Postman Pat

Best Postman in Germany & probably the EU. I won't include the UK as you have left and just maybe in the hills of Cumbria, the highlands of Scotland or valleys of Wales there is some competition.

Luna goes crazy when he comes, but she has been caught out in the last year or so as he now has a silent electric van.

A month or two back, he left a note in the postbox asking if we were OK as he hadn't had to deliver a parcel for some time. The gate to our property about 60 m from the house is normally locked, but we open it if we know a parcel will be delivered.

11th November in Germany & many continental European countries is very different to the UK. It's a day of festivity & fun. It is the start of Carnival at 11:11 am with big celebrations in larger towns & cities. It is also St Martin's Day with children doing an evening lantern procession led by a Roman soldier with a red cape on a horse. And it is the end of the agricultural year,  with rents payable and along with the geese connection to St Martin, a day for a Roast Goose to celebrate. Geese are/were not economically viable in foregone times to keep fed over winter.

Germany's all encompassing Volkstrauertag for all victims from all nations of armed & violent conflict is held on the Sunday two weeks before 1st Advent Sunday, this year the 15th. I happened to go to the bakery in Sontheim today which is right next door to the villages war memorial - see extra photos. The names of the fallen in WWI are on the columns of the arches and are now with the ravages of time & weather barely legible. The plaque with those from WWII is still in good shape.

There is one name that stood out: Satzger, Lorenz (Name, Forename) born 20.02.1871 and died in Sontheim on 26.04.1945. He was aged 74. That was the day USA soldiers freed Memmingen having heavily bombed it on 20th April.

I have heard that there was indeed some resistance in Sontheim & that just behind our house in the forest, arms & ammunition were found years after and rumour says there are some bodies buried there. I really need to get the full story. Like all/most parishes, we have an official voluntary Parish ...Recorder? who researches the history & maintains records. A few years ago there was an exhibition in the village with loads of interesting documents, but it was sadly only for a weekend, and we happened to have visitors, so I only got a quick 30-minute whizz around.

Our farrier has been having all sorts of personal problems and can't do our horses but luckily we know someone we met at Christmas last year who also does horses, more or less as a hobby. Ex Tornado navigator but has been around horses for years. He has stepped in and it worked very well. Nice he's also one of the farriers that does all the work himself and doesn't need one to hold the horses hooves.