Monday, May 16, 2016

England and Scotland enjoyed - every minute


©Brigitta Huegel

Second day of Whitsuntide - and meagre 6°Celsius!
Son and Daughter-in-Love are back from a trip through England and Scotland (where a friend married a Scotsman).
They know how to travel: with their beautiful Corvette from visiting Verdun via Calais to Dover, followed by a few days in London, then Oxford, Liverpool, Nottingham (the only day with rain, but nevertheless beautiful); then Glasgow, where the marriage took place in the Botanical Garden, though bride and bridegroom live in Edinburgh, which was the last stop on this travel.
(I become homesick when I listen to their tales!)

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Power-spring

Just went to the gym this morning - outside it was rainy, cold and I almost regretted that my downy feather coat is at the dry cleaner's. (Well - not really - I was completely surprised, as every year, when I stemmed down the boxes with summer clothes from the high wardrobes: enough to protect me).
This at least I have learned in the last years: before running into a shop to buy a new white jackett, I have to LOOK into those boxes --- often there slumber already two or three jacketts and look as fresh as Sleeping Beauty when I kiss them back to life :-)
Our streets became green jungles over night - still - and here I use a word I learned from Rosemary - cladded in "chartreuse" - but quickly changing into routine-green.
And the beautiful chestnuts - so much a symbol of time for me - for time hurrying by (yes, yes, turn around and there lie brown gleaming chestnurs on the pavement!) - and yet also a symbol for life being a circle, coming up reliably with beauty in all four seasons.


Saturday, May 14, 2016

St. Mamerus, St. Pancras and St. Servatius

You might have guessed: they are the "ice saints", usually between May 11 to May 13, but you can add "the cold Sophie" on May 15.
In Berlin the temperature accordingly changed from 27°C to 17 or even 14°C  - my flowers on the balcony defiantly curl their lips (at least the Lamiaceae or Labiatae, haha) and try to look unimpressed.
Me too.
Though writing "cold Sophie" triggered a memory from decades ago: as a faithful wife I always followed husband to the different cities where he worked at the university (and that was not the best for my career) - but once I stubbornly refused to. In Trier - that was well-known throughout Germany - in my governing authority reigned a woman (whom I knew personally) called "Cold Sophie" - so with a stiff upperlip I stayed in Mainz (for a while, till we went to another city).


Friday, May 13, 2016

A New Law

They are planning a new law here - and right they are:
They want to be able to punish people who take out their cellphone and take pictures of accidents - awful gazers, people evidently not being able to distinct between reality and TV.
Fire fighters and police complain about that for a long time - often they are hindered to reach a victim!
I avoid watching the news in TV (I read them in a newspaper), because I am repelled by those horrid pictures of poor people in pain - I feel helpless because I cannot help, but only stare, and the man with the camera doesn't help either. Of course it is one function of TV to raise attention to inhumanity and suppression - but I am speaking of week-end crashes (remember Jean-Luc Godard's film "Weekend" from 1969? I was so very young and shocked that I left the cinema in that middle of the "Black Comedy")  
In case of an accident I would want to keep my dignity (as far as possible) - and not appear on Youtube!  



Thursday, May 12, 2016

Secret Floors

Yes - you can trust your eyes: it's me again. I revive this blog (just for the small notes, without having to look for a matching photograph...)

So: next time I am in London, I will look at a skyscraper with the knowledge, that One Canada Square officially has no Floor 13. (Read it in the Londonist).
And that reminds me that I will read Per Wahlöö again - "Murder on the 31. floor".
(Also a floor that did not exist).

PS: And after that I may plunge into the highest swimming pool in Western Europe... Guess? You find it on the Shard.