Wie Teppich / Like Carpet

 

When I see the flowers here, it reminds me of a carpet. I certainly like to feel the texture --  of how the flowers softly touch my palm.

Bitter Pill

Where I live in the Philippines, the market can be easily reached by foot. When we buy local fruits, they are normally ready to eat.

I miss papaya. From what I know, there are two types of papaya: one with color yellow inside and one with the color orange inside. I prefer the latter.

I have never bought papaya in Germany. I found that those from Brazil have the same type that I like. I went to the grocery one day and saw papayas from Brazil on sale. I was ecstatic.

I bought one even though it was still green. I read that putting the fruit with a banana in a brown paper bag helps to ripen it. I did just that. After a few days, it was still green. Then days became weeks. 

Second Week of Waiting

After 3 excruciating long weeks, it was somewhat yellow and one end even showed mold. I figured, it was ready to eat. I cut it and lo and behold, the fruit looked a bit dry inside. Undaunted, I took a bite. It was BITTER! Never had I tasted papaya that was bitter. I didn’t even know that it could have such a taste.

Such a long wait just to get a taste of a bitter papaya........

Third Week of Waiting

IDEA: What about papaya with sugar? Tried it and oh well, better than none at all.

Papaya with Sugar, Anyone?

Kleinvieh macht auch Mist!

Gestern war ich in Altenheim. Wie immer wenn ich da bin und gleichzeitig gibt es die Runde, bin ich eingeladen, dort teilzunehmen. Was ist die Runde? Die Leute sitzen ringsherum. Herr W erzählt dann Geschichten, Nachrichten oder manchmal gibt es Bewegungstraining, Gedächtnistraining, usw. 
Ein von den Training war Redewendungen ergänzen. Versuchen wir mal dann. Also, wenn er sagt, Ende gut, was soll man antworten?......Alles gut. Richtig, Sie haben es richtig ergänzt.
Es gibt viele deutsche Redewendungen die ich nicht selbstverständlich kenne. Also, einer davon ist Kleinvieh macht auch Mist. Tja, ich habe es schon mal gehört aber nie es richtig verstanden. Ich habe zwar gedacht, es bedeutet, dass sogar wenn es nur Babys Kacke ist, wird es sowieso Arbeit. Falsch. Auf Englisch, a penny saved is a penny earned! Wer hat gewusst, dass es DIESE Redewendung gemeint ist. Manchmal ist es klar wie, Ende gut, alles gut. All that ends well is well. Aber manchmal, ist es nicht ganz deutlich. Man muss Fantasie haben.

Flowers abloom

Before

After

The photos were taken 3 days from each other. How different they look. I was hoping to wait for the wind to blow and take a photo of the pink flowers. It was a sight to see but oh well. You have to imagine it for yourself then. 

So simple things yet one can learn a thing or two from these photos:

1) The flowers are like opportunities. They come and they go. They don't exactly wait. Luckily, in this case, they'll come again next year. 

2) Or when the door closes, another opens. The pink flowers are almost gone but the white ones are now in full bloom.

約會

在星期四, 我有一個約會. 我很緊張.

Ruins of Kastelburg, Waldkirch

Waldkirch Train Station

I have been at this train station several times. When I first saw the building, I was impressed. But the more you see something, sometimes, you just take it for granted. Yesterday saw it once again since a long time. I still find the architecture pretty and interesting. 

Kastelburg is about 1.5 km from the train station. There are  directions pointing to where it is. Good thing because I didn't come prepared. There are 8 knights along the trail that leads to the ruins.

A knight found along the trail

Tower of Kastelburg

Kastelburg was built around 1250. In 1634, it was destroyed by fire. Since 2002, it is under renovation.

Part of the ruins of Kastelburg

 I like this part a lot. One can look through the "windows" and see what one wants to see. You can see the city of Waldkirch, you can see part of the forest, you can see the roads, etc. I had a hard time choosing which part I truly wanted to see. 

Do you see the three holes on the bottom part of the photo? While there, two holes were occupied by two kids reading books. Each hole fits a little girl in a sitting position. I thought it was quite cute and sweet.

View from the tower

Inside the tower

A sign posted outside the tower stated enter at your own risk. I almost didn't want to go up. Though the wooden steps looked sturdy enough, just that the steps are a bit higher than usual. It helped that every now and then, there are holes where one can take a rest (or where one can appreciate the view).

For a change of scenery, took another route back to the train station. Surprisingly, it was so short. We no longer saw any knights and before we knew it, we saw the road in front of us.