WeekWord: Gypsy

Carmen of Tails of a Biomouse chose the word for this week, "gypsy".

The very first thing that came to my mind was the song "Gypsy" by Fleetwood Mac, written by Stevie Nicks. I could hear her smokey, sometimes almost hoarse voice that I love so much, singing those beautiful lyrics, "to the gypsy that remains faces freedom with a little fear".

To the gypsy that is within all of us, often hidden away.

Somehow, gypsies belong to my childhood. The Roma people, who used to tour around the country in their trailers, making camp for a few days at the edge of a town, observed from the distance by the "decent" people, not welcomed, and finally seen with relief how they were leaving the area again. Whatever happened during that time - a break in, a car that disappeared from the street, stolen bicycles - was blamed on the gypsies. No one who talked about them had anything good to say.

They hold a big fascination for me. I tried to imagine their lives, envied their kids who did not have to go to school but could run around barefoot. I envied them for living in a trailer instead of a third floor apartment. In my eyes they were wild, free and had no worries. Their life was colorful and adventurous whereas mine was just plain boring.

Later, they disappeared more and more. Only seldom did a group of Roma make camp anymore.

I found them again in the book "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris. The theme of homelessness and traveling took stage in the movie "La Strada" by Federico Fellini, a movie that deeply touched me.

And then I found them again on another continent - the Bedouins in Egypt. They lived in tents in the desert. They had no steady home. They were curious. They were friendly. They offered us tea. They tried to sell their handmade jewelry, a meagre way to make some money.

I felt the same fascination as I did when I was a child.

.

WeekWord: Book

For ages I haven't participated in WeekWord. I wanted to last week, but totally missed out. So this week I actually managed to join in - no wonder, the word is irresistible. It's book.

If I have an addiction, it's books. I love books. I can't imagine a world without books. Places like book stores and libraries are magic for me. I can easily spend hours in them, totally losing track of time. Sitting on my bench in the garden, getting lost in a story - is there anything better? I like the smell of books, the feel in the hand - I don't think I can ever be happy with a kindle. It has to be a real book. Yes, call me old-fashioned, I take that as a compliment.

I like really good fiction,

biographies (these are all about women... hm...),

non-fiction,

books about gardening,

the art and photography stuff,

and, of course, my scrapbooks!

Go check out at Sow and Sew what others have to say about books!

WeekWord: Christmas

After having skipped several WeekWords, "Christmas" is a word that I just couldn't pass no matter how busy I am. There are currently so many memories about the time of Advent and Christmas going through my head, several of them I wrote about over at Vision and Verb and also here on my blog.

When I looked through my old scanned slides I found this really bad out-of-focus picture of the "Pauper-singen" in Tübingen, the little medieval University town in Southwest Germany I had lived in for twenty years before I moved to the States.

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 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.

If you want to know what other bloggers wrote for "Christmas" you can find a list over at Allie's blog.

WeekWord: Lacuna

Carmen at Tails of a Biomouse chose the word "lacuna" for this week's WeekWord.

Boy, that was a hard one for me - at first. It refers to a hole or gap or break, but I was still stuck. I had to consult my English-German dictionary and than the German dictionary to get the idea of the word. Next step was to go through my photo archive, looking for that natural hole or gap, those you stumble over all the time - and I think I've found some nice examples for "lacuna" in nature - at least as far as I understood the word.

So I just stop rambling here and let you look at my photos - hope you like them.

Yellowstone

Slickrock in Canyonlands, Utah

Yellowstone

If you want to see what other bloggers came up with, you can find a whole list at Carmen's blog.

Worthington Glacier, Alaska

WeekWord: Rock

Maria at Simply Cool Stuff chose the word for this week - rock.

The very first thought that shot into my head was 'Rock', the German word for skirt. A rock is 'Felsen' or 'Stein' - completely different words.

Second thought - rock 'n roll.

As a third thought I saw a beautiful little spirit rock with an engraved coyote that I bought several years ago at some Native American store and that I carry around with me pretty often. And this rock stuck with me.

The coyote is one of my favorite animals in the wild - and a wonderful spirit animal of the Native American World. No one other than painter and children's book author Harriet Peck Taylor can describe coyote better than she did in her note to her book "Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies":

"Coyote is a popular character in Pueblo legends as well as in tales of other native peoples. Most often he is called the Trickster. But he is more complicated than that, and therin lies his appeal. He frequently brags and gets himself in trouble, but he is also courageous and has magical powers that he sometimes uses to help others. He does not always follow the rules, but sometimes acts in bold, impulsive ways. Often foolish and lazy, he is full of life and we can see ourselves in him. Coyote makes us laugh and can teach us about ourselves and the world around us."

I love the special spirit of Coyote, and this rock is my spirit rock or worry stone. It pretty much lives in the pocket of my jeans where I can always feel it or touch it when I need to. Its smooth and fits perfectly inside my hand. When I have it with me, I feel Coyote's magical powers, his courage and boldness, but also his wit and his liveliness.

Each one of us has her own rock. If you want to read more, look at the list on Maria's blog.

New WeekWord Host

The wonderful Maria at Simply Cool Stuff will be our next host for the WeekWord.

Please hop on over to her beautiful blog on Monday and find out about the new word. Please remember to leave a comment for Maria if you want to play.

I very much enjoyed being host this past week. I enjoyed reading and seeing all of your thoughts about November.

November

 I selected November as the WeekWord. Why?

November had never been one of my favorite months. I experienced 40 Novembers in Germany, and what I remember is grey, grey, grey. The first frost, the first snow.

Chaos on the roads in the early morning on your way to work. Going to work in the dark, coming back home in the dark. The sun played somewhere else. It was just the beginning of the long and dark season, while completely lacking the warmth of Christmas and being burdened down by somber holidays, only lightened up on Martinstag (I blogged about that special day on Vision and Verb).

Then I moved to California, and suddenly November became something different - often the first rain, desperately needed after months of drought, and oh how lovely is that sound of rain! No more heavy religious holidays, but a celebration of gratitude, a gathering of family and friends. Stunning autumn colors that always amaze me. Autumn at its almost best (nothing can beat October, though).

And through the viewfinder of a camera, both Novembers can look fabulous and give both their very own right. Grey and color, frost and sunshine.

 Please take a look what other bloggers' thoughts on November are. Here are the players:

Christine at Silver Linings 4 ME

Rhonda at Musings on Art

Sally at  Sow and Sew

Allie at Allie in Wonderland

Emma at The Gift Shed's Blog

Mandy at Mandyland

Maria at Simply Cool Stuff

Sally at  Diario

Cath at Musings in Mayhem

Joye at Joyefulart

and Domestic Scribbles

New WeekWord: November

Christine over at Silver Linings 4 ME has asked me to host WeekWord this week. My chosen word is NOVEMBER.

November is such a weird month. Its reputation of grey, cold and monotonous days is nothing to be proud of. For many it's the crossover from the last glorious autumn days full of color to the short days and long nights of a cold winter. A month everybody wants to get over with quickly. Really?

On the other hand, at least in the US, November provides us with one of the most beautiful holidays, Thanksgiving, a gathering of friends and family, a time of gratitude, a feast for the eye - and the belly.

It was these opposites that made me chose NOVEMBER as our WeekWord. What are your feelings about November, what does this month mean to you?

Express it on your blog and let us know about it, share it with this community by Friday, November 12th. Everybody can join in. Leave a comment to this post with your URL so that I know that you're participating. In the evening of Thursday, 11/11, I'll post a list of everybody's blog so that we can visit each other and share our thoughts.

I look forward to it - hope you do, too.

Abundance

This week's word for WeekWord is abundance, chosen by the lovely Christine at Silver Linings 4 ME.

There is a lot of abundance in my life - love, friendship, interests, books, nature - but at this time of year I'm so delighted by the abundance of COLOR that I chose to focus on that.

The beautiful colors of autumn - nothing beats that.