Autumn Weekends /Herbstwochenenden

Die Straße hinter mir/the street behind my apartment house in Fall color
Here you see a little of my car on the lower right/Ein Zipfel von meinem Auto rechts
Hier verläuft die Grenze zwischen Stadt und Vorstadt/the city opens up a little here
The view from my east balcony in the Fall/Aussicht vom Balkon vorne im Herbst
Two wonderful weekends past and future: The past weekend I was invited to Oliver and Catharina’s for a French evening. Since she grew up in Paris, the meal was matchless; several courses and wine to accompany each dish. Then fresh cheeses and finally a fruit tart with meringue to close the meal. After the evening was over, I realized the three of us had finished off three bottles of white wine – one per person. I hadn’t noticed, since the meal was so superb. Saturday evening had me in the festive hall of the Leipzig Old City Hall (Old means from the 15th century) for a concert of the New Bach Collegium Musicum Leipzig. They performed several of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, considered watershed pieces for establishing conventions of music. This orchestra performs standing; there are no chairs, and the musicians sway and bend with the music, so it is almost like watching a dance as you listen. Georg Philip Telemann founded the Collegium Musicum in 1701, and J.S. Bach continued it, and this group often performed under Bach in the very hall in which we experienced this concert on Saturday. What a matchless opportunity!
On Friday I leave for Prague for an extended weekend, since Oct. 31 is a holiday – Reformation Day – and I am taking Monday off. Prague is a unique city, and four days is only enough to whet the appetite. So many castles, churches, museums, art nouveau cafes, clubs, bars, shops, and cozy narrow European streets. On Monday evening I will hear a live concert of jazz flutist Jiri Stivins at the club Agartha in Prague. I will also have a Czech beer in Café Café, a club where Johnny Depp and Bruce Willis have also relaxed. And all of this is happening during a beautiful autumn. We are having mild weather, and the leaves are turning beautiful colors now, so Prague will be a painter’s landscape this weekend.
For those now celebrating Reformation Day, but trick or treating, be safe and do not eat too much candy! I’ll think of you while I enjoy Czech beer, wine, and coffee surrounded by art nouveau…

More Autumn Splendour/ Noch etwas Herbstpracht

Two young daddies help their kids with Stockbrot and the adults toast.../Zwei vorbildliche Väter geben Ratschläge zum Stockbrotbacken.. und die anderen heben die Flaschen...
A critical assessment of the taste/der Geschmack wird kritisch überprüft, während die Erwachsenen bloß zugucken...
Smoke gets in your eyes...? Räucheraugen?
Lets dance /Aufforderung zum Tanz
Die Brücke in der Johanna Park - in herbstlicher Pracht
Finally - blogger is in the mood to upload photos, so here are the childred roasting "Stockbrot" at the fire, while the adults enjoy good German beer, red wine, or Federweisser (a fresh white wine just bottled and still undergoing fermentation). Finally, at the bottom, a beautiful view of the tallest buildings in Leipzig's city centre with a beautiful wooden bridge in the park. This is also a Fall photo from mid-October.

Autumn Splendour/ Herbstpracht

The Fall Festival at Sasha and Melanie's place
Lots of meat for meat eaters...
The view of fog from my living room door
My foggy street seen from my bedroom
A pavillion in a Leipzig park in the Fall
Light and shadow playing at a bridge
A red tree - how beautiful
Wonderful – such inspiring scenery this time of year. Fog and waning sunlight brings new paintings to light every day in autumn in Central Europe. The colour of the leaves deepen and change often, and hues of blue, grey, and gold frame the landscape. Enjoy these fotos with me as you walk through the streets and gardens of Leipzig.
Saturday – yesterday- evening was the Fall Festival at Melanie and Sasha’s place, so I had my camera along to catch the fun. The children love Stockbrot – bread on a stick that they “bake” over an open fire. We celebrated from 5 pm. Until almost 1 am. Unfortunately blogger refuses to upload any more fotos at the moment, so I can't give you two fotos of the children roasting bread on a stick. So sorry.
Herrlich – der Herbst liefert immer gute Kulissen für Gemälde um diese Jahreszeit. Nebel und die zur Neige gehende Sonne offenbart neue Kunstwerke täglich. Die Blätter ändern sich ständig, und Schattierungen von grau, blau, und gold umrahmen die Landschaft. Mögen eure Augen diese Fotos so geniessen wie sie in Wirklichkeit schön sind.
Sonnabend war Herbstfest bei Melanie und Sascha. Die Kinder lieben Stockbrot. Wir haben von 18 Uhr bis 1 Uhr gefeiert.
I hope your weekend was also colourful and festive.

Castle Concert, Handball and Eating in Bed...

Here we are ready to go in for the game on October 3
Leipzig (Yellow) beat Nürnberg
Now we're in Sol y Mar "eating in bed" as it were...
We needed two beds - psychiatry people are like that...

Steve and Marita in the castle garden at the Gohlis Schlößchen
Steve and I in the garden (Steve is sporting his new purchase from Karstadt - a heavy coat much too warm for the weather on that day).
How does Autumn approach in central Europe? You slowely migrate inside, and take on indoor activities. The beginning of October has demonstrated this. Tuesday last week, a holiday in Germany, Day of German Unity, gave the chance to watch ladies’ handball in Leipzig. Leipzig played against Nuremburg and won (!). I and my friends from psychiatry went to the game, and afterwards we went to Sol y Mar, I unique restaurant. When you call to reserve there, they ask you, “for sitting or for lying?” Sol y Mar has very big beds with lots of pillows, so you can lie and dine on tables in the middle of the bed. Of course, you can also dine traditionally at rattan tables and sit on rattan chairs. Since we were seven, we needed two beds for all of us. (Must have room to negotiate…) New age music plays in the background, and candles cast flickers shadows as they illuminate the palm trees dispersed throughout this minimalist restaurant.
This past weekend was a glorious autumn present, with sunshine and mild fall temperatures. Steve and Marita, my dear friends from Pirna, came for the weekend, and on Saturday we devoted the afternoon to the grand opening of Karstadt, the major German department store which has an 8 story huge store now in Leipzig. Sat. evening we dined at a street restaurant in the Barfussgässchen, a famous street in the city centre, then went to the movies (“the Perfume” was our choice, and we liked it). Sunday we were at a baroque castle in Gohlis to the north of Leipzig for a piano concert. Haydn, Beethoven, Satie, and Chopin were performed, and we made these charming photos in the castle gardens. Notice the quality of the sunlight in the middle of the afternoon in the photos. The sun is lower and weaker now, so it doesn’t get any brighter than this right now, and it will only get weaker until December 21, when the days start getting longer. It was a wonderful weekend and the conclusion of a wonderful week. My mother is doing better, so that was more than the icing on the cake (oder das Sahnehäubchen auf Deutsch). Thanks for remembering my mother.

au revoir lake!

Entering the forest, you ride through this treescape/Einfahrt in den Wald
Einige Birken winken freundlich/a few birch trees wave friendly...
Over the river /über den Fluss
Eine niedliche Brücke / a cute pedestrian bridge
Getting closer to the lake now
Finally I've arrived/ Endlich am See angekommen
Some of the last braver sunworshipers
The view to the south toward Markkleeberg
Autumn is arriving in eastern Germany, sort of, that is. The last weekend in September I went to my lake for the last time this year. They sun is getting weaker by the day, and the water is getting much cooler. At this latitude you understand why the ancient Europeans worshiped the sun as a deity: the sun moves radically across the sky from above you in the summer to low over the southern horizon in the winter, and the sunlight has a different quality. Now it is a soft golden light you never see in Texas, because we are too far south.
For my last trip to the lake I took my digital camera along for some farewell photos for this year. Here you see the view of the lake and the path I take on my bike to get there, all in all about 10 minutes by bike from my apartment. It is so peaceful to lie in the sun, go swimming, and then just read for several hours. Oh, Aggie, concerning drinking customs, water is standard, of course, but many also bring along good German beer to drink. Since alcohol is a diuretic, I avoid it at the lake. If the temperature isn’t too high, I bring coffee along and have afternoon coffee on the lake. In the heat I only drink water and eat fresh fruit and maybe some walnuts.
Now concerning my last two weeks: it has been busy. I’ve translated subtitles for a documentary film on schizophrenia. Sunday I was in a concert in a small baroque castle in north Leipzig; solo piano playing Mozart and Liszt. Today, Tuesday, is a federal holiday in Germany, day of German unity, so I have time to blog (!).
Finally, I got a call from my mother last week. She told me she was home from the hospital now. Of course, I knew nothing about anything. It seems she was having very irregular heart beats (atrial fibrillation), so she spent several days in ICU and then two days in a normal hospital room. As of today she’s been home for a whole week, and she is slowly getting better, but she has a big variety of medication to take every day. This is harrowing, of course, since over here on the other side of the world I can’t do much for her other than call her every day. Thankfully my brother is there, so that helps, but I still know the moral imperative on me to do my part. Looks like my next visit to Texas may be filled with much work in her home. What do you listen to in such situations? Right now it’s the violin concerto of Tschaikovsky in a CD of the London Symphony Orchestra with Vadim Repin on the violin. It’s Erato CD # 4509-98537-2, and I recommend it. Please think about me as you listen.