Images of our village

So I've been meaning to post this particular picture for over a week now but mother nature tricked me and took away spring for a minute. BUT today is so beautiful and warm, not teasing warm, but warm that reaches your bones and makes you remember aah, this is what spring/summer feels like. So one night just before sunset, which now is around 8:30 pm, I looked out my back window and had visions of the Jolly Green Giant and the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz, SUCH A BRILLIANT GREEN! This scene that we get to enjoy changes with every season and never disappoints.

So Sunday afternoon we couldn't resist, picked up the Rebel XTi and went wandering in our village. Here are some images I captured. The first is looking down into our village from the upper road. If you look closely, very closely, you can see the tip of a yellow house, we live just behind it. And all the green behind is what you see out our back window.

Here are images from today. A couple of things to notice is the wood pile in the third picture. German's are so particular about their wood piles, neatly stacked and organized. You see this everywhere. The fifth picture is the little bitty church in our village. It is funny, everyone in the village is required to contribute to it, like tithing only it is not a choice, yet I have yet to see a service held there! And the little vending machine is a cigarette distributor. Obviously you are not ID'd and anyone can put their mulla in and get a cig out. This was one of the first things about Germany that I thought, "What the heck?!" And check out the horse drawn carriage toward the bottom. This is something we see and hear on a regular basis, sometimes with a carriage, sometimes with a single rider but always the clop clop of the hooves. If it is not the clop clop sound then it is the bell on the bread truck bringing in fresh bread from the local bakery. Stops right in front of my house to tempt me every other day!


































Finally a word about a 3 year old. I know everyone talks about the terrible 2's as being difficult, which they are BUT what about the 3's? When your child is 2 the difficulty comes from not being able to communicate, figuring out how to tell you what they want or need. BUT as their language develops and communication is established, self confidence is fostered which is a good thing but along with this self confidence is a child trying to become independent and individual. My child is really trying to assert her independence and most of the time there is no room for negotiation. She know exactly what and how she wants it. Here is a picture of her on our village walk where she decides she wants me to hold her and I'm not willing to do this. She sits her fanny down on the sidewalk and is determined to get her way. She didn't but it was a good effort on her part. And just tonight, she needs to go potty and wants my help. I lift her to the potty and she screams out, "I want to do this myself!", she gets down and jumps right back up, "All by herself". Does she just need my presence there? These characteristics of 3, I hope, will lead to a self confident, determined, positively assertive and successful adult but for now I'm trying to survive the 3 . . .