We have been having really intense sunsets lately that are just fantastic. When the cloud is not blanketing the area these satin pink fingers seem to span out and caress the under belly of the sky and then the colours seem to pinwheel through the spectrum with such subtle changes and nuances that sometimes you are not quite sure just what the colour is that you ae looking at.
The yellows, pinks, reds and mauve against the waining blues as the night creeps in are most surely the inpiration of many great European landscape artists. I suppose that the hues are somewhat dependant on our relatively close proximity to the arctic / northern lights.
We have been having for the last two weeks what the locals refer to as a Golden October. Mild days but calm and sunny with the temp up around 22C but still falling to around 8C at night. Very much the same sort of weather we were having in my last couple of weeks in the Blue Mountains. All very pleasant especially with the Autumn colours really starting to take hold of the oaks, elms and ashes.
The walnut tree out the back has been dropping bucket loads of nuts which we collect to crush and feed the birds and squirrels during the Winter. I don’t think I am in the good books particularly with the local red squirrels as I have collected all the nuts each day and they are no doubt sizing me up for an attack onn my kneecaps. I watched the other day as one of them scurried around collecting walnuts in its mouth and then proceeding to bury them in the garden near the tomato bushes. Unfortunately for Squirrel Nutkins there was a large black raven perched high over head in the old cherry tree watching each mining expedition with great innterest. As soon as the squirrel took off to find another nut the raven was swooping down and pecking the nut out of the soil and zooming off with it. Kind of like a drive through take away for birds.
I have been flipping through a book on the birds of central europe. I have to admit at being somewhat amazed by the number of birds that are found here and in Australia. Eg: spoonbills, azure kingfishers, stone knee curlews and powerful owls. Others that surprised me as I thought them to be American / African were the buzzards and vultures.
There are a lot of chestnuts as well on the pavements around town which shall no doubt bring about a serious in-house conkers championship within the next few weeks. The little blighters are a serious pitfall when walking later at night as they shoot from under your feet like a ball bearing. My boots have a smooth leather sole and this is a really dangerous combination especially after a few ales at the English Club.
21.10.04
Darmstadt's Oktoberfest
We have had just a few festive happenings since my last mail that have included the Heinerfest, which is the local Darmstadt equivalent of the Oktoberfest in Munich. They blocked off the whole city centre for 4 days to cater for a massive sprawl of carnival side shows, beer tents, beer caravans and sound stages.
I took a wander down on the Saturday night with my friends Frank and Nicole and partook of a variety of foaming beverages along with a few helter-skelter, topsy-turvey show rides to settle it all down. Gad what it is to have the legacy of an Aussie iron gut constitution! The actual evening went through till 3am but we had already retired to the AnSibin Irish Pub for a Guinness or two by 1am having tired of jostling with the milling crush of the crowds and the endless queues attached to each beer stall. The festival finished on a Monday (which needless to say has been designated a local public holiday) and they had a firework spectacular to wind it all up that night.
Bettina and Thomas having weathered many of these fests in the past basically gave it all a big miss with the exception of Bettina on Sunday afternoon, ducking into a stall on the fringe of the bedlam to purchase a bag of special ginger bread pieces which only become available for sale during the fest. Armed with said bag of ginger confection we scurried off home to enjoy a few quiet beers in the sanctuary of own back yard, far from the madding crowds, the streets of broken glass and the weaving stumbling antics of the inebriated citizens of Darmstadt.
I spent an hour on the Monday night poised on a section of flat roof on our house with a camera and tripod getting some time lapse photos of the fireworks barrages emanating from the city centre and exploding high above the silhouettes of the neighbourhood tree tops. Le grande finale and farewell to the beer barons of Hessen.
I took a wander down on the Saturday night with my friends Frank and Nicole and partook of a variety of foaming beverages along with a few helter-skelter, topsy-turvey show rides to settle it all down. Gad what it is to have the legacy of an Aussie iron gut constitution! The actual evening went through till 3am but we had already retired to the AnSibin Irish Pub for a Guinness or two by 1am having tired of jostling with the milling crush of the crowds and the endless queues attached to each beer stall. The festival finished on a Monday (which needless to say has been designated a local public holiday) and they had a firework spectacular to wind it all up that night.
Bettina and Thomas having weathered many of these fests in the past basically gave it all a big miss with the exception of Bettina on Sunday afternoon, ducking into a stall on the fringe of the bedlam to purchase a bag of special ginger bread pieces which only become available for sale during the fest. Armed with said bag of ginger confection we scurried off home to enjoy a few quiet beers in the sanctuary of own back yard, far from the madding crowds, the streets of broken glass and the weaving stumbling antics of the inebriated citizens of Darmstadt.
I spent an hour on the Monday night poised on a section of flat roof on our house with a camera and tripod getting some time lapse photos of the fireworks barrages emanating from the city centre and exploding high above the silhouettes of the neighbourhood tree tops. Le grande finale and farewell to the beer barons of Hessen.