>Trinkhallen (drinking halls) are ubiquitous in Germany. One of the ones close to the Hauptbahnhof in Mainz definitely leaves its mark, though. Patrons flip off their bottle caps onto the…
>Or Schobbeschteschää in the local dialect. (Someone’s going to correct me on that one..) The statue of the prototypical Mainz wine drinker graces the green patch between the Schönbornerhof and…
>Mixed marriages are tricky things at the best of times, but sporting events tend to apply unusual stress to any relationship. We don’t have a problem at our place –…
>Odile Landragin is legendary in these parts for her stunning herb and aromatics garden. So legendary, in fact, that the local paper has assigned her the elevated status of Official…
> In my book, it’s OK to be a tad mistrustful of big Life Science companies. A big companies, actually. But I have a very soft spot for Boehringer-Ingelhem, with…
>… when your national football team beats the team of the country you’re living in. Which is what happened the other night when Croatia comprehensively and deservedly stuffed Germany 2:1…
>No, not the Provence. These manicured rows of lavender are squeezed in at the back of the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) in Mainz and between a jumble of flyovers and access…
>As soon as shearing’s due to begin, the temperature drops. 29ºC on Tuesday, 22º yesterday and we’ll be lucky to see 18º today. It’s the “Schafskälte” – “literally “Sheeps’ Cold”…
>This is how much of the asparagus is grown around here. (That’d be “Spargel”, the blanched stuff that you have to peel, as opposed to the green stuff that you…
>There’s some seriously underdeveloped talent around here if this painted window at the Nieder-Olm Primary School is anything to go by. All that’s missing is a goat playing a violin…
>Big event at the moment is the European Football Championships (rest of the world read: soccer) being jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria. They don’t have a chance of winning,…
>7 year old Sophie from up the road turned up on one of her frequent visits the other week to proudly inform us that she’d won the Reading Contest for…
>There’s the Federal Horticultural Show – the Bundesgartenschau – held biannually and it’s such a huge prestige object that cities are queueing up to apply for the honour of hosting…
>Take one virulent hosta plant, a bit of tweaking in iPhoto and tghis is what you get
>Rue – Ruta graveolens – is one of those herbs that you’ll rarely find a use for. It featured prominently in Middle Eastern and Roman cuisine in ancient times, but…
>You can tell how good my dentist Klaus Höffler is by the fact that he doesn’t need to do a lot. When my old dentist retired in 1998, I spent…
> …wird ausgeschenkt” Or “Get your wine under the sign of the vine” The tradition of the “Strausswirtschaft” dates back to 794, when Charlemagne (King of the Franks, Holy Roman…
>…and we should act accordingly” Thus spoke Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian architect, painter, conservationist and visionary. Or nutter, decidely a few bolied eggs short of a picnic and away with the…
>Volker Eckert’s vineyard definitely isn’t on a corner. In fact, it’s on the Hauptstrasse, the main road that runs through the old part of Klein-Winternheim. But semantically, it couldn’t fit…
>…isn’t really enough. But given the constraints and country gardenish-ness of our section here, we’ve taken to planting strawberries in terracotta wall planters. Taste great, though…
>The Albertine rose. Our two specimens are full on at the moment. The only improvement I could think of would be a longer flowering season. One blast and they’re gone…
>This is why I just love this time of year…
>Dexheim, one of the small villages nestled in the countryside to the south of Mainz, is best known for being home to one of the few US military facilities that…
>Bad-Kreuznach – about 30 minutes from Mainz and where I’ve been incarcerated for the past 3 weeks – has some fascinating sons and daughters. Eberhard Anheuser, who went on to…
>Waiting to blossom. jb is back tomorrow.
>Please forgive another gratuitous cat photo, but the reflection of me taking the picture in Poppy’s eye freaked me out at bit.
>On a hot tip from Mrs jb, I took myself off to the Artisan Market today. As I was wandering around admiring everything, this rusty ironwork garden wall hanging thingy…
>For no other reason than this picture makes me happy.
>While it is quite common to see people in religious dress in Mainz, I haven’t spotted any Buddhist Monks before. Perhaps they are here with the Dalai Lama. Whatever the…
>Spargel (Asparagus – especially the white variety) is the greatest vehicle for Hollandaise Sauce ever invented (except for, perhaps, poached eggs). Yes, we are in the grips of Spargel Fever…
>Seriously, I wanted to buy them all. Instead, I bought none. It is fun to look though.
Mainz Daily Photo 