scary monsters

spooky knights and little devils have recently been reported in castle "ziegenhain"

which no doubt is under a wicked spell with the scariest of them all apparently being

the"little man with the green hat" who is known to bite off the nose of any innocent intruder without warning

"look! another nose gone!"

and all to protect the pretty flower queen and to have her just for themselves. scary!!!

home and colonial

a bit of a surprise find the other day across the road on lewisham way and all of a sudden a nice reminder of the old days now exposed after someone must have ripped down a more recent shop sign since we don't remember seeing this one in the last ten years or so. the interesting story of home and colonial, the once mighty chain and role model for today's supermarkets can be found in several places on the net but we stumbled across the library of experience, an intergenerational art project with brockley primary school which touches on the subject but includes other (shopping) memories as well. 

(pix by deac)

greetings from stanton

greetings from stanton arrived today and for a second i was wondering whether my little brother actually made it to england without telling me but really - where was stanton?? looking a little closer it said austria as well so i could consult my dear austrian colleague who of course only took one look to burst into laughter but by then i had realized myself that it was st anton (i've actually been there!) and really it is all just to avoid saying how deeply envious we are! just take one look at these glorious pics and the happy smiles on conny's face. or was that because he just took the lads??

brrrrr

still snow flakes in the air this morning and bitterly cold despite the sun which made it hard to get out of bed and we all huddled around the radiators. so we can only admire those intrepid munsterlanders (pictured) who have been snowed in for weeks on end by now but haven't lost their good spirits and just go on with their business - which seems to be doing glorious walks and taking pictures...what a life! (and thanx for the pics!)

wagner's ring

wagner's ring staged in valencia bei über-opera company la fura dels baus shown over two months on germany's 3sat is certainly something to put in your diary - 27th feb is the last round, the götterdämmerung, and since they haven't played london yet we'll be glued to the telly, for sure. their show is probably as spectacular as it gets and we were in awe about their command of the switches. zubin mehta is a strict conductor and praise also for jennifer wilson but lance ryan didn't do it for me, i simply can't warm up to his voice. not really sure what the whole things does to the music in the end but then that's probably a question too far...

little improvements

well into february and there is just not much to report other than little things and a few improvements here and there, mainly on the weather side with the horses all playing up yesterday when there was actually that spring smell in the air and a couple of hours of sun. lovely also to see hugh this morning in church out of the wheel chair for the first time in weeks and clearly better after his bad fall though not quite as cheerful as he is on the pic taken by deac last summer.