Why doth thy presence me defeat,

with excellence divine?

Especially when I reflect

on Old long syne

TO ALL MY FRIENDS!

December 24/10

TODAY IS THE DAY TO WISH YOU ALL

..and Herr Hund, who just adored X-mas and his plate under the tree is sending you  a little piece of memory!

               

Baking X-mas Cookies

December 14/10......7:05 p.m.

To begin with, I hate baking X-mas cookies and above all those work intensive ones, I think I can not stop talking about in a post around X-mas time. Fortunately I am done with for this year and I vividly remember one time, when like in those cute tv series, mom bakes cookies together with the kids, oh, how darling! Daugther no.2, about 10 at that time, invited a friend and after they started to mess around terribly they decided that they rather would like to watch tv and guest kid out of no reason bit my ass and out of reflex (that really hurt, you know) I slapped her face. Fortunately her mother had been in agreement with me. Well, that had been the end of the baking session.
 And another year we had a refugee (the time there had been the war trouble in the Balkan countries) business friend from Montenegro of Herr Husband as a guest around  X-mas time and since that guy was bored sitting around our place, Herr Husband being off to work, he trailed me about everywhere I went - except the bathroom - and he got me so confused talking me up while I had been mixing the dough, that only after the cookies sat in the oven, I noticed that I had forgotten to put in the ground almonds.
There are other stories if I dig around in my memory. Never mind, this year miracolously my Vanille Kipferl turned into flat cookies in the oven, I watched them facinated though the window. That never happened before and, thief's honour, I stuck to the recipe like a siamese twin.

Simply Enjoy!

And, by the Way...

December 8/10.....6:10 p.m.

The above header scene  you should look at with regret, it is a thing of the past. Where this peaceful country view had been, now sits the big,fat ugly new levee and we hope that it keeps its promise of keeping our feet dry.