The creek that runs through our pasture ends up going *underneath* this neighbor's house. They must have had a water wheel long ago. This is a water mill town, and I love finding them on our hikes. Centuries of water diverted to flow directly against a house where people live. Even at the old broken wheels, the water still flows.
They have the most well-behaved hedge in town, it looks like this all year. You can see there are three structures combined. The middle one is obviously the original house, which had a little garage added on and a big white other house part too. Our house was about the size of the grey original but ours was also added on to, when people got interested in things like indoor plumbing and separate-room kitchens.
Besides the illogical numbering of the houses (7 is next door to 4, 3 doesn't exist), what I find most odd about our town is the fact that almost everyone's yard is across the street from their home. WTH. So in this case, the perfect hedge people's garden is on the right side of the street in the photo, a lovely sprawling thing they spend all their time working in, with whimsy overload (but they don't win the whimsy contest, as you'll see...)
Gnome in tree. Wooden pig and butterfly and recumbent nutcracker.
The next house on the street is perhaps the oldest, it definitely has the most character. The best part of all is the hobbit-hole garage on, again, the other side of the street. These are the people who have the resident sheep.
They have a nice front door on both sides of the house, and two mailboxes, though I'm pretty sure three generations live in this house. I'd love to see the interior. Their house is near where a castle once stood, an actual castle in our town!
Best garage/workshop, built into the hillside. Smoke often pours from the chimney.
Turning around, here is the backside of their home, in Fachwerk. You'll soon start to see a familiar color scheme for our region.
After passing some fields I arrived at our grocery store. This is where I have most of my panic attacks. Cuz standing in line in Aldi is terrifying to expats.
Little electric car thingy.
Since these people have an EU flag in their garden, I'm convinced a politician lives here.
Schiefer. It's the slate that all the old homes are made of, mostly the weather sides of the homes. It comes in all different patterns, square is my favorite. They also make little designs, like the birds and flowers above. I want an Arabian horse! J showed me a documentary recently about how they make it - it comes from deep in the earth in huge blocks. The Schiefer-factory's unique design was, hilariously to me, a guy cutting Schiefer!
Our house has only one side in Scheifer, sadly, and when it's windy, like now, they bang against each other not-quite pleasantly. I made a wind chime out of some extras we have in the basement.
Why did I take this picture. Oh, I think it's cuz of the lack of
1. Front porches
2. Front yards
Germans don't need porches, for some reason. When people come to my front door, they stand in the pouring rain to talk to me.
Most homes will have a back yard, but a front yard is a rare thing. We have a side yard: )
I don't like this fish scale shape for the Schiefer. I do like their conformity to the color standards of long ago. I like the green rain gutter.
I hadn't noticed this totally regal house before. I love the many large windows on one side design. I want to know how it's divided inside - two windows per room, or?
Totally German - a useless tiny fence. What purpose does it serve? Also, brick instead of pavement, due to erosion concerns.
Our bakery! Once I was 5 cents short and told "too bad then." I remember a trip to America where the clerks were pulling out their own wallets when I didn't have exact change, it happened more than once. Though the quality of life is high here, the standard of living is lower. "Take a penny leave a penny" wouldn't work here.
On the other hand I hope you'll see in this tour how tidy Germans are, even if you can't hear how quiet they are: ) Two things I'll miss when I leave here someday.
I can read most of the handwriting here. The Berndbrot is what J buys, it's heavy and full of seeds. Sometimes it's too early and they won't cut the warm bread for us cuz it will get stuck in the cutter.
I often can't read European handwriting, and they can't read mine. In the sign above, every N looks like a U to me. Do you remember those charts we had in school that teach cursive? That is an American chart, apparently. We were taught differently (what does a capital Q look like in cursive?).
On the street there are cigarette machines, condom machines, and candy machines. Remember those from the 70s?
My walk continues next time, to the church and the post office. And excessive whimsy.
12 comments:
Love, love, love it!!!
Thank you! That's fascinating, and such a different world. It's amazing that those houses have been around so long without getting water damage and mold. I definitely see the tidy-ness. You should Google map my neighborhood and check out the satellite views. Most houses have dozens of old junk vehicles piled up in their yards. I just don't understand the mentality. Do these people drive cars until they are beyond repair, and then buy another used car, but don't want to have to pay to tow the dead one to a salvage yard? I know a lot of them are men who think they will fix up and sell the cars some day, but never do. Our property extends across the street from our house, but not to your extent. I wouldn't dare try to put a garden in there, because people would drive right over it while turning around. I laughed at your comment on the "well-behaved hedge". Everything here is wild and out of control. The only people who have neat yards tore out all the natural stuff and poured rock gardens. Our only incentive to trim and weed is to prevent hiding places for the rattlesnakes. I had a lot of other thoughts while reading your post, but they're gone now. I'll leave another comment if they return to me.
So enjoyable! Somehow I imagined you going up to the houses, knocking on the door and asking,"Can I come inside and take pictures for my blog so my friends can see what this looks like?"
Becky, glad you enjoyed it. I hope you see the next installments as I continued in my walk. Wish I had pics of water wheels: ( You come visit, we go see them.
NM, Rock gardens. I've been to Arizona. Why mow a tiny space, and why mow things in Arizona that mostly aren't grass. I remember Hawaii had lawns of things that were not grass, but seemed to be. Of all the people who read my blog, I think you'd love Germany the most. Silence. No one talks at shops or grocery stores. Cleanliness is Godliness. Horses have the right of way always and people and bikers really back away from horses. The entire nation mandates horses be shared with other users of trails, at least having alternate routes. Loose dogs are still here, but you won't likely have one attack you, the owner is there. I've never been called by a telemarketer or political party, there are no door-to-door anything-men. The only person who comes to my door is my mailman when I have a package to sign for. Burning is illegal. Large waste items are picked up regularly by law, so that nothing ends up lying around in the woods. No one talks to you unless you are American-crazy enough to initiate it. I miss the talking. I honestly think that if you lived here, you'd eventually miss the talking too.
KB, I don't think people here know what blogs are, and to what you said..... If only Germans were FRIENDLY. Germans are as suspicious as ever, esp with the 200,000 immigrants this year that I don't look like, but I *talk* like. I think you know I'm afraid to fly my flag anymore. I understand what you're saying though, that of the good people I know here, I should be able to go inside and get some photos! I'll keep trying. Glad you enjoyed the tour!
Oh what a cool town! I love those patterns in the buildings and the garage in the hill. So very cool. And so old, everything we think is old is not really, and no stone here so it just wears out
Lytha - It sounds like a nation that understands horses. Yes, your description does sound heavenly, but I understand the downsides you mention. The other day my next door neighbor caught me outside at the crack of dawn in the clothes I slept in with messed up hair, and he wanted to chat. I remember being astounded by how many people around here didn't think anything of making a social call at 5:00 or 6:00 AM when I first moved here, but now I understand that in the summer months, that is the only time that people are out and about before the heat sets in. Now that we are approaching summer, I'll have to shower first thing in the morning to make myself presentable before going down to the barn. Anyway, this neighbor is a bit of a hermit like me, so we got on a roll figuring out silly ways to keep the sales people, scam artists, and religious groups off our properties. I realized that I do like socializing as long as it is with people who don't like socializing, if that makes any sense. They know when to end a conversation and let me get on with my day. I'm "a bit" neighbor-shy after having so many non-stop talkers living around me all those years in NV. It's nice to have a neighbor who I can connect with, as opposed to have them just suck up my riding time with their life stories. Too much of anything gets old. You sound like you've had too much silence. I wish you could find someone to ride with you. My friend used to board her horse at a stable that boarded dozens of horses, and she met dozens of people who wanted to ride with her there. Now she's at a very small backyard type stable, and those people still ride with her. They meet her halfway between the two stables or trailer together. I occasionally run into people who suggest that we ride together, but I don't follow up on it because I really like riding alone. I don't want to have to worry that I'm ruining someone else's ride by being a slow poke and stopping to examine nature and the wildlife, or by having to turn back early because my leg cramped up. Plus I have the freedom to choose my routes and what speed I want to go without having to consult other riders on it. But when you are dealing with a green horse, you really need a buddy horse and another rider to distract you from your nerves and help you through the sketchy stuff.
My son lives in a small village called Mantel, Germany, the people there are very friendly. When we have been there they have had village parties for the Americans and Germans to get to know each other. There was food, music and lots of dancing. And of cource plenty of beer. They last until very late and were quite fun.
I enjoyed the pics very much. I think it is interesting that people's front doors open onto the sidewalk. You are right about cleanliness , I have seen people sweeping the sidewalk and road in front of there house on Sat. Morning. I think we have made our last trip to Germany, my family have moved to Dubai, maybe that will be my next vacation.
I love your neighborhood tours! And I like the fish-scale patterned slate, but of course it looks like DRAGON-SCALE to me.
The quiet would drive me nuts.I love chatting with strangers at the library, the coffee shop, the grocery store...I just think people are fun to talk with.
Strangers are all so interesting...as long as they don't come to my house. We had vacuum cleaner sales teams on the road, and. all the neighbors were calling each other to check in. Jim let them come in e house and clean our horrible carpet (with no intention to buy, of course) but I hid in the barn until they left.
Ellie - you reminded me about the doors opening to the sidewalk - both homes and businesses have doors that open in, not out. This is because if they open out, you'll hit someone who is walking down the sidewalk. In America I believe it's a law that businesses must have doors that open out in case of an emergency and people crowd the door. I can't count how many times I've pushed when I should have pulled!
I never thought of the door opening in vs. out thing before! Weird.
There is so much that is so different there from here. It's truly fascinating. I would like to visit someday, but I think I'd go crazy if I had to stay there too long. I like to talk too much haha.
Condom machines on the street?? Weird!
Sorry I've been gone so long. I haven't had much time for blogging lately with my new work schedule. I'm trying to get caught up now though. :)
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