Photo Challenge: Urban

The city of Prague, ancient, full of history and rich culture!! A city you will fall in love with instantly. Pictured here is the river Vltava with the Prague Castle and the famous St. Vitus cathedral in the background.

The countdown!!!

We are all set to leave in three days to India!!! Oh my God, yes three days. Each morning we wake up, we can sense the excitement building up. I will be meeting my parents and siblings after 10 months. This has been the longest separation.

   Amidst the excitement, there is a lot of last minute madness. Shopping, packing, closing the house, making arrangement for the plants sitter!!! That reminds me of this... Look what i spotted growing out from my pots...

A gladiola!!!! I don't know how I missed this? I must be have been too preoccupied to notice the buds before the blooms. And now I cannot believe that I will be missing all the blooms. There are seven plants in all and there are buds coming out now! Hopefully my plant sitter will pause to appreciate these beauties :)

Remember the time I mentioned I won a photo challenge contest in my post here. Well its time to vote for the winner. All the photos are to be voted till saturday. If you like my photo, I would very glad if you could head over here and cast your vote for me. Thank you all so much in advance...:)

Sunday's in my city!!

It's 15 minutes to midnight and my Sunday's gonna end. What have we been upto? Well, the much talked Lohrer Festwoche(Lohr Fest week) began in our village and the entire family has been hanging out a lot over there. 

      To mark the start of the fest, we had a procession where a barrel of beer drawn by horses walked through the village distributing free beer to the crowd. There was also a traditional German dance to entertain the crowd. 

The crowd then followed the cart all the way to the River Main where a tent( similar to the October fest) has been put up. Here, you can drink beer to your hearts content along with some grill hänchen(chicken) all the while listening to a live band!!!

The children had a gala time on all the rides!! A good way to spend their pocket money...:)

I am a tired woman. I need to crash into bed right now!! I hope everybody had a wonderful sunday and a happy week to all!! By the way, I am headed to India for my home trip, so the next 5 weeks will be coming to you straight from my home land!!! And also please do not forget to visit Unknown Mami, thanks to her, we are able to travel around the world!!

While he was away.......

My husband is back!! We were an excited trio waiting for him. The children, more so because they missed playing with him and me, because I missed my sleep( okay, joking there :D). So, what was I upto while he was away??? A makeover of the kitchen complete with rearrangement, scrubbing and wiping. Towards the end, I was an exhausted girl. Nevertheless, pleased with the end result!!!

I am lucky to have a big, bright and airy kitchen complete with cabinets, a cooking stove, an oven,  a refrigerator(without a deep freezer) and a dishwasher, unlike the rest of the house which was unfurnished. And further more, all of the cutlery and utensils are mine, shipped all the way from India, again unlike other houses where everything from the spoon to the pan is provided by the landlord. 

      As you can see in the above pictures I have an L shaped platform, with cabinetry below and above. Considering the fact that I got only 25% of my kitchen items, if I were to ship everything, the cabinetry would be totally insufficient. And yes, we use an electric stove to cook and not the gas stove with flames. It took me roughly two months to get the hang of cooking. Utensils only with a flat base can be kept on this stove. So, no Indian kadai's for the german stove.

This is my Indian ingredients corner. Once again, the spices are from India :-)) They have lasted the past eight months and my inventory is close to getting over. Please excuse the mis-matched bottles. Not knowing that glass bottles were available here, I carried quite a few. So now, I have an assorted collection of bottles!!!

For those who have been reading my blog The Chef, you might have realized, I have gotten into serious baking. A peek into my baking corner!!

Everything written in Deutsch!!! You can spot Cocoa, brown sugar, chopped almonds and powdered sugar.

Back in India, I never needed so many knives , considering the fact that meat and fish were cut at the market itself. All I had to do was clean it well and get to cooking it right away. When I first moved, my friends must have noticed my status update on Facebook where i said, I was wrestling with a chicken. Yes, that was what I literally did the first time. Not knowing how to cut and where to start!! The steel pair of scissors is what I use now to cut a chicken . The knives are for bread, meat and vegetables.

Here is my super silent mixer(that's what it says, though when it is on, I cannot hear myself speak) and the German wasser cooker( a cooker to boil water).

And here is my favorite part of the kitchen!! The dishwasher......which has made life easier. There are a lot of things that cannot be put in, for instance non-stick vessels or baking trays, but nevertheless this gadget has definitely reduced the amount of time, I spend in the kitchen!!!!

This is definitely on my "TO PURCHASE LIST" on return to India.

I MISS YOU :(

The above is not a sketch, but an engraving on a walnut made by hubby dearest!!

Today, I miss my husband terribly!! He has been gone a day and will be back tomorrow. Everyday I look forward to him coming home in the evenings. It was okay yesterday, but it wont be the same today. Also, in his absence the kids have conquered our bed. So, I spent the entire night with two kiddos literally pushing me to the edge. Luckily, I did not fall down. Heaven help me tonight!! 

Are you sad and like a zombie(due to a sleepless night) today? Head over to Communal Global to see how are the other ladies doing??

Sunday's in my City!!

Graffiti on the shopping streets of Würzburg!

Have a great Sunday ladies!!!

Dont forget to visit Unknown Mami and I am Lotus to see what other Sunday's are like.

Photo Challenge: Your Best Shot

On my walks, I pass through a small pond, surrounded by these wild flowers. I find them very beautiful. So on one of my strolls last week, I took my cam along with me. On getting close, I was surprised to see bees on the flowers. I was scared lest I would be stung by one of those. All I wanted was a shot of the flowers, so I carefully captured one without disturbing them. To my surprise, I also captured a flying bee. This is one of my best shots, considering the fact that it is not from a professional cam.

Thanks to In a yellow house for the challenges every week!!!

My first outing alone!!

   Thanks to Tessa, I finally went on an outing alone, without family, but with a group(20) of English speaking Germans. I am glad that I finally took the plunge. I dressed up with excitement, my walk had a spring in every step. My husband said I looked good too. Maybe it was more because I felt good. And where did we go?? To watch Othello, a play by Shakespeare. Alas, I am not Shakespeare, hence, I have no words to describe how it was. In simple language, I can only say it was AWESOME!! I loved it, every moment, every scene. Not once was I bored nor waiting for it to get over. I made new friends, who were eager to speak to me in English. For the first time during my stay, I felt no pressure to speak German neither did I get advice that I MUST learn to speak the language. Here was an eager crowd wanting to speak in a language so safe and familiar to me, I couldn't have been more than delighted.

      The play was at Würzburg, a good hours journey by train, which meant I got ample time to get to know everybody. We spoke about a lot of things. Food, culture, languages, education, seasons....name it, we spoke about it.

Here's the best part. I was the only one with a camera and I felt that everybody would be uncomfortable with me clicking shots of people I had just met. So, I grabbed a few shots of the Würzburg Residence, where the play was to be held. In fact it was held at the gardens of the Residence.

      Above is the rear side of the Residence, followed by the Franconian fountain. Formerly, the residence was the seat of Bishops.  Below are the gates which lead you to the gardens of the residence.

We were not allowed to click shots during the play. I slowly sneaked out my phone and grabbed a shot. I needed one for memories!!!!

I am a Winner!!!!

I am doubly excited today. here's why!! I got up to the news that I had emerged as the winner in the Photo Challenge Contest: Sepia for my blog Germany through my Eyes.  This was the shot that I entered in the contest...

I am walking around the house like a little kiddo, all smiles. Not only am I very happy, I am also proud of the fact that I have begun to love and enjoy photography!! 

   The other reason for my excitement is, I am going out with a friend to Würzburg to attend the Shakespeare Play - Othello presented by the American Drama Group. My friend Tessa, teaches English to German adults and she along with her students will be attending the play. I have been invited to go along. I am excited and nervous. Excited about the play and company of a bunch of English speaking Germans, nervous as this will be my first time out without hubby and children. Wish me Luck!!!

What's your today like??? Head over to Communal Global to see what the rest of the world is upto..

Sunday's in my city.

It's Sunday's in my City along with Unknown Mami!! Today my daughter turned 8 and this was what I baked!!

I began with something in mind and ended up with this cake!! More so of a disaster!! To know more about it head over here. I have been pretty upset about it, and was silently thanking my stars for not having invited anybody over. That reminds me of this, yes, my daughter wanted no kind of celebration at all. No friends, just us. At this point of time, she misses all her loved ones and friends back home. Though she hasn't been so vocal about it, she has not been the same unlike the past years. She always had a count down to all  her b'days, but not this time. That has saddened me, but we too didn't want to impose it on her, cause I too would be clueless with a bunch of German kids in the house. Looks like, we still need to get comfortable. So, it was just a quiet celebration with the four of us, enjoying the heat and good food.

The past week has seen me getting out of the house and going on long walks. The purchase of a weighing scale and it tipping over to show the kilos that I have gained finally made me move my butt. I have been going a lot to the country side, and during one of these walks, took the cam along and got these shots.

The above shots are my favourite. I have no professional cam, but I love the way I have been able to capture the flying bee. I had to be oh so careful, lest one came and stung me.

The River Main, where we have barges passing along every ten minutes or so. It's interesting just to stand and observe them. I guess they travel along the Main, most of them heading over to Frankfurt.

Here in Germany, we have walking and cycling paths. As I walk, a lot of these groups pass me by. They are more so cycling groups, where you have 10 or more people cycling together from one city to another. We do not have such kind of paths in India, and I am definitely gonna miss this on return.

     As I proceed, I am greeted with sights of apple and walnut trees. I cannot wait to see the juicy ripened apples. I am told by a friend that we can pluck these apples as long as they are for consumption and not to sell.

Green corn fields(thanks to Sonya, I now know what they are), bales of hay, and farmer carts... These are all the pretty sights i see.

Not to forget the oh so many wild flowers, which are indeed oh so beautiful!!

I hope everybody has had a wonderful Sunday. do not forget to visit Unknown Mami and see how the rest of the Sunday's are going.