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.

Say Hello to Mr. Mac!!

Today, I am flaunting my MACBOOK to the world!! Don't you just love him?? I have madly fallen in love with this handsome guy( I still love my hubby and kids, They are No 1 on my list). Don't you just love the way he lights up in the dark?? My daughter says, it looks like sparkling diamonds. She is in awe of this magical keyboard. I am amazed by the features and have a long way to go before I understand this fellow completely! I am ever grateful to my darling hubby for having got me this (he uses it too, but I spend more time on it though!)

Linking up with Communal Global!! Have a great week everyone!!

Sundays in my City!

Yesterday was the quarter final match between Germany and Argentina!! We had different plans though. I had mentioned in my post here about the onset of summer with a bang.  So we took advantage of the empty streets and empty parking lots and drove to Wuerzburg(an hours drive from home) to get what we needed.

Since our move, Media Markt has been the place where we have purchased all our electronic needs. From the home theatre to the dryer, and now this...

After having spent a sleepless night, we desperately needed fans to coolen the home. We had the store all to ourselves as everybody were engrossed in this...

This was the third goal of Deustchland and all the employees in the store were screaming!!!

More screams were to follow, and by the time we were done, Deutschland had won!! What we were to witness the next two hours was sheer madness on the streets!!! I had taken the camera along with me to take shots of the city of Wuerzburg. But look what I got! Everybody seemed to be screaming and posing to each other with a cam in their hands!!

Finale?? I thought we were moving on to semi-finale, unless he was an over confident German!

No rules, No seat belts!!! Just celebration everywhere!!!

He turned around, posed and waved his flag!!!!!!!

What do you spot there??? Nice, isn't it??

Cheers to Deutschland!!!! It was an exhilarating experience to be amongst the crowd, but too bad that we didn't have any paraphernalia with us!!! Thought a lot about putting the following picture up (and yes, he too posed with a good laugh), but couldn't resist!!! Enjoy your Sunday!!! For more Sundays around the world head over to Unknown Mami!! Its great to travel the world around with her!!!

A Busy Bee....

This is going to be a hurried post. Summer is here with a bang! All the while the body was used to the near double digit temperature and all of a sudden it has shot to above 30 degrees. To make matters worse, German houses are not fitted with fans, which means we should buy one of our own. 

I thought I'd take advantage of the sunny weather and went on a washing spree. Jackets, shoes, bedsheets, name it, all day long the washing machine went a tumble and a tumble.

            Also I have been sprucing up the house here and there. My moments of sulking are over(over the home I left behind), and the feeling to do up our present home has finally arrived. As an expat, doing up a home can be pretty expensive. I have been trying best to do this with the resources available. Take a look at what I did to the bathroom today. And yes, we have very big windows in the bathroom here, which is quite funny, cause back home in India, the bathroom is the room which has the smallest windows.

German homes come with sills on the windows facing inside the house(as you can see the picture). Candles and flowers with lavender in a jewellery box did the trick. Did a surprise set up on the other sill. The kids have been missing the beaches back home very much. They loved this idea of mine.

      I have been inspired by Frau to do up our walls with knick knacks from our travels, paintings and photos. Here's what hubby walks in with to help me do up the walls.

Our own set of power tools!! This will be our project for the next two days. For now, I am one tired woman. Time to soak in the tub.......