Springtime in January?

I was incredulous at what I heard some ladies at the grocery store discussing. The topic was how cold it is in Germany. They were Americans, but they either were from the South or just plain idiots. They were saying how cold German winters are- oh, how awful and horrible weather. What?!? Yes, in December it was a bit cold- but stayed right around the freezing mark. There has been no snow to speak of, only a week or so of beautiful heavy frost, and no freezing rain. Not really much rain to speak of all together. It does seem to be mostly cloudy most of the time, but this is much of the case much of the year. So, maybe this fact gives some people the illusion of bad weather. But really, it's been a decent winter. The weather is mild in Germany all year around- not much of extreme temperatures in any season.

My biggest point of it being a mild winter- nature. The birds are returning already, and the flowers are blooming. I have been watching my daffodils, tulips and hyacinths break ground for a full month now. My hydrangeas have leaves sprouting on them and the azaleas and rhododendrums are getting ready to bloom. Primroses, snowdrops and crocus are in bloom, among several vines and bushes and other native flowers that I don't know the names of. And it is yet January. Hmmmmm.... not my definition of a hard winter. People are really unrealistic and babies when it comes to the simpliest of things- even the most basic thing as weather. I think those who face the mudslides, blizzards, avalanches, typhoons, volcanos, storms at seas, floods and other natural disasters are the only ones to have something to complain about concerning the weather. Good grief.

Frustration

Yesterday I was more than a little perturbed at my children. Whiny, to say the least. The result of some craziness was this;

Nathaniel came exploding out of the bathroom, and the door swung back so far that it hit the wall behind it, and split the door where the bottom hinge is, and popped the top one out some. It's no good. The door has to be replaced.

One upside to this; at least it deters anyone from using the toilet, as it's been on the fritz lately, and the landlord refuses to have it fixed. Now that Dustan has removed the door completely, there is no privacy. How annoying is that though?

Need some pepper?

Last night we went to Waldgeist with some friends. It is a restaurant a bit north of here that serves king sized food. Real funny stuff. They serve whole, butcher size sausages, steaks the size of your head and schnitzel the size of my body. Dustan got a 1/1 schnnitzel, which is 2lbs of pork. Scary. I'm not sure if he got half of it into his belly.

As we were walking out, we saw a server putting some pepper on someone's food for them. We didn't get a picture of it, but I found someone else's clip of their trip on youtube.

Wilhelma Zoo

Wilhelma Zoo is located in Stuttgart, which is about an hour from here. We went the other day with Pa & Romona. It is a large zoo, with lots of inclosed exhibits that will keep you busy for a wintry day. We walked thru some greenhouses with beautiful camillas in bloom. We looked at some interesting creatures in glass enclosures. There were very strange ones that I've never seen before. Nathaniel was excited to see huge sloths. (Sloths are on Diego and also on Ice Age.)

There were pathways galore and the park like setting was very relaxing. There was beautiful tile work and ironwork, statues and dry fountains. Following one path, we managed to find the aquarium, which is always a favorite in our family. In the midst of this there was a crocodile exihibit, which was the highlight of Nathaniel's day. There were also all kinds of snakes and lizards too.

We then continued on our way were we found the amazon building, which is always cool, and a small schmetterlinghaus. There we saw newborn butterflies, and then into the insect building we went. They had some cool bugs, and some really nasty ones- like a caseful of the biggest cockroaches you've seen- all alive. EWWWWWWWW!!!!

When the kids were getting tuckered out, we made our way towards the exit where we found the flamingos and the penguins outdoors. Always a favorite too, we stopped and admired them a bit.

All in all we had a good time, even though Nat was a bit cranky and put on his brakes a few times. Afterwards we went out to dinner at the Brauhaus in Leimen and it sure was yummy! What a great day spent with family!