Bleiben - mein Norden

 .

Wintermärchen

Auf dem Baum vor meinem Fenster
Saß im rauhen Winterhauch
Eine Drossel, und ich fragte:
»Warum wanderst du nicht auch?

Warum bleibst du, wenn die Stürme
Brausen über Flur und Feld,
Da dir winkt im fernen Süden
Eine sonnenschöne Welt?«

Antwort gab sie leisen Tones:
»Weil ich nicht wie andre bin,
die mit Zeiten und Geschicken
Wechseln ihren leichten Sinn.

Die da wandern nach der Sonne
Ruhelos von Land zu Land,
Haben nie das stille Leuchten
In der eignen Brust gekannt.

Mir erglüht's mit ew'gem Strahle
– Ob auch Nacht auf Erden zieht –,
sing' ich unter Flockenschauern
Einsam ein erträumtes Lied.

Wundersamer Trost der Schmerzen!
Doch nur jene kennen ihn,
Die in Nacht und Sturm beharren
Und vor keinem Winter fliehn.

Dir auch leuchtet hell das Auge;
Deine Wange zwar ist bleich;
Doch es schaut der Blick nach innen
In das ew'ge Sonnenreich.

Laß uns hier gemeinsam wohnen,
Und ein Lied von Zeit zu Zeit
Singen wir von dürrem Aste
Jenem Glanz der Ewigkeit.

Otto Ernst, 1862 - 1926

Genießt die letzten Tages dieses eigenartigen Jahres, wo immer Ihr es könnt. Ich möchte jedem einzelnen von Euch danken für all die Treue, Aufmerksamkeit und Zuwendung in den vergangenen 12 Jahren hier in meinem Foto- und Gedichteblog. Ich kann die Zahl kaum selbst glauben und es ist mir Heimat und Erinnerungsstätte geworden, vor allem aber der Beginn vielen großartiger Freundschaften. 

Ich wünsche Euch von Herzen einen guten Start in ein positives 2021

---*---

Enjoy the last days of this strange year wherever you can. I would like to thank each and every one of you for all your loyalty, attention, and care over the past 12 years here in my photo and poetry blog. I can hardly believe the number myself and it has become my home and memory but above all the beginning of many great friendships.

I sincerely wish you a good start into a positive 2021

Ever yours,

Isabella

Our World Tuesday  - Skywatch Friday -  Image-in-Ing - Through my Lens No. 272 

.

.

The Mind of Winter - My North

.

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Wallace Stevens - 1954





Our World Tuesday - 






.

Christmas Thoughts - Kurrenden Singers

.

Carol-singing goes back to the late Middle Ages. Even Martin Luther was a caroller! The German phrase is Kurrende, which says as much as those who walk around. In the old days, children went around their home places to bring people comfort and joy. They did so in Advent and at Christmas as well as at christening and wedding ceremonies, and at funerals. Toy-makers in the Ore Mountains, East Germany has come out with wooden Kurrende articles, which have made the tradition well-known all over the world.

Being a member of a Kurrende chorus is seen as a great honor. At the same time, of course, it means members are very busy, especially in Advent: They sing at five Advent concerts in our church, after which they go round to take the Christmas message to every home. They are also part of four Advent morning services and on Christmas Eve, they join our traditional lantern parade. In addition, they stage concerts in our Christmas markets. What we should not forget: Their number-one daily activity is school! Anyway, dear boys and girls, you are there, in any weather. 

Es kommt ein Schiff,

geladen bis an sein' höchsten Bord,

trägt Gottes Sohn voll Gnaden,

des Vaters ewig's Wort.

Das Schiff geht still im Triebe,

es trägt ein’ teure Last;

das Segel ist die Liebe,

der Heilig’ Geist der Mast.

Der Anker haft' auf Erden,

da ist das Schiff am Land.

Das Wort tut Fleisch uns werden,

der Sohn ist uns gesandt.

Zu Bethlehem geboren

im Stall ein Kindelein,

gibt sich für uns verloren;

gelobet muß es sein.

....

  (The Advent chorale "Es kommt ein Schiff geladen" is not only one of the most famous Advent Christmas carols, but also one of the oldest. early 15th Century)

Wishing you a wonderful 3rd Advent! Today we light the third candle on our Advent wreath. 

Sincerely yours, 
Isabella

Our World Tuesday - Image-in-Ing - Through my Lens No. 269  - Wordless Wednesday

.

Die Christrose - Christmas Thoughts

.

Die Christrose 

In der schweigenden Welt,

Die der Winter umfangen hält,

Hebt sie einsam ihr weißes Haupt;

Selber geht sie dahin und schwindet

Eh’ der Lenz kommt und sie findet,

Aber sie hat ihn doch verkündet,

Als noch keiner an ihn geglaubt.

Johannes Trojan (1837 - 1915)

Floral Friday - Image-in-Ing- Through my Lens No. 268 - Our World Tuesday - The Garden Affair 

.

Christmas Thoughts - Holiday Traditions

.

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirits in jars and open a jar of it every month.

- Harlan Miller

The Advent wreath with four lights, for each Sunday before Christmas, a light more, is an important part of German Christmas. Traditional families gather around the wreath on each Advent Sunday to light the next candle and sing Christmas carols. This was even more important in the past when the Christmas tree was usually reserved for a special unveiling only on Christmas Eve. Until then, the Advent wreath provided the evergreen look and aroma in the house.

Ich wünsche Euch eine wunderschöne, harmonische Adventszeit.


herzlichst Isabella

Our World Tuesday - Wordless Wednesday  - Image-in-Ing 

.

Southern Corners No. 18 - November beach Calella de Palafrugell

 .

To escape and sit quietly on the beach —
that’s my idea of paradise.

  

  Emilia Wickstead 

Skywatch Friday - Our World Tuesday - Image-in-Ing - Through My Lens No. 266 - Travel Tuesday 

.

November Garden Moments

 .

AUTUMNAL

Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
Seems little, dear! on days like these.

Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time's deceit.

Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.

Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees.

― Ernest Dowson, The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson

My Corner of the World - AWW Monday - Our World Tuesday  - Floral Friday - 

.

November's Yellow - My North

 .

"The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July."

Henry David Thoreau

Our World Tuesday - My Corner of the World - Image-in-Ing - Through my Lens No. 264

Great Avenue Royal Garden of Herrenhausen, Hannover with 3 parallels alleys. 

.

Wiener Ansichten

 .

Ich muß den Ästheten eine niederschmetternde Mitteilung machen:
Alt-Wien war einmal neu.

Karl Kraus, 1874 - 1936

Skywatch Friday - Our World Tuesday - Travel Tuesday - Through my Lens No. 263 - Image-in-Ing 

.

Erinnerungen

.

Es gibt Erinnerungen, die so golden sind, 

daß sie auch der ärmsten Gegenwart noch ihren Schimmer leihen.

Arthur Stahl, 1830 - 1876

our world tuesday - image-in-ing - floral friday - wordless wednesday 

.

Girona und Rilke - Erinnerung - Southern Corners 17

 .

Erinnerung

Und du wartest, erwartest das Eine,
das dein Leben unendlich vermehrt;
das Mächtige, Ungemeine,
das Erwachen der Steine,
Tiefen, dir zugekehrt.

Es dämmern im Bücherständer
die Bände in Gold und Braun;
und du denkst an durchfahrene Länder,
an Bilder, an die Gewänder

wiederverlorener Fraun.
Und da weißt du auf einmal: das war es.
Du erhebst dich, und vor dir steht
eines vergangenen Jahres

Angst und Gestalt und Gebet.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875 - 1926

Our World Tuesday - Skywatch Friday - Through my Lens 261 - Image-in-Ing - Travel Tuesday 

.

My North - A place I call home

 .

What is home if not that 'little corner of the earth' where the poet listened to the heartbeat of nature during his youth? One week ago I have visited this idyllic corner of Lower Saxony, where I was born and the beauty of nature all around there took my breath away. 

How brightly glistening in the sun

The woodland ivy plays!

While yonder beeches from their barks

Reflect his silver rays.

That sun surveys a lovely scene

From softly smiling skies;

And wildly through unnumbered trees

The wind of winter sighs:

Now loud, it thunders o'er my head,

And now in distance dies.

But give me back my barren hills

Where colder breezes rise;

Where scarce the scattered, stunted trees

Can yield an answering swell,

But where a wilderness of heath

Returns the sound as well.

For yonder garden, fair and wide,

With groves of evergreen,

Long winding walks, and borders trim,

And velvet lawns between;

Restore to me that little spot,

With grey walls compassed round,

Where knotted grass neglected lies,

And weeds usurp the ground.

Though all around this mansion high

Invites the foot to roam,

And though its halls are fair within --

Oh, give me back my HOME!

by Anne Bronté

Skywatch Friday - Our World Tuesday - My Corner of the World - Through my Lens 260 - Image-in-Ink

.

Autumn Garden

 .

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil.  And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November."

-   Rose G. Kingsley

Our World Tuesday - Image-in-Ing - Wordless Wednesday - My Corner of the World - Floral Friday - Garden Affairs 

.

Willkommen Herbst!

 

Herbst

Nun kommen die letzten klaren Tage

Einer müderen Sonne.

Bunttaumelnde Pracht,

Blatt bei Blatt.

So heimisch raschelt

Der Fuß durchs Laub.

O du liebes, weitstilles Farbenlied!

Du zarte, umrißreine Wonne!

Komm!

Ein letztes Sonnenblickchen

Wärmt unser Heim.

Da wollen wir sitzen,

Still im Stillen,

Und in die müden Abendfarben sehn.

Da wollen wir beieinander sitzen

In Herbstmonddämmer hinein

Und leise

Verlorene Worte plaudern.

Johannes Schlaf, 1892 - 1941

Very suddenly Summer is gone and the temperatures are as low as at the end of October. Yes, we were spoiled by the last few years, now it's almost like it used to be. Wish you all a wonderful Autumn, please stay safe and healthy. 

Isabella 

Skywatch Friday - Our World Tuesday - My Corner of the World - Through my Lens 258 - Image-in-Ink 

.

My North - and then...

 “...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” 

― Vincent Willem van Gogh

We have discovered this magical place on our last day trip into the Harz Mountains region nearby. These photos are taken with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic App and I love how it shows the fairytale mood at this place and hope you like it too. 

Our World Tuesday - My Corner of the World - Image-in-Ing 

.

Reichtum

.

Wie unendlich groß ist das Reich der Formen; 

was gibt es da noch auszubeuten und zu tun auf Jahrhunderte lang. 

Robert Schumann 

Our World Tuesday - Floral Friday - My Corner of the World - Image-in-Ink - Wordless Wednesday

- Jaipur Garden

.

only the song of the cicadas

.

“There's a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” 

― G.K. Chesterton

Traveling without fear, only to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere and fill up the empty spaces inside, I hope that the next year will bring back this to us all over the world. These lovely impressions were taken 2015 at one of my all-time love spot - Porquerolles. A magical place in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 

Our World Tuesday - Wordless Wednesday - Skywatch Friday - 

Travel-Tuesday - Image-in-Ing - Through my Lens No. 255 - AWWW-Monday

.

My North - Beach Rules

.

 “Beach Rules:
Soak up the sun.
Ride the waves.
Breathe the salty air.
Feel the breeze.
Build sandcastles.
Rest, relax, reflect.
Collect seashells.
Bare-feet required.”

- Unknown

I miss the sea very much this year. But the real risk is too high. The images above are taken in 2018 during a short break at St. Peter-Ording, North Sea.




Our World Tuesday - My Corner of the World - Wordless Wednesday - Skywatch Friday - Travel-Tuesday - Image-in-Ing - Through my Lens No. 254 - AWWW-Monday

Mein Norden - Warum in die Ferne schweifen...

.

Warum in die Ferne schweifen, wenn das Gute liegt so nah!

Tagesausflug Harzer Berge, Okertalsperre und Goslar. Urlaub zu Hause ist wundervoll!!
_____

Day trip to the Harz Mountains, Okertalsperre and Goslar. Vacation at home is wonderful !!

Our World Tuesday - My Corner of the World - Wordless Wednesday - Skywatch Friday - Travel-Tuesday - Image-in-Ing - Through my Lens No. 253 - AWWW-Monday 

.