RU pictures.... enjoy!!!!

I can't write german - but if I read it out loud, I can usually figure out what is being said. My parents spoke german in the house so us kids wouldn't know what was going on. We caught on to quite a few things. The several trips to germany helped too. My relatives think I do pretty well considering. Unfortunately, when I was eligible to take a language in school, they dropped German. I took French instead.

Funny thing about languages, you lose it when you don't use it.
I spoke English fluently when I first came here 60 years ago never meeting anyone who spoke German using it only when corresponding with my Viennese family or speaking over the phone. When I visit my sister, who still lives in Vienna, it takes me a day or two to thinks German and not English first. It is so strange when I go to a store there and ask for something I want to purchase , they respond in English, lol. Guess I now have an accent in both languages.

My parents knew people for years never addressing them with Du always Sie, very formal.

Well, we're married! I think that's fairly intimate.

My sister emigrated - well, sort of, she is still a US citizen - to Italy right after college and we barely ever see her now. She has an Italian husband, two Italian kids, Italian in-laws, etc. Needless to say, she is not only fluent in Italian but is forgetting her English!!! Now her kids are learning English, but in school. I have no idea why she didn't speak English to them from day one - being bilingual is such an advantage.

xxx, Carrie

This is getting so interesting for a few of us .Can I ask you Anita where did you visit ?

Carrie,
you lost me kind of.Is he speaking in german to you when he addresses you with 'Sie ' ?

Talking about being bilingual is great but I also didn't teach my children german as fluent as I wish I would/could have .When I came to the US I spoke a few words ( my husband spoke german ) and 1 phrase " I am glad to meet you" which I was going to impress my MIL with.Well she embraced me so quickly that I forgot my whole sentence.Mind You I had practiced from New York to Maine just for that occassion !! ;-))

But I tried so much to fit in that I focused more on learning english as fast as possible and kept putting off teaching german.However our kids get by understanding.
I communicate every day with a friend in Germany because I definately do NOT want to forget my mother tongue.I am very traditional and that is very important to me that I carry this on.

Maria,I also have an accent and I used to feel so out of place and wouldn't say much unless someone else asked me something.Used to blush when they said " I like your accent".....now a days I just say smilingly ' I like yours too ' :-))

BTW has Dave made it back ok yet ?
Kassia how are the Eglantyne roses coming ? did they open yet ?

My DH addresses me as Sie. We bot took German in school and were both good sudents. But I learned "dutzen und setzen" whereas he, obviously, did not.

xxx, Carrie

My first child, a daughter, went with me to visit my parents for 3 months, she was 4 years old, did not know a word of German but became fluent while there, when we came back home after a while she refused to speak it because no one else did, when I wanted her to converse with me in German she screamed bloody murder, lol I gave up. As she became an adult she asked me why did you not make me? lol
BTW she and her husband are in Vienna right now wishing she could speak German, ha ha

Ohhhhhhhhhhh VIENNA the city of my dreams !! so many fond memories.My sister lived in Vienna for many years,now she lives just outside in Gerasdorf.

Eglantyne, you havee D-mail

Eglantyne - The first time I went it was for 5 weeks in 1980. We started in the north where my grandmother comes from. A small town called Heeslingen, which is outside Zeven which is near Bremen. Then we headed down to Bavaria and Munchen where my grandfather's family is from [this is all Dad's side of the family]. We also traveled to Salsburg/Alps and Vienna. I loved it. The second time, was also for 5 weeks and that was in 1989. That time we started in Paris and drove our way through Belgium [Bruges], Holland and to Heeslingen. We finished in Bavaria/Munchen. The last time I went was 2002. We stayed for 10 days in Bavaria with a side trip to Munchen and Nurenburg. We are thinking of going next summer again.

I visited Vienna once. My sister was in her high school band and they raised money to go to a band competition there. I went along as a chaperone. The kids had a lot of rehearsal time and I got to go around and take the tours and see the museums and whatnot while they rehearsed. We had a group tour of Schonbrunn too and went to Grinzing. We went to a couple of concerts and up the Donauturm. Did all the touristy stuff! I had a great time and the band came in second place.
Martha

I'm happy to say that I got home last night at 2:00am. A real adventure; I ended up flying out of Hartford, CT. I honestly don't want to see Logan or American Airlines again for a very long time.

It was great meeting all of you in person!

dave

it was just great meeting you too Dave, sorry you had such an awful time with Logan and AA, but glad you arrived safely at home

Auf Wiedersehen
Maria

Glad you made it home, Da Dave. :-) So you flew out of Bradley - that's about 20 minutes from where I live :-)

Gee - how is your part of Texas and the rain? I hope everything is okay for you and your family.

Michaela

Yep, I flew out of Bradley. They have excellent internet access there so I didn't mind sitting in the terminal for 6 hours waiting for my flight. Security was friendly if a little inefficient. :)

Lots of rain down here. I was surprised at how tall the grass is and how many new weeds are now in my veggie garden! It's so wet that it's actually hard to weed. Other than that inconvenience, all is well in Texas! :)

dave

Dave - how do I look in my favorites folder without having to add something to it? I really like having a favorites folder, thank you!

Go to My Info then favorites.

As we say in the NE - doh! ~sound of hand slapping self upside the head~

:)

I was born in Nurenburg..but I don't remember it. I am an army brat. Oceangirl remembers it, though, as she is my mother... :)

Astilbe, I bet she remembers it very well, :-)))

Gruss Gott!

It was very nice meeting you, too, Dave. I hope you have a better travel experience if you have to come up here again. Happy to see Tex is up and running! Thanks for a great website! it just keeps getting better all the time.

Kelly, I do remember it well. it was the week of the world series and I and to wait until the game was over to go to the hospital!

My favorite thing (among many) about Nurnberg was the KristkindlesMart....
Cindy

Gruess Gott Cindy,
To be stationed in Nuernberg was definately a "hardship" tour ;-)))))))) ...oh my what another quaint german city with the cobblestone walks .
I never get really homesick anymore BUT at Christmas time and one of my dreams is that we go back to Germany just to see the Christkind'l markt in Nuernberg.For the ones who don't know but Nuernberg is known to have the oldest christmas market in Germany.It has been held for over 500 YEARS respectfully,one interupted once during a war.

You must have gone to Kathe Wohlfahrt's store while there ?
PS: we are also a army family and our kids are also army brats :-)

Maria,I will write you thur d-mail.We have family here and Angela is coming from Mass.with 3 of her 4 children.
I have been 'hiding' a little bit and better go back downstairs.

Oh, Bradley airport or whatever they call it, not Logan Then my DH is of no use. You never answered his question though dave. How do you come to know any German?

Just looking at your pix of Lychnis coronaria 'Angel's Blush', which is what the little fuzzy noids were, if anyone took one. I moved mine up a potsize today.

xxx, Carrie

Brigitte, Eglantyne opened today!!! so gorgeous....

Hi everyone!!!! what a gorgeous day we are having.... so perfect for gardening... I have been doing a lot... tons of plants to transplant, new containers to do... really fun stuff!!!!!

Beautiful, Kassia, just gorgeous!

xx, Carrie

Carrie, I lived in Nuernberg for a time, and learned the language pretty well while I was there. That was almost 15 years ago so my german is certainly not near what it used to be!!!

dave

Andy,
thank you for pointing out this picture to me. hmmmm i knew he was up to something, but didn't know what. now both of you deserve a payback, you for taking it and posting it and him for doing it. men are boys and must play. ;-)

kassia, your little lilly is so prescious. the other boy is a little stud, like my franklin. he was strutting around making sure everything was ok and no one was bothering his lilly and the rest of his pack (human too).,
your home and gardens were beautiful and the party came off without a hitch. thank you for hosting it.
debi and franklin (my little gardening pekingese)

Thanks Dave, I suspected there was something like that in the background.

Meine Freunde! Mein Mann hat mit mir "du" sagen. Nach zehn Jahre miteinander, jetzt fuhle er als ob er ist ein Freund!

lol carrie,

Here are picture of my new RU plants. Former plant parents may be interested to see what I have done :-)

Here are some yellow sedum planted under blue sea holly (new this year). There are also two other sedum planted - don't know who brought them - did you send them, pixie? I think the yellow sedum might be from Andy - but I could be wrong

Lesson learned - make sure to write down the name of the source of every plant, so I can properly thank them again, later.

Baby astillbes planted around the terrace fountain. Not sure of the source - if you brought baby astillbe - thanks!

marigolds - also planted around the fountain - getting lots of nice complements about "having colour" now. Thanks to whoever brought these! Sorry - I can't remember who to thank (kind of embarrassing)

Here you can see the marigold - still with their heads on (squirrels have since bitten the blossoms off of three.

Mitt, another DG member, sent 36 irises - which I planted around the fountain. I can hardly wait until next year!

Red wax begonias - you can see the soaker hose we bought to keep the plants watered. It's ugly, but it works.

A bad picture of a bleeding heart - sorry. But I want its "parent" to know it is being looked after.

Another shot of the red wax begonias

A shot of the daylily -which apparently has an official number - and an unofficial name - Beryl (hope I spelled that correctly!)

Other RU daylilies - don't know what they are called, but they have blossoms - so soon the neighbourhod will get to see what they look like. - You know, so many of the plants are coming from DG members, we might have to call this Dave's Gardens in Springfield!

more marigolds - different this time - don't really remember what colour they are going to be - I think these might be from Andy.