Today I wanted to follow-up on a couple of odds and ends, things that won’t make a full blog post on their own.

Thanks for all the comments – sorry I haven’t had time to reply.

Re the Munich photos I posted last week: Glad everyone liked them. I do like all fountains, and I particularly love that one spectacular fountain in Munich. I find it endlessly fascinating as a photographic subject. 🙂  BTW, Karen, you said that the flowing water from that fountain reminds you of drool from your family’s dog. Highly interesting – your dog must have quite the water output! Are there photos of this you’re willing to share? 😉

Re the Church/Apartment building: Ashley, interesting idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an artist’s loft in that steeple – our neighborhood seems like a very artsy place. During the warmer weather last month, we would hear singing lessons, piano lessons, choir practices happening as we walked around neighborhood, passing by the occasional art gallery or two. So it has a very artsy feel in this area.

Re the Tower: Good question, Mom, I don’t know why it’s always called the Hölderlin Tower now, as the base of it is part of the original medieval wall. I don’t know when the tower part was built, but I think it does pre-date the poet’s living there. Maybe if we get into the museum one day we’ll find out what it used to be called.

*****

Quick update on my German progress: I’m happy to report that my second class finished today and I somehow managed to get the equivalent of an A once again.  There’s a certain amount of cramming vocabulary at the last minute that helped with that test, but also a certain amount of luck at which words appeared — or didn’t appear — on it. 😉 In any case,  I can state with certainty that Ich kann ein bischen Deutsch sprechen. (I can speak a little German).

*****

One unusual thing that I’ve seen at the farmer’s market here is both a flower and a vegetable. I don’t recall ever seeing these flowers before, although maybe I just hadn’t really paid attention to them before. I believe they are flowering artichokes:

Basket of Artichoke Flowers, Tübingen Market

Artichoke Flower in fancy arrangement, Tübingen market

As I said, I can’t recall ever seeing anything like this before. But since artichokes grow in California, I would think I probably just walked right by them. Here they are sold individually, as in the first photo above, as well as in the fancy “bouquet” arrangement you see in the second photo. Always fun to see something new.

******

Anyway, as I said, just a few odds and ends to round out the week!