Last Thursday the most magical thing happened, it snowed!!! Anyone who knows me knows I love snow, and I was pleased when the kids, despite having to deal with copious quantities of the white stuff every winter were also quite excited. (M was happily nattering away about Christmas on the way to Kindergarten, Santa was coming tomorrow, and we had to buy a new Christmas Tree.) Despite quite alot of snow falling from the sky, being October, the temperature wasn't that cold so there was only about a cm at most on the ground here. Nevertheless M got fully decked out in snow trousers, jacket, boots, gloves and hat (although no scarf to my surprise, I think the coats are warm enough here) to walk the 5 minutes to Kindergarten. He clearly hasn't had a huge deal of experience with snow as his idea of fun was to get me to make a snowball and then he would carry it very carefully for a little bit at which point he'd throw it onto the road and stamp on it. The cycle would then repeat with another snowball. No snowmen and no snowball fights meant a surprisingly speedy walk to Kindergarten and no wet Becca! (I didn't have the full snow gear on) The Grandma picked M up from Kindergarten and she said it was manic there, as the kids were let loose in the snow, so maybe next time it snows I won't be so lucky!
By the afternoon the snow had melted in the valley and there was blue sky once more. Snow covered mountains on a sunny day are beautiful (pictures will be on facebook at some point). Today was warm enough to wear a T-shirt outside so the snow is rapidly depleting. The snow has resulted in a mysterious dissapearance of the animals. I no longer have cows outside my window, and the sheep enroute to kindergarten have gone too, sad times.
One thing that amused me greatly was despite all their talk of being able to deal with snow (and to be fair to them, Altstadten worked fine) the main news on the radio was that it had snowed, and in a certain region schools and kindergartens were shut and people were advised not to travel. Everyone is at the mercy of weather whether they're used to it or not!
Leaving the snowy scenery behind I hopped on a train to Munich this weekend. It was nice visiting a new city and fantastic to catch up with Beatrice and co but there were just so many people! On Saturday there were various demonstrations going on in the city centre and all the usual city trappings, and then on Sunday there was some sort of Marathon which meant even more people, and some accompanying music too :-) I hope to get another chance to visit this bustling city, but I was glad to return to the peace and quiet of the back of beyond. However tonight a farmer have decided to spray the fields at 9pm which means my room stinks of manure just before bed, so there are downsides to the countryside!
And for those still reading, here's some bonus material:
- L came to tell me that M was in my room and was just about to go back to tell him he wasn't allowed when I heard 'REBECCCAAA!' 'REEEEBBEEECCAAA' from upstairs and some very speedy footsteps down the stairs. I asked what was wrong and he said something about my bed (A 3 year old speaking fast german is not the easiest thing to understand) I then remembered that I'd stripped the bed and not got round to making it, a concept that is very hard for a 3yo to understand! Natural progression is that L and M wanted to help make the bed. It started well but ended with M in tears having bumped his head and L inside the duvet cover. Ah well, at least the thought was there!
- Playing in the street when I turned around to see a herd of cows casually strolling past.
- Talking of animals. A few days after the sheep arrived, I noticed they'd moved to the field next to us. 'That's nice' thought I 'more animals to play with' It wasn't long before they were being herded away, turns out they hadn't moved, rather had escaped to greener pastures! The fences here are pretty flimsy, we've had goats in the garden before now, much to M's delight.
- Enroute to Kindergarten there is a junction at which we can go either right or straight ahead. I ask M which way he wants to go and he shouts 'straight ahead' then merrily turns right. He either doesn't quite understand the concept of directions, or my german accent needs to improve!
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