Challenge

Check Up

I have a weekly on-line meeting with my Siblings to discuss life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the state of the world. This week we have a group challenge to check up on our readiness for living semi-comfortably through a difficult time. The scenario is a one day electrical outage. This helps us check our mental and physical preparedness for such a potentiality. 

So, yesterday, Better Half and I took the challenge. It wasn’t terribly difficult, because we have a gravity water supply and cistern, and off-grid sanitation facilities. We technically didn’t have to turn off our lights either, because they run on solar and batteries, but we did, just in the spirit of the thing. And we have a fireplace with warming circulation, so no concerns about a furnace. (Note, all the stuff sitting around in not-appropriate places are part of our current push to get boxes unpacked and the house in order. Not there yet.)

The bigger test was food preparation. Technically we didn’t have to adjust much on that either, because we have a wood-fired cookstove, but I elected to try the more primitive route of not using it. 

Alternative option, obviously not in use. 

So, I pulled out the candle-powered Raclette cookers to make our brunch. Things required adjustment along the way, because, until you try something in real life, you don’t know how the details are going to work. Like, boiling water for tea. Cheese cookers won’t do. 

The ingredients and supplies.

No electricity 

Heat source. We found the quality of tea lights definitely matters. 

These are things that didn’t work: as appropriately sized and cute as these little pans are, they didn’t balance well on the cookers, so they got eliminated. 



Food

Food

Food

Mama’s homemade food. “But, Mom, that’s so old.” Actually it is perfectly good, and would be still in twenty years. 

Food, Getting done….

Some food done, and note to self: how do you keep food warm, while the rest is cooking? A plate over the dish helped, but a heat source would be better. 

Food to eat. We fared sumptuously and were filled, and took cognizance of what to do further, for “next time.”

One thing was to pull out the made-for-it food warmers, and wash off the dust. 

This is part of one. We have two, in different kinds with actual grill and plate tops, so we could use pots on them. Check.

 Then, of course, one must account for early darkness in this season. So candlelight🕯  dinner it was. But we simply had our Swiss platter supper with uncooked foods: ham, tuna (to rotate stocks, he said), bread, vegetables, and, naturally, garlic🧄. 

A very foggy day, heading toward dusk. 

Dark by suppertime.

So, there was no internet yesterday, officially; but some business had to get done, so we were not totally strict about those things; just no social media or messages or movies. So consider this yesterday’s post. 

Being There, Seeing There

In Heidelberg 

On Saturday, after Bible study, we has the afternoon free to see things. We had visited the castle ruins a couple of times already on other visits, so we decided to stroll the old town. One of our group, a native German, joined us in our walk to the city center. In our conversation, she told us that Heidelberg was not bombed to smithereens, as was every other significant city in Germany, because an American general in charge of those decisions had gone to school there, as had his friends, so he had a fondness for it, and spared it. So goes history: everything is somebody’s story. A whim here, an antipathy there, and you survive or get smashed. So, unlike other German cities, which are carefully reconstructed to look original, Heidelberg actually is original. 

The hostel was on the other side of the river, so we first had to find a bridge.

The first of many breweries we saw in the city. 

We wanted to check out a light store, but we couldn’t quiiiiiiiite find what we liked. 

We decided the styles were just a liiiiiiitle off for our setting.

You know?

You can’t see the sign on the roof, but this is the Bayer building. And you must not say “bay-er”, but “bahy-er.”  I was corrected. 

Street Musik

Heidelberg has the most bookstores in Germany. It’s like the Oxford of the continent. It is a very ancient university town, too, which explains a lot.

A side street we had to check out. And peek in the church at the end. 

Simple but elegant. 

The organ in the narthex end.

A hospital. The old one. There is a huge modern sprawling one on the other side of the river, with ambulances screaming up every few minutes. This old one is more peaceful.

A square with old villas encircling it. 

On one side is this building where Herr Bunsen invented his burner. 

… or at least he lived there awhile. 

Church

Next to the “High Girls School.” 

… to be continued….

Getting There

To Heidelberg 

We are actually back now, but I am starting the store from the beginning. We are packing up to return to our other house, so this will be short. 

The trip to get from Switzerland to Heidelberg had its own adventures. We had to take the dog back to family in Zurich then head toward Germany. But the navigation system had us starting from our other house, so we watched our tracking dot running off-road through forests, getting closer and closer to the Bodensee (Lake Constance). Then PLOP! We were running through the lake. Each time we were shown getting closer to the shore, we would veer off back out into the center of the lake. It was a bit disconcerting. Then the non-helpful navigation system got turned off.

So, one drives on the German Autobahn at tremendous speeds, right? As many times as we have driven it, I don’t know any time that didn’t have at least one Stau (traffic jam, snail pace or stopped). This time was no exception. We passed at least five accidents. One kept us slowed then stopped for an hour. It turned out to be a six car pile up. Then we got dumping rain, so drivers all put on flashers and slowed to a crawl. Then it got dark, so we had to find our way through the city not able to see signs or quite know where we’re were. 

So the four hour drive was not four hours. We eventually, after some turn arounds and backtracking, got to the youth hostel where the Reformation Retreat was being held. And, we made it in time for supper, just barely. 

So, next post: pictures of Heidelberg. 

To Germany

To Heidelberg 

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but it didn’t work, then I tried again today and the content disappeared. 

So I think there will be no posts until I get back. 

Old Painting

Found in Attic

Small work of summer poppies.

Tomorrow, heading for Heidelberg. 

St. Gallen Abbey Cathedral

Continued from October Visit

One of the pair of great towers.

A bronze model in the courtyard 

By the entry doors

The portal

Baroque to the max

All around the nave are these ornate confessional booths, each uniquely hand carved….

…with the apex depicting a saint or a story from the life of Christ.

Each pew end is also uniquely hand carved, similar but no two alike.

This is a giant cupboard at the rear of the nave. The insets in the inlayed wood are painted.

This is the “Covid Bible.” People could handwrite passages into it. 

You can sing this Bible story….

To be continued….

Blessed All Saints Day

To All Ye Saints

It was a work day here, rummaging around in the attic. I found these. They are Brockenhaus finds from many years ago. They were totally dark green and oxidized, but this is how they look now after hours of soaking in solution and scrubbing. Still a long way to go.