We have a handmade German weather house hanging on the kitchen wall just inside the back door of the house. It's the same weather house that Fred & Jean Beisner, the German couple that my sister worked for when she was a teenager, gave me when I was a boy. I don't understand just how it works, but it still amazes me to see the man in his raincoat outside the weather house when the weather outside my own house is rainy, and the woman –– not in a raincoat –– outside the weather house when the weather is fair.

Our weather house dates back to about 1972, GDR. I was very excited to find this one for our catalog. It's handmade in Germany by artisans of the Engstler Company in Germany's Black Forest region, near the borders of France, Switzerland, and Austria. They are known mainly for their beautiful handcarved cuckoo clocks. And while we're not quite ready to make the leap of adding cuckoo clocks to our offerings, a lovely little weather house is definitely doable.

Handmade from wood and handpainted with a thermometer, too, that reads in Celsius and Fahrenheit. Just about 7" high x 7" wide x 4 1/2" deep. And just like the one we have in our kitchen here in Lake Worth, on fair and dry days the woman comes out of the house and on damp and rainy days, it's the man you'll see.