September 26, 2008

Written October 26

Dear Friends and Families,

We live in a beautiful part of Germany, but a rural one. Our "cultural choices" are limited: some summer music festivals, beer festivals, wine festivals, church anniversaries, art shows, small-town celebrations. What these summer events may lack in sophistication, they make up for in sheer numbers.

We are regulars at a few of these gatherings and, at others, we just go because they are convenient and sound interesting. This weekend we tried a new "art show" and our regular, Fall, arts-and-crafts-in-a-castle show.

Just north of us, in Memmelsdorf, is one of the nicest castles we've run across Schloss xxxx. Our weekly local advertiser ran a story about an antique festival this weekend and we thought this could be a good adventure.
	It was disappointing, not because the schloss wasn't as impressive as we had remembered but because the antique show consisted of a dozen antique dealers, each with a relatively small selection of small, expensive things. We are not in the market for small, expensive things.
	On Saturday afternoon, we did manage to return to the annual Fazination Garten show in Schloss xxxx, just west us, in Wachenrote. The family that runs these shows has three gatherings, including one at our neighbor palace, Schloss Weisenstein. We have gone to ALL years of all these shows. Amazing. It is fun, seeing the old "jazz band" and shopping at familiar eateries and plant shops. This year, we met "Jim, from Ireland", and Marianne bought me a wonderful Irish sweater but, for a change, there was nothing new for the house this year. Maybe next time.

So, that's what we do for excitement in our little valley. Not much, but something we will want to remember, hence this diary.

Look in your valley too, and keep a diary.

John and Marianne