Spring is near... and I hope it comes quickly for those in the cold parts of the world.

A tulip tree in bloom... (at least that is what I call them!)  I snapped this photo on the street as I was turning the corner- just stuck the camera out the window-- which is why you see the sun glare on the photo.   I have seen a few of these trees in my neighborhood blooming too.

Spring? Or right into early SUMMER?

Some of the flowers that are now blooming at school.  There are lots of tulips/etc. in this flower bed and it looks really nice.  We had lots of blooming bulbs when we returned from spring break this week.  A few weeks earlier, when I took my students outside to look for signs of spring ... my students and I had noticed this 'hearty' leaf that had started growing through the 'decorative bark' that was in the way.  Can you see it?   *Click on the photo for a larger image.

In other news.  Yesterday, my Jeep temperature gauge said:  80*F.   I guess we are moving from upper 40's to mid 50's right into the 80's?   All I can say is I had some wool hand knitted socks on and I could hear my feet sending me messages... "HUMAN BODY, take these SOCKS off NOW!!!"  I don't care if it will hurt to walk barefooted on the sidewalk and the parking lot for the first time in months!  Do it!  DO IT NOW!!!  SOCKS OFF NOW!!!


I did manage to resist and wait until I got home.  I can see that this marble floor is going to come in handy soon... for cooling purposes!

For those in the states, especially in Colorado... who are currently or have recently been experiencing some of the snowstorms that have been recently in the news... while it might be nice, sunny, and 80*F here in northern Italy... just remember... in July when you are having nice 80*F temps... we'll be burning up here in Italy!!  

Happy Easter

Look!  Spring is finally showing up.  I now have beautiful blooming flowers in my yard.  It was quite a surprise since my front yard was nothing but 'dirt' when I moved in... the landlord will put grass in sometime this spring/early summer.

Looking for signs of SPRING....

It's been raining a lot lately... and we finally had a sunshine-y day on Friday.  I took my second grade students out to the playground area, armed with magnifying glasses, so that they could look for 'signs of spring.'

A tree just beginning to show 'buds'....  Sorry it's so white-- I took a photo right into the sun! 

The sun was shining too bright... but, one of the tulip leaves had pushed through the decorative bark when it was growing and it still had it on the tip of the leaf and the kids loved that little detail.

They loved the tiny little blue flowers and the magnifying glass came in handy.

This tree had lots of 'flowers' on it and it was a great example to show the children that 'not' all flowers look like typical flowers.

The green fence is the end of the playground property and the base property is just past the fence.  We have a lovely view of an old Italian church and the snow on the Italian Alps... or the Dolomite Mountains.

Some more flowering tree buds.  Huge playground area... but, they aren't able to play in this area, for now, because it's just too muddy from all the rain.  However our school has tons of playground equiptment for the students to play on.

I'm sure that once these trees fill out with their summer leaves that we won't have such a pretty view of the mountains?

Lots of snow on the mountains because when we get rain... the mountains get snow.

New signs of spring... sort of...

 Here is a close up of some sort of insect that was hanging around 'not moving' on the outside wall of the house.   I've never seen anything like this.  

I walked out the downstairs door this weekend and when I turned to lock the door behind me... I noticed this 'insect' on the wall area near the garage and the downstairs door.   There are tons of them.  I don't know what they are, do you?  I avoided eye contact.  I didn't want to to think that they were being 'welcomed' to stay ... even though it clearly looks like they are staying.   They are around the garage door and the outside wall of the house that is near the garage.


Any clues?  Suggestions?  Should I get the RAID and spray them?   At least they aren't trying to swarm me as I walk in/out of the door.   As a result of that good decision... I'm leaving them be for now-- but, if you know that this thing turns into a 6 inch insect creature... please let me know and I'll go buy some RAID and take care of the situation immediately.


Each new location has its own special insects, animals, weather, plants, and general vermin that one has to deal with. 


I know that one time in Seoul, Korea... I came home to find fuzzy caterpillars hanging on the front door (had a screen door), the window screens, and on every surface on the front of the apartment.   They would even drop out of trees and land on you.   The big problem... beyond the 'expected ick factor'... would that any place that the fuzzy hairs TOUCHED your skin turned red and burned.  They had some sort of 'bad poison' in the fuzzy hairs!   This went on for 2 weeks.  


*Click on the photos if you want an EVER LARGER IMAGE... (but, I'm not sure why you would this time?) 

Spring, I'm waiting... you can arrive anytime now...

*click on photos for a larger view

I had planted these bulbs at my former house in Germany.  Every year, I planted a variety of bulbs.. Of course, the first spring there, I discovered that most of these new bulbs were eaten by the over abundant snails that are everywhere in that part of Germany.

However, I didn't give up and I continued to plant more each fall.  I didn't arrive in Italy early enough to plant anything this fall... but, I was quite happy to find that there are some bulbs of some sort, in the tiny front yard, sending green leaves out of the ground.  I should know what I have in hopefully several days?  Any signs of spring where you live yet?

Spring has FINALLY arrived!

I had mentioned that I went 'glass shopping' on April 23rd. Here is a photo of the pieces that I bought... The lady that made these pieces... makes a few holiday items, yard/garden pieces, and other decorative pieces. Of course, I won't mention that I didn't put out any Easter decorations until the day before Easter.



Here are a couple of photos that I took today. My tulips have finally bloomed or at least a few of them have. We've still been having cool/cold night-time temps.. it has been 37*F a few mornings this week. However, it has been nice to see the sun lately.



The landscapes while driving are really beautiful at this time of the year; lots of blooming trees, and a variety of green shades on the trees and the fields. It looks like a painting or at the very least... a photograph found on a jigzaw puzzle box.

Signs of spring in Germany?

These little green mesh fences start sprouting up along the roads along the small ponds, streams, and river banks.








What are they for you might ask? Good question...




So, as the waters begin to thaw along with the frogs who suddenly find that they have a desire to meet other 'unthawed frogs' for some spring time fun... The Germans put up the fences along the roads wherever water does gather... to protect the frogs.

Apparently, it is someone's paid job to check every so often and remove any frogs trapped on one side of the green mesh fence and take these frogs wanting to meet 'frog friends' to the other side of the fence which is where the larger water areas are located.

The little green mesh fences on both sides of the roads... help keep the frogs from being SMASHED on the roads as they try to find frog friends/families.

The SUN came out today.... Maybe, MAYBE spring will arrive in Germany SOON?

The sun shines so rarely in Germany from October until the end of March; that I actually took a photo of one of these rare days of sunshine about 3 months ago.

The endless grey overcast skies really do get to me. You can just sense a lightness in everyone's spirit when the sun breaks through and shines down on us during our long, long, enduring winters. Of course, we are still wearing winter coats around here- so, this one rare sunshiny day does not mean that WINTER IS OVER! I have had a heavy frost on my car windshield 2 out of the previous 5 mornings. I have also noticed a heavy frost on the grounds during my morning drives to work.

I'm going to go and check the progress on my tulips tomorrow. I have planted a variety of tulips during each of my three falls that I have lived here.

The first spring here, after being initially excited to see the tulips that I had planted that fall; I was later quite disappointed to discover that the garden snails deemed some of my tulips as a quite tasty dessert item and devoured them to the ground!

I went to bed early last night and I'm feeling a little better today. I came home from work and made home-made soup for dinner tonight. I'll have plenty for a few other meals too!

I'm sure that most of you have been enjoying spring-like weather for a few weeks now and I hope that we will soon enjoy spring-like weather here too.

Snowfall around here happens from October until the end of April. It has snowed in March and April the three past winters that I've lived here. However, this March, while being cold hasn't been as snowy as the past 2 winters were. YEAH~

HAPPY EASTER.. or.. subtitle "YOU WANT HOW MUCH TO MAIL THIS SMALL PACKAGE?"

I've lived overseas now for 20 years in various countries around the world. Many of my USA friends are also school teachers. I have often sent little 'holiday' gifts to them from my travels or cute little local tokens of cute, neat, unusual things that I've found for holidays.

This year, I decided to knit everyone something for Easter. Ok, the first plan was to knit a little 'nest' and fill it with a knitted egg, two, or three and a knitted animal.. chicken, bunny, or some other typical Spring time or Easter animal.

The problem seemed to be something called: TIME

I made one little nest... and it took an entire night to knit it.. I thought.. "Humm, this knitting a little nest for everyone on my list just isn't going to work out." So, I decided to just knit the eggs and the little knitted animals instead.

Here are some eggs.. Problem is.. even they took more time that I thought was reasonable..




Can you see a theme? My desire to knit yarny cuteness is bigger than the reality of time.


So, now my new plan was just to knit and knit and see what I can finish in a two week period. I also just happened upon some cute little metal plates with adorable bunny paintings on them in a local German grocery store. I decided to buy those and use them instead of the 'knitted nests' that I had hoped to knit.



Once I realized that Easter was a week sooner than I thought it was.. Yes, I know, I know.. I really do need a new calendar.

Update: I have a new calendar to hang on the wall.

Due to my shortened knitting time allowance.. 2 weeks vs the 3 weeks that I thought that I had available- Last week, it was time to wrap everything up to take it to the post-office on base (AN AMERICAN POST OFFICE mind you) and mail my little Easter goodies to my friends in the states.

I had all my packages wrapped, labeled, and custom's forms filled out. I went to the counter and discovered that I now had two problems..

1. They had changed the little 'easy to fill out' green custom's form on me. It is now this multi-layered, many copies, very detailed form that you have to fill out. So, I was sent to the back of the room to 're-fill-out' the new custom's forms for all of my packages. Sigh

I got the forms filled out.. get back into the now very long line, then I finally make it to the front of the line again.. with my 5 very lightweight packages and the newly filled out custom's forms.

2. Once the first package was weighed, I discovered that they (USA Postal Office) have raised the rates.. apparently a LOT for small packages!!

BECAUSE.. my tiny package of one tiny little 4 inch tall bunny and one very lightweight metal plate.. (costing only $1.50 to purchase) was going to cost $8.75 to mail!!! EACH!!!

YIKES!! Now, I don't have enough money to mail all 5 packages.. oh no.. I now have enough money to mail maybe 2 or at best 3 of the packages!

So, I opted not to mail anything.. I grabbed some of the 'flat rate boxes' and later I will stuff the flat rate boxes, that I will mail at a later date 'full' of other goodies. A couple of the boxes will also have birthday gifts included in the boxes.

*I'm having difficulties with blogger uploading my photos.. so, after trying for over an hour.. I have given up trying to post photos of all of the little knitted goodies.

I'm sorry that my boxes full of Easter cuteness is going to be a little late.. but, know that I did have good intentions. Does that help?

Spring... when a gal's heart turns to: WOLLMEISE

The month's long winter snows seemed safely past us... I was ready for something bright, exciting, and inspiring. So, I asked another friend to join me for a train outing to get some more Wollmeise yarn from Claudia's shop. My friend doesn't knit.. but, I did entice her to join me with the promise of checking out the local Saturday market in the town square after yarn shopping and lunch at a wonderful place that I know on the town square. I might have also mentioned stopping by to check out the Easter Market in Nuremberg before we went back towards our part of Germany.


So, we got the Bavarian Pass and headed off to the small city that shelters the wonders known as Wollmeise. *If you want more information about the shop and my first visit -- I do have another entry on my blog.. just look for the Wollmeise entry. I am fortunate to only be about 3 hours away from Claudia's shop (one way) and I have been there several times.

I had also knitted a little egg out of cotton yarn. Once I arrived and was greeted by Claudia.. I gave her the little striped egg and Claudia promptly placed it a flower pot in her Spring/Easter display. The egg looked so cute in the display. I totally forgot to take a photo- but, It's the egg on the top in the photo. *If you click on the photos- you'll see a much larger image.



Claudia took me around the shop showing me all of the new colors since I'd last visited the shop. I wanted almost each and every skein. If only.. I had enough $$ to buy all that caught my eye. I had a big pile of dazzling skeins spread out on the couch.. and I finally managed to cull the large collection of skeins that had caught my eye to a more manageable amount to better match the EURO in my wallet.



The big hunk of lace yarn that I bought.. doesn't this just look like the sea? It does to me- I used to live in Okinawa, Japan and the water was blue like this..


If you've never been to the shop.. it is well worth the visit. I feel like the yarn displayed in the wooden cubbies looks just like a new box of yarn crayons just waiting for someone to use them to create knitted treasures, gifts, and lovelies.

I did buy a couple of skeins to knit for gifts. One skein.. might be a gift.. if I can bear to give it away.

ahh spring returns to Bavaria...

The snow piles finally begin to melt.





Spring/Easter decorations begin to appear outside shops...


Spring flowers are sold in the markets...


And the tulips that I planted last year have started sprouting...


And what do I see here? Some tiny blooming bulbs.. that I had planted last year..

I'm sorry that I haven't posted lately.. but, I've been sick with bronchitis for a few weeks. However, I'm happy to say that I'm not nearly as sick as I was last year (one reason that I wasn't posting much last year) when I had pneumonia for 3 months and fever every day for 4 months.

Happy Mother's Day

And what says MOTHER'S DAY better than flowers? Every week, new trees and plants are blooming in my yard and each new discovery is such a surprise to find... since, I moved in last fall. I went around and took some photos to share with you...



Here are some of the bulbs that I planted, that managed to survive the midnight snacking from the Nasty Garden Snails..




Some views of my outdoor patio area.. I also have a large balcony off my living room which is on the second floor actually on top of this patio. IF you happen to see the bags of cuttings from my yard clean-up.. please ignore them... I don't know where the 'organic recyle place is for my town'... all I know is that they don't pick it up from your house with the regular trash.

My newly planted HERB GARDEN... *My basil and parsley haven't been brought down with the other herbs yet.





Here's a view from my kitchen window (see the African Violets?) looking out onto one of my window boxes planted with flowers. I have these window boxes on all windows on the front of the house.

AND look at what I found outside and cut for a fresh bouquet. My living room smells so nice now.. of course, I did find a few bugs and spiders, as would be expected on the blossoms when I cut them, but of course.. now, it feels like bugs and spiders are crawling on me.. off and on.. at least I hope it's my imagination. :D



I hope everyone had a nice weekend...