Thanks a lot for the new shell, WIK. According to your statistics it will save us from ham for quite a long time.

Jesse’s wonderful poem may remind us that spring is near, though April started with a touch of winter. No time for golfing but for shoveling snow instead.

*still musing whether WIK wore a helmet lately*

Sitting in my car dealer‘s showroom waiting for the workshop to change the tires (today of all days, with snow outside) and do a quick overall check on the car, as we‘ll be driving it to Mallorca again in a week and a half.

Thanks for the new thread, Wik!

You’re going by car, Jesse? They have rental cars Malakka (as my Reader spells it), afaik, Or do you have to carry lots of Swabian specialties? :o)

Oh thanks, Wik, you de-hibbled me to my great relieve.

Wonderful Hochlichters, too! Statistics, how nice!

(I'm by the way still waiting for compensation from my internet provider....they're just trying to "sit it out". BUT: I got through to a lady on one of my countless telephone calls who gave me - would you believe it - a mobile number where I can call her personally. She made the issue her personal challenge and is using the tools she has to try and get me my compensation. We are at the moment waiting if something moves after her last intervention....)

@ Goldammer:

Whether Internet or Mobile-providers, they are all of the same kidney. Refunding always is a problem, it seems to ruin them. Did you try to bombard them with E-Mails already? One I was lucky regarding an insurance payment.

@ virus;

Wow! Up to 50 guests at a farewell-party! What’s wrong with me, I’m asking myself. In 1981 I invited my dearest colleagues in (of?) the sales and the medical department, the ones I had to deal with regularly for a farewell dinner, abut put of 10 only 6 followed my invitation. When I left the next company in 1997 (the last before I retired) I only had a counter in the reception hall covered by snacks and some non-alcoholic drinks. The company had been sold and many had left from one day to another, some were in a hurry (“Sorry, gotta go, see you in town someday”), but at after-work-time probably a dozen of the good companions showed up and fetched themselves a stool and stayed for a while. It turned out to be a strange but nevertheless nice evening.

I happened to get together forty-five persons in one room at my 60’s birthday only by inviting regular tennis partners. They don’t count as “friends”, as I found out when I had to leave the club.

So, back to my basic question: Why don’t I have so many friends?

*rubbing my chin*

😉

Wik, I realize I ruined your statistics of the last snailhouse with my last few German comments....so sorry!

Jesse, thanks for relieve/relief. I know that of course...how could it happen?? 😬

RenaRd: I bombarded them not only with mails but with phone calls as well, for weeks without end. They all got lost in the www or the depths of Vod...one's systems without any resonance (except automatic responses "we are busy sorting out your problems and will contact you shortly", "we will call you back within the next day" which they then of course never did). They are organized very very well to keep their customers from achieving anything regarding complaints. Until I found this lady who has been quite helpful.

Goldammer I realize I ruined your statistics of the last snailhouse with my last few German comments....so sorry! Yeah, I know, there was I spending hours of hard work and using higher mathematics. And then comes the proverbial "Schwäbische Hausfrau" doing Kehrwoche and ruins it all... Thank you! ;)

RenaRd You are probably too young in Leo-terms to remember me boring the life out of many a snail while reporting on hurling. It's an amazing game, and one of the oldest ball games in the world. Making helmets mandatory was done at some stage when I lived in Cork, until then a few missing teeth and scars were in certain circles a mark of honour. No, I haven't worn a helmet in recent times... Even if my skills with stick and ball were much better, my body wouldn't be able to take that level of physicality after my back injury.

Jesse Enjoy the road trip and your time in Mallorca! I have never been there, but one day I'll have to. Don't forget Reisegeyer!

virus I think "old" is a matter of perspective. But in the context, I would use "previous" instead of old ;). When I worked in the Netherlands, we had irregular "after work get-togethers" with a beer or two, some snacks. One of the few occasions to talk about something other than work, and since I was on the bike, a little beer or two weren't a problem.

In Ireland it tended to be more likely a work dinner, followed by a little drink in a nearby pub for the lucky ones who didn't need to drive. But there was much more chatting during working hours.

Strangely enough, I only remember 1 retirement party, in this was really strange one, as the person was so happy to leave (having spent the previous 5 years doing the absolute minimum at the job), and nobody was really sad to see him go.

I finally finished my cat-proof fence around the vegetable bed, which should prevent the lovely creatures to use it as a toilet. Now, temperatures permitting, the growing can start in ernest.

@Wik: Don't forget Reisegeyer!

As if he would let me! He'll spend the last 24 hours sitting on the packed bags, looking expectantly, along with his Mallorca companion El Leon Pequeño.

And all the best for your vegetable patch. May the cats find a nice place to relieve themselves elsewhere!

@Wik: Vielen Dank fürs Basteln. Ich hätte es machen können, da ich diese Woche Ferien habe, aber du hattest schon angekündigt, das du es machst, und ich wollte dir den *6-Gang* Donner nicht stehlen. *6-Gang aus*

snow and frost announced for the next few days

Ja, und hier hat es heute geschneit. Nur ein bisschen, aber ich freue mich längst nicht mehr darüber.

@Wik: Ist Ernst ein Nachbar? Und wenn ja, hat er denn nichts dagegen, wenn Gemüse in ihm wächst? SCNR. *unauffällig Wik ein A spendier*

We had 16 contributions in German, and 280 in English.

Wow! Ich habe nichts dagegen, wenn es hier sehneckisch wird, aber wir brauchen definitiv mehr Englischmuttersprachler. Oder die wenigen, die wir haben, sollten sich anstrengen und öfter was schreiben. Ich gebe zu, dass ich seit der Pandemie deutlich mehr Videos bei du-Röhre gucke, und weniger Zeit hier bei LEO verbringe. Womöglich hat es damit zu tun, dass ich hier denken muss und nach einem langen Tag, das eigentlich nicht will.

Wir haben die DNS-Analyse von Bonnie bekommen, und ihr Name passt ihr bestens, denn sie ist 39% Shetland Sheepdog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_Sheepdog , und so eigentlich hauptsächlich schottisch. Eigentlich ist sie nur etwa 20% Terrier, und Rat Terrier taucht in der Mischung nicht auf, sondern nur "Russel type terrier" und dann "Boston terrier." Also müssen wir uns umstellen. Überraschenderweise hat sie auch Genen von Shih Tzu und Zwergpinscher. Interessant ist, dass sie sich immer mehr wie ein Schäfer- bzw. Treibhund benimmt. Aber irgendwie ist sie auch Vollterrier. Am liebsten würde sie den ganzen Tag hindurch Eichhörnchen auflauern und dann jagen.

cats at the moment and, after feeding them today, took a pity on their espalier pear tree 

Man könnte herauslesen, dass die Katzen einen Birnbaum haben.

@virus: Die Postkarten im Köfferchen sind ein schönes Andenken.

So, und jetzt sage ich gute Nacht bzw. guten Morgen.

Many Irish (Ernest is Irish, isn't he?) moved to Australia, albeit under very different circumstances. There are many songs about that. One I like a lot is "Botany Bay". In the video it starts at 4:20. The guy with the accordion and the high forehead is a friend of mine.

Another one is "Green among the Gold", done here by a different performer.

Ah, Jesse, that was not the reaction I had hoped for… maybe I was too subtle. The clue lies in Amy-MiMi’s question whether Ernest does mind if vegetables grow in him. Well, not anymore it seems.

But yes, many Irish were deported to Australia in the 19th century. The most popular song reference is certainly “The fields of Athenry”.

I had understood that (including the misspelling of "earnest"), but didn't quite get the link to Ernest going to Australia, and I thought that was a different episode.

“The fields of Athenry”.

Quite famous here, too, since the Irish supporters sang it full blast at the football Euro 2012 in Poland when they were 0:4 down against Spain, and the ARD TV commentator Tom Bartels JUST SHUT UP and let us listen to them sing for five minutes. Extremely moving!

Hier der passende Artikel dazu. Leider funktioniert das Video nicht, aber der Text ist auch gut.

#14 Ernest used to live in No 50, but he emigrated to Australia without saying goodbye after a big row with the Murphy’s from No 52. His departure was a bit hasty and unexpected I thought.

John Murphy is such a nice fellow, though. When he heard I was planning to grow some vegetables, he gave me a bag of bone meal, which he says is the best fertiliser…

Ok, I think I need to rephrase this in order to avoid confusion:

Ist Ernst ein Nachbar? Und wenn ja, hat er denn nichts dagegen, wenn Gemüse in ihm wächst?

Ernest used to live in No 50. He suddenly disappeared after a hefty row with the Murphys in No 52. Everybody thought he had emigrated to Australia (not as common as it used to be, but still quite a few Irish people do this, so it's not too unlikely; and Australia is far enough away so that courtesy visits are not the order of the day) without saying goodbye to the neighbours.

John Murphy gave me a bag with bone meal to use as fertilizer.

So yes, there might be vegetables growing in Ernest, and he doesn't mind.

BTW, does anybody know the movie "Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass" (IIRC released in 1999)? It is rather watchable, if you are into black comedy.

#17 It is a powerful song alright. I remember the match, but obviously did watch it on RTE and not ARD. More commonly, the song is heard during Rugby Union matches, especially against the English teams.

@Goldammer: Falls der Groschen noch nicht bei dir gefallen ist: Now, temperatures permitting, the growing can start in ernest. Hinter dem Scherz steckt ein kleiner Tippfehler wikerseits, denn er meinte earnest anstatt des Männernamens Ernest. Auf Deutsch schreiben sich die Wörter gleich. Ich hatte nicht vor, den Eindruck zu erwecken, dass der arme Ernst von Wik oder einem Nachbarn umgebracht würde, aber so hat sich die Geschichte entwickelt.

Morgen geht's wieder in die Schule und ich bin nicht bereit. *gähn* Zum Mittagessen gibt es Hackbraten und Süßkartoffeln. *Kakao trinken geh*

Thank you, Amy-MiMi! With the help of Jesse, I eventually found Wik's posting which caused your remark.

But I'm still curious about the connection with Wik's neighbour Ernest...maybe Amy-MiMi's comment triggered a kind of very black fantasy in Wik...making a connection between neighbour Ernest who suddenly disappeared and the bag of fertilizer which was handed to Wik by the person Ernest had this terrible row with...??

(to myself: Kakao...sounds a great idea...kind of soothing remedy I could do with as well....I think I might even add a touch of rum....)

*wishing Amy-MiMi a set of good nerves for the last term at school*

I'll be happy to tell you snails about it in more detail in the next few days, if you would like

@Jabonah: Ja, bitte, erzähl doch weiter über Andalusia! (So ist anscheinend richtig, aber ohne den Vorschlag vom Computer, hätte ich das gar nicht gewusst.)

a couple of week's jury duty Das klingt interessant. Darfst du nach dem Prozess etwas erzählen?

@Goldammer: maybe Amy-MiMi's comment triggered a kind of very black fantasy in Wik Ja, so isses, aber den Nachbarn Ernst gibt es gar nicht. Den habe ich nur erfunden, da ich einen Ernst im Witz erwähnen wollte. Eigentlich hatte ich jemanden mit Gemüse im Bauch vor dem geistigen Auge, aber Wiks Geschichte ergibt mehr Sinn.

Algernon? Jetzt stehe ich auf dem Schlauch.

🙈 Done it again....after all these years! 🤣

Thank you very much, Amy-MiMi, for enlightening me....I really thought that by coincidence, Wik used to have a quarrelsome neighbour called Ernest who moved away, and that was where Wik's story set in...

It reminds me of an incidence years and years ago when I started discovering the Leo forum (until then I had only used the dictionary). I joined some threads - it may even have been in here, come to think of it....anyway, a person called Judex was pulling my leg in some way (I learned the phrase "to pull somebody's leg" at that occasion, I remember..), and I didn't realize it, and in the end I was so embarrassed that I seriously considered leaving the Leo forum altogether - if that was such a place where horrible people like someone called Judex pulled people's legs and exposed them to embarrassment in front of the whole class....I didn't, as you can see, and I found out that Judex was a very nice fellow after all....wondering where he might be? Is he still active in Leo?

I sometimes lose touch with the wider Leo circles, sitting mainly in my crossover chat and Schwòbafada bubble....

(flyster to Amy-MiMi: Algernon is a character from the Oscar Wilde play Emil - hello Emily, by the way! Nice to see you! - linked in.)

Apologies, Goldammer, but this has been highly entertaining for me.

To explain my thought process:

As Amy-Mimi correctly pointed out, I misspelled "earnest" in my #10, and she (in #13) made the joke "Ist Ernst ein Nachbar? Und wenn ja, hat er denn nichts dagegen, wenn Gemüse in ihm wächst?".

This triggered my brain into: vegetables don't grow in a living person, but maybe in a dead one? But, having a body lying around or burried in the vegetable patch wouldn't be great either. So how could I make vegetables growing in a dead Ernest?

I had been to the garden center recently and seen bone meal in the fertilizer section. And I remembered the very black comedy "Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass", in which the protagonists are trying to get rid of a body and end up with bone meal (don't ask for the gruesome details).

My #14 admittedly was very vague, so you are excused to be confused about the context, so I was trying to give you a hint with a fence post in #18.

The Australia emigration might have obscured it a bit, but this is maybe a cultural thing. In Ireland to this day, somebody emigrating to Australia (or the UK, or Boston) will hardly cause any question. In contrast, if an Irish person would move to Germany, or France, there would be a lot of question about the how and why...

Maybe I should write a short story with this plot, I guess it's not enough material for a full length novel (unless I can think of another few twists and turns).

Algernon? I should make that my middle name.

Need to get back to doing something productive now, we have guests coming next weekend, there are plenty of things to be organized around the house, and I still need to finish the census form unless I want to face a penalty.

I'll be back later.

Ich hatte nicht vor, den Eindruck zu erwecken, dass der arme Ernst von Wik oder einem Nachbarn umgebracht würde, aber so hat sich die Geschichte entwickelt.

Ha! Didn't we have this conversation about a neighbour of whomsoever (again Wik?) who had a caterpillar in his backyard and who's wife hadn't been seen for several days?

Ha indeed! I remember the story about the mini-digger, and the attendant speculations...

Anyway, this one is for Amy – and of course everyone else who wants to read about my travels…well, where do I start? We went to Malaga, Cordoba, and Granada (and my computer also thinks it should be Andalusia, although everyone I know very emphatically says Andaluthia ;-)), three rather different places.

Malaga is remarkable for parakeets and a thick coating of red Sahara dust (which the town council tries to hose away, while shopkeepers are constantly mopping their doorsteps and wiping their windows). In the beautiful botanic gardens we met a Dutch couple who told us that they, while not against vaccination in principle, were not vaccinated against Covid – which made us wonder how they even got into the country, as we had to upload vaccination certificates and all sorts of information! Hm.

Cordoba is altogether unique, I think. The old town reminded me of what I’ve read about Pompeii – most houses have a ground floor and a first floor, are arranged around a central courtyard or ‘patio’, and many have roof terraces. The Mezquita is out of this world and quite beyond my powers of description (and it makes me cry to think that every town and possibly even village in Muslim Spain had a mosque that was slighted rather than ‘converted’); to see a section of natural riverbank in the middle of a city is delightful. While the cormorants in the river are not all that remarkable, the dozens (!) of storks circling overhead one evening for no apparent reason (‘They can’t be bothered to go back to Africa nowadays’, the landlord of our B&B said) were absolutely stunning.

Granada is very European and the older parts merge naturally into the newer ones.

Some of the pre-reconquista houses have been restored – up to a point; they are all very plain and white, with no sign or explanation of the life that might have filled them in the 14th and 15th centuries (although more might be hidden behind the ubiquitous QR codes. Restaurant menus, timetables, tourist information – you name it, there’s a QR code somewhere, leading you to hidden knowledge). Having read a bit about the Alhambra (and the Sahara dust made me wonder if it was originally white, and they just gave up after a while…) I was pleasantly surprised by how large it is. But all the decoration and squiggles (again, without any visible information; and as I was already juggling an umbrella, my phone to take pictures, and my rucksack which I was not allowed to carry on my back, I really had no hands to scan more QR codes with) would be a nightmare to live in! Combined with the constant noise of the water features, they would drive me mad. When I closed my weary eyes that evening, I could see squiggles and Arabic phrases dancing in my head; it was quite exhausting. Still, of course it’s stunning and definitely worth a visit (although I would recommend better weather). No remarkable birds that I remember – but we had to change trains on the way back to Malaga, and as we were standing on a platform in the middle of pretty much nowhere, I heard a mewing call that was too low for a buzzard, but definitely a bird. I scanned the wires, and the platform roof, and the skies – nothing. As I was about to give up and think I was hallucinating, I spotted a peacock on the roof of a farmhouse not too far from the tracks, and the mystery was resolved.

Just a short note with regartd to Algernon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Alg...

I've red both, the short story and, years later, the novel"Charly" and was impressed by the intensity the main character describes his rise and decline,

Addendum on April,6th;

Thanks for sharing your trip log, Jabonah. I’ve been to Madrid several times in the mid 80’s, with guided day trips to the Valley of the Fallen, Toledo, and Granada. Your report reminded me of my visit; hence I looked for the pictures I’ve got in mind (an Arabic castle entry, a wooden ceiling, e.g.), but I must have forgotten to digitalize them. The original pictures must be somewhere in the depth of my study cabinet ..

*searching*

Quiet in here, isn't it?

I at least am back, after a few days of silent lurking in Leo, due to a hospital stay of Mr Goldammer which put me into a kind of stasis, not doing much at all but doing a huge puzzle, eating and visiting Mr Goldammer every afternoon. The treatment was successful and he returned home today in much better shape than before.

The cats greeted him enthusiastically, they are so pleased to have their "Katzenfuttermann" back (that's originally a character from the "Dr Doolittle" books he loved as a boy). They - for whatsoever reason - don't like the food I give them as much as if it is given to them by him, although it's exactly the same food...

So, everybody is happy again! 😀

@Goldammer: Good to read that your hubby* is back in a better condition than before. Is the visiting time in hospitals still restricted to half an hour per day?

*Nom, as you might remember :o)

I was wondering the same about hm-us but then noticed that there was a comment in the L&L thread in Betrifft Leo, where it was mentioned she stopped posting. She was not happy about the changes, so maybe she is taking a break from Leo

She got very quiet here in the last few months, sadly.

At least in Germany “Pizza Hawaii” is ranking 4 in degree of esteem, I read somewhere*. I tried it once for exactly that reason and didn’t like it. I prefer Pizza Quattro stagioni” or “Speziale” (Salami plus pepperoni/chili salami), rarely to get but I love it. There’s a pizza-stall in the centre of Wiesbaden which hooked me.

 *https://www.merkur.de/leben/genuss/lieblingsp...

@ penguin: I met hm – us here last month, but lost her trace thereafter:

Siehe auch: Drei-Nomen-Wörter 34 - #61

#61 How does one play 'poetry camp'?

For whatever reason, a lot of Wikling's playing is about schools and classes, with her being either the teacher, or pupil, or a parent, covering a whole arrange of surprising subjects. There have been various art classes, sewing, knitting, gardening PE classes, dance classes, cooking classes...

Yesterday I was told that today is poetry class, and since it's school holidays, of course it needs to be a poetry camp. So after breakfast, she packed her rucksack with pens and paper, a lunch, said good-bye to the parents and wandered a few loops around the house until she reached poetry camp at the dining table. And then started to write a "poem", constantly asking for help with her spelling... Thankfully, it only lasted 30 min, and then she agreed to come with me to go shopping for groceries.

The jury "duty" sounds eminently boring, but this certainly means that you have done your civic duty for a while?

We stayed in a hotel in Islington, like 15 years ago, it was a nice enough area with lots of good food. I wouldn't mind another trip to London, but of course, I still owe Mrs Wik a trip to Paris, which I'm not looking forward to.

#49 dixie And, as I am typing here: do you have any feedback (heard, read) on Fintan O'Toole's "We don't know ourselves"? I heard today in a book podcast about it and was contemplating if I should get it or not

Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you. I haven't bought the book, but Fintan is usually a good read. There were a few reviews online, but I didn't take a closer look, as the topic is a bit too far away from the other bits I'm busy with at the moment.

*singing penguin’s tune*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Od4TJYxjgk

I’ve been to Paris four times only though I was inspired by the song above. I never felt liked by the French because my French is far from being good. Besides this deficit Paris has a “flair” of its own, and I always like strolling through the boulevards and alleyways.

When I was there for the last time (with Mrs RenaRd celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary) we stayed in a small hotel right behind the Opera for five days and explored the city by foot. The weather was wonderful and warm, and I proudly showed my wife how much I knew about places and streets and Cafés – but I failed at the Eiffel Tower: The were two long queues in the morning already and I decided to choose the shorter one. When we finally approached the “caisse” and the sign “escalier” it was too late to change the lanes. So we climbed up to the restaurant-floor, admiring all the little details of this masterpiece of engineering we would not have seen if we had taken the elevator. Exhausting but interesting.

When we finally approached the “caisse” and the sign “escalier” it was too late to change the lanes. So we climbed up to the restaurant-floor, admiring all the little details of this masterpiece of engineering we would not have seen if we had taken the elevator. Exhausting but interesting.

And definitely worth remembering!

We once went to Paris during the strike against retirement at the age of 63 (instead of retiring with 62). We took a plane and decided to rent a car since we thought that all taxis and the train will be out of service. We had a tiny hotel room (the three of us) in a hotel near to Père Lachaise (which was interesting!) and could park the car for a fee of 19 Euro per day (!) in a garage. We wanted to take the advance to go to Versailles by car - but Versailles was closed due to the strike! So we had the car only for going back and forth to the airport... (but the taxis were running, actually...)

Père Lachaise is indeed very interesting - I remember a tour of the cemetery with Thierry Le Roi.

(virus, what did you mean when you said "take the advance"?)

@ WIK, close to the Cliffs of Moher.

I hope you’ll have better weather then we had when we were there. Not for diving but for the flaking out in front of a bonfire :o)

https://share-your-photo.com/04c1773fe3

@ Goldammer: Second level isn’t bad! I guess it wasn’t Swabian thriftiness but a kind of challenge.

My most loved picture of Paris is showing me overlooking the banks of the Seine from the balcony on the 3rd floor (above the roof) of Notre Dame in 1966. The balconies have been encaged in the 80s (to prevent jumping), and I doubt that access will ever be granted again after restoration. Hence the photograph is kind of unique.

https://share-your-photo.com/682c0f8a0c

@ Amy-MiMi: Welche Änderungen bei LEO? What did I mis?

Hi, Wachtelkönig, nice to read you again. Are you going to stay for a while and give us an update about your work inARG (if you’re still there)? I’sdappreciate some input.

#72 Poetry camp hört sich interessant an. Ich finde es toll, dass Wikling schon Gedichte schreibt.

Well, she is playing. Her teacher must have mentioned poems and poetry in school, but the "result" is no poem whatsoever. But hey, it keeps her entertained, and she has practiced her writing and spelling.

The daffodils here are gone already, we are already on the tulips.

Poor Amy-MiMi, you seem to be the one holding the flag of ENS on your own. We need to find a few others to help you.

@all: sorry, still no interest in Paris

Poetry is good, at any age. Reading it or writing it - always a good idea, I think.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is a bit vague about whatever changes in the forum you're referring to. Although I have noticed hm -- us's absence.

Wik, I'm with you on the Paris front. Not very interested (although I would like to go to the Musee Albert Kahn one day). My father loves Paris, and when I was fourteen we spent a morning there between trains (I'm not sure why that was our only visit), so I'm sure I would find a lot to see...but then there is a lot I would like to see in other parts of the world, too.

And I do like Berlin, and wouldn't mind living there at all (again, however, there are several cities I've visited where I would be more than happy to live - I'm a confirmed townee, as I've probably mentioned before). Son1, on the other hand, is not a fan of Berlin, and feels much more affinity with Munich (where he is hoping to move at some point).

Spring appears to be arriving finally (fingers crossed). I spent a couple of hours repotting and planting and spreading donkey dung this morning - we had the electrician here, so there was no chance of working... - and it was quite pleasant. The forecast for the next few days is also good; more gardening coming up, no doubt.

I don't think there are big changes in LEO for the average contributor. A bit less traffic in Land&Leute, and a bit more in the Quasselzimmer... The original proposal by the LEO team would have been a bit less convenient, but this now seems to have been reversed.

It's rather unfortunate, that the originally proposed changes seem to have annoyed hm--us, but hopefully this is the reason for her absence, and not any more serious things. Fingers crossed that she will return in due time!

@virus: Paris, Texas? I admire the cheek to put a cowboy hat on a miniature Eiffel tower, but I'd rather avoid the history the place seems to be known for.

@RenaRd: Well, it's difficult to predict the weather along the Irish coastline. So far, I've always had decent weather when I was in Galway, Clare or Mayo, but there must be a first time for everything ;). Unless I'm blown off the cliffs, I'll certainly report back, although I need to figure out a convenient way for sharing pictures here.

@Jabonah: I envy you. My gardening this week is slowed down to a stasis by my little helper... I'd love to spend 4 hours just weeding, tidying up, seeding.... but no such joy.

@everybody: as your inofficial statistician, we are doing rather well in terms of post count at the moment. I predict a slowdown in frequency, but we are well above the average post rate of the two previous threats. Keep it up :)

Ja, ein Entscheid wurde doch getroffen: "Unsere Bitte wäre daher, derzeit tagesaktuelle Themen im Quasselzimmer / Chatroom durchzuführen, auch wenn dort dann ein Nebeneinander von ernsthaften und lustig-lockeren Diskussionen entsteht."

(Habe zufälligerweise den Draht geöffnet und Goldammers Frage gesehen.)

Siehe auch: Land und Leute – tagesaktuelle Themen - #216

Oh...that sounds frustrating....so he missed the lesson because he didn't have the link?

(I love Guhgel-Fleisch!! 😂)

Two correcturitos:

häuslich gebunden - but altogether, the translation of "housebound" sounds a bit unusual to me...let's see what Leo says...."ans Haus gefesselt" - doesn't fit in the context, I find. In a forum thread, MiMo suggests "ans Haus gebunden".

So, there's obviously no one word translation, and my suggestion is:

Zweimal die Woche unterrichte ich einen Schüler, der ans Haus gebunden ist.

Ein Link wird nicht erschaffen, sondern erzeugt.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it!

Lovely sunshine, but quite cold. Below zero this morning. So, we will see how the egg search with the "children" (32 and 29 meanwhile, and Mr Goldammer also loves to search his eggs and sweets in the forest) goes. Possibly the picknick when everything is found will be shorter than usual....

Caution! Adolescent content!!!

Mr Goldammer also loves to search his eggs

*teenagergiggle* I suppose my husband knows where his are. *blush*

Yeah, I know, it is not the same in English and in German. Anyway. 😉

#93: (...and for getting us back to normal....)

Heehee - Good joke, Goldammer!

#95: Unless I‘m mistaken, patman is Australian - possibly with some German ancestry, because his German is at least as good as mine.

@ patman2: Thanks for reminding me of Jim Croce. His song “Time in A Bottle” is among my top100 favourites of all times.

(Where did we meet, btw? Strabdbar?)

Congrats, Amy-MiMi for two years of parenthood.  I’ve got the feeling you’re still enjoying it

#101 well, live with me following the guideline of: "Ist der Ruf erst ruiniert, lebt's sich gänzlich ungeniert!"

#102 Hopefully everything is going be good for the time you are gone.

#103 Thank you, I guessed the meaning correctly, but just wasn't familiar with the phrase.

When I write "swimming" I mean I was fully immersed in the water, but as a former competitive swimmer, anything that doesn't involve 500 m of uninterrupted swimming is "swimming" or "taking a dip"... ;) Wikling went in up to her thighs, which was in my eyes a brave effort considering the temperatures. We didn't have wet suits like pretty much everybody else braving the waves (I won't wear one, that's for surfers; Wikling's one was ordered in plenty of time, but delivery was delayed, I actually need to chase them).

Oh, and it has been rather dry but cold over here, which isn't good for the garden :(

*Wik zitier* the arduous task of cleaning the driveway

Ähm, wie macht man das genau? Hier sind die meisten Einfahrten aus Beton oder haben eine Asphaltdecke. Wie ist es in Irland? Sind sie Kieswege? *Kopf kratz*

Meine Schüler wollen Beleidigungen lernen. Das mache ich eigentlich ungern, aber gibt es vielleicht Sachen außer Sitzpinkler, Warmduscher, Schattenparker und Co., die eher lustig als ärgerlich sind?

Auf der Liste sind außerdem Obstabwascher, Viel-Obst-und Gemüse-Esser, Sockenbügler und Verständniszeiger.

Wow, ihr Lieben! Ich will mehr schreiben, aber ich bin todmüde. Vielleicht nachher.

Greetings from Mallorca, where summer has made its (his?) first appearance over the last days. Temperatures are in the mid twenties (Celsius!). Not water temperature, though, which is still a bit chilly.

We‘re meeting friends, eating well and just relaxing, while talking on the phone with my brother every other day to make sure our mother is well taken care of and her visits to the various doctors are well planned and organized.

Martin, I can remember from my few visits to the Californian Pacific coast that water temperatures there are rather below „chilly“. So, my respects to your son!

Goldammer, I too love Cannery Row, like most of Steinbeck‘s books. I read it for a second time a year or so ago. Of course, his really big works are „Grapes of Wrath“ and „East of Eden“, both of which have left a big and lasting impression on me.

Amy, it should be „Wucherpreise“, without the „-n“. And the question whether the current gas price is a Wucherpreis depends on what caused it. I‘d say a Wucherpreis is one that is too high just because the selling party wants to make a profit from an emergency situation, such as you can find with the rent of houses and apartments in big cities. A high price that comes from increased cost for resources or other real facts is not a „Wucherpreis“ in my opinion. Decide for yourself how much of that is the case for gas prices right now; I couldn‘t say.

Waving to everybody… and off to buy breakfast.

@ Any-MiMi: Beleidigungen

The are worse cuss and swaer words than the ones you named whichare rather funny than offensive. You know what I mean, the A..-word, e.g. iTha’s my standard (I’ve got to confess) for people I really disagree with, hence it has lost its pungency (I guess). A curse I remember to have used more often tongue-in-cheek when I was young was (sorry) “Ich wümsche dir Durchfall und zu kurze Armen zum Abputzen”. I heard a softer version just a few days ago “ Ich wünsche, dass dir beim Händewaschen die Ärel runter rutschen”. *LOL*

One the whole I dislike offensive words; they are so exaggerating, especially in youth speech. “Opfer” is one of the most humiliating, imo.

@ WIKI; .. few thousand Euros, I get the space tarmacked

When I had my pavement laid for our back yard  terrace some twenty years ago the paver recommended synthetic granulates instead of sand to fill the interstices. It builds a kind of mashed structure   prohibiting weeds but letting through water nevertheless.. No weeds since then. I can’t remember the surcharge, but it’s easy to distribute. So, if you’re doing to clean the gaps a anyway .. ;)

It’s good to read than you arrived safely, Jesse, and your mother is in good hands. My friend sent me a photograph from the Palma harbor the other day: Little clouds only, and 24°C. You’re residing somewhere in the mpiuntaimns, if I remember it well.

Self-corrections for #117:

- Second to last paragraph: .. id you’re going to clean

- Last paragraph: .. in the mountains

RenaRd #117 Good call about the synthetic granules. From what I have researched, they are really good if applied correctly. But it depends on that the slabs/bricks are laid correctly, and they work best when used during/right after the lying of the slabs/bricks. The set-up I have is too far gone, I guess, and I'm not very confident in digging up the whole thing and re-assemble it myself.

Jesse Well, have a lovely time then. I'm not in the slightest jealous ...

Martin Isn't it funny that children everywhere have so much fun with sand, and that they all get wet at the beach? Sounds you had a great time.

*Making a mental not about Cannery Row, first time I hear about it

Amy-MiMi Bähmull, I haven't heard that one since the mid-90ies. Nice one!

Not much to report, it's serious growth season in the garden, pretty much every plant is enjoying the warmer temperatures. I hope I can cut the grass tomorrow, we will likely have some rain the days after, and then it will get very difficult to get the lawn mower doing it's job. Maybe I should borrow a sheep from a farmer instead?

We nearly forgot that Mrs Wik booked a night away in a beach hotel the weekend after next. It's in West Cork this time, and the hotel has a heated sea water pool. Not quite sure if that is required, the normal water in the ocean is good enough for me.

Ireland is planning ahead for potential fuel shortages towards the end of the year. It all sounds very strange, but I guess I better follow it closely to be prepared.

PS: still no sign of hm—us and Norbert, as far as I can see. I’m slowly starting to get slightly worried.

@ WIK, RE Oils shortage

We modernized our heating system twelve years ago, switching from Oil to Gas, and adding solar collectors on the roof to provide extra warm water and save gas. According to the latest news the EU (incl. our Minister Of Economic Affairs, Habeck) plans to bam Russian coal, fuel oil and natural gas as soon as possible. Big parts of Europe, like Poland, need char coal and oil (which we are prepared to deliver, or already do), Hungary urgently needs oil (the later the ban enters into force the better). Germany, according to the Minister, has oil on disposal until autumn, but nobody dares to ban gas at once: it might be the sharpest sword against the aggressor, but ruin our economy as well.

Anyway, the both of us hoping for eboughfuel - ora warm winter.

Martin Isn't it funny that children everywhere have so much fun with sand, and that they all get wet at the beach? Sounds you had a great time.

This is true. *wavingaround* My son was 2 1/2 when we went to a sandy beach for his first time - Olympic Peninsula in this case. Before that he only had seen beaches with pebbles. On the sand, we took of his shoes and he danced through the sand with delight. I have a very nice picture of him from this day.

I’ve tried to think of some good insults, but I’m afraid I’m not very good at imaginative and even slightly humorous dressing-down. In my youth, many children said ‘Toilettentieftaucher’ (this was at primary school) and thought it was most effective and amusing. There must have been more, but it was a while ago, after all :O 

As for birds, I can usually name the ones we see here, but I wouldn’t be able to spot and name all those you’ve listed. Not very rural here, I suppose.

Good to hear you’ve arrived safely on your island, Jesse. I do hope you enjoy your time there (are there any updates from Reysegeyer?) and your mother continues to improve.

My boys used to love the beach. When Son2 saw a beach for the first time, he plopped down on his bottom and started scooping up sand with his hands and passed it to my mother in delight, and there was always more sand! And we built lots of sandcastles over the years.

Mr J and I spent the weekend in Edinburgh to visit friends and do some sightseeing and suchlike. I’d never been there (and only once to Scotland, many years ago), and liked it very much. We even had lovely sunny weather on two of our three days; on the middle, drizzly day, a friend took us on an outing to see the sights further afield: the amazing Kelpies, the stunning Falkirk Wheel, and the unicorn-filled Stirling Castle! A most pleasant and instructive weekend.

Son2 did some watering in the garden while we were away, as it is still quite dry here. Which is not yet a problem, but we could do with a few good downpours to fill the water butts! And I must try to grow some vegetables. Wik, your reports are encouraging me! And I saw enormous chard plants in a friend’s garden, and she told me she sowed it last summer and they’ve been eating from it through the autumn and winter. Surely that must be feasible here, too. (Fingers crossed!)

Here's a link to today's hike in a nearby forest, just after a heavy spring shower. I link it in mainly because of the beautiful snail photos I want to share with you. Snails are such pretty and elegant animals, aren't they?

https://www.komoot.de/tour/757721243?share_to...

Amy - Mimi, we had some threads on insults:

related discussion: Innovative Beleidigungen ;-)

related discussion: Schimpfwörter und Beleidigungen ;-)

And yes, Goldammer, very elegant. We have them in the back of our garden from time to time (where the wild garlic grows - Allium ursinum).

@Amy-MiMi

How old are your pupils? My son's elementary school subscribed to the magazine Geolino and from from the age of 6 (until he was 10 years old) he was a regular reader.

On their website they have this tool, that combines an adjective and two nouns (of course merged into one - its German): Der GEOlino Schimpfwort-Generator - [GEOLINO]

The results are not idiomatic (*) but the words are not per se swear words so perhaps your pupils might catch some helpful vocabulary when using this. I don't know the number of words they choose from. It will probably be boring soon, but until then it might help.

(*) At least I have never heard of a "Faltige Runzelmotte" before. (But I did not know "Bähmull" either...)

#125 I planted wild garlic in a corner of my garden as well, two years ago, but it doesn't really grow very well.

#124 The aesthetic power of snails is enormous!

#123 I need to go to Scotland one day. I have done a good bit of England for work, and also have come into Wales a few times, but never to Scotland.

If you have the space, a few seeds of chard (or spinach, or kale, or even some hardy lettuce) put into the ground in October can yield a lot of greenery in spring. I am going to utilize this overwintering technique a lot more.

*Waving to everybody else

virus: I guess the spot I planted the wild garlic in was not quite optimal. But with no wild garlic in the wider area where I live, I cannot expect it to appear on its own, can I? A few bulbs were transferred to a different spot, so maye it will take off there, if it's not killed by the bluebells. Ah well, we'll see.

Jabonah: I don't see white asparagus very often here. Sometimes the local greengrocer has some, but as I go there only once or twice a week, it's easy to miss, and it's not always superfresh. A few weeks back, I saw a small restaurant in Cork offering locally grown white asparagus, which surprised me. So maybe supply will get better.

The chard would do well in a big pot, I'd say, maybe 20 cm diameter, if you have one around. I'm just in from the garden, actually, after doing some more seeding and planting out. Rain is forecast, and warmer temperatures and maybe even some sunshine for the weekend.

I guess a BBQ would be appropriate.

Jesse: great picture of Reisegeyer!

I've quite successfully established wild garlic in my garden via seeds (rather than bulbs). The plants produce lots of seeds which can easily be sown and willingly produce new plants.

(LEO has "bear fruit" for "aufgehen (Saat)" - is that really right? I somehow suspect that it might be a wrong translation, because: wenn ein Same aufgeht, heißt es ja noch lange nicht, dass die Pflanze auch Frucht bringt - es bedeutet ja zunächst nur, dass eine neue Pflanze keimt und wächst. Can anyone of the native speakers comment on this? I'd really like to know!)

Anyway, established by seeds, I meanwhile have quite a big patch of wild garlic and several more smaller areas in other corners of the garden - more than I can ever use for soups and other uses. The Goldammersons come and get their share for making pesto of it (I myself am not much of a pesto person).

No. 131: I don't see white asparagus very often here. Sometimes the local greengrocer has some.

Some people do greenwashing, your greengrocer does whitewashing!

Goldammer, I think "to sprout" is the word that you are looking for.

Good suggestion with the seeds, I'll try that. After I have severely reduced the bluebells in early autumn.

mbshu: I've been convinced for quite a long time, that there is only one type of asparagus, the white one. The green one is just dyed to make it look more healthy

Well that would be great. We don't have any wild ones in Germani, afaik. I don't know what they need - so no idea if they will accept our soil.

I started a "wrong entry" thread about "aufgehen - to bear fruit"

#141 Why, RenaRd, that must be a very difficult situation for this family. They probably aren't strangers to issues with visa and so on, but being separated for so long must be very hard.

#140 Goldammer Really, Jabonah, sending something like seeds from GB to Germany is illegal now? How preposterous (*waving at Wachtelkönig*) is that??

Well, not that preposterous, merely standard procedure. Since the UK don't have the same standards anymore, they need to provide a phytosanitary certificate for any plant matter transported into the EU. Pretty much the same as for most other countries ;) And technically the other way around as well, but the UK doesn't seem to be too strict.

Since my neighbours are a topic of discussion here, I have to say that the area is going downhill. A few months back, a young man from a few houses down was arrested and the house searched. I haven't seen him since, and the rumour is that he was involved in money laundering.

And on Friday I saw in the newspapers, that the oldest son of my next-door neighbour was convicted to several years in prison... I prefer not to tell what for, but it wasn't for murder (just in case you are wondering about Ernest).

I hope this doesn't cast too much of a bad light on the people living here.

Edit May 11: it’s rather quiet here. I hope I didn’t scare everyone away with my criminal connections

No you didn't, at least not with me, anyway. I had a busy day yesterday.

Not much news to report - only that today, we had our first lunch outdoors in the pergola. It's really hot and summery today.

No Eisheilige this year, obviously. My avocado tree can go outdoors any time. I need one of the Goldammersons to get it out, though. It's become too heavy to handle for either myself or Mr Goldammer.

Essentially, I agree with all that's been said. Maybe two more cents:

I might say Hast du mal Sushi gegessen? in the same sense as penguin wrote (although she wouldn't use it), but also as an alternative to "Hast du schon mal Sushi gegessen?", if the topic was sort of present in a conversation - e.g. if I passed a Sushi restaurant with someone and we were commenting on it.

RE #154: your precise condition

As to walking it’s just breathlessness because of a defective heart and a devastated lung. In spite of external liquid oxygen I’m carrying with me my oxygen saturation falls below dangerous marks rapidly when I’m moving, hence, before panicking. I have to rest a few minutes after 30-50 Meters already. If there’s a bench or chair at hand, fine. If not, the seat of a Rollator would be helpful.

RenaRd: I encourage you strongly to take the step and get yourself a decent Rollator (nicht kleckern, klotzen! Keinen Billigscheiß kaufen!) I really think that practical reasons should be more important in such a decision than a vague idea of "looking decrepit" with it - and, well, you aren't 20 or 40, and carrying around your oxygen gear doesn't exactly make you look like a Jungspund, anyway! And, hoestly, you needn't care what any strangers think about what you look like when you are in town, do you?

Sorry to be so blunt, but I think this thing could allow you a real improvement of your quality of life in some aspects.

Couldn't you also use it to stow away your oxygen gear in it? I think I have seen some with kind of baskets for shopping or whatever...no idea if that would be possible though...or do you have to carry it close to the body?

I remember my dad who had a walking disability and never could get himself to consent to using a wheelchair (this was decades before the Rollator was invented - I think it's a brilliant invention, sort of between a walking stick and a wheelchair and soo useful for many conditions). He really deprived himself of so much! It's a shame.

I mean, you could get it first, try it out somewhere where there aren't many people around, and then decide whether you find it helpful enough to overcome your reservations....and if you find it more horrible than useful, you can still decide to NOT use it in public.

#159 RenaRd It seems to me that you are just procrastinating.

But hey, I won't offer any encouragement or reasons not to go ahead, you are old enough to know what's best for you.

#152 Jabonah The issue of exporting plant matter came to a head last summer when French border guards confiscated sandwiches that lorry drivers had brought from Britain! We were very careful not to carry any plant or dairy foods, just in case, but nobody cared. (How Polish border guards deal with the matter in the east, I don't know.) The UK, however, appears to be happy to allow EU stuff in. (I never said it made sense...)

To be honest, the sandwich episode in my eyes was a bit of a (bad) joke by the French custom officers. Legally, it appears, they have a right to stop food being brought in without the relevant documents, de facto I guess most customs officers in the EU are not too bothered about a sandwich or an apple.

But similar regulations and enforcement can be found in other countries. Goodness knows, I once got a product sample from Israel, and the supplier had not included an invoice nor a phytosanitary certification. It took me 2 hours on the phone to get that invoice issue settled (would have been quicker, but our supply chain department chose to get involved), but we had to wait until a physical copy of the phytosanitary cert (stamped and signed) was sent from Israel.

#151 Jesse Ah, that‘s why I‘ve been feeling a bit exhausted these days. I thought it was due to too much Mallorca living.

Yes, I feel the same, in a way. After the weekend at the beach, I'm a bit exhausted, but clearly the underlying cause is the racing speed in the snail chat here.

We have an old lady in the neighbourhood who is a tiny person, making long walks with her Rollator every day (probably her doctor told her to walk, walk, walk). And she is quite fast. I think she is doing great!

When my mum and I went to Warnemünde in 2019, she preferred to take her Rollator and we made our 10'000 steps every day. She said that she feels much more safe with it.

I sevcond Jesse, such a wonderful story!

My little one here is not about family but - due to the time of the year (I also could say season) - about our garden. I'm quite sure I've told you about our remake of the front garden last year. You should imagine that we have two levels, the front (basement level with driveway, next to it a "stripe" of front garden which is about 50 squm (??? how is the abbrevation in English?), the garage and the entrance - and then the back part one level higher (this is not the topic right now).

Our neighbour's gardener, watching my "meadow and wild plant" experiment, was always murmuring "da kann man was machen" into our direction when he was there. Finally, we agreed on accepting his offer to do a major refurbishment. We kept the apple tree and the box tree and he did everything else with the attitude to have perrenial herbs, flowers etc. The aim was to have something in bloom in all colours as long as nature will allow it and - very important - bees and all kinds of insects should profite from that. What can I say? Just wonderful already for the first year. This year, all the bulb flowers came out he planted in autumn. A sensation.

And now, here is the story*:

He showed up a few days ago to do some weeding and to take care of everything. I asked him if he knew one of the roundabouts of the next little town, because it looked exactly like our garden some weeks ago (actually, I wanted to know if he had shaped (?) it).

He stepped back and stared at me. No, that was not his work. And then, with great emphasis he pointed to our garden: "This is "eine schweizweit einzigartige Mischung, die ihr in diesem Garten habt!" (can't translate this)

I adore him. He is so proud of his work. And, of course, he loves to be praised. 😉 Probably, there will more stories coming..

*I tend to "schwafeln", apologise.

You already know that I like coincidences.

I heard in the late news yesterday that the ingenious musician and composer Vangelis passed away. When I went to bed an hour later I plugged my earphones in and unlocked my mp3-player (a before-sleeping routine). This was what the device played for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYeDsa4Tw0c&l...

Go on “schwafeling”, virus. I loved your story. :-D

Your house and estate seems to be situated on a slope, like ours. We have straightened our back yard (outside the 2nd floor) for better usage, which left a smaller part “upstairs” that we used for fruit growing (all kind of berries plus a cherry tree, but the birds benefitted more than we did. Mrs RenaRd is struggling each year against weeds, but to make it look nice and insect-friendly would be great.

So, if you know a mixture, a list, or recipe, I’d be thankful for a PM.Unless other snails are interested as well, these foodies.

So you’re gone to the dogs, WIK. Congrats! Aunt Wiki told me, that you have to talk French properly to be understood, though. *LOL*

Nice little face, according to the photo, but you`re facing a heap of work after having walked the dog four times a day, because the world is a dirty place.

#169 RenaRd No, you got it the wrong way around. I'm still where I've been for the last 7 years or so, but the dog has invaded my space. ;)

And yes, it's a good bit of work now to get him trained and settled in.

Just to fill the emptiness:

I’m mot able to answer WIK’s request regarding hn – us’ whereabouts. In earlier times it was quite usual to exchange E-Mail addresses, maybe some snails compiled a list

I could tell you about my recent (totally valueless) project which keeps me quite busy and is too complicated to be explained in a few sentences.

Coming back soon ..

Amazing! I've been missed and was nudged by somebody to give a sign of life - and then looked back in here...indeed, my last appearance here was about three weeks ago! I have always read along and enjoyed the posts....wasn't aware of my long silence.

Everything is fine, it's more like "no news is good news"....

We've been walking quite a lot, here's a link to one of our favorite walks on the Alb.

https://www.komoot.de/tour/780900869?share_to...

We also started the Relaxliege-sunset-watching season. However, we are still sleeping indoors...somehow it didn't feel like moving out yet.

The spotted flycatcher returned and is breeding in the wild vine.

Younger Goldammerson and his girlfriend got themselves two lovely black tomcat brothers from the animal shelter and are very happy with them.

I will definitely try and write more regularly, promised.

RE # 175: A funny side-effect

When I listened to my Reader (you remember I’m not able to read myself properly) , I understood you’ve got a “Pub that keeps you busy”. [3rd paragraph]

For a second I considered it possible, but then I decided to use a magnifying glass and found out that you were talking about your puppy. I just wasn’t used to “pup”. :D

It’s good to have you back, Goldammer, and to know you are in good shape. ‘m definitely with you that the nights are still too cold for sleeping pitside. In fact I wouldn’t do it anyway. For reasons I explained earlier- :o)

Thanks for the wonderful photo gallery. Where does all this green come from, and all the wildflowers to enjoy the bees? (A rhetoric question; I guess I know your answer.)

I guess you know, Amy-MiMi that getting up in the middle of the night to have a bagel and a mug of cocoa isn’t always wise. When light hits the retinal receptors the brain thinks it’s morning again and reduces the distribution of Melatonin, and it might b even harder to fall asleep again.  

On the other hand, thrilling things are happening outside, like the sighting of the little raccoons. I wouldn’t like a skunk near my front door either.  *LOL*

I’d like to see you here more often when school’s over.

#178 “Pub that keeps you busy”. [3rd paragraph]For a second I considered it possible,...

Ah, in times long gone I actually considered opening a brewing pub.

It would have been the right time for such an undertaking, cause in the 3 or 5 years following, the number of (apparently) successful microbreweries in Ireland exploded, and the location I was looking at is still underdeveloped in this respect.

But hey, it was a few years too early for me personally to successfully make such a step; in retrospect I made the right decision for the wrong reason ;)

"Pup" is rather common here to refer to a young dog, I'm not quite sure whether it is a proper word, or just a colloquial form of puppy. I have heard it on television as well, though, and not in an Irish context.

#177 Great to hear from you! I wish we had a bit more wildlife on our doorsteps, but I haven't even seen a hedgehog in the last while, not even talking about a badger or...a fox!!!!!!! Hopefully you are keeping well, and you have a bit of spare time during the school holidays to chat with us. Keep well!

#176 However, we are still sleeping indoors...somehow it didn't feel like moving out yet.

Ah, you are just spoiled. Today I'm experiencing another Irish "summer" day, with gusty winds, top temperatures of 15C, and heavy rain to come (I can actually smell it already). ;)

Well, the joy of living on an island in the North Atlantic. Somehow, though, I think I will never move away. Or, as the song says... "you can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave"..., and I'm totally ok with this ;)

Well, Mr Goldammer, when in such a situation, also gets up, gets himself a glass of hot milk with honey and reads for some time. It helps him to go back to sleep, and it works much better than staying in bed, in complete darkness, with his thoughts going round and round....despite all scientific evidence about light, retinal receptors, Melatonin etc. etc....

😜 (Since I don't know if your reader reads the smileys to you: it's a winking face with the tongue stuck out)

Mini-correcturito for Amy-MiMi: Nach einem Bagel und einer Tasse Kakao

(since "nach" refers to both, the bagel and the cup of cocoa, the latter needs a dative, too)

I know that problem too, Goldammer, lying in bed while thoughts are spinning around senselessly. A full bladder or snoring are the main reasons for waking up. Believe me, it’s getting worth. After a hard time waking up three times a night it bettered lately to once a night. Sometimes I try to avoid getting up, because I have to go to the toilet without my additional Oxygen and am rather exhausted when, after five minutes or so, I reach my bed again. But I’m strolling through the rooms in nearly total darkness.

Well, that’s my kind of dealing with the problem. 🙂

Ah...of course they are neutered, Jabonah! Since in German - other than with horses where you make a difference, linguistically, between Hengst and Wallach - a Kater is always a Kater, I wasn't aware that in English "tomcat" doesn't include neutered individuals.

I loved the clip with the Queen and Paddington Bear! It was all over the news.

I wasn't aware that in English "tomcat" doesn't include neutered individuals.

Das wusste auch ich nicht. *mir das nochmal überleg* Nein, mir war das nicht klar. Aber ich oute mich ruhig als keine besondere Katzenfreundin.

Ich kann einen USB-Stick nicht finden. Wenn ich das gesuchte Schriftstück im Gurgel-Schwung wie gedacht gespeichert hätte, wäre das nur halb so tragisch. Stattdessen muss ich den Text nochmal verarbeiten. Das Problem ist das ich wenig Zeit habe und müde bin. Grrrr. Ich habe nie zuvor so viele Probleme beim Speichern gehabt, ich schiebe die Schuld in die Schuhe der neuen Schule. Nur zu oft habe ich keine Ahnung, wo die Dokumente abgespeichert werden.

Don't worry, it's only a user who sent out advertising. The user has already been reported and banned, which is why the answer button no longer works.

related discussion: Ganze Fäden/Kennungen löschen 2022/I - #188

Thank you, penguin, for your prompt reply. I’m relieved.

On Wednesday, Mr Goldammer and I went on a day trip by train to Ulm, the city on the Danube and on the border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.

The main reason was that Mr Goldammer wanted to ride the line between Stuttgart and Ulm in an intercity express train (ICE) before in autumn, the new, straighter, shorter and much quicker line will take up service.

The old line ascends the Schwäbische Alb on the „Geislinger Steige“, a section with, for a railway line, quite a high inclination and narrow curves – very scenic, and the trains have to go up quite slowly.

When the new line will be finished (it is finished really, but they still do a series of test rides and other technical stuff), only regional trains will use the old line.

We had booked the tickets a few weeks ago (the 9-Euro-ticket isn’t valid on the ICE trains) and were looking forward to the trip – our first train trip since the beginning of Corona….

The trip to Ulm was quite nice, and we enjoyed it – except our seatmates, a mother with a four year old boy. Well, the boy was quite nice, but his mum was quite a pain in the neck...she was obviously very nervous and very anxious that the elderly couple who they shared the little table with (us) might get annoyed about her kid. So, she silenced him every other minute – whenever he opened his mouth to say something – telling him that this was the so-called „quiet area“ in the carriage, that there were „other people“ who needed their peace and quiet etc etc...she talked almost endlessly about why the boy needed to be silent and what she would do if he wasn’t….in the end, she gave him her cell phone and told him to watch a film on it (without sound) which he was quite happy to do...but then, she took the phone away from him several times in order to make phone calls, four all in all in about half an hour, explaining to her dialogue partners that she needed to make it short because she was sitting in the „quiet area“ in the train where phone calls aren’t allowed….would you believe it! I have to concede, however, that she was really nervous – I understood after a while that she was going on the first holiday trip with her little son, and that she was really unnerved that the train was so much delayed that she wouldn’t catch her connecting train and what should she do about it and did she need to tell the people in the holiday lodgings etc etc….

Well, in the end we were quite happy to leave them behind when we left the train in Ulm….

We strolled about in Ulm, sat by the Danube for a while, went into Ulm cathedral and sat there for a while. Then we had coffee and cakes in Ulm’s wonderful Cafè Tröglen, one of the oldest cafès in all Germany – it is been there since 1811! They really do some of the very best cakes and gateaus I have ever eaten, and a visit there is an absolute MUST DO when we are in Ulm. I was so relieved that it survived the whole corona lockdown times and all! BUT, oh dear, when I said so to the waitress, she told me that it will close down for good at the end of the year! This was like a real shock for Mr Goldammer and myself – it can’t be true! Ulm without cafè Tröglen! Obviously, there are noticeably fewer guests than a few years ago (I heard that already about other cafès, obviously younger people aren’t so much interested in the old style cafès with excellent cakes and gateaus….). The rent of the premises has gone up remarkably at the same time, and now everything is getting so expensive lately – food, energy etc – and it has become nearly impossible to find staff, so, the boss decided that he can’t do it any more, the waitress said. Boah, that’s really awful!

RenaRd, if you by chance know Cafè Tröglen, you can understand what a loss that will be. If I think about all the incredible skill and know-how, the Handwerkskunst of the pastry bakers there which will go down the drain and be lost forever, I could weep.

The trip back to Stuttgart was...well, a bit adventurous and unnerving – but this time not because of other passengers, but because of general train chaos. The ICE we had booked was cancelled (I might have been able to know that in advance, had I checked it beforehand, but I hadn’t). Another ICE which we could have used instead was 80 minutes delayed. We boarded a regional train to Stuttgart which was recommended to us by an unnerved and clearly overstrained service staff lady. It was crammed already when we boarded, but with luck and a bit of boldness („Are those seats free?“ to a couple who had put their luggage on the two seats beside them and so prevented others to sit down there) we got seats in the end. But the train wouldn’t start. Several announcements were made that people were blocking the doors and would they please stay back and stop blocking the doors. This situation, of course, was due to the „9-Euro-ticket“ which was introduced a few days before. It is an idea of the government meant to encourage people to use trains and as a kind of relief for the high fuel prices – it’s valid for a whole month on all regional trains and buses in Germany, and can be bought for June, July and August this year. But so far, the plan totally backfired...chaos on stations and trains everywhere, and it seems to deter more people than lure them into travelling by train, understandably.

Well, in our train, after a while a new announcement came: the train is overcrowded and won’t start at all. Will all passengers please leave the train. Not many did so, people started to talk and ask and were getting annoyed, but not so many left. When the announcement was repeated and the speaker appealed to the passengers’ sense of reason and confirmed that the train wasn’t going to go, we decided to leave.

By now, the delayed ICE from Munich to Hamburg was due, so we boarded it – and to our great wonder it was nearly empty and we got wonderful seats. We soon learned why that was: the train wasn’t going to Hamburg on that day (for whatever reason…) but ended in Stuttgart, and all passengers for beyond Stuttgart had left it already….well, in this case, the chaos was in our favor, and so our trip back and down the scenic slope by Geislingen was really really nice….

One of the other passengers on the ICE related that he had also been in the overcrowded regional train and that, once enough passengers had left it, it started after all! I thought this was really an outrageous thing to do! Lying to the custumers („The train won’t go altogether, please leave the train, everybody!“) - and then, when enough people believe it and leave, start with the rest who were obstinate to the appeals! Well, in our case, we had a nice trip back, if delayed, but for all the 9-Euro-ticket-passengers who followed the instructions, they really had die Arschkarte!

All in all, we are cured from „ßengkyou for träwelling wiß Deutsche Bahn“ for a while….

We also noticed that after more than two years of secluded life due to corona, we found moving in crowds (like in the stations and partly in the city of Ulm) and being locked in with lots of people in a train was a source of stress in itself...we were totally knackered when we got home two hours later than planned….

But, in a way, it was also a very nice day and we don’t regret to have made the trip. It was by all means, an interesting experience in many ways.

It seems as if I’m a bit lazy, but I’m not. I’m still working six to seven hours a day on the project, I mentioned above. Furthermore I get read the newspaper in the morning and a book after lumch and coffee-break. (=two hours). We just finished, btw, “Where the Crawdads sing”, which I can strongly recommend.

Thanks for sharing your trip log, Goldammer. I like all kind of itinerary, especially after I can’t travel anymore. A friend of mine, who visits places all over the world always answers my curious question “How was your trip?” monosyllabically:  “Good”. In fact he uses the curt “Gutt!”,

Again my Reader (the program, not Mrs RenaRd)  read your destination as “Alm”, an alpine hut. I couldn’t believe it, so I fetched my magnifying glass and deciphered “Ulm”.

I haven’t been in Café Trglen for years, but I remember the upper floor as gloomy and worn out. It would be too bad for the Main Street to lose a Café in the direct neighbourhood of the famous “Münster”, but I wonder who will invest money to renovate the rooms and furniture in times like these..

I’m coming back soon ..

#193 Between the two of you (being reasonably seasoned botanists), the time frame (6 hours, minus moving between the locations), 4 rather different habitats, and a quick glance around during my walk with the dog, trying to figure out, how many species I could name or else know by sight (I'm not very much into studying the flora, more of a fauna person):

around 200 species?

I suppose there were a lot of easy (an repetetive) ones: the trees and brushes; or the common flowers such as dandelion, daisy, corn flour, poppy; nettle, ferns....) but then a lot more rare things. I guess time was more restrictive than number of species to be found.

Edit: After thinking about it again, I want to correct my guess down to 140. Reason: time factor, you wrote about numbers of species being below average, and the law of diminishing returns 😩

RenaRd: now I'm getting curious about you project. Pray, tell us more.

Apologies, I'm typing with one hand, as the dog has decided to have his midday nap on my lap, resting his head on my left hand ...

Wow, Wik! You really gave some thought to the issue - and with your editing, verschlimmbessertest your first guess!

In fact, we identified around 210 species. But of course you are right, and towards the end, we didn't find as many "new" species in a certain time interval as in the beginning.

At the moment, there are 448 documented species in the quadrant (I just realized that after all, the area was over 400 already which is sort of the desired level which should be reached for every area). So, we saw more than half of the species which have ever been documented in that area, and some of the species we saw aren't documented yet, so the figure will go up some with the next update of the documentation. (And you have to take into account that many plants can't be seen at the moment, the early spring ones which have disappeared already, and those which reach their growth later in the year. For example, we saw quite a few plants which can't properly be identified by their leaves only, and flowers and fruit haven't developed yet)

(By the way, one thing I learned since I'm participating in the project is that very often there are several species of a plant which I had thought was just one - dandelions, daisies, poppy, valerian etc. Brumbles are totally hopeless, there are literally dozens. I recently saw both common species of rattle growing side by side which was very educational about learning the differences.)

Korrektürchen für Wik: a bit of a fuss...

The downside was that I had to entertain the dog for the two hours or so it took to make the cake, and that was kind of what I wanted to have a break from...

Das kenne ich. Wir hatten letzte Woche eine Abschlussparty für meine Tochter. Ich hatte wenig Zeit für die Vorbereitungen, und es war heiß, was nicht hilfreich war. Herr MiMi musste mit Bonnie Gassi gehen, denn in der Küche war viel los. Am Tag der Feier war das Wetter angenehm, nur ein bisschen windig, aber heute haben wir wieder 34 C, was für uns eine Hitzewelle ist. Wir hatten drei Tage Besuch aus Iowa, waren gestern auf der Milchhof, für ein pandemic pup viel Aufregung. Gerade *nachschlag* rollt Bonnie sich spiralig ein *gg* und döst auf dem Hundebett.

Ich schreibe heute Abend oder morgen mehr. Am Wochenende fahre ich vielleicht nach Chicago, um ein paar Freundinnen zu treffen. Eine Freundin rief mich an und erzählte entschuldigend von der Plänen. "Ich sage Marc, dass du leider nicht kommen kannst und es meine Schuld ist, da ich dich nicht rechtzeitig informierte..." Und ich unterbrechend: Moment mal. Wann war das nochmal? Ich habe einen Ausflug dringend nötig. Vielleicht schaffe ich das doch.

Das nächste Schuljahr fängt Mitte August schon an. Ich weiß nicht, ob ich viel diesen Sommer entledige, aber es gibt sehr viel zu tun. Ein bisschen Spaß und Erholung müssen auch sein.

How nice to see Amy-MiMi!

(I was kind of starting to worry if Wik and myself were the only remaining snails on earth....) I'm looking forward to more news!

Tiny correcturito: auf dem Milchhof

@Wik: well, documenting the plants of an area has quite a tradition, it's not a new idea, and the project has loads of datea already, dating back more than 100 years. The first round of the current project was in the eighties - the results were published in an 8 volume work with distribution cards, descriptions and photos - it's been out of print for a long time and you pay quite a lot for it on the second hand book market. Although not up to date, it's still a standard work and very much looked for. (I have it of course...two years ago, I even managed to get Vol 5 which is - for whatever reasons - harder to get than all the others and accordingly expensive...).

So, with the current set of data, a lot of research about the development of the flora can be done. Some species are going back dramatically for various reasons - climate change, intensive farming, land consumption due to building etc. - others are stable, and a lot of "newcomers", partly invasive species, are arriving, again due to climate change, or globalization etc. Often plants arrive via trains or lorries and are first seen along railway lines or highways.

(In case the silence in here is due to me going on and on about botanical documentation and people getting ultimatively bored with it, Edith wants to apologize and promises to stop it - making room for other topics)

#200 Ah, Goldammer, shush... I'm the one who kept the topic going.

To answer to the points you (rightly) make about the previous documentation of plants:

I'm aware of this, but, with advancing technology, it might be getting easier to identify species quickly, and more time can actually be dedicated to searching, and nature has funny ways to evolve, and species will spread and adapt in ways we cannot foresee (or, unfortunately fail and disappear before we unterstand that they are threatened). I am trying to stay positive. As an example, woodpeckers seem to be back in Ireland, there were cranes breeding for the first time in forever, and the few eagles released in the West seem to stabilise their population... Oh, and this morning I spotted a bird I didn't recognize, which I will have to look up...

Anyway, enough of this.

#199 Welcome back Amy-MiMi!

For the fuzz, I blame Dixie.... but thanks for making me aware, sometimes my brain is going a bit fussy (or is that fuzzy ;)) on spelling of words I only use in spoken conversations.

34 degrees would see Irish people dying in droves, a heat wave is usually declared around 25 degrees, with health warnings and advice how to deal with the high temperatures...

Ich weiß nicht, ob ich viel diesen Sommer entledige... Ich weiß nicht, ob ich diesen Sommer viel erledige. The word order is understandable in your version. But "entledigen" requires the Genitiv, meaning is "to get rid of something".

Ein bisschen Spaß und Erholung müssen auch sein. Amen to that! I'm getting a bit nervous due to the chaotic scenes at European airports at the moment, and the rising Covid incidences... Would be a shame to have to cancel our visit to the continent...

Esteemed, that didn't come to my mind.

And is „La Isla Bonita“ the same one that Madonna (?) sang about?

Exactly, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize. It was nearly 3 weeks. In 1999, we've been there for the first time. No paved roads, everyone went barefoot, no cars, only few golfcarts. Nowadays it has grown a lot, paved roads, plenty of golfcarts and even cars which are too big for the small and narrow streets. And, back in those days, there was no sargasso! I wasn't really aware of that until we spoke to some apartment owners during happy hour and told them that in 1999 we attended a concert of Byron Lee at the Belize Yacht club on the beach. The lady asked "so that was before sargasso times?" - and she was right. (They call it sargasso, not sargassum.) The inundation of the coast has become more and more, moving from the south (coast of Brazil) to the north, due to whatever drift change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pedro_Town

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargassum

I hope I’m exculpated for being a rare snail momentarily.  I haven’t been anywhere else than in my study working on my “project”, as I named is before. Some day next week – I assume – half of the work will be done, and I plan to have a break and you tell how glad I am that you keep things ticking over.

I haven’t known, virus, that you went to Belize again, or I would’ve been envious earlier. I’m still not sure in which way the Saegasso Sea has influenced Belize. Did the stream increase or what?

I’ve been called for supper meanwhile, hence I better hurry . CU! :o)