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I can yodel! We all can; it’s a tradition, an important part of our cultural heritage, that we are proud of. Do my friends know that I can jodel? No, they don’t, they wouldn’t understand. For them, and most in the US, jodeling is a part of beautiful Hollywood productions like “The Sound of Music,” and others, but sadly, the history of the jodel is never mentioned.
… My spirit yearns toLeave this city for good To build a cozy cabinSomewhere in the Alps To watch the seasons changeWith my dogs at my feet So why does…
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A couple of months ago I posted about Hiking with the Cows. The time in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and South Tyrol when the cattle leaves the farms to spend the summer high up in the alpine pastures, and now, with the beginning of fall, it’s time to get them back home.
As a child I watched them cut down trees in the Alps
First by the hundreds, then by thousands
New and better ski slopes were needed
Lifts and hotels were built to attract tourists
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Right now in Austria, Switzerland, and in the South of Germany, you will see cows high up in the Alps, hiking on the trails, over bridges and steep hills up to the alpine pastures, where they will be staying all summer long.
The Austrian Alps in the background, a Christmas song in a dialect our neighbors the Germans cannot understand, even though we talk the same language. The dialect of the mountains, soft and harsh at the same time, comforting to the ear and still, oh, so familiar to me. The song tells about Christmas 1946, during a time when the world was at war. And while you might not understand, listen to the music and read the lyrics and you will quickly understand why I love this Christmas song so much.
Sometimes, very seldom, I feel something like homesickness, even though it’s not for a home or family, but rather for a tradition and or perhaps rituals I remember so vividly. Right about now, at the beginning of summer, I was always called back home to our farm in Austria. I got an extra week of vacation, like so many of us farm-children who had to help.
I am a “mountain girl” and I know a thing or two about hiking. I was born in a small village in the Alps, directly on the boarder between Italy and Austria, hiking was mandatory -not optional. There was an old joke going around about babies being born with hiking boots, skies and a backpack and I assume its still being told until this day. Not so far off the truth, I have been told I could ski before I actually walked.