Big Wheel Keep on Turning ...

 

What do you see? A tear? A drop of sweat? A rain drop on a rose petal? 

All of this? 

Tomorrow I might tell you the story of how the Big Wheel is rolling again. 

Tonight I am a bit too tired.

The Beautiful University City Erlangen

 

Today I visited Erlangen by train.

The strange photo above shows a reflection in a shopwindow:  Erlangen, a venerable old university city, at the moment presents the "International Comic Salon" - the biggest German Comic Festival with more than 25.000 visitors, exhibitions and readings - and many young people dressed up as Anima or Manga figures.  

Erlangen and I: Long time no see - too much moving house, too many (wonderful) family news - thus I had almost forgotten how vivid this city is. Soon I will give you a deeper impression with historical and architectural details - Erlangen in the Free State of Bavaria was first mentioned anno 1002 - but today I only went to the famous "Trempelmarkt" - a flea market, where I bought some books and two pictures (done in the Forties). 

Snowdrops and daisies - the third, lily of the valley was "snatched" right before my eyes. 😊

Both are beautifully framed, but I cannot manage to give you a better picture or turn it into the right position, sorry.

They are drawings by Elsa Beskow, a Swedish illustrator of children books (1874 - 1953) - my paintings are a bit faded in colours. 

After that I discovered a beautiful tea shop where you could sit outside in the welcome shade of a backyard, with many English roses. 

I am so happy that now I discovered a city of beauty, youth and luxury! Only one hour away with the train! 

 

Megalomania

 

Here you see an opened box that's filled with (some of) my dreams. And "expansive delusions" - the most appropriate word I could find. 

Garden dreams. 

This box contains masses of seed packets witt luring pictures of wonderful flowers - inside: seeds. 

Why "expansive" delusions? Well: nowadays I have only a balcony. (Soon I will have two, but that's another story.) 

Many of the seeds I bought are older than a year - dreams need time to grow. And the thought of the Pharaoh's Tombs, where seeds were found that germinated after thousands of years, fills me with hope. 

The "Historic Sweet Peas" - in keeping with their high price - bear beautiful names: for example "Miss Willmott", who was a wonderful very eccentric gardener who spent her immense fortune on her gardens - cautiously I only bought one packet of seeds. Ellen's passion for gardens and plants ruined her fortune - and Warley Place, her English Garden, detoriated.  

Speaking of expansive delusions: even as I still worked in my big garden in Hildesheim, all those different plant-beauties together in that box wouldn't have found enough place to grow. 

And I had no gardeners. 

Different from Miss Willmott: she employed up to 104 gardeners! 

"and was known for being a demanding employer; she would reputedly sack any gardener who allowed a weed to grow among her flowers". Ha! 

Voorlinden Museum (Main course): Stilte in de Storm

 STILTE IN DE STORM - Silence in the storm 

We all know "the calm before the storm". The exhibition organisers of this exhibition in Voorlinden say that who will defy a storm must step into it - "The place where calm reigns and brightness (transparency) originates". 

It makes me think of my highly beloved story by Tove Jansson: "The Filifjonka who loved catastrophes". (Please, please read it, if you can find it!)

The exhibition asks you "to set the world on pause, step into the eye of the storm" - and feel what happens to you inside. 

Above you see the gorgeous work "L'Addition" by Elmgreen & Dragset - 1961 &1968, Denmark& Norway.

Loneliness, man and nature, tracks we leave after us - a very impressive installation. 

Arturo Herenandez Alcázar (1978)

Mexico Black Kites 

The artist shows us the violence that swept over Mexico by drug-cartels. An interesting story behind that. 

Claire Tabouret (1981)

"Weaving Waters, Weaving Gestures"

Above you see a woven tapestry "The Blue Sentinels" (I hope that I am correct here).

These are only a few samples from the exhibition - and of course there were the beloved art pieces that are always there: 

Leandro Erlich (1073): 

Swimming Pool (2016)

which you can enter without getting wet, look up and see visitors as if you dived into a pool. Stunning! 

For me there was another kind of art that remains too: 

A view from inside out into the beautiful park. 

PS: I almost forgot to mention the following installation: 

Marina Abramovic (1946):

Counting the Rice 

You as a visitor could be part of it - You get a lab coat and noise-cancelling earphones, 500 gram lentils and rice, an hour and a task: to count them. 

Now: being a grandmother with a wide knowledge of fairy tales, of course it reminded me instantly of ??? 

You will have the answer! 

 

The museum Voorlinden (hors d'oeuvre)

 For a wonderful week I was in the Netherlands. And it was sunny!! I had the chance to bath in culture! 

E.g. we visited Voorlinden (Wassenaar, near Den Haag) - the museum which always entchants me. The modern building is surrounded by a beautiful garden designed by the internationally famous garden architect Piet Oudolf. Three seasons in the year this garden is blooming! 

I think it is a sympathic trait that most Dutch people are very fond of eating and conviviality - "gezelligheid" - and they not only call delicious eating "lekker!" (which means "yummy!") but people, situations, things or conversations are "lekker!" too. 

Thus we visited the Landhuis Restaurant first, a pure English brick manor house (1912),  part of the Voorlinden country estate of  40 hectare. R.J.Johnston built it together with the geometric garden. 

We got a very refined version of the Dutch Apple tart - an ignoramus might  say: "very manageable" - it was the first time that I met this tiny sister of my beloved  common Nederlandse apple tart (which is so satisfying, especially topped with cream on the huge cake slice).   The sophisticate and very delicious petiteness is only topped by its  price.   

The museum Voorlinden was opened in September 2016 by King Wilhelm Alexander. 

Come on, stroll with me the few steps from the manor house to the fascinating modern architecture of light!   

I'll add another blog, "Morsels of literature"

 "Again: a new blog!", you might think, and "How long will she do it this time?" 

Well - I read a lot and sometimes want to share it with you. I am not very versed in making up a new website - I made a mistake and wrote "morselsofgermanliterature.blogspot.com" - though I will choose from every literature that pleases me. But I don't know how to change the once installed web address. Thus I started with a book I find really funny - and think that Raymond Briggs in that morsel is talking about the difficulties of "Digitalis". 

Enjoy! 

Snowdrops and I - we both have stamina!

 

Every year I am looking for the first (wild) snowdrops. 

By now I know where to find them. 

 

The snow has gone (and I am not that sorry about ist), this year it seemed  to me the longest winter we ever had. Though I know that we still are in February, and anything can happen. 

Though I love winter. My birthday at the 29th of December. 

I have very early memories of winter: 

when my sister was born - she is three years younger than I - my parents brought me to a village nearby to enable my mother to recover from birth - it turned out as not such a bright idea, as I didn't know the people where I should stay. 

I was crying and yelling all of the time, and at last, to appease me, they went out and fetched some snow in a tin, and I see still the moon standing in the sky, feel the cold and the smell of snow - and they put it on a red glowing old stove and I watched the drops dancing on the iron rings on the stove and heard the hissing of the melting snow. 

When it stopped I started crying again. 

I had stamina. 

More than the grown-ups. 

 

Finally, in sheer exasperation, one of the grown-ups brought me back to my parents, with the very last bus.