"Don't cross the bridge...

 ... before you reach it." 

These wise words are very often given to me as advice from my dear friend Christine. 

You see: I am impatient. I am a scheduler, I like to make plans. Worry about them. 

Today I got a beautiful example for that vice: how often had I discussed with friends and family whether I should renew my one-year-season ticket for the German railroad - the special offer "BahnCard100" for pensioners and retirees. 

I enjoyed its possibilities: with this ticket I can as often as I want take every train in Germany, on the spur of a moment, going as far in Germany as I want. For one year, "without paying" anymore. 

The only fly in the ointment was the price: 3880 Euros (= 3.319 Pound Sterling) - a special offer for us oldies. 

Quite a lot, I think. But I bought it. Although being at least 3 weeks a month together with the triplets so I had only one week a month - in which I travelled to Berlin, mostly, and sometimes to Munich. 

Mid-September I have to renew this Card. 

             OR NOT. 

As I said: I crossed that bridge often in my head. 

Yesterday I saw: no need for that. 

They do not offer this "special offer" anymore. (One can still buy the regular one - 2.class in the train - for 4.550 Euro. (3.894Pound Sterling)

No need to cross a bridge. I won't. I will buy the tickets I need, every time, and that's it. 

Sigh... It was so comfortable... But...

Wildflower- bunch of July

 

Just in time to post it - you see: the colour of July flowers is mostly purple, pink and lilac-blue. 

Purple lythrum (or purple loosestrife/willowherb) grows here everywhere at the border of little ditches. Red clover, bloody cranesbill (geranium sanguineum)and pink lady slippers (lotus australis, though I doubt australis) make beautiful eye-candy. 

As I was preoccupied with nursing my lumbago (caught me in Berlin, forced me to stay longer, thus missing my flight to Amsterdam and a week in the Netherlands), I could not post the bunch of June. Here it is: 

  

Beautiful Munich

Last week I decided to go to Munich (by train - which in Germany nowadays is a never ending adventure...) 

From my tiny village (1 track!) to Nürnberg the little red train needs only 40 minutes. But then I have to wait at least - and every time - 30 minutes, valuable time well spent on deepening my studies in mankind: the Central Station in Nürnberg is neither beautiful (but full!) nor safe (ranking position 3 in "the most dangerous Central stations in Germany" - running after Köln and Hannover - Nürnberg proudly presented 548 violent offences last year). 

But then - if it comes - the ICE to Munich speeds in 1 hour to its destination. 

This time I changed my visiting routine: nature before culture, I decided - so passing by the the Frauenkirche  

I took a few steps to the Hofgarten, bathing in the bewitching smell of flowering limes, 

crossed through the Diana Tempel: 

to reach the lovely "Englischer Garten" with the "Monopteros" 

and the "Eisbach" - light turquoise icy water, where surfers dash by.  

 I dashed too - and overdid it a bit to snatch up culture. 

In the heat, 31°!= 87,5 degrees Fahrenheit - Yours Truly walked all in all over 15,000 steps - meaning over 10 kilometres in relatively new ballerinas... ouch ... 

Next time I will be wiser, hopefully - otherwise: 

older, but not wiser. 

(Highly elegant position of legs and feet - but what can I expect after that gigantic walk? At my age?) 

Elating surprise in the English Bookshop WordsWorth (Schellingstrasse, university terrain) -  

the owner recognised me after almost 30 years! - and we chatted for a long time - but that is worth a few words in another blog post, I think. 

 

Après nous le déluge?

 

As the Flying Dutchman told me the newspapers and TV in the Netherlands were full of reports on the very bad weather we had especially in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. And it is not over yet. 

Luckily here we were spared catastrophes - on the photo you see the "Au" - a sort of natural overflow "basin" for a swelling little river. Two years ago I saw different pictures - no green left to be seen, seething water - and in the neighbour village many houses stood for a quarter under water. 

But Augsburg, Regensburg, Passau - they were no that lucky this year. 

Back to the Sixties in a minute

 

Do you remember the eye-make-up we did in the sixties? I still paint my eyes quite heavily - but I do not use baby-blue powder on the whole eyelid anymore, which will give you an instant sixty-feeling. 

And I do not paint the "Twiggy"-eyelashes (in the corners of the outer edge of the lower eyelid (though I liked it). 

But every day I paint - and love it, whether I am alone or going out. It is like a meditation, looks great, and gives me - together with my daring YSL-lipstick - a feeling of protection. 

"My eyes in shining armour" - to malappropriate a song title from the 

Rolling Stones. 

Wildflower-Bouquet of May

 

I sometimes wonder if I use the right word (bouquet) for the arrangement of a few wildflowers which I gather on my walks. "Bunch" might be more suitable? 

Today you find "A Study in Scarlet": dove or pigeon scabious, lucerne and one soft pink dog rose. 

I'm sorry to say that the photo does not show the many colour values of the lucerne, but as May is almost over in the blink of an eye this has to suffice. 

I opt to make things simpler, thus I decided to put the blog about plants and garden into "You are witty and pretty". 

The love of plants is part of my life, and a joy.  

Decision FOR My Happiness

 

I had to think for a while. Or better: feel. Recover from a (mild) shock. 

Then I came to the conclusion that it would be mad to let one person not only rain on my parade, but stop me doing something I love. 

I talk of writing. 

So I'll take a deep plunge and meet (the rest of) my friends again. 

Happy to meet you! 

(The Pegasus is a photo I took from the window of the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin; the the open-air bath is in Wantlitz, Brandenburg).