Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub - a German and Austrian autumn thread

[AntiqueMuppet]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Previous thread here

Thanks antique!!
Marking my place.

Thanks for the new thread, Antique. And what a particularly good choice of poem, may I say even if there's no mention of wine?

Just for you, Linzer!

Thanks Antique!

Speaking of Nebel last night the moon was shining through a thin curtain of Nebel, looked spooky but nice! It'll be Laternenlaufen time for those of you with small dc soon. Vegan don't miss that one, could be some neighbourhood or play group walks organised for you to join in.

Found you. Thanks for the new thread Antique.

world there are stunning stretches of coastline in Wales. Also walking up Snowdon (highest mountain) is fabulous. There is also a railway going up but check whether it runs before you rely on it for transport. You could also check out the National Trust website for mire information. There is the Forest of Dean, too. If more thangs spring to mind, I'll post some more.

Have just cancelled my RHS membership (sob), have had it for nearly 20 years but just don't think I can afford all those luxuries with no income coming in for a while.

Re Abstrich/smear discussion, no idea about detection and survival rates but it is not only the frequency that is important but also the quality of the people who process the test. There was a scandal some five years ago in the UK. I think all is well now or has been brushed under the carpet.

world I used to love going to Wales as a child. In fact, now you've started me thinking about it I might suggest Wales as a destination for next summer.

admylin I love autumn for the misty mornings and the slightly spooky atmosphere. I think DS is a bit young for Laternenlaufen this year but think I can hold out until next year!

The temperature has dropped under 20°c here (17°c today and yesterday) so it is now a legal requirement to wear your thick winter coat, scarf and boots. Woe betide anyone whose DC are not wrapped up in a snowsuit with those thick pushchair duvet things covering them with a lambskin underneath them. If I wrapped DS up like that he would melt in a little puddle of sweat. Saying that I did put 2 pairs of socks on him to walk to the little supermarket down the road yesterday. He was in a hoody & jeans otherwise so I think the socks were an amulet to ward off old lady comments

Linzer DH's mum makes us an Adventkranz every year but she most denfinitely has the Bastel gene (unlike me!)

Ah, but I'm assuming she's German Antique? I think you definitely have a head start if you were born in this part of the world. I've never seen MIL doing any kind of basteling, but the amount of cakes and biscuits she bakes more than makes up for it. I also seem to be missing the it's-December-so-I-must-bake-30-million-biscuits gene. Luckily DH has it and MIL will no doubt send us several boxes of homemade biscuits too.

Thread meet-up in Wales next summer?

Yes she is! She knits and sews clothes for DN and DS, she makes decorations to sell at the Christmas Bazaar, she bakes enough Weihnachtsplätzchen to feed a small army and she makes us a lovely Kranz every year.
I like the idea but am a bit put off by the meltdown SIL has if she hasn't had chance to bake biscuits with DN by 1st December. I feel it could become a slippery slope of domestic-perfection-worry so I prefer to stick to my slatternly ways.
SIL is amazing at all things craft-related if a little highly-strung about these things so I may rope her in if anything like that is ever expected of me. She even made tiny Schultüte decorations for the table for DN's Einschulung. (I even made a mistake writing the card )

Dd was just saying yesterday that she can't wait for the Christmas market to start!! It's not as if we even go often as it always costs a fortune, although dd will be able to go with her friends this year as she happily goes into the city without me now!

Is your dd back tonight linzer? Hope your ds was OK about school today.

Antique I'm quite of all these MILs who send all the festive food over! I will be nagged by dd to get myself into the kitchen and make atleast 3 sorts of Plätzchen with her!

We've made a Kranz before with ivy and moss and stuff collected from the forest once too but it wasn't very stable so you had to move it really carefully so it didn't fall apart!

Hello everybody, I have just found this thread, hurray! I moved to Germany (Berlin) 6 months ago after 17 years away (am originally more or less German) and am waiting for it to feel like home. I think I should namechange. I used to live in Africa (before Berlin). And had a baby too. So original, me. ;-)

Afribaby hello and welcome back to Germany! I lived for 3 years in Berlin in Mitte. Where are you?

Woo Hoo for new thread!

Laternenlaufen is called Sant Martin Zug (?) here and tbh I am heartily sick of it, having been every year for the last 5 years - but it is definitely something to experience Vegan and is cool and atmospheric the first couple of years you do it, can't believe I'm going to have to go every year for the next 5 years, til DC3 is though KiGa I have given up on going to the Kindergarten afternoon lantern making sessions as I am another one who lacks the bastle gene :o we re-use ones from previous years, but this year I am thinking the older 2 could take their large lego lanterns... not sure what they'll think!

Welcome to the thread Africbaby and I don't know if I ever said hello and welcome back to Germany to Bienchen, I am not currently very good at all at replying to everyone in my posts.

English I must admit I'm not glad to see the back of the Martinsfest after eight years of it. Luckily the DC always made their lanterns at nursery/KiGa with no parental involvement required, but I could think of more fun ways to spend an evening than walking in the cold (extreme cold some years) and dark from KiGa to church at a snail's pace. And then there were the stressful years when the nursery and KiGa Laternenfeste clashed...

Afri Hello and welcome to the thread. I also used to live in Berlin, but am now in Austria for my sins such as laughing at their funny words.

admylin Yes, DD1 is due back at 4.30 pm. I haven't heard anything (even via the mother who knew the father with a DD with a phone) so assume that it's all gone OK! DS went into school with no problems today, although his friend wasn't so keen and didn't want to leave his mum when she dropped him off at our house this morning.

Antique MIL used to make clothes for me! She's more or less given up sewing now, but I still come across some of her handmade clothes in the mostly unwearable hand-me-downs we get from SIL.

DS has a new friend here today - actually the younger brother of one of DD2's friends, who's also coming over to play but she and DD2 are still at school. Is it just Austrian children who refuse to eat what they don't know or are all children like this nowadays? I'd made a bolognese sauce with meatballs, which he viewed with great suspicion and said "ich will eine normale Soße". But otherwise, he and DS are playing very well together - quite a relief considering that DS had already announced several times that he wasn't going to play with him (they hardly know each other as they're at different schools).

admylin I've just been online to check when our Christmas market starts. Not soon enough for my liking!

Hi Afribaby! Welcome to the thread. How are you finding being back after such a long time away?

English I think it's called Martinszug here too (or something similar). I can totally imagine you would get sick of it after a few years. In fact, that's how I generally feel about Karneval these days.

Argh, you've just reminded me of Fasching Antique! Now that's something I didn't even get excited about the first year and my enthusiasm continues to wane every year. I'm another one looking forward to the Christmas markets, though; I found out earlier today that the Adventmeile opens on 23rd November and have already entered it in the calendar.

Ooh hope DD had fun Linzer - I bet the phone was taken away from the friend who took it by the teachers :o

My MIL doesn't sew or knit (though I think she used to) but she does Bastle and Pletzchen bake in true German style (as well as the jam and Schnaps making), despite (as I said) not being a real German either :o I guess Croatians have the Bastel gene, or she got used to over-compensating years ago perhaps...

DH's grandma used to knit me socks I am unsure why, I think maybe because I am genetically incapable of wearing house shoes... they are very slippery to wear on their own and too thick to wear with shoes/ boots, so although they are well made and warm they mainly just sit in my drawer... They are also rather colourful...

Muppet your SIL sounds more and more highly strung everything you post about her, it is no wonder her DD was a bit of a madam when younger... being a perfectionist is all well and good and I am sure in some ways (for example in some lines of work) it is a very good thing, but I'll stick with you being on the slatternly ways, it's more relaxing for everyone who's path one crosses I imagine! Still I hope she manages to cope with her sister's funeral and loss without coming unravelled herself :(

DS1 came hoem from KiGa with a black eye yesterday, he wouldn't tell KiGa staff what had happened and he says there were no staff in the garden when it did happen, but he told me and DD last night that he was in a fight with another boy, and I got him to tell them this morning, so they've allegedly sorted it out - though inevitably the other boy involved had a different story to DS1 (which he only told once DS1 had told his side)... I hope this is a one off! I largely agree with children not being over closely supervised and being allowed to reach their own solutions, but obviously not when it comes to physical fights and black eyes! It isn't the first time I've wondered if the KiGa staff are a bit too Laissez Faire with supervision during outdoor time...

Just home and drinking fennel tea and marking my place on the new thread before I go off and frantically practise my part for this week's scary concert.

Antique sorry to hear about your SIL's sister. I hope the family manage to get through this difficult period.

English I've also taken dd with me to gynae appts before. When she was small the nurses just held her and last time I took some books with me for her to look at. There is always a toy corner in the waiting room, so I assume it's expected. Having a smartphone as emergency entertainment also helps!

MIL only bakes vile diabetic-friendly plätzchen - sweetened with agavensaft (which is apparently even worse for you than sugar) and topped with what appears to be cocoa mixed with rum. SIL however is excellent at making plätzchen, so I always hope for a bag or two from her. Actually, I really must start teaching English to pensioners again, I usually could barely get through all the biscuits I was given by my VHS group!

Hello, afribaby and everyone else.

I used to take DD to my midwife apts in the UK (in fact twice in the UK I took 3 small girls all under the age of 2.5, as I was a child minder then - they were fascinated and angelic but I got some funny looks in the waiting room with my pregnant belly and what could have looked like 18 month old twins and a slightly older one of 2 and a bit :) A pregnant mum with non walking twins was waiting to see the midwife too once and sat next to me to chat to and was disappointed when I admitted only one was mine). I also took her to my Fraunartz apts here in my final trimester, and to my 6 week check (DS1 too but he was a tiny baby obviously and slept through it in the maxi cosi - DD was a co-operative toddler though!

I took DS1 to DD's Augenartz apt when she was 3 and he was 18 months and attempted to settle him with toys and a snack in the corner as she was worried about sitting in the big sight test chair on her own and wanted to be on my lap - and in the space of about 20 seconds DS1 managed to turn all the equipment and lights in the entire place off!! They were not amused... Henry is, if anything, a less co-operative toddler than DS1 was and would probably manage to climb out of a window (they always have all the windows open) or up the examination chair thing while I was in it, or turn off all the machines/ re set the computer... All toddlers are not created equal unfortunately when it comes to being good and compliant at other people's medical apts

On a totally different topic - German Christmases - when we first moved here MIL still used to have real, lit, candles on her tree, is that still common practice? She still decorates with real candles on the tree but no longer lights them and has electric lights on the tree too now, in deference to the grandchildren.

English It's still common practice here to have proper candles - and to light them - on your Christmas tree; I was when I first saw my ILs lighting their candles. We have an artificial tree, with electric lights, and put it up mid-December so break all the rules.

cheas I actually quite like fennel tea - well, liked it, as I only drank it when I was bfing. Good luck for the concert!

DD1 is back home safe and sound (over an hour early) and seems to have had a good time. She was sharing with two other girls and said that the first night, she slept in the double bed and the other two in the bunk beds but on the second night they all slept in the double bed as they were frightened of the two scary pictures on the wall!

admylin, thanks for the link to the festive CD.

world, aw! Maybe MIL knows your Lewis man! The wedding at the weekend was in Inverness. The couple getting married are from Stornoway.

English, we were just watching a German cartoon today and there is a Christmas scene with lit candles on the tree! Doesn't look very safe!
Thanks for the heads up about Laternelaufen. DS will like it! I love that time of year, mainly for bonfire night and fireworks. I guess we will miss that here.

Hello and welcome, Afri! And Bienchen, I think I was offline for a bit when you joined. What a lovely busy group this is!

Ha ha Linzer, I've put the Christmas market opening day in my calendar too . Glad your DD had a nice time.

English I hope the issue at Kiga is resolved soon. A black eye sounds quite nasty! PIL also have lit candles on their Christmas tree. We won't be there for Christmas this year so no chance of DS burning the place down, luckily.

cheas I quite like fennel tea! I also drank it by the bucket when BFing. Good luck with the concert!

After my moan this morning about winter coats and snowsuits, I was accosted by an old man on the way home from the supermarket today and berated for DS' lack of gloves. Seriously. It's September. When I argued with him (which I was really proud of myself for, I usually just shuffle away muttering) he just said 'na, dann, viel Glück', looked pointedly at DS' (warm) hands and stomped off! 'Tis the season, apparently!

Wow, busy thread! Thanks for the welcome everyone.
admylin I live in Charlottenburg, close to the Schlosspark. I am on the scummier side of the Spree.
AntiqueMuppet I've been gone for so long I don't feel particularly German at all. I speak the language, which helps.

Afri I lived in Charlottenburg both years that I spent in Berlin (one area much more salubrious than the other!) and used to take the youngest DC to a childminder near the Schlosspark when I was an au pair - it was somewhere near Klausener Platz but I can't remember the name of the street.

Antique Oh how ridiculous; it wouldn't be any of his business in the depths of winter, but in September? If it's any consolation, people do get less interfering as the children get older; a woman did ask the DDs the other day whether they weren't cold , but she was quite friendly about it and tbf it was a fairly cold day and they were both in T-shirts. Well done for arguing back, anyway - I could usually never think of anything to say back to them!

Am enjoying a nice quiet evening while DH is away, although it turns out he'll be back tomorrow evening rather than Friday as I'd thought. I will not spend the entire evening on MN!