A Painting in Progress - Fifteen Barges on the Ides of March

Hello Again Everybody,


A sunny, spring day in the Moseltal, so we made the most of the blue skies and headed off for a spin along the River. We ended up in the village of Brodenbach and had one of those nice lunches which are unexpected and inexpensive - a bratwurst and a beer from an Imbiss (Snack) stand. There was a little picnic spot there as well, so that we could watch the barges and talk to the ducks. The beer was a local one - Königsbacher - from Koblenz, since we were pointed in that direction......

......just the bottle, not a glass or even a straw - and since we didn't want to appear as people who just had to have a glass (Dahling!) to drink their beer, we knocked it back straight out of the bottle like everybody else.
We saw fifteen barges altogether during our little foray - fifteen barges on the fifteenth day of March. Beware the Ides, so they say, and a man who was killed 2056 years ago today is still remembered. Those ol' calendars were a bit complicated back in them there days - all that counting backwards, I'd never know where I was.....


I was back here this afternoon though, and got a good few hours painting done. I would like to get this painting finished in the next couple of weeks, so I'll have to find myself a few more hours a day from Somewhere....

So, until then,


Tschüss!!

A Painting in Progress - Herons, Cranes and Vaya con Dios

Hello Everybody,


A cloudy weekend in the Moseltal, not the sunny couple of days we were led to expect from the trusty weather report.
Wilbur is well pleased with himself at the moment as he has a New Source of Adventure when he helps me with the recycling. 
A Trailer.
'Look at me! I can walk all around the edge without falling off, then I can run round and round in the inside on me four fluffy paws and turn meself upside down in the corners!'
If it hadn't been for Wilbur, I would have missed the cranes this morning. Still in adventurous mood, he bounded out into the garden and when I followed him, I heard that strange eerie noise which makes you look up - and there they were. I still think it's great that with all the distance they fly, from Spain to Scandinavia, they fly over Eller. We saw them today, Wilbur and me, just about midday, so they were flying up above the village while the church bells were ringing out over the Valley..... 


Despite the lack of sunshine, it was a mild day for a walk down by the River. The herons are now back as well and are busy nesting up in the trees on the opposite bank - I always think of herons as standing about in water looking for the odd fish or a frog, so it's interesting to see them perched up high in the trees in their twiggy nests. Every now and then they stretch those loooooonnnnggg legs and have a bit of a soar about and a bit of a croak, but when I saw them yesterday, they were all standing on a little spit of land just before the railway bridge......

......I counted over twenty of them altogether - never seen so many herons in one place.


I was accompanied on my walk today (well, part of it) by the barge Vaya con Dios (Go with God) - carrying coal in the direction of Trier, then either onto France or along the River Saar. We haven't seen our ol' friend Eiltank 47 for a long time now - I'll have to check on the whereabouts of Merlijn as well, now that everywhere's waking up again. Here she is turning the curve at Bremm, by the Calmont Slope - the afforementioned Kloster Stuben is just behind the trees on the Riverbank.

H says that he would love to be a Barge Captain and I must admit that I see the attraction of it meself, traveling the waterways of Europe, seeing different places at different times of the year. Wilbur would love it too, I imagine, with his ol' friend Frankie curled up tight in the cabin on cold and windy days and hunting iridescent flying fishes leaping from the bows when the sun was shining.....


So, soon.
Tschüss!

A New Painting - And Saint Fridolin's Day

Hello Again Everybody,


Spring seems to be arriving in the Moseltal - the Sun has been shining, the buds are thinking of bursting forth, the vitners are pruning and the Hoteliers and Restauranteurs are opening up the shutters of Winter, washing down the Summertime Cafe Spots and giving the umbrellas a good dusting. 


It's also a good time to get my new painting underway - I've had the idea in my head for a while now, but it was getting a bit lonely in there all by itself. I said before that it's going to be a painting of a swan against the 'backdrop' of the Kloster Stuben......

....... The middle picture is one that I did of the aforementioned Stuben last year - so this is going to be a bit of history and a bit of local wildlife mixed together. The Kloster Stuben is a ruined Augustine Abbey and is situated on the opposite bank of the Mosel across from the Calmont Slope - which is the steepest vineyard in Europe and has 'Bremmer Calmont' in big white letters stuck into the ground a bit like the Hollywood sign.


And while we're getting all historical, today - the 6th March - is Saint Fridolin's Day. Fridolin was an Irish Abbot who is said to have founded our village of Eller and has a stained glass window dedicated to him in the local Church of Saint Hilarius.

He is often depicted with a dead body (you can just about see the skull in the photo), because as the story goes, he raised the dead to prove that he had been given land as a gift on which to build his churches.
H's latest novel is about the life of Saint Fridolin when he lived in Eller, so we had Spaghetti Bolognese to celebrate. During his research, H came across an old song, or a poem written in Mosel-Franconian, the local dialect (don't ask). Roughly translated it comes out as the following and is probably best appreciated with a pint of Mosel-Hefe (don't ask about that either).

Holy Fridolin, Holy Fridolin,

We hail you on this day,

The winter it is passed,

 Now Spring is on the way,

The 6^th of March it is your name day,

We celebrate it every year,

On this day we prune the grapes,

For the harvest soon to come,

Happy in our task for winter is now done.

But we remember daily,

that you gave to us this home,

In Holy Hilarius' church,

We chant thy holy name.

Then to St Rochas' chapel go,

And a votive candle light,

That burns all through the special day

and deep into the night.

So, Soon,
Tschüss!