Community

 

Today I'm not only joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday, but this post is also for their Second on the 2nd. Actually this is a third - I published this post two years ago, but I first wrote it several years ago for Vision and Verb. Since this is the time of advent when everywhere in Germany the most beautiful Christmas markets pop up, I thought it is the perfect time to repost this.

I remember the third weekend in December back in Tübingen, Germany, where I spent more than twenty years of my life. It's a medieval university town with its typical old buildings that look like they're straight out of a fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers. Narrow lanes wind among medieval timber-framed houses and cars are not allowed within the city center (except for residents living there). It's a huge pedestrian zone that makes wandering the old alleys so peaceful.

This is the setting for one of the most beautiful traditions of the town: the Christmas Market. It's nothing like its big siblings in Nürnberg, Stuttgart or München and so many other cities. First, it only takes place from Friday to Sunday and not during weeks and weeks and weeks. Second, it's not commercial. There are tons of local artists who sell their work, school classes who raise funds for their annual end-of-the-year trip, small local environmental groups who fight for preservation, neighborhoods who try to raise awareness and money for the disabled - the list could go on and on.

So that's the eye-candy. The next is the food - just one word: delicious. The food is mainly local specialities, the best time to eat "Bubaspitzle mit Sauerkraut" (a thin rolled kind of potato pasta with sauerkraut and sometimes bacon), one of my fondest memories in the food department. There was a guy with a complicated portable special oven who made Swiss Raclette that was to die for. Of course there was Glühwein (mulled wine), very welcome in the cold. None of the food or the drink was allowed in any kind of plastic or paper container, everything had to be re-usable! So you bought a beautiful mug with the words "Tübinger Weihnachtsmarkt" written on it and this could be refilled at any booth that offered Glühwein or juice punch. I still have a few of these mugs and they are my ticket to T Tuesday. Most of the plates were edible - envision big sturdy waffles for apple strudel! No trash!

Throughout the market you could listen to music. Children were singing, little choirs stood at the fountain in the market square, someone played the violin, another one the bagpipe, and again another one the flute. There was a cantata concert in the main church. There were jugglers and clowns. It was a very festive atmosphere. 

And of course there was “Paupersingen”. The Paupersingen (paupers singing) is a tradition that originated in the Middle Ages. "pauper" is a Latin word and means poor, and in this case it refers to poor students of Latin who paid part of their school fee by singing during church services and at funerals. During Advent they wandered through the narrow lanes of the town, wearing their black scholar cloaks and singing in front of every house, hoping for some donations.

Today it's the children's choirs who start out at different parts of Tübingen and slowly, with several stops in between, walk to the market square, all the way singing the old Christmas carols. They all meet at the huge Christmas tree where all of them together sing for another half hour or so. The donations today go to some charity of their choice.

We felt like a community, we were a community. People spend three days in the cold in order to help someone else. To serve others. To share stories. To entertain children and their stressed parents. To bring smiles on the cold faces, red cheeks from the mulled wine.

That third weekend in December was spent in the streets among those medieval buildings, no matter whether the sun was shining, it was raining or snowing. It was freezing cold - always. But everyone was there. Community.

Nicole's Self-Portrait Challenge

 

When Nicole first challenged us to do a self-portrait for this week's Friday Face Off I thought "no way". I didn't feel confident in drawing or painting faces anyway, but a self-portrait? But you know how this works - even though you think there's no possible way you're going to do this, the idea sits in your mind and is doing its own thing, completely ignoring your negative attitude. Then Nicole said that it's totally fine to trace - and that felt to my doing-its-own-thing mind like getting permission to draw, actually the need to take out the watercolors and brushes.

First I was looking for a photo of myself that I like (there aren't too many) and I ended up with this one.

I traced the face and then I was wondering how to paint the skin. How the heck do you do skin tones? Thankfully I have this book and inside I found a skin tone color chart.

I mixed Raw Sienna and Cadmium Red Light and lightened it with white, using more water in the lighter areas and less in the shaded ones. I still feel I could have done more shading, but I was afraid to ruin the painting. It still feels rather unfinished. Yes, I took the liberty to give myself purple hair. I used Winsor and Newton for the face and Sennelier for the hair and shirt. The Sennelier watercolors are buttery and brilliant. However, I still have a LOT to learn when it comes to watercolor.

This was a true challenge for me, and without Nicole I would have never dared to paint a self-portrait. Thank you, Nicole, for making me leave my comfort zone.

I hope those of you living in the US had a good Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving week has been quite busy. We were tired of spending so much money for gas for our forced heating, so the Geek installed a minisplit in our living room. Our solar panels produce so much energy that the electricity for the heatpump will easily be covered by that. He did everything himself, from electric to the final touches. It took him four days. I think he did a fabulous job. 

We have set it to 70ºF (21ºC) to get it going, but this is too warm for us. Usually we heat our home to 65ºF (18ºC).

Yesterday the drain in our kitchen sink completely clogged up. The Geek is still repairing it - it's clogged somewhere in the pipes that cannot be easily reached. Thankfully he has so many appropriate tools that we're hopeful he will get it going again and I can use the kitchen tonight for making dinner (we're not having turkey, we're having chicken quarters and roasted vegetables, followed by my killer Tiramisu).

What a fun week we're having so far!

But - just like every year for Thanksgiving, the Strawberry Tree has fruit while flowering at the same time. This gives me so much joy.

Early Morning Walk

 

Last week I did a couple early morning walks in the neighborhood. While most mornings were foggy, one was lovely. But in typical Northern California manner, the morning was very chilly. I left the house right when the sun was rising over the hills and threw some light onto the pavement.

So early, my shadow went across the entire intersection.

While some trees were already pretty bare, a lot of them were still wearing their autumn dress. It was particularly beautiful when the leaves were backlit.

With the sun climbing higher, my shadow became gradually shorter.

On my way I picked up a few leaves that had fallen to the ground. I will be using them in my journal.

Back home it was time for breakfast and a nice cup of coffee, which is also my ticket to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

To those of you who live in the US, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

Meeting the Goblins

 

After a long day driving along spectacular Highway 12 and exploring Capitol Reef in the afternoon, we spent the night in a tiny cabin in Hanksville. Hanksville is not more than a hamlet where literally nothing is open between Christmas and New Year's. The only place to eat was a less than mediocre burger place, but since we didn't have anything warm the entire day we didn't have a choice. The coffee place in the morning was closed as well, so we just had a couple nut and granola bars. A great breakfast, not. 

So we were off to our next adventure. The weather had changed, it was grey, cold and the clouds were low. That actually gave the landscape a mysterious look. 

Eventually the fog became rather dense. I was driving very slowly because everything looked greyish-white - and suddenly this cow appeared out of the fog. Thank goodness I wasn't driving fast!

Our destination was Goblin Valley State Park. We had discovered this gem sometime in the 2010s during one of our many Southwest trips and really liked it back then. The Geek and I were eager to visit again. The state Park is pretty much in the middle of nowhere off Utah State Highway 24 south of I-70. It is easy to pass by - you still have to drive several miles from Highway 24 to the valley - but a stop is very worthwhile. It's a place where your imagination can go wild.

This is a three-square-mile area covered in hoodoos that display the oddest shapes.

As so much in the American Southwest it is a very arid area - not much was growing here. There was some snow and it was seriously cold. However, we bundled up and walked right into the valley and among the goblins. 

If you want to study geologic history, Goblin Valley is a good place to go to. Due to the uneven hardness of sandstone, some patches resist erosion much better than others. Water erosion and windblown dust result in the odd and strange shapes of the "goblins". 

The soil is thin and almost completely lacks vegetation. When rain does fall, there are few plant roots and little soil to capture and hold water.

I did find a very few, very dry plants, however.

But the goblins were the reason why we came here after all. They are undeniably the true stars in this valley.

When you use your imagination you can see a lot of interesting shapes and figures. 

Gnomes...

... a dog, maybe?

Definitely a bird, an angry bird. At least not a happy one.

G-rated kissers were quite abundant.

We walked through more narrow pathways deeper into the valley - there seems to be something different behind each and every goblin.

And then we found the hippo. Actually an entire herd of hippos.

The guy with the floppy ear looked like Kaefer's stuffed hippo, so we had to take a picture of ourselves with the hippo in the background and send it to her.

After almost two hours of exploring we were so cold that we walked back to the car. We wanted to reach Moab by night, but first had to stop at a garage in Green River to get our tire fixed, that was constantly losing air (of course my nifty husband had a measurement and a pump in the trunk, he's a German engineer!- and he had to use them repeatedly on this trip).

The sun finally made an appearance when we were leaving.

The Three Sisters

So, what do you think? Do these goblins count as faces for Nicole's Friday Face Off? Otherwise, there are still two human faces in the mix.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Autumn in a Breton Village

 

In April I wrote about the tiny Breton village Meneham and its guardhouse. At that time I promised to come back and show its beautiful fall decoration that we saw during our visit in October of last year.

The Meneham site was originally a guardhouse, strategically located to protect the coastline of Northern Brittany. At the end of the 18th century, the militia occupying the site were replaced by customs officers. They were the first real inhabitants of Meneham and settled in the barracks with their families in the mid-19th century. Later, fishermen, seaweed growers and farmers moved in.

The village of Meneham is clocely linked with the history of fishing and the trade of seaweed harvesting in Brittany. Daily life, far away from any town or trading center, wasn't easy for the residents. Their tasks and chores included fishing, harvesting seaweed, drying and burning it in dedicated ovens, working the land, raising livestock and washing clothes.

But there were also Pagan festivals and their festivities - dancing, singing and laughter.

The village's history is also closely linked to the myth of the shipwreckers - for a long time, the inhabitants were considered to be wreck raiders who would cause shipwrecks on stormy nights. However, in reality, Pagan country is a land of sharing and mutual aid, where festive customs have endured.

We learned about all of this by going into some of the charming thatched cottages that were partly museum and partly little shops. Outside, we enjoyed the fall decorations throughout the tiny village.

Meneham also offers workshops and events throughout the year. We saw kids creating simple fall decorations and admired the beautiful and intricate works of lace.

It was a very relaxing autumn afternoon.

Staying with the autumn theme, last Saturday I cooked a autumn-like meal with roasted potatoes, butternut squash, eggplant, Mexican zucchini (from my garden) and bell pepper. 

With it we enjoyed a bottle of delicious Pinot Noir from one of our favorite wineries. We had bought the bottle when we visited there in September with our relatives from Germany. 

With this I join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Tuesday. Cheers!