Back Home
May 12 , 2007
Written May 19
Dear Friends and Families,
After being gone for over a month, it was nice to get home to our small village. America is OK, and we can't complain about the pretty Spring trees and the wonderful opportunity to visit families and friends, but being home has its rewards.
Our house managed fine without us. Our neighbor had taken in our mail and set it out or our hall bench , far more organized than I would have been! Among all this, there was not much remarkable. Between email for friends and electronic banking and bill paying, paper mail just isn't what it used to be. That's actually one of the things that makes travel easier nowadays. There's no need to be apart from correspondents (or creditors, I suppose.)
The surrounding farmland and countryside had completely changed, due in part to the warmest and driest April on record, or so we were told. (Remember, we were in Virginia with snow for Easter!) Everything was growing. We even managed to miss most of the season when Germany becomes a patchwork quilt of bright yellow rape seed blossoms and green sprouting wheat. It is one of our favorite times for drives through our Bavarian countryside.
We also managed to miss the blossoming of our 16 fruit trees. Neighbors on both the left and the right commented on how colorful it had been. I guess we'll have to stay around at least another year, so we can enjoy the blossoms of our labor. In fact, we had to spend several long days restoring our lawn and garden, because these too had grown, out of control, in our absence. We also had to finish our vegetable garden, with tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini and potatoes. I try to not count on a good harvest, because we are such amateurs at this agricultural business, but at least it's fun to watch things grow.
It was nice to be among our village friends too. We managed to visit our neighbor Mr. Dorn's restaurant the first evening we were back and got caught up on town happenings. On our first Friday back, we had dinner at the Greuner Baum, my old temporary home, where Marianne would always meet me Friday evening, after her work week up in Giessen. Here too, we caught up on things that were happening with Pommersfelden and with the Hofmann family. Everyone we talked to commented on the "summerish April", with any number of theories of why things were the way they were. You have to remember, weather is a big deal in a small village, especially one with the local farming tradition.
For Saturday, we had looked forward to a breakfast at the Kellerhaus Cafe, but when we checked earlier in the week, Willie Hofmann, the owner, said they had dropped the practice of opening for breakfast, because there was just not enough business. (Probably because we were gone for a month!) Nevertheless, he said his chef would be at the restaurant, preparing for the afternoon crowd, and he could prepare breakfast - just for us. So that's what we did. As we sat there, looking out at "our" castle, it was as if we were celebrities, enjoying an entire restaurant, catered for our convenience.
Being home is special.
John and Marianne.