The End. Thanks for visiting.
Just kidding!
Kartoffeln means potatoes in Hoch Deutsch or proper German. We, however, lived in die Pfalz (Palatinate) area of Germany so were exposed to the paelzisch dialect where Kartoffeln was replaced by Grumbeere. The sad thing is that most of the time I did not know that people were speaking dialect since many times that just meant a slight variation of pronunciation (that I just couldn't hear) or a shortening of a word (which I am totally used to coming from TN). There were certain words that we heard a lot in dialect and so came to know such as Grumbeere and Woi (wine).
The reason why I named the blog Grumbeere though, is not because I love potatoes. For the reason, you have to look closer at the picture and see Sadie's butt up in the air. Sadie is one of our dogs who came to Germany with us. She and Jasmine had a big time in Europe since they could go on long walks without leashes, go to restaurants (where they were NOT as well behaved as the German dogs), and see a lot of Europe. Here they are in Tuscany enjoying the vineyards.
Anyway, Sadie's days off the leash were numbered every year because she could not be trusted during planting or harvesting season and the farmers surrounding our village kept their fields pretty well used during the year so there were a lot of planting and harvesting going on. When Sadie DID get off the leash and was allowed to explore, she pretty much just explored from one Grumbeer spot to the next. She would FEAST on these things as well as sugar beets. Oh man, she loves her some sugar beets!!
The thing is though, even though I had to yell at her constantly to come, even though harvesting season was the bane of my existence as a dog owner, I envied Sadie her joyful abandon in those fields. If I could find such happiness in such small and plentiful things as the pfaelzer Grumbeere then I would be a truly happy person. So, that is what I am trying to do with my sewing and with this blog. I am trying to plant my own field of Grumbeere.
