Chestnut Season!

Even though we live in the city, we get to see plenty of Autumn beauty. I love watching the leaves change in our backyard..

Fall is my favorite season. It’s just so beautiful.

There are chestnut trees everywhere in Cologne. So much so that Fall Season is interchangeable with Chestnut season. Kids bring empty bags to Park Pause (Recess) to collect as many chestnuts as they can. There are competitions at school with prizes for the kids who collect the most.

We usually have every vase in the house filled with them (and then emptied out and refilled).  Sometimes we roast them in the oven. The girls love to eat them. At Christmastime they’ll often choose to buy a bag of roasted chestnuts over a bag of candy (I didn’t grow up eating them and have never acquired a taste for them).

chestnuts everywhere

Fancy Chestnut candies advertised in a store window (the outer shell surrounding the chestnut meat is made out of marzipan!)..

The girls and their friends love to create all sorts of things with chestnuts and toothpicks..

There were structures all over the house..

even a dog (I think?)

Quinnie did a school report on the chestnut tree (called Kastanienbaum in German) in school this Fall..

I took this video from our back porch. Turn your volume way up. Sorry it’s a little wobbly- I don’t have a tripod for my iPhone. If we ever move away from here, the sound of these church bells that ring so often is what I’ll miss the most (as well as the view).