Green Is Our Valley
Having blindly purchased 40 acres in southern Arizona, scouted for us by my trusted father-in-law, you'll have to forgive me for occassionally straying from the theme of this blog - Europe and Africa - and reflecting some on the land that we have purchased and the home we plan to one day build there.
Tom and I have started a house book where we are cutting and pasting potential floor plans into, drawing ideas and pasting photos. As we are traveling, we are beginning to see things we like and getting ideas for what we might like to incorporate into our house. In Heidelberg we saw an outdoor circular seating area with wrought iron and envisioned something similar, the color of the desert, draped instead with a Tombstone Rose rather than a vine.
We went on a day trip to Staufen, Germany last weekend. Truthfully not one of our better trips. I am seeing a trend though when a trip is not going well -- lack of photographic proof. What took up almost an entire day, driving through gorgeous hills and the Black Forest, and walking through the streets of a beautiful German town resulted in a whopping five pictures! Pathetic, I know, and a sharp contrast to the 200+ photos we took a couple weeks prior during our trip last month to Heidelberg.
But I figure that's just part of traveling. Some trips go better than others. We can return when our spirits are better; when we get on the road earlier; when we don't arrive first at the wrong Staufen, which is only an hour away from the one we actually wanted; when I'm not feeling car sick from the weaves and bends in the road; when we haven't arrived late and missed the wine co-op, the whole purpose of the journey. We can, and we will return, and it is then that we can take our pictures.
Two things I will mention about our trip to Staufen. While in town we noticed this peculiar message written in chalk on doors and doorways of homes and businesses "20+C+M+B+10." Having NEVER seen this before we wondered what this mysterious code might mean. Tom, guessing closer to the truth then he realized, wondered if it was some religious thing, Catholic maybe? As we have no photographic evidence of this phenomenon, I had to go find a picture on the Internet so you'd know what I was talking about. Notice the only difference is this one ends in 09.
This mystery was revealed during our drive home, a frustrating two hours on a crowded, construction-riddled Autobahn, as I found an explanation in my Rick Steves' Germany book. He explains that this is common around Germany and most of Catholic Europe.
This mark is made above doorways on January 6, which is Epiphany. Where I have had to use the plus sign, imagine something closer to a cross. Epiphany is the Christian holiday celebrating the arrival of the Magi to adore the newborn Baby Jesus. In addition to being the initials of the three wise men (Caspar, Melchoir, and Balthazar), the letters also stand for the Latin phrase Christus mansionem benedicat - "May Christ bless the house." It is considered a blessing for the house, the year and all who enter.
Rick Steves writes that Epiphany is a bigger deal in Catholic Europe than in the United States. While I'm not Catholic, this lack of recognition or celebration in the U.S. probably explains why I don't know anything about Epiphany or even that the three wise men had names that are known.
But, in Catholic Europe, Epiphany is a big deal celebrated with gift-giving, feasting and caroling door to door, often collecting for a charity organization. Those who donate get their door chalked up too. I actually think I like this tradition. Not necessarily the chalk writing above the door but the idea of giving gifts in conjunction with when the wise men brought gifts to the Baby Jesus. Perhaps I'll find a way to celebrate January 6th next year.
Also in Staufen we saw this beautiful building that had a drive-in courtyard where there were car garages on the first level and then stairs leading up to apartments on the second level, connected by a wrap around porch. Tom has been talking about incorporating a courtyard into our house in Arizona and this building offered us new ideas about what is possible.
This week in e-mail Tom and I got a treat. The real estate agent we worked through when buying our acreage in southern Arizona is actually our neighbor too, and she sent Tom and I pictures of our property all greened up from the summer rains. Don't romanticize it too much though...those are weeds not grass. But as Tom said they are OUR weeds.
While my father-in-law, a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law have now all seen the property, we will not see our blind investment until December. Perhaps all the ideas we are collecting will be scratched once we see the land and realize that what we were envisioning is all wrong and something entirely different and new is what's best.
Either way, it's just nice to have something to plan and dream about even if all the sketches get scrapped for something even better.
Tom and I have started a house book where we are cutting and pasting potential floor plans into, drawing ideas and pasting photos. As we are traveling, we are beginning to see things we like and getting ideas for what we might like to incorporate into our house. In Heidelberg we saw an outdoor circular seating area with wrought iron and envisioned something similar, the color of the desert, draped instead with a Tombstone Rose rather than a vine.
But I figure that's just part of traveling. Some trips go better than others. We can return when our spirits are better; when we get on the road earlier; when we don't arrive first at the wrong Staufen, which is only an hour away from the one we actually wanted; when I'm not feeling car sick from the weaves and bends in the road; when we haven't arrived late and missed the wine co-op, the whole purpose of the journey. We can, and we will return, and it is then that we can take our pictures.
Two things I will mention about our trip to Staufen. While in town we noticed this peculiar message written in chalk on doors and doorways of homes and businesses "20+C+M+B+10." Having NEVER seen this before we wondered what this mysterious code might mean. Tom, guessing closer to the truth then he realized, wondered if it was some religious thing, Catholic maybe? As we have no photographic evidence of this phenomenon, I had to go find a picture on the Internet so you'd know what I was talking about. Notice the only difference is this one ends in 09.
This mark is made above doorways on January 6, which is Epiphany. Where I have had to use the plus sign, imagine something closer to a cross. Epiphany is the Christian holiday celebrating the arrival of the Magi to adore the newborn Baby Jesus. In addition to being the initials of the three wise men (Caspar, Melchoir, and Balthazar), the letters also stand for the Latin phrase Christus mansionem benedicat - "May Christ bless the house." It is considered a blessing for the house, the year and all who enter.
Rick Steves writes that Epiphany is a bigger deal in Catholic Europe than in the United States. While I'm not Catholic, this lack of recognition or celebration in the U.S. probably explains why I don't know anything about Epiphany or even that the three wise men had names that are known.
But, in Catholic Europe, Epiphany is a big deal celebrated with gift-giving, feasting and caroling door to door, often collecting for a charity organization. Those who donate get their door chalked up too. I actually think I like this tradition. Not necessarily the chalk writing above the door but the idea of giving gifts in conjunction with when the wise men brought gifts to the Baby Jesus. Perhaps I'll find a way to celebrate January 6th next year.
Also in Staufen we saw this beautiful building that had a drive-in courtyard where there were car garages on the first level and then stairs leading up to apartments on the second level, connected by a wrap around porch. Tom has been talking about incorporating a courtyard into our house in Arizona and this building offered us new ideas about what is possible.
This week in e-mail Tom and I got a treat. The real estate agent we worked through when buying our acreage in southern Arizona is actually our neighbor too, and she sent Tom and I pictures of our property all greened up from the summer rains. Don't romanticize it too much though...those are weeds not grass. But as Tom said they are OUR weeds.
 |
| Summer rains green up our hillside |
Either way, it's just nice to have something to plan and dream about even if all the sketches get scrapped for something even better.
Comments
Post a Comment