Wordless Wednesday: a second spring

Im Himmel, da gibt's kein Beer...

But, fortunately, last Wednesday we weren't in Heaven, but rather at the Beethoven Männerchor Halle und Garten, in San Antonio's Southtown, where there was plenty of the foamy stuff at their Fiesta Gartenfest. And the Fiesta weather was much more cooperative than earlier in the week at Oyster Bake.


There was also lots of singing of good ol' German beer-drinking songs like the one referenced in my title, which continues: "D'rum trinken wir es hier!" [There is no beer in Heaven, so we'll drink it here!] I hadn't heard that one before, but there were plenty of others I was familiar with and it was fun to sing along. [I have the words because they helpfully passed out song sheets that only required a little spelling and pronunciation correction; approximate translations are below]

Du, du liegst mir im Herzen,
Du, du, liegst mir im Sinn

In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus,
Eins, zwei, G'suffa!

Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann,
Und mir liegt's auch im Blut,
D'rum wandre ich, solang ich kann,
Und schwenke meinen Hut!
Valderi, Valdera, Valderi, Valderaha, aha, aha... [usw]

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"You, you, lie in my heart, and my mind"

"In Munich there's a beer hall [duh!]
One, Two, ?????"

My father was a wanderer.
And it's also in my blood.
So I'll wander as long as I'm able,
And wave my hat!
Valderi......[etc.]

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And of course, this high point of German philosophical musing:

Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken,

Drei Ecken hat mein Hut.

Und hat er nicht drei Ecken,

Dann ist er nicht mein Hut!

My hat, it has 3 corners,
Three corners has my hat.
And if it has not 3 corners,
Then is it not my hat!

Yes, the language of Kant and Nietzsche has also given the world this gem. And they do seem to be rather obsessed with headgear.

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We saw some folks at the garden with their own personal beer steins, and if we go next year we might have to take one of ours. There are many to choose from, and I might feature some others in a future post, but here are three of my favorites:

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I've been pretty busy this week and have accumulated some other interesting photos, particularly from my visit yesterday to globe-trotting-turned-homeowner son and daughter-in-law's new house in Austin. I want to share these with you, but it might be a while before I can. I'm off on a trip to a librarians' meeting in Buffalo, NY, very early tomorrow morning, and don't know how much spare time I'll have, or how much internet connectivity. Hopefully in a week or so things will have slowed down and I can catch up with blogging.

Wordless Wednesday: two lights of my life

Oyster shots explained

Tide pool target practice? Shellfish pickled in vodka and then chugged? Expressing displeasure with a public speaker or performance by hurling slimy invertebrates at the stage?

None of the above, as it turns out.

No, it is a slimy marine invertebrate, but plopped into a little plastic cup and then smothered in lemon juice, horseradish and cocktail sauce. Prior to...well, one of the above was right, as chugging is involved.

I apologize that the critter itself is out of focus in favor of the bowl of horseradish in the photo on the right, but I include it to give you an idea, however fuzzy, of how this delicacy looks.

As someone who fervently believes that the first person to eat an oyster must have been hungry to the point of hallucinatory madness, I opted not to sample the signature food of St. Mary's Oyster Bake yesterday. But, as I'd finally convinced all the kids to join me at the food/music fest this year, I was able to watch and document as they poured the shots down.

We were terribly unlucky with Bake weather this year, at least for the early going when we were there. It was chilly and had rained so much over the previous night and through mid-morning that many areas of the fair were pretty puddly. Regular readers know I don't complain about having too much rain too often, but we could have used a little less the past few days.

However, the rain stopped long enough Saturday for us to eat and drink ourselves silly with—in addition to the shots—fajitas, roasted corn, sausage on a stick, churros, a variety of beers, and, of course, some of the choir booth's scrumptious chocolate-dipped strawberries. (I spent a very soggy hour earlier at that booth cleaning and skewering strawberries, dodging the regular dumping of accumulated water off the top of the booth, and generally earning my gold star for choir fundraising—with a hardship cluster.)

In spite of the poor conditions, a good time was had by all, not the least because of the—as far as the kids were concerned—delicious shots. So I think they'll be ready for next year, when the weather will hopefully cooperate and we'll get to stay longer, hear more music, and enjoy more walking-around food.

Wordless Wednesday: so many books....

...by any other name...redux

You won't believe this, but I started writing this post completely forgetting that almost exactly a year ago I had one about roses, too, and with the same title!

Rather than think of this as evidence that I'm in a blog rut, I prefer to think of it as consistency.


But regardless of whether I'm in a rut or not, I got some good new pictures of roses around town to show you. Like the ones in our back yard, above. Fortunately these beauties can produce at this level with little or no intervention, since they don't get much pampering.

I did prune them a couple of months ago, but that's about it. It helps that they are both antiques*, very robust varieties.

There are a lot of roses on campus, too, which I mentioned in last year's post. Most are pink, but there are also these white beauties, which I parked nearby when I had to work today.

I also snapped this shot of our president's parking space, next to some of the pink ones. [although he didn't have to work on Saturday] I especially like the covering of the ground with petals—it gives you a good idea of how profusely they've been blooming.


I promise I'll try and come up with something other than roses to talk about next early April.

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*But I might have another rose post coming up before then. I'm hoping to visit my cousin in Brenham in May, and in addition to the Blue Bell creamery, I want to visit the Antique Rose Emporium there. That's where I bought my Old Blush (pink) rose bush many years ago. I think it would really be fun to tour their grounds. And maybe pick up another bush or two.

Wordless Wednesday: harmony