Cozy environment

Usually, this feeling grows in autumn, towards winter, but my need for harmony and cozyness has not been fully met for a couple of months now...
...and the first catalogue of a mail-order house just arrived. For autumn and winter, of course.
The clothing is pretty weird, kind of cross-over 'tween the 80ies and folklore and WTF?
But they also include a pretty variety of nice furniture and accessories. Quite expensive, though.

Some like-to-have's:

I like this carpet, especially the way they photographed it on the reddish hardwood flooring. Very classical pattern (like old French wallpapers or tapestry), but black & white. Cool!


Oh, I love this lamp. Like silhouettes, filigree, lace... Adorable.
(I think one should be able to reproduce that with quite simple means? Hmmm...)

Okay, so the scan is quite bad, with the buckle and the lettering, but I would love to have a place for withdrawal like this in winter. I love the futon-like sofa with all those cushions and pillows and the flat table. I guess if this was my place, a basket with wool would be added, and the assortment of vases would be replaced by some piles of books I'd read there, and some tea-cups added during daytime or glasses and a bottle of good rich wine (Sherry or Port or a Grenache) in the evening...

Football craze!

It's astounding, time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely, not for very much longer
I've got to keep control...

(The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Yeah, it really is astounding.
As for the history of our country in the 1930ies and 1940ies, the majority of the Germans have a quite ambivalent feeling towards nationalism and the national flag, not to mention the national anthem.

I remember that we were tortured with our “national heritage” (yes, I mean those horrible, dreadful, appalling, disgusting years of Nazi government) for several years at school (it’s a pity that we never learned much about the post-war times, which would have been quite interesting, too).
Of course, it is important to know what happened way back then. But even my Dad was just a few days old when the Nazis provoked WWII, and my Mum was not even born.
Somehow, teachers and society always told us – quite successfully - (and some still do), that it was an original sin we couldn’t ever shake off, thus we may still have a kind of guilty conscience towards what happened, although neither we nor our parents couldn’t have done anything about it.

Anyhow, I know, and I agree, that we should never forget what happened then.

---

* sigh *
Off we go.
What I wanted to say is that I’m really amazed with what happened in the past few days.

We knew it would take place. But somehow, noone – except for the initiators, maybe – was too enthusiastic about the World Cup. There had been much discussion in advance, about the ticket sale, the silly Goleo mascot (and it’s even more nutty football “Pille”) and the official emblem, so, somehow, the mood was still somewhat damped.

And then. When it turned out that the German national team was actually capable of playing football and be worth to be in the game not only as a host, a country livened up.
Amazing!
Yes, of course we watch international football matches and of course we were really interested in our team’s fortune in the last few years.

But I have NEVER EVER seen so many German national flags around here.
On cars.
In windows.
At doors.
People wearing German football shirts.
And all this not only on days when the national team has an official game.
It’s crazy! They say that they can’t meet the demand for national flags!

When Germany beat Sweden last Saturday, the parade of cars, cruising and honking overzealously, didn’t seem to stop for hours, even in our small town.

Understand, it’s not as self-evident as, say, in the US of A, to hoist the flag here. This is normally left to official occasions, for instance, commemoration days, and done at official buildings.

So, showing off support for our national team in such a way is quite new to me. It already seems even stronger and more elated than when Germany actually became world champions in 1990.

Somehow, I still don’t know what to think of it. It’s only a game, after all ;-)
But I’ll surely watch the next game, too... Argentina... oh my! That won’t be easy...

Walking the same way again

...the same way I went on that wonderful spring day.
But now, J jun. joined me, although he was quite absentminded and kept on telling me about racing cars and teams...
Anyway, the longer we walked, the more got through to him. Or at least I think so.

When we left the woods, we were caught in seas of green and blue...

I simply love this fence!

I'd love to be the wind, caressing meadows and grain fields, creating random patterns...



Mallow growing next to a grain field.


Close-up of the mallow. What a delicate drawing on the petals, what a wonderful color!


Summer in Germany.

I'm so looking forward to walk this way again in a few weeks, to see what it looks like then!

"Mum, come quick...

...you've got to see this!"


My darling son was very pleased with the delicate pattern his pants left on his foot after he had been sitting on it. It reminded him of pictographs engraved in rocks.

We both agreed not to show this photo to his Dad.
He wouldn't be half as delighted as we were...

A day off...

It was about time.
So I decided to take a day off...

All preparations made:
Tell boss you need a day off.
Drive hubby to the station to make a business trip for several days abroad.
Set son on the way to go to school.
Skies are blue and the sun is shining.
Off we go!

I drove off to pick up my best female friend Anke to spend a wonderful morning in the old town of Seligenstadt (sorry, Link is only in German). We had breakfast in a nice little café at the market place. It was gorgeous! I wonder why we don't do that more often?

Then, we strolled over to the basilica. It was built by Einhard, chancellor to Charlemagne, starting in the year 830; it is said that the relics of two Roman martyrs, Marcellinus und Petrus, repose in a shrine at the main altar.
It was a monastery to the benedictines until the 19th century.
The basilica was rebuilt in the 11th and 14th century; this is what it looks like today.

There are a lot of statues in the garden; and there's a huge wonderful herb garden we longed to see, as we are both interested in herbal lore and simply love the fragrances...

As you may have spotted in the first picture, the garden also contains roses (and fruits, there are a lot of old sorts of apples and pears growing there)...


This is the actual colour of the rose. It's fragrance is superb... Sweet, the essence of any rose that ever bloomed... Aaaah...
What a bless they wrote the names of the roses (as well as of the herbs and fruits) on signs near the plants. Gotta have that rose.

Its like a bush on a single stem, looks like a little rose tree. What's that called in English? Anyone?

And they have figs and oranges, lemons and olives, too...

And this should be a kind of sorrel, it looks so weird but beautiful with it's colours...

An olive tree...

And everywhere, there were such lovely sights to see, from within the area of the basilica, and from outside in...

When we were still within the area, we spotted this idyll...
...like a peasant's garden, except for the statues...

Actually, there were not peasants living here, but... (can you see them?)

Some sparrows hid between the sandstone folds of the statue:

And all of this before noon! It was a wonderful morning, worth a whole day of recreation!

---

After I had seen Anke home I wondered what to do with the rest of my day?

I spent quite some money at Ikea, rummaging their accessories...
To buy some folding chairs and fitting cushions to invite my theatre friends on Thursday (it was quite chaotic when everyone came in last time). A plant. A cushion for the sofa. Some fabrics for pillowcases (I was quite amazed at the low prices for remnants). Glasses. Candles.
Yeah, the usual stuff... no regrets, no guilty conscience. It was meant to be ;-)

At home, the housework yelled at me.
I ignored it. Shut up, yo, I've got a day off, see?!
Aaaah, that's good! The yelling stopped instantaneously. Haha!

Shaking off my sense of duty.
Being myself again.
THIS is what I call my re-creation.
(Wanna do it all over and over and over again...).