The Plattenhardt fest

I guess I got this from Mom, but I love houseplants. They just make a house look more alive. Every place I've lived I had a ficus/fig tree that would get really nice and big then I'd move and have to give it away. I bought two here, but they are pretty small. All the plants I bought came in smaller pots, so I've been needing to replant them. The dirt at the PX is labeled in German, so I had to take Sam with me to decipher which one to get. We finally got around to it this weekend. We actually got quite a bit done. Herr Muller and his friend, Michael, came Saturday and put the first coat of paint on the shed. Sam and I had to make a run to Obi (German home depot store) and while we were there we found a McIntosh apple tree. All of our neighbors either have cherry, apple, lemon or orange trees and they always look so attractive, so we bought one for the back yard. Sam planted it out back and I got all of the house plants transferred to bigger pots.

Outside of our living room window there is a very large planter box attached to the house. I was going to plant flowers in it when the household goods arrived, so that got delayed. Yesterday, Sam worked at getting all of the weeds out of it. I don't think flowers have been planted there for several years and it was just full of weeds. I'm thinking about planting some Hibiscus seeds that I got from Grandma Thorne. I want something that will come back every year and will flower throughout the summer. The flowers here in Germany are quite expensive so if I have to replant that every year I'd end up spending a lot of money on it.

Gabby loves to get outside any chance she gets.

It seems like there is a small town fest going on every week here in Germany. Plattenhardt had their fest this last weekend. After going to the theater at Patch on Saturday evening we stopped in to see what it was like. They had the main street blocked off and lots of vendors set up. There was a concert going on and of course almost everyone had a drink in their hands. I don't think I've ever felt more like a foreigner here than I did walking through that crowd of about 1,500 people. It was an uncomfortable feeling for me and the first time I really felt like a stranger here. Of course they all didn't know that we were American, but it felt like I had a big bull's eye painted on my back. It was interesting and probably not that uncomfortable for Sam since he could understand people talking. This next weekend we're going to the fest in Bonlanden (the next town over) with Michael. He and Herr Muller wanted us to go with them to Plattenhardt's, but we already had other plans, so we said we'd go next weekend. From what I hear the Bonlanden fest has been around for a long time (100 years??). Should be interesting :)

Well, that's about it for now. I'm going to see what's going on downstairs. It's too quiet. I think my husband must have fallen asleep reading the newspaper.