Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Germany woke up this morning to snow and quite a bit of it. I think we've easily gotten close to a foot since it started falling around 6:00 this morning. The temperature is only -1 on the Celsius scale so it is below freezing. If it stays this cold or gets colder over the next few days the water pipes in the barn will freeze and we'll have to lug water to the horses in pails. That's a lot of lugging!
When I got up this morning there was talk about going to Rittershof, one of the small villages in the area. Reinhilde's late husband's sister and her family live in a converted barn which originally was part of the place where the 'ritters' lived. Rittershof means "The place of the Knights" (there apparently was a castle in this area though it has long been demolished). Hof is a local word indicating a "courtyard" and by extension a "place where someone lives". Bauerhof for instance is the "farm-place". Our farm is called Kastanienhof, which literally means "The Chestnut-tree place" but is translated as "Chestnut Farms".
So why were we all going to Rittershof? To pick up a sled, of course! It's for Laila, Kira's younger sister, who is only six, and comes to visit on the weekends. So Nina, Kira, Laila and I bundled up and climbed into Nina's truck which has bald tires (her new winter tires won't be available until Tuesday) and drove towards Heusweiler. Even though Nina's truck has four-wheel drive she didn't dare drive it into Rittershof with her tires since the village lies in a deep valley. The road down is quite steep. So we had to park at the top of the street leading into Rittershof and walk down through a winter fairyland.
There's always something magical, in the truest sense of the word, about the first real snowfall. Everything is hushed, as if Nature is wrapping itself into a warm wooly blanket for the winter. The world is pristine and clean and the trees have a sleepy feel about them.
Of course, once we got the sled we had to trudge back up the road, but that was okay. It was fun. But now it's almost time to clean out the stalls and that's not going to be as much fun. *sigh*
When I got up this morning there was talk about going to Rittershof, one of the small villages in the area. Reinhilde's late husband's sister and her family live in a converted barn which originally was part of the place where the 'ritters' lived. Rittershof means "The place of the Knights" (there apparently was a castle in this area though it has long been demolished). Hof is a local word indicating a "courtyard" and by extension a "place where someone lives". Bauerhof for instance is the "farm-place". Our farm is called Kastanienhof, which literally means "The Chestnut-tree place" but is translated as "Chestnut Farms".
So why were we all going to Rittershof? To pick up a sled, of course! It's for Laila, Kira's younger sister, who is only six, and comes to visit on the weekends. So Nina, Kira, Laila and I bundled up and climbed into Nina's truck which has bald tires (her new winter tires won't be available until Tuesday) and drove towards Heusweiler. Even though Nina's truck has four-wheel drive she didn't dare drive it into Rittershof with her tires since the village lies in a deep valley. The road down is quite steep. So we had to park at the top of the street leading into Rittershof and walk down through a winter fairyland.
There's always something magical, in the truest sense of the word, about the first real snowfall. Everything is hushed, as if Nature is wrapping itself into a warm wooly blanket for the winter. The world is pristine and clean and the trees have a sleepy feel about them.
Of course, once we got the sled we had to trudge back up the road, but that was okay. It was fun. But now it's almost time to clean out the stalls and that's not going to be as much fun. *sigh*