I grew up catholic, and I grew up in a very catholic area, where crosses and wayside shrines are much more common than stolen cars or unironed shirts. I once read in a catalogue essay about the sculptors Canova (supercatholic) and Thorvaldsen (superprotestant) that Catholics arrive, put down churches and monuments, and then look for a congregation. Whereas protestants would first start a congregation, and then build churches. So it's kind of funny that Lawrence and Theodor shout in full exitement "Jesus on the cross" whenever we pass one, and - as pointed out earlier- there are many.

Posted November 8, 2010 21:04 by Kathrin Böhm

50 kg white cabbage, 500 gr salt, 1 bottle of frankonian white wine, cumin and fennel seeds, juniper berries and some sugar.

Posted November 7, 2010 09:44 by Kathrin Böhm

I got this photo a few years ago, when I asked each household in the village to contribute old images about village life for an exhibition in the village hall. This one seemed to be the oldest photo, probably from around 1910, and shows the main road with the chapel in the background. Someone travelled through the village on a weekday and stopped to take a photo - maybe for an early agrosociological survey - and returned a copy. Most people can still be identified, and the others are probably farm labourers who were rushed out into the street to become part of a village snapshot.

Posted November 3, 2010 20:54 by Kathrin Böhm

There have been quite a few amazing views and images in the last few weeks, but we never took a photo.
The thick fog in the valley that we drive into in the morning, with the early morning sun colouring the top layer in either pink or cold orange. A week of vast blue skies, with hundreds of criss-crossing contrails marking the central european skyscape. The other day Theodor saw stars for the first time - what a discovery when you are three . "Wow, there ARE stars!" He knows the moon from London, but stars rarely make it through the light pollution. We went to the cemetery in the pitch dark yesterday evening, because my mum thought it's very special to see all the hundreds of candles which are still on from All Saints Day.

Posted November 3, 2010 11:35 by Kathrin Böhm

I've never seen so many buckets. Everywhere. Small, big, coloured, white, black, you name it. And they all have a particular purpose. Bucket for sweeping the floors. Bucket for the dirt from sweeping the road. Bucket for kitchen compost to be taken to the garden compost. Bucket for paper rubbish. Bucket for collecting freshly pressed apple juice. Bucket for leaves. Bucket for ......... The photos just show a small selection. One day I will document the "bucket-per-person" density here.

Posted October 27, 2010 21:40 by Kathrin Böhm

We first asked Erna and Hanna if we can collect the fallen aplles from their fields. Then spent two hours collecting as much as we could (lots!). Washing and shredding (twice for juice and three times for schnaps). Followed by pressing. Nine buckets make three crates. Three crates make 50 litres of shredded fruit, or roughly 28 litres of fresh juice. We made 200 litres mash for schnaps and 28 litres of fresh apple juice. How many buckets of apples did we use?
Some of the fresh juice was later given away. To Erna and Hanna for the apples. To Waltraut for always supplying us with blackberries. To Anna who is just very nice. To Gertrud because my mum owed her a favour. And to Michael and Rita who gave us their kids' plastic tractor when we got here.

Posted October 18, 2010 19:04 by Kathrin Böhm

Mud. LOTS of mud, some puddles, and not much else.

Posted October 10, 2010 20:24 by Kathrin Böhm

We had an International Village Shop honesty-box style ("Kasse des Vetrauens") last Sunday - as part of Höfer Waren 2010 and the launch of the International Village Shop website. The whole afternoon was more about making things (wrapping fruit in clay that was) instead of selling. In previous years we had much bigger stalls and sold always more than expected. There were reasons not to focus on a trading table:"people always feel obliged to buy something". So here we go - we had a small shop on a shelf with an honesty box, and only those who really really really wanted to buy something did. Total turnover: sixeurosfifty.

Posted October 5, 2010 12:18 by Kathrin Böhm

More "ausgezogene Krapfen".

The lawn on the public land gets cut properly.

The windows will get cleaned. At least those fronting the main road.

The ducks won't be around anymore.

The village fete always takes place on the first weekend in October.

Posted September 30, 2010 11:11 by Kathrin Böhm

We have two openings very near-by to go to this week. One is by Manfred Frey, who helped a lot with the molds and the casting of the Butterspoon. He is showing his porcelain design at the Stadtmuseum Bad Staffelstein. The other opening is at the Kunstmühle in Mürsbach. A former mill and listed building, which is partly used for exhibitions of contemporary art - run by Familie Eller, whose son Thomas Eller is an artist based in NY.

Posted September 30, 2010 10:58 by Kathrin Böhm