These are a few of my favorite things...

We have some new little guys blooming in our garden. I wanted to put up a picture of our crocus, but they tipped over pretty fast. It seems like more are coming up, but they aren't in bloom yet.






















































































































While the sun was shining in the last couple weeks, I started work on my latest fun free time project: photographing Art Nouveau buildings that I happen by in town. We got started on Art Nouveau a few years ago when we bought a beautiful antique buffet for our living room that just happened to be from that period, this fall we started buying more of this style furniture. I'm writing at my Art Nouveau table as we speak. It's kind of a hit and miss thing, sometimes you find what seems to be a good deal on something online, buy it, then it's not quite as great as you thought...this way we've bought and sold a wardrobe and five chairs. The buffet was a serious stroke of luck...and kind of expensive. We have another chair waiting for us to fix it in the attic, and now we're taking a break on the antique furniture. But to satisfy my little thing for this style, I'm going to start taking pictures of it. It's a fun enough way to see some different parts of Dresden and not cost myself lots of money and nerves on stuff that's not quite what I thought it would be. The pictures are really full of surprises, because the closer and longer you look, the more neat details you find that you might not notice standing on the street staring at somebody else's house.

The photos above are from three houses on Katharinenstrasse in the Neustadt. These houses are pretty wild examples of Art Nouveau architecture from around 1905 by the architect Friedrich Wilhelm Hertzsch. They have the typical symmetry, line and decorative elements of Art Nouveau, but with some neat touches like the different faces, animals and flowers worked in. Have fun finding all the little extras in those facades!

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!

Oh, wie schön ist Panama -or- Our Trip to Panama



















Here are some pictures from our trip to Panama today, an adventure playground right around the corner from our house. It's a fantastic place, and must be visited often on orders from the boss, Wilhelm. Amazingly, after 10 months living in the United States, we returned to Dresden and asked him if we should visit the animals, meaning Panama. We were already on the street where Panama is located, and he showed us the way to the animals! We are talking about a child who was 2 when we left Dresden and 3 when we returned.























The chicken with the feather pants is one of our favorite animals here.












































































A baby goat! A while ago when I first saw the babies, they were only as big as cats!



















And the horses. Sometimes we see these guys being ridden around the Neustadt. That always makes you do a double take!

There's also other neat stuff here: equipment for climbing, great sandboxes, even a big wooden ship to climb and play on. We wanted to go on the ship, but then some big kids from the school next door got to it first and were being rowdy, so we hung out with the chickens instead. They even have a place for bonfires and offer lots of activities and classes for older kids. It is a nice place where city kids can have a bit of country!

On another note, I was just thrilled today to find out that the German children's book by Janosch that inspired my title is also available in English--the Trip to Panama! I'm ordering it right now! And probably the German version, too.

Has spring sprung?

In the last couple of days, it hasn't been unbearably cold and ugly and gray and snowy, it has actually been above freezing and all the snow and ice is melting away! Just when it felt like winter would never end, maybe it has.



















Here are some little plants coming up in our garden. They are some kind of spring bloomers, we'll see what they are. The lady who lived here before us planted them!
















































Here are a couple of views out of two of our twelve windows. I was motivated by the beautiful weather today to wash the windows, and while doing this, started wondering how many windows we actually have here. We don't live in a typical apartment, it's actually a little one-storey addition onto a freestanding house, not a rowhouse like across the street. It's more like a little house all our own than an apartment. Here we have 50% more windows in this place than in our old place, which was 25% larger.



















This may look like a little junkyard, but it is actually a part of the property we are renting. It doesn't look like much now, but we are going to put a greenhouse on it! It's right outside one of our living room windows.
























Here is our terrace/garden, also not typical for apartments in our neighborhood. We have a separate entrance from the rest of the people living in our house, which is neat. It is great not only for our famous grill parties, but also as an open air playpen for the kids and bunnies!



















Speaking of the buns, here is their habitat. This photo was taken just after it was built in September. This view of the garden is basically just a shot in the opposite direction from the one above.



















Here's a shot of Knuddelhase and Cream last fall, when they were just wee babes...



















...and today, all chunky with their thick winter coats.











































These are two of the three windows that I didn't wash today...I ran out of steam before getting to the kids' room. The car window and the Lorax window are more or less finished, but I still need to make pictures for the third window in the kids' room. The plan is for the last one to be a Miffy window, whenever I get around to it.

The helicopters.

Today is the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden at the end of World War 2. This is a big anniversary, drawing Neonazis and their opponents right smack into the middle of the city and into my neighborhood. The Neonazis wanted to march, but according to news reports, their opponents have successfully blocked them with a sit-in as well as blockades made of flaming trash cans. They blocked the train tracks, the tram lines, everything. The police didn't make them move to protect the Neonazis constitutional right to have their march or demonstration or whatever they had planned. Cool!

For pictures, go here and click the arrows on the right to go through the gallery.

Or you can also go here, and see a couple more pictures. The top photo with "Lola ich liebe dich" is right on the corner of my old street. Glad I don't live there any more!

Although it makes me pretty happy that the anti-fascists have blocked the Nazis, and it's all nice and warm and fuzzy that 15000 people showed up in the city center to form a human chain of remembrance, I am freaking sick of all the police helicopters flying over surveying the situation. They started yesterday evening, and have been flying over all day. It's worse than the stupid blimp that flew over every evening before the new mall opened up in September.

The Zoo

I have heard talk of how much Dresden has changed lately, and I guess when you are thinking about the new malls, the new bridge that is getting finished and is just waiting to be put onto the Elbe, new supermarkets, fixed streets, and that sort of stuff, a lot has happened. My favorite change, though, has to be the addition of giraffes at the zoo.
































































The giraffe house was under construction the last time we visited the zoo, and now it is completed. I have to admit, I have never been such a fan of giraffes. I had nothing against them, but I have always had more of an affinity to monkeys and big cats. However, on our first trip to the zoo this year, Wilhelm was completely enthused by the giraffes. We went again yesterday, and the giraffe house was again his main focus. Maybe it's because the giraffes are so tall and graceful, maybe it's because they seem quite peaceful, almost floating around on their long legs with their long necks and funny heads on top. On a trip to the Munich zoo when Wilhelm was just one and a half, we were looking at the lions behind their glass wall, and the male lion stood up and approached Wilhelm, in his eyes probably a tender little morsel, behind the glass. Even though the lion wasn't moving quickly, and certainly couldn't get him, Wilhelm screamed, ran to me, and wanted nothing to do with any lions. He recognized that this was an interested carnivore. Perhaps he likes the giraffes because they don't want to eat him.
























The mandrills. I like these goofy apes, especially the baby with it's big, round eyes and crazed expression.



















"Achtung, achtung, er guckt!" (Attention, attention, he's looking!) This is what Wilhelm said when this silly bird popped his head up over the wall. This bird seems to have some psychological damage from living in the zoo. It's main occupation is to run back and forth behind this wall, popping its head up from time to time. Especially funny is when the viewer is eating something, because then it gets very interested, and almost frantic. Wilhelm had a tofu wiener in his hand, and the bird sprinted over to him, much to Wilhelm's amusement, and started stretching its head over the wall. Wilhelm is a bright boy though, laughed at the bird and made a quick step back.

Dresden-Neustadt

This is the place I called home for 5 1/2 years, and now again after a 10 month hiatus in Michigan. Michigan is my home too, it's the place where I come from, but it's Dresden that has grabbed me and isn't letting me go any time soon. I can't seem to break free of this place, and don't really want to anyway. So for the people who haven't been lucky enough to visit us here, or those who have and want to see it again, here's a bit of the Neustadt for you.


















Here's a view out over part of the Neustadt from the tower of the Martin Luther Church.
























That's one of my very favorite walls. It's on Böhmische Strasse by the playground.



















Blast from the past! This was in 2004, when people were already protesting the possible construction of a parking garage on this site. Not to mention the cobblestones hadn't been removed yet and so Kamenzer Strasse was a miserable bumpy mess for anybody on a bike (or in a car). A while later, that little flat building was demolished, creating an empty lot where a bunch of people started to camp out, protesting whatever would be later built there. In 2008/2009, while we were gone, the new supermarket/preschool/parking garage/apartment house was finished on this site. We now live just around the corner from here, and I am so happy to have a supermarket there, this part of the neighborhood really lacked in shopping opportunities when I lived on Prießnitzstraße, so we had to haul heavy backpacks full of groceries and sacks of kitty litter from the Königsbrücker Str. Not fun.


















Yet another of my favorite walls. This one is on Pulsnitzer Str. and this was when it was still fresh and new. Some jerks have grafittied it now. I think grafitti can be pleasing too, but why do it on a facade as nice as this? Why not pick a boring wall from any of the hundreds of others?



















Pretty much at the heart of the Neustadt, and the heart of the BRN--the Bunte Republik Neustadt, a festival held at the end of each June here.


















Parker Louis! This guy has a giant empire of pay parking lots in the Neustadt, and he is a much loathed figure, because he patrols his parking lots and photographs your car if you have not purchased a parking ticket. Then he fines you. But he has to be able to prove who was actually driving the car when it had been parked, otherwise he can't just force the car owner to pay a fine. He's been sued over this a number of times.


















"Against exorbitant rent and complete refurbishment...noise and dirt for all"
You can figure out the yuppie part.
This neighborhood used to be occupied in large part by squatters and artists and punks around the time of reunification (1990), but has now become well-known as a "hip part of town" with lots of trendy bars, good restaurants and clubs, and interesting shops, driving rent prices up and a lot of the artists and punks out. The artists and punks strike back.

Look at all those flowers!











































I just took the last of these flowers to the compost pile today...these were all flowers I got for my birthday a couple weeks ago. I don't even want to talk about how old I am, but from the flowers you can see it was a big one. Thanks to everyone for the beautiful flowers! I think the only time I got more flowers than for this birthday was when Wilhelm was born!


















In other news, I have been busy. Inspired by way too expensive mobile lamps at the store, I decided to make this cheap-o 5 Euro lamp into something cool. I decided on planets, and bought a bunch of styrofoam balls last week, painted them up, jabbed in some wire and added some beads, and voila! The kids have a neat planet lamp!
























I was also knitting for a while, but for some reason, I have sort of lost my desire to do this. This was the first hat I made for Friedrich. I also made one for Wilhelm with the same colors, but with earflaps, but it turned out a bit small, and I can't find the picture of it. It will be okay though when it is not so cold outside, but for now he needs a seriously insulated hat because it is cold here!

Holy ice, Batman!

Being away for almost a year, I forgot how dangerous city life in the winter can be. I think this year is extreme, though. We got loads of snow that stuck, it built up on roofs, thawed a bit and refroze, creating giant, scary icicles.


















Thanks to the sz-online for that picture. These giant icicles are not in Dresden, but I have certainly seen many like that on my street and in my neighborhood. The really fun part is that it has been above freezing for the last couple of days, loosening and ultimately freeing these giant icicles, ice chunks, and snowpiles from 5 stories above the sidewalk so that they come crashing down. Here's what happens:

















Thanks again to the sz-online for that photo. This is right in my neighborhood. I have seen several places where these giant chunks are lying on the sidewalk, but fortunately have not been under any falling chunks because I have taken to walking on the street, and will continue to do so until all ice is gone. I've seen ice crashing down right across the street, out my window, while on the way to the bakery today, and amazingly and fortunately, no people have been injured so far. That is amazing. Many cars have suffered though. Luckily we have a parking spot between 2 houses with little or no ice and snow, so no "roof avalanches" should come crashing down on our car.
Yesterday evening I went out with a friend, and as we were saying goodbye outside before heading home, we heard a sound sort of like scary sliding ice above our heads, we jumped and looked up and saw someone rolling down their shutters. We had a good laugh and then we heard the sound again, resulting in another jump and look up, again to realize that it was just the shutters. It seems like someone was having a fun time playing "Jump, foreigner, jump!"

I almost forgot...




















2010 is off to a darn good start...guess who will be playing in Dresden in June??? AC/DC!!!
Guess who has tickets? We do!!!

Happy New Year!

We saw this on our new year's day tour of the destruction in Dresden-Neustadt.



















It seems like good advice.
It seems there was little destruction this new year. In earlier days, we always saw broken windows and damage to cars, this year not even the parking ticket machines were destroyed. This morning we just saw some used fireworks and broken bottles on the streets, but nothing too wild. Not even my former landlord was outside one of the slum houses in his empire repairing damage to his house by disgruntled tenants or feverishly cleaning his sidewalk. Boring new year.

But that is probably fine. Here is a little 2009 of mine in review:

-a baby on the way
-quit my job
-another transatlantic move
-waiting and waiting and waiting to find the right place to live
-got 2 bunnies before we even had a place to live
-we found it! It's great, with a garden all our own and space for a bunny paradise!
-Friedrich arrived, and both of us remained completely unscathed, as opposed to Wilhelm's birth
-Wilhelm started Kindergarten!
-a trip to Gran Canaria to top it all off

There's certainly more, but that's the most important stuff, or so it seems to me at the moment.
That probably doesn't sound bad, but it was a terribly stressful year. This year has got to be better.