My first time shopping on a Sunday

You know that Sunday is a day of rest in Germany, and the only businesses allowed to operate are restaurants. I have noticed that one alternative exists - gardening shops.

J's mother wanted to take me garden shopping for my birthday yesterday. It was my first time shopping on a Sunday in Germany in 10 years.

The day of rest is such a serious thing here, there have been lawsuits where someone lost the case because by hanging up laundry in their yard, they "disturbed the feeling of rest" for the neighbors.

As I've said before, we are not allowed to make noise on Sundays, which includes recycling.

I was thrilled to enter a business on a Sunday. It was wonderful - perfectly laid out like Ikea, and self-watering tables, a water system under each one. There is a huge graphic on the wall explaining how they get their water from rain on their roof, and all the other ways they save energy.

As we started to peruse the aisles, I noticed many signs scotch-taped to items. And entire sections roped off, off limits. The signs said, "This item available for purchase on Monday." But it said MO instead of MON so I thought, "Hm, only in Missouri?"

No, they wrote their signs in a very positive fashion, by law they are not allowed to sell certain items. I would have written the signs, "By law this item is not allowed to be sold on a Sunday." But they twisted it to something much more positive, encouraging people to just come back tomorrow.

So, what were those forbidden items? *grin*

Wow. What a learning experience.

You may buy flowers. You may not buy Horse Manure (a box with a pretty Arabian on it).

You may buy vegetables. You may not buy the planters to plant them in.

You may buy roses. You may not buy snippers or a spade to cultivate them. No tools at all.

You may buy berries. You may not buy seeds. In fact, the entire seed packet section of the gigantic store was closed off with red/white striped ribbon, to keep people out of that area.

At that point, my mother in law said, "I admit, that is ridiculous, that we can buy plants, but not seeds."

I agreed.

Also, the locally raised apple juice and honey, all had signs of "Available Monday!" Hrm, no honey on a Sunday for me! (Please take a moment to understand how difficult it is if you need medicine on a Sunday in Germany. In Germany you are SOL if you injure yourself on a Sunday.)

Directly outside the massive garden store were a few kiosks selling bratwurst, berries, asparagus (with a very fancy machine that takes the outer layers off of your white asparagus for you - I thought it was a snow-cone machine, I was wrong.) They also had coffee to-go (that means, disposable cups - something new to Germany). These edible things were legal somehow, but inside the gardening store, no honey and no apple juice bottles were legal to sell on Sunday. (WHY?)

Any German reading this please tell.


At the check-out, they had plywood sheets laying over the food items (roasted nuts and licorice), to keep us from trying to buy them.

I'm curious to know what would happen if I put a Sunday-forbidden item on the belt. How often does it happen, that people put illegal things like a bottle of fertilizer up there, is there an alarm?

Oh well, it was my first time. I will have to try again and run experiments. I asked J and he said, "Don't look at me, I've never shopped on a Sunday. Only, he just clarified to me as I type this, "A very, very tiny flower shop, that was it.."

I'm so thankful to J's mother, I have so many plants and flowers, I spent four hours planting them all, J's mom was so generous.

***

She mentioned she'd like some horse manure compost from us. I said, "Yes, I'll do it!" But I don't compost anymore, I just spread, so I'll have to make an effort to mix poop and hay for her.

As I started sifting through the poop in the wheelbarrow, trying to pick out Mag's, cuz the donkeys' are hard little rocks that will never decompose....Mag placed himself right there next to me.

I picked out some poop and placed it in the bucket.

He's never seen me do anything like this, usually I put the poop into the wheelbarrow, and I don't take it back out carefully.

He had his head right there between the barrow and the bucket, so it was very difficult for me to move material.

There were a few little sticks in the wheelbarrow from all the trimming we've been doing, and at one point he grabbed one and started flipping it all about, also making my job difficult.

How can you not laugh at that kind of antic? I laughed and asked him to please let me continue to sift and he just wouldn't let it go.

I like how Mag always says to me, "This thing you are doing is not like all the others." (Sesame Street). Normal life is putting poop in wheelbarrows. Now you are taking it out, piece by piece, and saving it as if it's precious.

He kept putting his nose in the bucket, as if to confirm that it is just poop, while buckets normally mean food. Mag's world expanded tonight, based on gathering his waste for gardening tasks.

He kept getting his sun-screen covered nose on me, and I'd actually use it when he did, rubbing it on my neck. Every day my horse and I must grease ourselves up against the death rays of the sun.

May 28 is the date.

Speaking of the sun....

I counted every single day that the sun did not shine.

We had THREE days without sun in May 2017 in Wermelskirchen. As many of you know, I count days without sunshine, because it is so alien to me, how sunny this land is, despite it being one of the wettest places in Germany. Today I relished a glorious thunderstorm and got totally soaking wet getting from my car to the entrance of the garden store.

My mom told me on the phone yesterday that the sun shone in Seattle for the first time in ages, and people went nuts enjoying it.

I find it funny that Germans travel to Spain (Mallorca) to escape bad weather. How could it be any better there? I trust there is a reason.

Anyway, in a few weeks I think my garden will be spectacular. If so, I'll take pics. If not, well, I overstepped my bounds of experience by buying risky things like Delphinium and Zucchini.

Zucchini. *sigh*