Spring is here! And so are the Mormons!

When the sun starts to shine a bit and it's warm enough to peel off that winter coat and slip into a spring jacket, the people around here overdo it and whip out the sunglasses and leave their jackets at home, making a pilgrimage to Alaunplatz to lie around, juggle, see and be seen. The slackliners and alcoholics on the parkbenches are out, soon Alaunplatz will be full of people with crazy African drums and disposable grills.
























The roofing ceremony or topping out ceremony, whatever a Richtfest is called in English (can anyone help me out here? Does this exist where I come from?) for the new Kindergarten was last Friday, and there was lots of off-key singing by little kids and speeches by politicians before they swung this funny wreath up over the partially erected Kindergarten with a big crane.



















Our favorite Christian Democratic Union representative was there too! We were so close we could have touched him. It's that skinny young guy in the middle: Patrick! He is a much loathed figure in the Äussere Neustadt because he wants to clean the place up. He's gay, is often publicly mocked, people have even gone into his underground parking garage damaged his car. I even heard a rumor that someone kicked the mirror off of his car right in front of him, and he took matters into his own hands and delivered justice. With his fist. I also saw a public appearance of his where people threw cups of yogurt and other milk products at him. This is why I like Patrick, he's sort of like a Timex: he takes a licking and keeps on ticking!*



















Yup, and there they are, the Mormons, the 2 guys in suits. This is the second day in a row that they have been right by my house. The day before yesterday I made a quick trip to the store and the one on the left with the dark hair jumped right in front of my moving bicycle because, and I quote "he likes to speak with people about Jesus". I said no thanks and kept on pedaling.

*This is in no way a political endorsement of Patrick or the CDU. I can't vote here and am not informed well enough to anyway. I just like how Patrick operates.

Snowdrops II

Hooray! Our snowdrops are blooming! And as you will also notice, the snow is gone and the sun is shining! Hooray!
We also have crocus and tulips coming up in the garden. Mid-March means it's time for us to get some garden work done and welcome the grilling season. Although I noticed that Candys Massagestudio (and brothel) beat us to it yesterday.



















Our lemon tree was also in bloom, but the blossoms fell off! I found them littering my windowsill. Huh.

The Snowdrops

That was the end of our nice weather last week, just as we were getting over our bronchitis and colds and coughs, the beautiful spring-like weather made a quick exit and this business started.






































Our poor little snowdrops are all surrounded with snow. They aren't open yet, and I hope they survive. Much more than anything, though, I hope that this stupid sub-zero weather would just quit already. I am sick of coughing and sick of being exhausted because I am sick, I am sick of snowboots and snowpants and thick winter coats and gloves and hats! I want some warm sunny days so I can eat breakfast and dinner in my garden and go for long walks without having to search for my long lost gloves and packing up a thermos of tea so I don't freeze to death by the time I reach the Elbe.
Enough of my sad-sack complaining. But really, I hope this year isn't like that year when I was 4 years old when it snowed on Mothers' Day...Wilhelm will be 4 this year...in May...

Haha

Out of mass boredom (well, I have stuff I could do, but just am in no shape to do it) and because my brain doesn't function when I am sick, I stumbled across this blog of funny signs: http://www.funnysign.com/

If your brain has turned to mush because it snowed again yesterday, at least you can still get a mindless laugh out of this blog.

Wrong!

Duh, our flowers are snowdrops. The leaves are much smaller than those of lilies of the valley. They aren't quite open yet, but they sure are cute little guys. And really, honestly, I could do without the snow accompanying the snowdrops the last couple of days.

Our little flowers...

...seem to be lilies of the valley, or May bells, aka Maiglöckchen in German. I really like these flowers and remember a hike in Polenztal a looooong time ago way back when my sister-in-law visited me here in Dresden where we went to view these pretty little flowers just as they were blooming. Then on a later trip to Polenztal to collect wild garlic (Bärlauch) I collected a bunch of poisonous May bell leaves, because they look just like wild garlic, but grow in a different formation. So we had to pitch our whole harvest! I am thrilled to have these flowers in our garden! And I will not eat them or their leaves. They are not quite blooming yet, but their little white buds are hanging down just like a May bell will!

I looked up lilies of the valley to be sure of the translation (we accidentally dug up the bulbs of these flowers in the fall and took them to Flower Steve to see if he knew what they were, he said "Maiglöckchen!") In that fantastic source of internet wisdom Wikipedia, it says lots of interesting things about the lily of the valley. It has lots of Christian connotations, springing up from Eve's tears after she was driven from the Garden of Eden, that naughty girl, or that Mary's tears at the Crucifixion turned into lilies of the valley. But my favorite, and the most fitting for my garden, is that supposedly in the language of flowers, these little guys mean "the return of happiness". What could be a more appropriate flower for us right now? Things are going great. Work is good, home is good, the kids are good, the bunnies are good. Even the garden is good! Now we just have to get the damn kitchen finished!