Snowed In

 

"Snowed in" is the topic this week at Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date.

At the end of last week, the sky dumped an enourmous amount of snow on Bavaria, the most southern state in Germany. There was so much snow, that all the trains were cancelled. This was bad news for Kaefer, who was in Venice at that time and had booked the night train back to Germany which had to pass Munich which was completely closed down. So she stayed another night in Venice (not the worst place to get stuck) and then was finally able to get home on trains passing through Switzerland. It took her 18 hours to finally arrive at her appartment.

This reminded me of the snowy winters we used to have when I still lived in Germany. Our home was the area between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb and that meant very cold in the winter and often tons of snow. I wasn't particularly fond of driving in the snow, but when you live in one of the last houses at the end of a street up a steep hill which wasn't on the priority list for snow clearing and you had to leave at 6 o'clock in the morning in order to go to work, then you don't really have a choice. Snow was still better than black ice and this way I became a rather experienced driver in snow. I also didn't like snow shoveling - but I did love the beauty of snow.

Therefore, today I want to show you some photos of our winters in Germany from more than 20 years ago. I apologize for an overload of pictures, but am hoping that you will like them.

Walking in the woods provided a lot of photo opportunities.

No one was going to sit on this bench...

Snow on grasses is just fascinating.

Today I don't have a dinner to share with you. Instead, I baked a German Nusszopf (hazelnut braid) a couple days ago. It's from my trusted Dr. Oetker baking recipe book that my students gifted to me several years ago.

It's an easy recipe - the only "challenge" is to braid the dough with the filling and then transfer it to the baking sheet. This is what is looks like before it goes into the oven...

... and this is what it looks like after being done baking (no, my silicone baking mat did not change color in such a dramatic way, only the light had changed).

As soon as it had cooled down, we cut a slice and tasted it - oh delicious!

Winter Morning

Whenever we are in Utah and visiting those wonderful National Parks like Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Zion we love to drive along Highway 12 that connects Capitol Reef (photo above) and Bryce Canyon. It is one of the most scenic highways I know, not very busy (at least not in winter when it is often covered with snow) and fittingly called a "scenic byway". It goes without saying that we drove along it when we were in Utah over winter break.

We had spent the day before in Capitol Reef, stayed in a hotel close by and left quite early in the morning. It was very cold (13 F), and there was almost no one else on the road. The winter morning we experienced here was fantastic.

The sun had just risen, but many clouds blocked its light down to planet Earth. The light, though, was interesting and gave the morning a certain magic.

We saw foot prints in the snow, left by the wildlife who crossed here during the night.

Where is the fence, you ask? Look no further.

Not a permanent fence, though. It's only here as long as the snow is.

But that might still be a few months.

I'm linking up to Theresa's "Good Fences" - it's always a pleasure to be in the company of other fence lovers.

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Valentine's Day is next week.

Send or give a Valentine's card to the special person in your life.

Check out my Etsy store for a variety of cards.

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Winter Solstice

Since today is the shortest day of the year, I thought I just post a few snow and frosty pictures - all of them taken in recent years either in Yosemite National Park or back in Germany.

It's sunny and mild here - no sign of winter at all. Not a single rain cloud in the sky... We're still waiting for the rain. Everything is so dry here.

The Traveling Phonebooth

When we went to the Valley of Fire during Thanksgiving week, Kaefer brought this little British phonebooth with her. It actually is a pencil sharpener - hidden behind the door - that we bought years ago in London Heathrow. She loves to photograph objects in the places we visit. In the summer when we went to BC she brought a toy car (a mini cooper) and took pictures of it everywhere. At that time she still used her compact camera, but this time she learned how to use a DSLR.

Wherever she saw a nice background, she put the phonebooth in place and then tried all kinds of pictures. It was fun to watch her, to see how much she was fascinated by using a big camera and play with it. Oh the possibilities!

Valley of Fire offered many good locations for the little red phonebooth.

Then we went to Death Valley where we stayed close to the Mesquite Dunes which we visited the next morning. Needless to say, the phonebooth was there as well. The funny thing was that other people started to take pictures of the phonebooth as well when they saw Kaefer doing it; one English gentleman suggested to her to ask for a dollar per shot. Brilliant idea!!

No location was too inconvenient or too cold or too hard. She has the right attitude.

And at Lake Tahoe the phonebooth even sat in the snow!

Woodland

When I first read about this week's challenge over at Inspiration Avenue I wasn't quite sure whether I would participate this time or not. But of course the theme was walking around my mind and silently working its magic.

I have always loved the woods and I always will - be it the beautiful mixed forests in Germany, the dark redwood forest in the northern part of my state or the rain forest in the Pacific Northwest.

But then I remembered the piles of wood that you find in or close to the woods in Germany. The wood would be cut to the (almost) same size and then piled neatly - after all, we're in Germany, so it has to have its order! As children, my brother and I loved to climb on and walk along them. When I grew older I often sat there with my back against the pile, soaking up the sun. They were there, every season.

They were particularly beautiful in winter. Some winters were so cold that icicles would hang from them. If it was a good winter, the wood pile would be covered in snow, the sun would dance over it and paint beautiful little patterns with light and shadow and cast its warm light over it.