A Vineyard In February

Yep, back to the soil today. A course at a vineyard in the art and science of pruning vines. As you can imagine it was quite technical and all in German - as a result of this I thought it better that I don't touch the secateurs and instead concentrate on being the world's best dead/cut stick extractor. It was fun to be outside and doing something I would never have thought of doing. One of the things that I find it hard to convey is exactly how steep all this is - and it's amazing to think that up until 1965 they had no tractors on this site, everything was done on foot or with horses.

Anyway, after a couple of hours, we retired for a bit of lunch and then off with our commemorative vines. It's a really nice area and I hope to explore more of it when the weather is a bit warmer. Although I might give a bodyswerve to Rüdesheim - it's all a bit Blackpoolly (including the Scotish* Pub...).

Which reminds me, did you know that the German word for bagpipes is the rather fabulous "Dudelsack"? I don't know about you but that feels ever so slightly rude. I think you'd feel a little uncomfortable asking for a skirl on someone's Dudelsack. Or maybe you wouldn't.

It's been a day for slightly funny names (or at least funny to me) - right up to and including the vineyard. i suspect you might not want to Google it. It's called Assmannshausen.

*That's how it was spelled on the sign.