2022年5月13日
"oh hello!"..................(In your ears there is a
crash 💥 which sounds like a knight in armour has just fallen into the room)
"just doing the washing up..........how are you doing?......oh fine, er just let me.......
(swisch,🔪 crump!🩸 sounds like a samurai has just decapitated someone nearby)......
"........finish cutting this tomato") " there we are..."
(Whoosh!............ 🌊 sounds like a tsunami has just swept through the kitchen)....
"........oh I was just running the tap...sorry"
At your end of the phone it sounds like your friend is warding off some armed intruders with an array of saucepans, knives and a hose pipe.....
Well on Saturday I rang a friend in the UK. On my end all I could hear was wind......and a lot of it.
"oh, hello Nigel, nice to hear you....yes, I can speak.......force 6 wind.....can speak, yes, Peter has taken over the tiller....... ". The Tiller. Does that suggest a location for you? What I didn't realise is that you can phone someone on whatsapp when they are sailing across the Thames Estuary (or it might have been the river Medway......)...anyway, I said to call me back. New vocabulary for some of my friends, I thought. But a "force 6 wind"? apparently this is a "strong breeze" on the Beaufort wind scale. Developed by no one less than the Irishman Sir Francis Dra....no, Sir Francis Beaufort in 1805. U.K. Royal Navy I'll have you know. It's a wind where there are "larger waves 8-13ft., whitecaps common, more spray". And on land "larger tree branches moving, whistling in wires". Well there you have it. A few hours later they were..."anchored for lunch, tide rushing by...". 友達 は昼休みを食べます.メッドウェイ川。Medway River, Kent.
"Anchored for lunch" ? Yes, with all 30 metres of the anchor chain in use apparently. That sound like a long chain to me.....
The next day I was also sitting down for lunch, also anchored....not on a river but in a forest. On a toadstool in fact................No wind here. Force 0. The calm depths of the Odenwald forest. オーデンヴァルトの森の小さな席.
No, I was not hiking ハイキングしていません, I was strolling 散歩に出かけていました....in the forests around Breuberg castle. Yes, There I was at a castle yet again. Well, there are no temples here, no tulips and no sea.........You can't get lost - I was following path Nr.2.............道に迷うはできません。
....and through the trees you can see your destination......the castle....
A medieval pile, well restored about 100 years ago....
...........surrounded by rolling countryside. This farm had a spring which provided fresh water for the castle. Mind you, to get the water to the castle it was a half hour slog for donkeys carrying wooden barrels. The old medieval barn in the picture was for the sheep....
Sunday. I am in the hr Sendesaal (radio concert hall) in Frankfurt. Civilization. What a privilege. Just sit back and let others do the work......😅
Nice concert hall, this one. Not too big and with comfy seats. Listening to a Frankfurt themed programme - Mendelssohn, Raff and Hindemith. Orchestra of the music college - the HfMDK - Hochschule für Musik und Darstellenden Kunst. And pretty good they are too. Thank you HfMDK.
Also this week: Ever had a package which never arrived? Well this one beats all. Sent from deepest Saitama in January to me in Langen as a New Year present, this package was indeed correctly addressed to me. It came all the way from Japan and reached my little town.Then something happened. A bored postman? One who couldn't even be bothered to put a note in my letterbox? I mean, anyone could see that this parcel had come a long way. What happened? and why? The only clue was the yellow notice on the parcel. They had marked the box "other". Very dubious. (sono Hoka (その他)).
.......it was then sent back to Japan, where it eventually found its way back to its sender - just after Golden Week in May. All this is meticulously recorded in the itinerary....
etc. etc......there are three pages of it. Too much data. Too little human initiative. I shall have to go to Japan and pick it up.
It's now the first week of May and the weather in Hessen is glorious. Maybe I can appreciate it all the more, because I have at last been able to leave the house after a Covid quarantine. Thank you everybody who sent me nice messages and delivered food! It was nasty, but at least I could just stay at home in relative comfort. At least no barbed wire at the door. A friend of mine sent me these pictures from Beijing last week......When I think of the people whingeing about wearing masks here............先週の北京.
Beijing May 2022
Do they really need razor wire?
On a lighter note: Stalls are now popping up around Langen selling huge bunches of Spargel .....the local product.......Say what you may, but cooked properly they are a treat.
アスパラガス - Asparagus....mmmm😋.
Of course it is ideal cycling weather, and there are funny little corners of the woods to discover. This gate leading nowhere for example....
...or this bridge leading out to a glade....
And although I didn't find gold in the tulip fields of Holland, I have here in Langen, right on my doorstep. 金.
A golden sunset 黄金の夕日.
THE END
終わり
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Thank you this week for additional photos! Rachel, Yao Yao & Emi