Leben in dieser Ecke

 November day

Half -past three

A gypsy cloud

Stopped in for tea

Above photo: Outside my window in Reit im Winkl, Bavaria a day or two ago. It's a funny name to an American ear, and you can be sure I asked about it. Winkl, I am told means "corner." No random choosing this town's name, of course, and, in case you wondered, it has nothing to do with Rip Van Winkle. This little ski town was purposely named Reit im Winkl, because it is truly "right in the corner" of south eastern Germany, a hop, skip, and jump from Austria. 

The altitude here is 2,549' (777 m) above sea level, and it is situated in a bowl between mountains, so clouds are an almost permanent part of the landscape here -- not just in the sky above us, but very often right in the yard, slipping around corners and in out of the dips of trees in the hills around us. The most awesome, almost alive-seeming clouds you've ever seen, they sneak around spying in windows, I tell you. I never get tired of them! 

Check it out, though. Yesterday they threw veils over the bright autumn leaves... Today, they laid fluffy white shawls over the shoulders of the western-most mountain range.

* Leben in dieser Ecke = Life in this Corner. No telling when I'll get to come back, so I'm soaking it all in and recording as much as I can. You think you'll never forget -- when you're young. When you get into your fifties, you know you will -- so you write everything down and take lots of pictures!