Halo again! I haven't written much lately. I have, however, been reading a lot. Finished Leonard Sax's Boys Adrift, dove into Lia London's Circle of Law and put that down for a couple weeks when Amazon got Sax's Girls on the Edge to me a month before expected. The only reason I'm including this, besides putting in plugs for some AWESOME authors, is to paraphrase a bit of an excuse I found in one of those books for not blogging recently. It's great to record what's going on in your life and it's even good to share it, but if your only outlet is one that you write, trying more to cater to what your readers want to hear than to freely express what you're actually experiencing and feeling, it's not really accomplishing its purpose...especially if you're really just posting pictures and writing a quippy little caption about each. That said, enjoy my latest graphic novel!
Orsfeld
Have I mentioned we live in a tiny farming town? Well, we do. These are the neighbors.
We can't get everything our hearts desire here, so we love it when Aunt Katheryn sends care packages with Halloween treats, glow-in-the-dark gloves and punky over-the-knee socks.
We take Halloween VERY seriously here.
On the day we celebrate St. Martin......Well, here's another German thing I can't give you much history on. Every town has their own celebration, though. St. Martin rides on horseback through the town, leading the procession. All the children carry lanterns and then there's a big ol' bonfire. We then adjourn to the old schul (school), where we cram the ENTIRE town into a single classroom, eat soft pretzels covered in sugar, and raffle off LOTS of prizes. I've been here for like 6 weeks and I never knew anyone actually lived in this town. It was nice to see we actually do have neighbors! The cute German houses are not all empty!
Klausen
When Sarah and I were driving back from the Airport at Hahn (Sweden trip in October), we saw a very cool looking church and town from the road. Then a week or so later, I fell deathly ill with the cold that ravaged the entire base, and since I couldn't very well go in to do observation at the Physical Therapy clinic, lest I infect the few survivors, we followed the GPS route back to the town of Klausen.
I really don't know why, even after reading the Wikipedia article about it, but Klausen's church is quite historical and a destination for many pilgrims. I don't know how many. But it's certainly a lovely and peaceful sight for sore eyes.....and sore throats...like mine was....remember, I was sick....ya know....you really need to follow along so I don't have to explain all my jokes....ANYWAY, this is the church:
Here's the inside: We were quite taken with this door.
Like I said, pilgrimage church, so these may be the crutches of pilgrims who were miraculously healed....or they're just there to help you remember to pray for those less fortunate than yourself.
Another view, from the garden outside.
...And three lovely ladies on the garden steps.
Oh yeah, we found this cute little oompa loompa door in Klausen. "Why's the door so small?" "To keep all the great big chocolatey flavor inside."
Mayschoss
Actually, it's not even spelled that way....but anyway, one of my really, really great grandfathers, Johannes Gottsacker (born in 1640) moved to Mayschoss from Munstereifel to work as the school teacher. His descendants stayed in Mayschoss until a few left for America (Wisconsin) in the 1860s. One was my mom's mom's mom's mom's dad.....or his dad - little bit foggy on the details. Basically, I'm related to all the Gottsackers in the States and a few in Germany, along with a lot of other people in Mayschoss.
We went there last Sunday to try and find our ancestors' graves. I learned a few things. One, we're distantly related to half the people in the cemetery, and two, cemetery plots in Europe are "recycled," so it's nearly impossible to find someone who died more than 50 years ago. Phooey. BUT, it was just cool to be there. And like I said, there are still Gottsakers and Appels and Jostens and Schorns and Peschs, and Steffens and Leys living (or at least dying) in Mayschoss. And it turns out we have common ancestry with the Kunz family in Mayschoss. It sends the mind reeling to consider how many people on this earth you have a common heritage with.
Mayschoss is in the Rhineland - we're Rhinelanders! It's nestled in the BEAUTIFUL valley of the Ahr River, where vineyards grow on the steep hillsides and most people work in the wine business. By last report, our family there still runs several of the vineyard plots in the hills surrounding the town. Cool:)
Me, Rachel, Aaron, and Sarah in front of the church. Aaron (6) took a surprisingly great interest in this little adventure we were on, to find ancestors! Of course, this is the kid who has several times asked me who I'm gonna marry and even remarked right before we got in the car to go to Mayschoss, 'Hey Allie, I wonder who I'm gonna marry.' He sure is interested in family ties.
The fallen soldier lists from WWI and WWII - yes, Nazis in the family. In fact I learned that one of the Gottsacker boys in the German Army became a POW in an American camp in Wisconsin. He knew he had family there but didn't speak the language and had no idea how to get in touch with them. Sort of ironic.
