You asked for it! (Venice again)

In a comment Rachel wrote: "I was thinking we would have to ask Inspector Brunetti to solve the mystery of the disappearing post for us."

You bet! Il commissario was joy-riding on the Canale Grande, and if you look closely you might detect that in January Venice does not sport so many tourists, and those who come are mostly from China and Japan and master the Art of Canouflage perfectly. . 

Yes: they totally merge in "the real stuff": 

Buy little factories in Italy to be able to use the label... Well - "home-made" seems to be  the new trend :-)  

I could show you now typical photos from typical Venice. In fact: I could use the photos my late fathers had taken when I was just a pre-school child - 

Not changed that much - though: a little colour added nowadays :-) 

No, I will serve you only some snippets from my impressions of Venice.  

First a question that really baffles me: how come, I ask you, that my female friends all rejoyce in visting cemeteries - and ask me to join them - ME, almost a thanatophobic? (I cross myself if I have to walk along a freshly dug empty grave - no, I'm not Catholic, but in this case I am not choosy and grab what might protect me :-) 

So: "Cimitero" it had to be, on my first day in Venice! (Came back hell-bent to "carpe diem" even more). 

Cling to dear life as good as I can - as these spartan and easy to keep Venetian balcony succulents.

Visited the church Madonna dell' Orto - which Jane Hattat (!) personally recommended to me.

So beautiful! Built in the XIVth century - with Tintorettos, (by father and son) and other famous painters. AND a heavily built white Madonna with child - in the 15th century they found her in a garden (= "Orto") near by and think her to own legendary healing powers (I, though I am very glad to say I'm healthy, thought; Assuming that it is right --- it will not hurt -- See: cemetry and cross above. At this point Elvis has left the building - better: my son would have left this post, because he absolutely hates superstition, while I ... well, well, well).
For you, My Dear Enlighted Reader: skip the madonna if you feel like that - but look at this marvelous church - not many of the lazy tourists find it, because it is up in the north, out of the conventional paths. (Though - that is what all tourists think - the oxymoon of secret insider tips...)
When you go there, you are also near to the Ghetto Novo (Sestiere Cannarigio)

which was founded in 1516 - (the time before the Jews got only a temporary resident permission). The word "Ghetto" comes from here, and they had to wear a yellow sign on their clothes when in Venice. Each night the gates of the Ghetto were locked and guarded - and the inhabitants of the Ghetto had to pay for this (sic). Though to be fair: that was a common practice at that time: the German merchants who lived at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi had to endure the same. 

I see: your eyes are shut, your face looks like a bored mask, only politeness keeps you smiling mysteriously. So I'll shut my mouth (for today, that is). 

 

You Might Have Noticed...

... Dear You,

that I have turned my yesterday's post about Venice back to draft-modus.
I just didn't like it - had that nagging feeling when I went to bed that there was just too much "room for a pony", if you know what I mean - Hyacinth Bucket for sure would have been baffled by those morbid feelings.
I mean: the hotel was wonderful - but then: who cares? (Beside me, when I want to sleep there).
I always have the difficulty after a journey that I do not want to write the 3.000.567th travel-guide about Venice (though my 720 photos would come in handy for that).
So many people have been there, at all times.
Only a few years ago, I have been there. In the foreground my little sister, 3 years younger than I:

If you own a magnifying glass, you might even detect me - as always modest in the background (haha), and as always in action. You see an arm, and you see my mother trying to protect me with her bare hands against all the Paparazzi... 

And that is all I can give you tonight - I am tired and will go to sleep soon -- soon more from the Venice I saw again. 

I'm Back from Venice!

Hi . I'm back! Tomorrow more about a marvelous stay in Venice.

Nature's Solo

Dear You, 

this morning - it was still pitch-dark - I opened the door to my balcony - or so I THOUGHT - must have erred -- it was the door of my FRIDGE, wasn't it?
Cold - colder - coldest! WAHHH!
Shivering I did what I do every morning: took my mug with tea, entered the balcony-fridge, greeted Berlin (this time in a slightly hurried and muffled way) - and retreated instantly.
Recovered around noon, and went courageously into the Charlottenberger Schlosspark (only a few hardliners out there).
Free seats everywhere...

And from a very special balustrade ... 

... a very special ballet ... 

A Fresh Start in 2017

Dear You, 

I hope it's still time to send you my best wishes for

                                            A HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! 

It was almost a déjà vu: me dashing to Bavaria into the lovely Allgäu again!
This time by train (which takes from Berlin, all included, about 8 hours) - but the telephone call from son&DiL came only a few days before New Year's Eve, and then the tickets for a flight were really expensive.
The call was a surprise: they had just decided to give a little party and asked if I would like to join them.
I did! (Thus fulfilling one of my New Year's resolutions: "If something interesting turns up - take it! Don't tell yourself you are too tired - just leave your comfort zone, keeping in mind that soon you will be able to rest for a very long time." Hahaha.
So: Yes, here I am, New Year! Full of energy! 
And thus I celebrated from the early evening and the first minutes of the newborne year and then till two o'clock in the morning among young people (they vigorously danced till 6 o'clock in the morning) -
wonderful! 

And when I went back, I could enjoy something that one cannot see from an aeroplane: having draped myself on the comfortable seat in the train I watched full of admiration and gratefulness the beautiful landscape of Bavaria, covered in hoarfrost. The Great Painter had been very diligent and meticulous: every pine needle and every humble little blade of grass was covered in white. Noone left out, noone overlooked.
As it should be, and as we all wish for.

Merry Christmas!

I WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS, 

DEAR BLOGGER-FRIENDS!  

(Soon I will write more...) 

BRITTA 

Terror at our Doorstep

You will have heard the news.
Terror, horror, complete bewilderment, compassion, grief.
The city is very silent this early morning.
I live seven minutes away from the Berliner Gedächtniskirche and the Breitscheidplatz, where the attack happened. Yesterday evening walking the nearby Fasanenstraße, I wondered why so much police was around.
I woke up at night - still not knowing what had happened - when the SMS and WhatsApp and Email questions started to drop in, asking if I was safe.

I am - but I am deeply, deeply grieving for all those who have lost their life or their health, and those who have lost their loved ones.

Thank you, Geo. and Tom!

All of a sudden my blogs are there again - I don't know what happened - those quaint signs from Google were not helpful at all - and to think of the time and energy we put into it... good grief...
"With a little help from my friends" - "We can work it out!"
Thank you so much!
(And my old translation was better than the one I started desperately this morning - that will teach me to make copies...)

HELP - My Poem-Blog Vanished!

I'm a bit in a state (to be honest: I'm a nervous wreck -- I have made no copies...): I cannot open my blog "Happiness of the Day" - and I need to!
I remember that other bloggers (Tom, Geo.) had that problem too, and it was only temporary - what did you do to get your other blogs back??
I really, really hope you can give me a clue!
Thanks,
Britta

A Stitch in Time...

At the moment I (re)read a book on the Swedish artist Carl Larsson, who lived with his wife Karin and their six children in Sundborn. The title of the book by Lena Rydin is difficult to translate -  "The Lust for Everyday Life" might do.
The couple created their home, garden, clothes - everything - in a very harmonius, simple yet elaborate way.  It makes you dream:

Well, and as often when I read something about interior design, I start changing my surroundings. Looked into a cupboard and took out an old tablecloth from my grandmother Elise von Kroge - hand-decorated by her in cross-stitch.
"Well - what a huge effort for decoration", I thought. "They must have had a lot of time on their hands."
And then, while rummaging with those patronising thoughts through that armoir, I found an Advent calendar - cross-stitched by ---  me!

I did it when our son was about one year old - I had to count every stitch, because it was empty embroidery canvas without any print! Embroidering was something that allowed me to talk to him while doing something else - I can reassure you that after an embroidery period of half a year I never touched that stuff again (though I was very, very productive in that short time).
Then I looked at the table, decorated with that table cloth, and at my calendar, and I thought:
"Well, I'm not living in Sweden, and my name is not Larsson!"

And put both back into the cupboard.

Beautiful AND Useful

I thought about Cro's post 'using the valuable antique breadknife". I use a few things which haughtily believe that they should be standing cherished in a vitrine :-)
Here is my lovely Sheffield Grapefruit-cutter-set:

The case is made of brown reptile-skin (maybe not allowed to be sold today) - inside beautiful off-white silk and a funny little device in dark-blue velvet to keep the knife in place. The knife has a Faux Bone handle, the slim spoons are Silver Sheffield and of excellent use even if you don't cut the grapefruit before, because they have little 'teeth' on one side.
But I do cut the fruit - always.
I, then being very young, was so impressed when at breakfast they served us the cut grapefruit in Gosford Hall Inn - a beautiful listed hotel in Cumbria (now 350 years old), - we were there in 1976 - coming back from Scotland in our old blue Merc (1969 with tail fin). Coming home (to Mainz then), I cut a grapefruit every day myself.
I don't know when the grapefruit-cutter was made - maybe around 1940 or the beginning fifties?
Anyway: they are beautiful AND useful - thus I use them.
Every morning.

In Olden Times, When Wishing Still Helped...

This morning I woke up (early as usual) and thought about fairy tales.

- Those I liked - the funny ones as "The Town Musicians of Bremen" (and that not only because I come from Bremen - no, even as I child I thought that their motto "You can always find something better than death!" might come useful some day :-)
- Those I disliked - the sad ones as "Little Brother and Little Sister" (even the beginning is heartbreaking!)
- those I had mixed feelings about - as "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" - I remember that I utterly detested that blackmailing frog ("..but if you will love me and accept me as a companion and playmate, and let me ... sleep in your bed" - hahaha), but was very much impressed by the fidelity of the Iron Heinrich ("Heinerich, the carriage is breaking apart!" "No, my Lord, the carriage it's not/ But one of the bands surrounding my heart...") and that I thought it just, but very strict of the King to say "What you have promised, you must keep".
I internalised that, (if necessary I forgo of my golden ball, if the price is a disgusting frog in my bed - till today I am unwilling to listen to their croaking that they are beautiful Princes under a spell) - and do only promise what I can keep.
And expect others to do the same.
Which shows that I am still very naively believing in fairy-tales :-) - but, on the other hand, have a streak of pragmatic realism too.

What really interests me: which were your favourite (or disliked) fairy tales? 


If you want to read them again:
- "The Town Musicians of Bremen" http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm027.html (great for old age optimism - after a little shock in the beginning)
- "Little Brother and Little Sister" http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm011.html
- The Frog King, or the Iron Heinrich" http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm001.html