Merry Christmas!

I made it home from Germany in reasonably good condition, and Conrad and Chris will both be here tonight (the 24th). Greg sent these beautiful flowers and will celebrate with us via skype. We hope to get cards and a letter out this year, but just in case we don't, we want you all to know that we are still thinking about our family and friends, whom we love dearly.

Here's wishing all of you a peaceful and happy Christmas!

Just Books

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1997) by Haruki Murakami. This author (and his translator) are brilliant; the book was a real thought-provoking page-turner. It's hard to even describe what it's about--a young man whose life becomes strange and convoluted as he tries to bring his emotionally traumatized wife back to him. But there are so many layers of the story, and all are intriguing.

Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel. I finally read this, and it is fantastic! The translation really seems to underscore the tragic, beautiful and noble qualities of this tale.

Rolling Thunder (1974) by Doug Boyd. Rolling Thunder, an American Indian medicine man, has become a part of my life. I often try to imagine how he would view various situations and what his mind-set would be. While reading this description of his practice, I was surprised to discover how close American Indian and Eastern spiritual thought are to each other.

The Europeans (1878) by Henry James. A brother and sister pair who grew up in Europe come to America to meet their relatives and seek their forture. James enjoys playing with the differences in the characteristics of the two types--the European and the American, and the story is compelling and fun to read.

Edwin's Sweater and a Warm Scarf

As busy as I am here, I try to fit in knitting almost every day. It's my therapy! Here are a couple of recent finished projects.

Friends in Munich just had a baby, so they got a little blue sweater with some cute sheep buttons.



Here's a close-up of the very soft yarn (Lana Grossa Cinque, worsted-weight, wool and acrylic blend) and the cute buttons. The pattern is "Babies Neckdown Cardigan" by Knitting Pure and Simple.



I found some fun yarn on sale and made this very warm scarf/shawl. The yarn, called "Gedifra Seymor Double," is a bulky-weight wool and acrylic blend; the pattern is from ravelry: "Merino Stripes Wide Scarf."



Speaking of scarves, I frogged (unraveled) the mobius! I really liked it, but when I tried to unravel part of it to fix a mistake, I started unraveling at the wrong end, and then it was impossible to recover the rest. So now the yarn is sitting in balls waiting to be turned into another scarf or mobius.

Old Germany, Windows and Doors

Conrad and I did a lot of sight-seeing together in the short time he was here, including going to Nuremberg for a day. That is definitely a place I'd like to visit again as we didn't have much time there, and there are some interesting-sounding museums I'd like to see. Also, Nuremberg is the home of the very famous Christkindlmarkt. They were already selling Gluehwein while we were there in early November, and of course, I had to sample it.

I'm told that Munich also has some very nice Christmas markets...I'm looking forward to those. Christmas in Germany is truly something to experience.

Today I was invited to spend the day in Beilngries and the surrounding area (north of Munich, not quite to Nuremberg). I took some pictures of a couple of my favorite things in Europe: windows and doors. They are always, it seems, so well-made, and yet they also look so inviting.



And the windows usually have flowers and plants on the ledges, even on cool days in late November.

The following picture was taken at Willisburg in Eichstaett, near Beilngries. The stone fortress wall frames a view of the city below. It is dedicated to Greg, who is taking off for his grand New Zealand adventure in just a few days!

Cute Dog Pictures

Greg sent me the cutest pictures of the dogs taken out in our back yard in Spokane on a beautiful fall morning. Sammie looks like she is really enjoying the sunshine:



And Beau (in front) and Jack are probably resting after just having run around like crazy:

A Stocking, a Mobius and Kloster Andechs

The second in the series of five stockings for Sigrid's family has been completed. I am not a fast knitter, so this project will probably go on for some time. It will also go on for a while due to the fact that I seem to have "Crafter's Attention Deficit Disorder" (CADD), which just means that I love to start projects but not to finish them!

If the project is quick, I can usually manage to finish it before my CADD sets in. Below is a mobius scarf that I finished in about a week here in Munich. I love it and wear it almost every day. The yarn is a bulky weight, variegated, 100% wool called "Schoppel Wolle Pur" and I came up with the pattern myself.





Conrad and I went to Kloster Andechs (Andechs Monastery) outside of Munich today. We took public transportation to a small town about an hour away and then walked some three miles to the Kloster. It's well worth the hike--we enjoyed spectacular views, the beautiful monastery and church, and some scrumptious Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce afterwards.

The Alps are in the distance on the picture below. Unfortunately, we couldn't capture them well with our little camera.

Conrad's Here!

Conrad arrived this past Saturday for a ten-day visit, and typically, he's already seen and done a lot here in Munich. He and Greg went on a walking tour on a gorgeous sunny day Sunday, and later in the day Conrad went to the English Garden and back to the city center on his own. That evening we were all invited to Norbert and Sigrid's for dinner.

Today while I was teaching, Greg and Conrad spent six hours in the Deutsches Museum and seemed to have enjoyed every minute of it.



And here's a picture they took on the walking tour--I'm posting it to show that we do sometimes have sunshine in Munich!