If it is Friday, it must be Gamlitz..... yup

But first a little Spring bouquet for you. Pretty... it is Spring, I guess.







I got a new camera, Peter sprang for one, so this is the place I wanted to photograph two weeks ago. The Golden Lion Inn in Ehrenhausen. The Lion is of stone between the two cars.








And this is the plaque next to the door. It used to be a brewery, and processed meats, and the Empress Maria Theresia stopped there for refreshment in 1750. You know, they traveled by horse and coach, and the horses had to be tended to or changed, and the passengers 'refreshed' themselves, so the word doesn't mean she slept there, they all just had a break, so to speak....



The kids in the hood were their usual boistrous selves. Last week it was 'follow the leader' waiting for their school bus, this week it was climbing that poor tree. The tyke on the far left was the one who wanted to know if I was going to SCHOOL, because, y'know, only school kids take the bus, and adults have cars.... He is ALWAYS in motion, running all over the place.




This is where the bus drops me off, in front of the Post Office. Next door is a little place that rents out rooms to vacationers, and in the back you can see the magnolias are still blooming and they have a Japanese cherry tree. I had taken Peter out for a walk, you see, and we were heading 'downtown'. The background? It is the village center... gargantuan, huh?



The front of this place is so beautifully gardened... except they have the largest garden dwarf I have ever seen. And he is waay fuckin' ugly. Normally they are Disney cute little figures nestled somewhere under a shrub or a bush. I had one... Dopey with a hard-on, and I hid him under the rhododendron. (That, Preciousses, was my rebellion against the very idea of garden dwarves. Most people with gardens just lurv them to death, and some really go overboard, but why kitsch your garden up, if it is manicured to perfection, huh? Others, like me, are allergic to them.)

The dwarf in this picture has to be the king of them, or something, and looks evil. (Shudder) Well look, I have to have something to smile about, now don't I? I don't think people where I grew up have them, but can't be sure. But the Germans and Austrians are crazy about them. Stress on crazy, please...


And better than seeing what Peter is looking like right now....









So I pushed him about, and as they say, 'the hills are alive'... again. And if you finished the beginning of that phrase from something from Rodgers and Hammerstein.... I will feed you to sharks. It is Spring, dammit....




Before I went back, I took a look at that Church in Ehrenhausen. Inside, I mean. Jaw-dropper.... Baroque and scary. So much gold leaf, they could feed an army of poor people. And this in a town with 2-300 houses at most???? Beautiful, but actually.... offensive. The white bouquets at the end of the pews with the white ribbons?

Welllll... First Communion is this weekend seemingly. I know this because the posting in the elevator invited the seniors who were interested to play board games with the kids, and they made little presents and presented them to the oldies. Wheww, they really get into community stuff down there, but that seems to be a good thing. Except they start them off awfully young, seems to me....

It all sort of made me shudder. But what do I know... All I know is I got viciously slapped by a nun when it was practice, was told not to talk and was whispering to the person next to me. Yeah, that will get you respect.... Just sayin. I hightailed it out of there today, but didn't get hit by lightning.