New bolster cover

I was preoccupied with making a new bolster cover. My usual round robin of interests finally swung back to sewing. I had bought much cloth, and sewing materials before, but never actually sewed anything at all :D

But since my youngest Aunt gave me her sewing machine, I decided to use it to make the new bolster cover for G. I realized not only I could not hit a pool ball in a straight line, I also cannot sew in a straight line, even with a sewing machine.

And I somehow managed to make the machine choke up a few times. Sigh. In the I had to hand stitch the hems. Not that I want to be a big show-off, but aren't my stitches nice? You can't even see them on the other (right) side!

If you look closely, you will realize that I have cut the cloth against the grain. Sigh. Worse thing is that the right side is very rough, now hugging G at night is like having the dead skin on my face exfoliated off like layers of an onion.

Checking for the Nutcracker Soldier's toothache

Woe is the life of Mr B, to have a evil mommy like me...

Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Beautiful old walled city on the Romantic Strasse. However now forever associated by me for Teddy Bear shops.

Eric Clapton "Tears in Heaven" Violin Score

[original source]

Wieskirche

Wieskirche is famous for its Jesus Christ statue that bled tears in the 1738. According to HM, The statue used to sit in a woman's attic until its discovery, then it had its tiny wooden shrine (which I mistakenly took to be a guard house and so deliberately excluded from the photo).

Look at the pretty horsies romping outside the church

But too many pilgrims wanted to see the miracle, and so the Brothers Zimmermann built the magnificient church in rocco style, describing the life and death of Jesus Christ. The church has been recognised as a UNESCO heritage site, and I have to say of all the churches I have seen, it has one of the most awesome architecture, frescoes and ceiling I have seen.

We were lucky to catch part of the Friday mass.

If you look through all my photos, you will also notice that I have an obsession with the pipe organs in all the churches I saw even though I can't play a tune. The church does not use candles anymore, which is why you can see the plaster paintings in all their glory.

Till today, there are many people who make their way here to either admire the architecture, or pray for a miracle. To the left of the photo (or right of the shrine) is a gallery of sorts where you can examine all the photos of the people who were seeking a miracle, mostly babies and children. There was a photo of a US marine who died in Afghanistan, which was very sad with the words "gone but not forgotten"). The other side of the shrine are for those people who want to pray for their miracle in privacy.

Check out the pews. Such effort that went into even carving them!

Since it is a Catholic church, there were plenty of confession booths for all the naughty Germans and pilgrims seeking forgiveness.

Above each of them was a pictorial depiction of a biblical story. The one above is my personal favorite, the prodigal son returns. 

The church is surrounded by pretty farms, inns and footpaths leading to undulating mountains in the background. Awesome views all around. You could spend the whole day here with the family, hiking, visiting the church and eating at the nearby restaurant which has a specialty known as wieskücherl. Onkel H said that they knew the dog (which lived in the B&B below) well, because when he was a puppy he used to tag along with their dog. Now this dog is an old dog which likes to visit the wieskürcherl restaurant for a bit of mittagessen.

Imagine the beautiful church with the even more gorgeous mountain landscape as a backdrop

The old dog in this picture likes to visit the restaurant at the same time everyday for a tasty morsel

Check out the flies settling on the cow and the fence!

Pferd grazing on the field next to the church

Address: Wies 12, Steingaden, Germany

Phone: 08862 932930

Wieskücherl und Buttermilch

I have an axe to grind with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

When I was a kiddie (well relatively young kiddie, because I only started reading when I was 9 years old), her Little House in the Big Woods caused me to develop some weird ass obsession with cabins and the late 19th century way of life (12 can tell you the level of obsession I have over NN's magical cabin in Norway, which I tell his brother that I call "My Disneyland" to his bemusement). Especially buttermilk.

"When Ma finished molding the butter, she gave Laura and Mary each a drink of good, fresh buttermilk."

Ever since then, I have always wondered how does buttermilk taste like? In my fantasy land of course, buttermilk tastes sweet and creamy, like melted butter. So when HM said after our visit to Wieskirche, that we should walk one loop around the small village, stop by the little restaurant on the road to the church and try their Wieskücherl and Buttermilk.

I wasn't so curious about the Wieskücherl. But my ears fairly popped when I heard the word "Buttermilk". I nodded my head eagerly which my fingers clicked clicked clicked at my camera.

First Sip.



Buttermilk



Erst Wort. Nasty.

I immediately give the What the Fuck face I usually give my suppliers when they tell me something I don't like to hear, which made HM and his wife laugh at my face. I pushed the glass to B1, in an unusual show of generosity.

"Drink it, I am not thirsty."

You know what it tastes like? It tasted like yoghurt drink. Sour. 

The Wieskücherl fared better. It was a flat fried doughnut coated with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was very lecker by comparison, and went well with the milky horror. I have a sneaky suspicion that their doughnut contains buttermilk *silent scream*

Coming home, I googled buttermilk and was interested to discover that it wasn't really Laura's fault. Her buttermilk is not our buttermilk today.