Living Like Miss Read

 

  

  Dear You, 

imagine that you possess a crystal ball, put a record on your antique record player, hum along with the Rolling Stones "I went to see a gipsy, to have my fortune read" - and then tell me that I eventually would be part of Bavarian village life - AND enjoy it.

 

If ever there was a City plant it would be me.

 

And now I watch for the second time in my life how two with colourful ribbons decorated trees - felled the day before - are heaved up against the very blue Bavarian sky. The sun smiles benevolent, the fire brigade plays a brass song, the village people cheer - and then the  "Kär'wa" starts. 

It is a parish fair - and in such a small village as this - yes, Tom: no shop, no café, that's why Yours Truly had to buy a car, 511 inhabitants - you soon know almost everyone, and that is nice. 

Two days from afternoon till midnight you can sit on wooden benches and talk, eat cakes or Bratwurst, drink coffee or beer and feel good. The children enjoy it immensely - they sing ("I am a village child and proud of it") and rehearsed a dance, (and no: the two blonds in the photo above are not part of the triplets) and afterwards they run around while their parents are deeply engaged discussing the state of the world and drinking beer - and last year at night young men from another village came and nobbed the Kär'wa tree - revenge for the same crime the young men of this village committed the year before.  :-) 

All those joys I didn't know in a huge city. (And I very seldom drink beer). 

Yours Truly,     Britta  

                                                

If you wondered about the title:      

 

 

Royal Cauldon "Victoria", England. Est.1774

 

Dear You, 

yesterday I went to the "Graffelmarkt" in Fürth - a flea market which takes place twice a year. "Graffel" is dialect and means: "stuff" - well, actually I try to down-size my "stuff", hahaha... 

But the weather was fine, the little red train is on the rail again (after a month off absence - they try to repair the rail network of the Deutsche Bahn). 

In Fürth, hundreds of roaring football fans clogged the way out of the station - "singing" and spurred by beer, beer, beer. I thanked God that I am tall and not shy, thus I managed to part the beer stinking crowd. 

The photo below gives a wrong impression, many visitors came to the market. 

I enjoyed to visit normally private little yards behind the houses. 

When I was tired, I followed intuition, a staircase up to a little place. And there I found something! Not valuable, but soothing the heart :-) 

In Berlin I have - beside my Spode - an (incomplete) vintage coffee service by Royal Cauldon, Victoria - I found it about 20 years ago when I still lived in Hamburg. In Fürth stood a few remains, e.g. a funny butter dish, but in my long life I learned to "think before you buy" (at least most times) and so I "only" bought three egg cups and two porridge bowls. 

They will join their "family" in Berlin soon! 

Disrupted Days.

 

Dear You, 

this is no complaint. It's just real life - and revision of some expectations that did not consider all possibilities. 

The triplets had their fourth birthday - and two days later kindergarten started. 

The beautiful kindergarten is in the next little town, and my son brings them there, and my DiL brings them back after they have eaten their lunch. 

That was the plan. 

But every child, even when they are triplets, is different. 

The "twins" have more difficulties in adjusting and letting Mama go - the third, single, is the star and jumped into her group (each triplet joins another group, which I think is a very wise decision of their parents). 

But soon all adjusted well. 

But then the first got a cold, with fever - so she had to stay at home. 

The second had to be collected after one&half hour in kindergarten = familiarisation time for her, decided the Kindergärtnerin. 

So I looked after the lively but sick one, DiL went by car to fetch Number 2, then, 2 hours later, she had to fetch no.3. (I have a car but do not drive the children - I think the responsibility is too great). 

Two days later, no.1 was healthy again - and of course you guess what happened? Now no.2 was sick. 

So: DiL and I are looking forward for a "normal" day. 

Yours Truly , (a bit flustered)  

Light and Clouds

 

Dear You, 

with blogging it is as with other things: if you don't find time for it waiting makes it difficult to start anew. So much has happened in the meantime, where to start? 

When I was a child and had learned to swim I still hesitated to jump from a small jetty into the Klopeiner See in Austria. I stood and stared into the water. 

First my father tried bribery: "You'll get an ice cream when you jump!" 

But what is an ice cream (which at those times we didn't get very often) against dear little life? 

Eventually he lost patience. While I still stared he came behind me - and suddenly he gave me a push into the back - I remember that very well - though "well" is not the right word... 

Yes, I had a hard childhood 😁- but also the audacity to ask for my ice cream when I arose. 

So: now I'll plunge into blogging - without a push. 

The picture above is from the wonderful exhibition: 

               "Clouds and Light. Impressionism in the Netherlands" 

in the beautiful museum Barberini in Potsdam, which the Flying Dutchman and I visited during our stay in Berlin. 

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQwUuTzfKuY 

It was such a treat! 

Next time I'll tell you about our holiday on the isle of Sylt. 

Yours Truly, Britta 

The German Cancellor spends 40.000 Euro per year for a make-up artist - and pays that with our taxpayers money!

 Hi, I'm back again. 

We had nice weather on Sylt, then I enjoyed fine weather in Berlin, and now I am back again in Bavaria. No complaint, but 33° C every day is a bit trying - I most often stay indoors, and walk or go to the fitness studio only early in the morning or evening. 

My bloodpressure and blood sugar are low - that's why I want to get upset and that is easy: 

I read that the German chancellor Olaf Scholz uses our taxpayers' money to try to make him look better - (I think he doesn't need a hairdresser :-) 

40.000 Euro per year! Only for make-up artists!  (1 Euro = 0,85 British pounds or 0,59 Australian dollars, or 1,09 American dollars)

Just to give you the opportunity to compare: 

a woman who works 40 hours a week as a saleswoman in Germany will have at the end of a year's work "30.172 Euro" (averaged, and gross). So she will have to work a little bit longer to earn the money he spends for -- for WHAT??? How does he look without that service? 

But compared to our foreign ministress (female politicians nowadays insist on being called that) Olaf Scholz spends "peanuts". (Though one has to add 510.000 Euros for photographs of him, also paid with our money). 

She, Annalena Baerbock (yes, the one whose plane twice shed all the kerosine, each time 80 tons! into the sea!) needs 136.500 Euros per year for make-up artists and cosmetics. From us. 

One person is better looking and doesn't need so much of our money: Christian Lindner, minister of finance, he only needs 650 Euros - and that only for photos. (No, I haven't lost a few zeros). 

PS: Above you see a photograph I took in Ansbach, a beautiful little town. It is the mirrored outside of a café - a distorting or fun house mirror. 

I prefer the word distorting for what I wrote above - I cannot see the fun, sorry. 

You know that normally I do not discuss politics, and I am not envious. But this, I think, in times of high inflation, is immoral, in bad taste, and scandalous. 

More fun next time - promised! 

" Travellin' (Wo)Man"

 

Dear You, 

it's time to travel for a while. I need new vistas, I need a change, I need world. 

Look at the photo above: it seems ages that I took it at the V&A. 

In front of my huge balcony window the swallows are gathering, still exercising their young ones to fly. Soon they will be gone. 

As I. Only for a few weeks. Then I will be back. 

Take care! 

Yours Truly, Britta

I just have to tell you...

 

Dear You, 

it was such a beautiful symmetry: 

in number, in age and in the way they sat. 

This afternoon I sat on the sofa and was reading a story to the triplets - one sat on my lap, the others snugged closely at my left and my right. 

And when I lifted my eyes I looked straight on three very young sparrows - sitting on the balustrade of my big Bavarian balcony - watching us intently. 

They hadn't just landed to draw breath while learning to fly - they deliberately stared at us for at least five minutes. 

Both young folks looked highly interested at each other. 

It was an unforgettable moment for us. 

PS: The view from the window above I took at castle Caputh in Brandenburg. I am never quite sure whether you are interested in a more detailed portrayal of historic buildings I visited, or if you think that boring - please give me a hint. 

 

A very strange fashion...

 

Dear You, 

I know, I know... it is fashion now, and deep in my heart I should be thankful that it is so ... instead of grieving Highheels (oh my poor back!) - where you needed a man at your side to grab his arm if you walked on the slippery  Jungfernstieg in Hamburg where they had the extraordinary idea to put marble slates as pavement - in a city which has as often rain as London...

Yet I look disapprovingly into the mirror. My skirt is still wonderful and fitting (I bought it 17 years ago in Hamburg, though didn't wear it very often - most time I am a Jeans-type, so practical, especially now with grandchild-triplets).

Normally I never tell if a garment is new or old - I take a compliment and smile. 

But those awful looking comfortable plump shoes... 

I hunted through Berlin for something cozy AND a bit more graceful. Well - at least a tiny weeny bit. 

I found a less ugly version - French, of course. Sort of tennis-court shoes, small, no high plateau sole (the photo is not correct here).  

Happy and comfortable, 

Yours Truly 

PS: Do you remember about ten years ago, when I had those wonderful light white leather ballerinas? By Jeremy Scott for Adidas - they have little white wings at the heel - I floated through Berlin. 

No Fast Food

 

Dear You, 

I am back from Berlin - and have enjoyed my friends and the beautiful big flat, the fine weather and breathed culture in the capital. 

The gaps between my visits are still long - sometimes I float in a feeling of unreality: in the kitchen I grab for a pitcher - and it isn't there, it stands on another board (though I tried to make arrangements in both flats as similar as possible) - I feel a bit alien in a place where I live for more than ten years. So reassuring that I still can enter - do you know the weird feeling when you pass a house in a city where you once lived - and now are standing "outdoors", no way to get in? 

In the Bavarian village I see the opposite way of life - which also has its charms: families living in houses their ancestors built hundred of years before, never moving, and almost all of them know each other quite well and are often related in a remote way. 

Now to the zucchinis above: I planted one on my balcony (escorted by a cherry tomato) - and am happily surprised: too late I had read that you need two of them to get "fruits", but this one seems to "Live Alone And Like It", as Marjory Hillis called her very sweet book. 

The zucchino (shouldn't be that the correct term? - but the spellchecker refuses, having no Italian connections) spreads its huge leaves and enjoys parthenogenesis - with convincing results. 

Yours Truly 

The Song of the Nightingale

 

Dear You, 

when I looked out of my window this morning I saw that the farmers were very busy - and one of them is a landscape-artist. 

The view is changing rapidly: it seems to be yesterday that we saw lovely yellow fields of rape (many fields - rape-oil is in demand now because of the sunflower-oil-shortage). 

In my direct neighbourhood I spotted a nightingale - I am so thrilled, never heard one before. 

When I met the woman in whose garden&wood the nightingale lives, she looked slightly unnerved. "I would like to rehouse her", she said. "That bird is nestling directly under my bedroom and sings very, very long. And loud!" 

"And beautiful", I added, but she hastily changed the topic... 

Moral: "Was dem einen sin Uhl is dem andern sin Nachtigall" we say in Northern Germany - roughly translated: "What is an owl to one person is a nightingale to another." 

(You might say: "One man's meat is another man's poison")

Yours Truly

""The Mirror and the Lamp" (or Change of roles, hopefully)

 

Dear You, 

tomorrow Amazon promised to deliver a book on "Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition" by M.H.Abrams. In a lovely comment this author was recommended to me - thank you! 

I am fascinated by the title. Makes me think about my life. At work, being a counsellor, I had to be the mirror, as they rightly taught us  - though I tried to bring a little bit of light too. 

At the moment, regardless of how I turn, I feel stuck - you might hear me mumble "Rule 12: "When You Don't Know What to Say...Say Nothing!" 

That stuck-feeling can change soon. If I get more control over my life (do I hear a gigantic laughter in the clouds?) I might put the mirror on a table and - for a while - be the lamp. 

Yours Truly (training hard to become a firefly)

Sun, chocolate pudding and perception

 

Dear You, 

today was the first time this year that I used the sun-roller blind of my large balcony. I think they put it up in the year the house was built - it gives me a certain 60s-feeling.  

We had 21° degree Celsius, and sun. In the morning I was very active: made a chocolate pudding for the triplets, my daughter-in-law and me - Thursday is the day I cook for all of us, and I had prepared Ratatouille and fillet of pork and noodles, and because pots and pans were heavy, I drove them up the hill to them, though we are only one road apart. 

Before I went to the fitness center - so, this morning I had a lot to do. Surprise: the chocolate pudding was devoured in no time - the main meal was appreciated, but not that rapidly eaten. 

                  Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Erlangen at the university - each Wednesday I am a guest student (you see a lot of silver hair :-) and it was really interesting: a young professor talked about the psychology of perception, and I learned something (which I wouldn't have believed if you had told me, but I experienced it and thus my believe in being a very good observer was a bit shaken. I fulfilled the task 100% (ha!- so I AM a very good observer) - yet they had smuggled something else into the little video which normally would never have been overlooked - we did because we concentrated so hard on the task.(And Yours Truly felt a bit cheated - I mean: if you ask me to give you apples and then say: "Haha, but you haven't given me a banana!" I would look at you a bit petulant...) 

But it made me think of witnesses and universal truth, of my own belief in being right (of course...), and perception in general. And of the highly delightful pearl of wisdom which (sometimes!) comes with age: sometimes (to be honest: only sometimes, but I hope it will grow with even more years in front of me) I am so wise to choose happiness instead of being right. 

Well, the uni-lecture was refreshing. 

The fine thing is that after two hours of intellectual nourishment those who wanted (about 30 of 120) went to a very nice café, and there we laughed a lot discussed on a high intellectual level. 

Yours Truly,  Britta