Eine kleine Post

Just a quick post from mid December:

I took this on the most amazing day--probably the last day of autumn. It was cool enough to warrant gloves, but not so cold as to prevent comforatble biking. I found this little hill in Bovenden, about 5 km to the north of Göttingen. It was totally surrounded by brush, but a steep little path led up to the top where there were a couple of graves, trees, and a bench. With the sun shining, the wind blowing, and countryside around me, it was the perfect way to end fall and get ready for the long, cold winter that is now upon us. I've decided that when March comes around I'm coming back here to enjoy the first day of Spring.

Drachenfest auf der Wiese

The Göttinger Drachenfest was this weekend! Pictures say more than words:

There must have been a thousand or so kites out on the Drachenwiese (kite-flying meadow). It was quite a hike but I managed with my crutches and all.

The coolest was easily this huge yellow-orange one that looked like a spikey cubish thing.

Some people brought out their big wind sails too and one guy had a little bike-like vehicle hooked up to his kite lines and was racing across the field.

It was really a perfect fall day for all this.

A collection of large kites. The yellow-orange spikey one is there too!

Erntedankfest im Wochenmarkt

Today was apparently a special day in the weekly market. Erntedankfest, or harvest gratitude festival, isn't as big of a thing as I would have expected, but I think this may have been a small undertaking by only some of the regular vendors.

One stand had made-on-the-spot powdered sugar waffles selling for a euro. I really wanted one but had to accept the fact that without reliable hands, I can't really enjoy such things. Next time, definitely.

The pumpkins and other winter squash were out in full. I bought a little butternut squash, but I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it since I have no oven.

Fall flowers were everywhere too. I need to get some before the long winter sets in. They had some very cute cabbages growing in pots too.

More squash. I still haven't figured out how Germans eat pumpkin, but there certainly is enough of it to go around.


And just for Elaine:

A bunch of people were juggling by the market and I got a few pictures of them in action. The little girl was quite cute too.