"The Home as a Hobby"

"Nobody has the right to be bored in a half-made home. A home which is not a fair expression of us at our best, a home which lacks what it might have, a home which is in any part more ugly or in any part more uncomfortable than it absolutely need be , .. a home which cannot be run without waste, a home which by any detail gets on the nerves of its inhabitants and so impairs the harmony of their existence - something ought to be done about such a home... Why not make the perfect home a hobby?" 

If you asked yourself "Has dear Britta become lazy, uninterested in blogging, or - what the hell is she doing?" you will find an answer in the quote above. Arnold Bennett wrote 1924 an article (as part of a series "Making the Most of Life") for The Royal Magazine (the quote is by Sarah Ban Breathnach's book "Simple Abundance") 

It fits. As you know I have my "second home" in Bavaria, very near to the triplets, and I furnished it as a holiday flat - for me, quite nice, BUT... now I spend almost three quarter of my time here (one quart, though not even that each month, in Berlin). 

So I started to think. Looked around - and of course found many imperfections, but also good traits. 

Yesterday a painter came to give an estimate what it would cost to paint the ceiling of the parlours. (Painters are not easily to be lured into your home nowadays: as it is still summer they are painting the frontage of houses in powdered pastels as long as the weather permits..) 

I am really keen to know how much money it will cost - because I have only rented the flat, and if the white gloss hand painting will cost the equivalent of a gilding I will not do it. 

(Plan B: buying a beautiful costly lamp for the dining table - that would be mine IF I ever move, and much easier to be stored away than a ceiling in the unlikely event of moving again...   :-) 

PS: The charming picture above is an illustration by "Rico Puhlmann: Fashion Photography 50er - 90er" at the Helmut Newton Museum für Fotografie in Berlin - I enjoyed every minute there!

It Gets So Silent in "Our" Blogland...

 

I become apprehensive: did you notice how many wonderful bloggers in "our circle" fall silent these days? 

I am talking of Joanne Noragon, Rosemary, Tom Stephenson, Mary - just to name a few. They explained while they don't write any more - chronic pain, private burdening, getting older. 

Before that I lost others whom I also really, really loved as friends - someone as Geo. - by death, he who wrote so excellent and intelligent blogs. 

Others just take time out because they have so many other things to do in real life - as Pipistrello, or Jackie, or Viola - though some carry on: well-educated Hels, lovely ASD, or courageous Yael who lives in such an incredibly changed world in Israel or brave Tasker Dunham. 

I miss you all! I wish you well! While walking I think of you - look into the beautiful Bavarian sky and send you, my friends, all my best wishes! Britta XXX 

PS: Now you might understand why I needed something as my new blog "Strolling through the Bavarian countryside and village" (htpp.bavarianwalks.blogspot.com) not to become too desperate - sort of whistling in the dark... 

Back from the Netherlands

 

It was such a beautiful stay in the Netherlands! Though "stay" isn't the right word: after one day in Noordwijk we went to the Veluwe - to visit the famous 

"Kröller-Müller Museum". 

A "Museum & Sculpture" - including many paintings from van Gogh that I had never seen before (not even in print). 

I quote from a brochure: "The Kröller-Müller Museum is the lifework of Helene Kröller-Müller. Between 1907 and 1922, she and her husband Anton Köller bought almost 11,500 works of art (...)." So this is her: Helen Kröller-Müller 

Very interesting also the 25-hectare outdoor gallery - with 160 modern sculptures in that garden, though we didn't see very much of that because it rained heavily. 

You will know me by now: I enjoyed the surrounding nature, though dripping heavily, as much as the art. 

And am a little bit proud of a photo I took through the window: 

foxglove before a tree. 

 

I Deleted an App

 

Dear You, 

yesterday evening I got a WARNING on my cellphone. A warning from my new weather forecast App. 

"Terrible thunderstorm in the evening" it said (no: shouted), and gave advice what to bind, shelter, save and keep tucked away. 

I am amenable to influence. Though I had my doubts: the sun was shining and the air quite hot for the beginning of May. I looked at the four red blossoms that had - finally - opened on my well-winter-protected tiny camellia, sighed and started half-heartedly to change my balcony into a fortress.  

Well, well, well. As you see on the photo above, the thunderstorm came. With strong wind. 

Best watched from inside, as lightning started too. 

Rain, pouring. Which was good, as we didn't have much rain here the last two month. 

But nothing terrible happened. Just a normal thunderstorm. 

And I got a bit angry. I know that it is important to warn people - remembering the catastrophe we had in the Ahrtal. But still I felt that here one had been dramatic with intent: the media blow up every molehill to a mountain, every pimple might be cancer, the weather report uses the vocabulary of war. 

Our world has so many real problems, so much terrible things happen, so many liars and drama-queens (and kings!) around. 

Angrily I deleted the App - and loaded a beautiful new one up  instead that my son had recommended: it tells me which birds are singing just now around me. 

Of course I know the song of the Eurasian Black Bird, the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, the Sparrow, the Common Chaffinch, the  Greenfinch, the Common Cuckoo. 

Yet the Serin was new to me. 

So: this App makes me happy - not terrified for nothing. 

 

Happy Easter!

 

Spring gives us so much joy!

 

I know a few secret places where I find the first lovely smelling violets of the year. They were the favourite scent in Marlene Dietrich's perfume - it is called "Berlin" by Frau Tonis (you find her shop near Checkpoint Charlie). 

These little tulips flower only for two days.  

Aren't they beautiful? 

Isn't spring such a sign of hope and a new beginning? 

I will read - as every year - "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, and watch the very well-made movie on a DVD too. 

Just Doodling

 

It happened by chance. I drink a Nespresso first thing in the morning. The capsules are in a sort of cube, in two layers - and between these layers is a little white cardboard. 

I took the little white card, and my Japanese fountain pen - a few dashes with the pencil and then I drew whatever stood in front of me in the tiny vase on my breakfast table at the window. 

I love to sketch! 

Well, and suddenly I saw that I had drawn quite a lot of little tiles. Here they are. 

Put on the first laptop I ever owned 😁