Linen dish cloths

I started collecting monogramed old/antique dish cloths almost as soon as I arrived here in Germany.  But some are more special than others.

This is from Dora Wichmann Menke, Werner's aunt.  She was born in 1903 and would have finished embroidering all of her monogramed linens before she married about 1924.The last time we visited her son-in-law (now 85+) he gave me two of her cloths.  They're pretty simply stitched, but nicely done. (I also have a pair of her pillowcases with intricate white work on hand-loomed linen. but those were not for everyday use.)

The other day I had to do a little rearranging and ran across these and thought, Why not use them?  THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN USED, not since about 1920-ish, close to 100 years.  Never been washed. Never been used. Can you imagine?

And we discovered, they don't dry well before being washed!

What's more amazing is that there are probably another 100 or more cloths in her linen cupboard that have never been used, plus several rolls of home-loomed linen.  A century ago, farmer's daughters prepared not only for a lifetime but well beyond.  Thank you, Tante Dora.

Icons

It's the title of the current exhibit at the Kunsthalle (art museum).  We took a day and wandered into the city and played art connoisseur.

Frankly, it's the most interesting exhibit I've seen at the Kunsthalle, though it may not be the most ambitious.  Hard for me to say.  But we loved it.

They cleared the whole museum of their permanent exhibit, loaned many of the works to the Guggenheim in Bilboa and other European museums, and in each of the emptied gallery rooms, installed one work that could be considered iconic - something that inspired adoration, or worship and of course a following.  Many of course were paintings, but there were sculptures, music, even pop icons on YouTube.

And each room was repainted - and not just neutral off-white but purple, ochre, blue.  Wow.

It was more or less chronological, and of course a traditional icon from Russia started us off.

A number were religious in nature, including this piece.  It's a many-times enlargement of the plastic statues sold by the millions at Lourdes, this one in yellow, though the artist reproduced them in a myriad of colors.  Religious icon transformed into commercial product.

It seemed there were many visitors taking pictures of each and every exhibit. But people were also sitting and contemplating.

Damien Hurst, perhaps most (in)famous for his animals in formaldehyde, was represented by butterflies.

Frankly, I find this equally disturbing as the calf in formaldehyde.  Thousands and thousands of butterfly wings, frozen forever in plastic resin, their iridescence and color mocking the life they once had.  Death is often iconic.

Artists and their art are intertwined, it's hard to say what is more iconic - the person or the work.  Here, dear Vincent.  It's easy to see how the presentation amplified the "icon" and made it worshipful.

Naturally, there were pieces that spoke to me not at all. A lot of framed black.

Playfulness isn't always accepted in artsy circles, and Jeff Koons hasn't found universal agreement with his depictions of the ordinary and ephemeral in permanent form.  But don't we worship the fleeting?

Rothko.  Nothing else needs to be said.

There were 60 works.  We looked at them all, including one where we could lie on the floor in overstuffed beanbags and watch a kaleidoscope-like video with soothing, repetitive music.  Great placement near the end of those 60 works!

So we were done.  We don't usually spend more than two hours at an exhibit, but this visit was over three!  Werner will go back with his art group, I'll go back again with my ladies club, and we're both looking forward to a second look. 

P.S.
Before leaving, there was a necessary stop. Even the Ladies' looks a bit artsy. Don't know about the men's.

Christmas 2019

This was a Christmas for the books, since it was a Christmas that hasn't been on the book before.

We had company!

Kelly Reid landed a position as an English teaching assistant with the Fulbright program and was assigned to Melk, Austria for the school year.  They do speak German there, albeit with a heavy accent,  and they even have different words for the same thing! That gets very confusing for us non-native German speakers.

Anyway, Kelly should not spend Christmas alone.  We invited her here and then Liz announced she was coming with Sean.  Great!  Kelly has company.  Then Liz says: Can we spend Christmas with you?

Of course!  Our first US guests at Christmas after 25 years!!

The crew arrived the evening of December 23.  I had asked Kelly earlier if there was something she'd like to eat, knowing that certain foods are really important to us expats. Yes! she said. Mexican!!  Well, easier said than done, but we done good.  Chicken enchiladas with home made enchilada sauce, home made guac and salsa.  Tacos, too.  Those two, Sean and Kelly, are about as skinny as bean poles, but boy can they put the food away! Not many leftovers around here.

After breakfast the 24th, we headed to the market to pick up the duck breasts for our dinner and the other goodies on the list and looked around our little Christmas market here in Vegesack.

After lunch we took a walk around the harbor, along the river and back to the house - first it was cold and a little drippy, and second, we had to get ready for guests.

I think we forget sometimes just how big this whale jawbone is.

Dinner was pretty easy, actually:  red cabbage, potato dumplings, breast of duck.  I was too busy to take pictures, but it was lovely - and tasty!  Renate supplied the dessert and we sat around the table till late.  Renate and Gerd spent a pile of energy talking the whole evening in English, and we were so grateful.

Ah, Christmas morning.  It's never the same without little kids so anxious to open gifts, but we had a good time.  Pancakes, sausages, bacon and opening a few presents around the Christmas tree you couldn't touch!

Werner had developed an awful cold, so he stayed home and I took the folks to town.  A not bad day:  no rain!! It was cold of course but dry is good.

On the train to town.

We took in the necessary sites: the Windmill in town

The Bremen Town Musicians

The Glockenspiel. We hit that at just the right time to hear the chimes.

Back home, it was time to get ready for more dinner guests, our dear friend Ursel and son Tille from Berlin.  We devoured the cheese fondue and had a lively conversation around the table.  All in all, a memorable Christmas day.

And then the Second Christmas Day as they say in German. We got up pretty early, again, and headed to Hamburg.

First, a visit to the Miniature Wonderland.  And it is!  We were there with Hunter, Hannah and Michelle some years ago.  It's only bigger, and more popular!  We got in as much as we could in an hour plus.

A little walk around to look at the (in)famous concert hall, and then we were off to Ohlendorf for another big meal and more presents at René and Rima's.

Goose, more red cabbage, brussels sprouts and potatoes - the standard feast!  After sharing gifts, we got back in the car to head to Bremen.

We were able to take Liz & Co to the main train station early enough to try and maneuver seats - and they were lucky!  The train was fully booked and no reserved seats were available, but they settled into the dining car and were able to do the same on the second leg of the trip back to Vienna.  Yay!

How nice to have guests - family - for Christmas!  We were so happy to have them here, our guests were great co-hosts, and we're ready for more.