Happy March

 Looking Like Spring 

Inside, the first Sunday in Lent. 

Outside, flowers blooming in the little German town of Wangen. 

Fasnacht

 Parades

Before Lent in Europe, there are various festivals as a last party before the solemnities (or what used to be solemnities) of the pre-Easter season. Here it is called Fasnacht. People dress in outlandish costumes, play carefully off-key music, and throw things. Like candy. And colored confetti. 

This is what one finds in one’s driveway and yard along parade routes. 

You will still see it months from now. 

And, on another note, how is this for winterizing? 

Doubles

 Amaryllis 

Yes, they look like the others, but two sets of blooms on one bulb is remarkable. 

A February full of flowers!

And these are blooming more, as we got another big snowfall. 

Tiny Daffodils

 From the Greenhouse

These have been calling for spring. They started pushing out new growth after the deep cold. They are re-blooms in their little bird bowl. I brought them into my kitchen to enjoy the tiny flowers. 

Sunday Snow and Sun

 Snow

Valentines night brought snow. Enough to obliterate the road. Did I want to go driving this morning? I did not. Did we anyway? We did. Church day. And I had to play the music. Music-playing son was just getting back from South Africa. 

Sun

Down in the flatter lands, there was no snow. And after church the sun came out. So after dinner, we had sunshine for our hike back to the town where we have church. The route is through fields and forests, and up and down hills. And it went along a barricade of tank-stoppers and bunkers from WWII. (I forgot to get a picture.) The area is close to the German border. The Germans were not foolhardy enough to try to invade Switzerland. Only the Americans “accidentally “ got lost and dropped some bombs on Swiss cities,

Restaurant 

We passed a homestead with an ostentation (yup, that’s the collective) of peafowl, 

A hunters’ cabin

Beside this cabin was a sign post with some fine poetry about being quiet, keeping your dog on a leach, and taking your trash with you. I was told the sign was very old, and the poet probably dead by now. Sigh. I think forest signs should all be in poetry.

Happy Valentines Day

 In Roses

Re-Rooting

 New Growth

Last summer we grew a big crop of Wirz. This is a cruciferous plant, like cabbage. It was more than enough for two people, so some we left in the garden bed in the winter. It winters well. Eventually, piece by piece, the heads came in to the refrigerator. Today I noticed new leaves sprouting on one in the refrigerator. It is growing new roots on the cut stalk.  So I put it in a window to see if it will produce some chlorophyll and green up. 

Valentines

 Pretties

Don’t we like to decorate for seasons or holidays, even a one-day one? I have a couple of little trees that I like to decorate for seasons. 

Getting Ready

 Love to Mom

Letters take a long time to cross oceans and states, so I start my greetings for a specific holiday well ahead. This was one part, a mini wreath. Various coloring pages and colored hearts went hither and yon, too. 

Here is one for you.

Look, Look

 What I See in the Greenhouse 

After the heavy cold of the winter weeks, which some of my plants did not survive, these hardy little ones are coming forth. Already. 

This is always my earliest re-bloomer. I will bring it in to enjoy, when it is a bit further along. They don’t last so long inside, but they bring great cheer while they bloom Then the pot goes back out to rest until next February. 

And these have kept blooming in the greenhouse through all the hard days of winter.

And More

 Bright Blooms

The rest opened. Winter cheer and color for grey, foggy days. And more, another stem is coming. 

Happy February

 In Red

And Coming

 For February 

Winter Color

 Cyclamen 

I brought this in from the greenhouse to enjoy its colors. We do not have a hot house interior, so I think it won’t mind being inside. It was very happy out in greenhouse, but flowers are for people. 

Sunday in Urnäsch

 Dog, Dinner, and Drive in the Mountains

Better Half and I met about-to-be-Birthday-Girl for dinner in her town.  She had hiked down from her chalet in the mountains to meet us, a two-hour scramble through the snowy fields and forests. We gave the  dog some exercise along the creek, before going to the restaurant. This is a very small town, consisting of the center on mostly one street and a tiny smattering of outliers. 

Then we had dinner in the one open restaurant. Outside had snow drifts. Inside had lemons growing. 

Then we drove up the twisty mountain toads to Maria’s chalet for our worship service. It was sunny! Everywhere else was foggy. I did not get landscape pictures - I was trying to keep my footing in the slippery snow. 

Evening in the City

 St. Gallen

We went to meet our soldier for dinner, after he had a big military meeting today. The evening was pleasant in many respects, not the least the light. 

Foggy and Frosty

 And White

Blessed Epiphany

 Christ the King

Our Twelve Days of Christmas are now ended, and we enter into the season of Epiphany. The Baby in the manger manifests His deity in miracles and mighty words. The first sign to the wider world was the miraculous star and the visit of the Wisemen with prophetic gifts: Gold for a mighty king over all, Frankincense for His prophetic office speaking to mankind from God, and Myrrh for his Priestly office as both Priest and Offering, bringing prayers and petitions and intercession from Mankind to God.