Well, halo there... #960

Figures on the former portal of seminary of the Order of St Augustine in the eponymous road.

Interesting to see that they named the order after the road.

(Thinks: Maybe it was the other way round...?)

Where there's a Will...- #959

...there's a Miguel.

Both Will Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died on 23 April.

It all gets a bit confusing, because one was Gregorian and the other Julian (calendar-wise) , but what's IMPORTANT is that in return for getting red roses from their admirers on said 23 April, sundry señoritas returned the favour with a book.
(Which wasn't what the admirers were hoping for, but that's another story...)

Hence World Book Day.

Take:

10000 school classes
who illustrate
175000 book covers 
which are then laminated and strung over
39.1 km (which is a world record)
in the park next to Am Römerwall with
3000 kids
in attendance along with various
Local heroes
such as 
Monica Ivancan
whom I've never heard of and
Andreas Ivanschitz
who I HAVE heard of - he plays for Mainz 05 - which is where
Klaus Hafner
does the stadium announcements.

They reminded me so much of the strings of tied prayer notes that I saw in Kyoto years ago.

All lies! - #958

Crikey, was this tourist guide chappy spinning some yarns!

Talk about inventive!

And they BELIEVED him too!

I was about to leap in and put him straight, but other people had different ideas.

(I still think they would have wanted to know about the woman architect....)

Pot and Plants - #957

My mate Frank the Potter and his wife, Mrs jb's girlfriend, Ingrid put on their Pots and Plants Spring Show in their garden at the weekend.

Perfect weather, nice customers, loads of willing helpers, coffee and cake and a good restaurant just around the corner with wheat beer on draught.

And someone to drive me home.....

Through any window - #956

Ornamental cherry (prunus avanacluia) at the top of its game outide the kitchen window.

(And yes, the heart was MY idea. Yeah right...)

Shameless commercialism: here's my mate Wisely with a song that's exceptionally appropriate for the image.

Go, Willy!

They're back - #955

At the top end of the Augustinerstrasse.

I wrote to a friend when the European airspace was closed down that it wouldn't take long for it to become very apparent how aviation is one of the "glues" that holds modern commerce together in exactly the way that the railways did in America in the 19th century

The journalists at the local rag (females, mostly) have no idea about this. They merely bemoaned the fact that mangoes and pineapples wouldn't be available in the shops and - shock! horror! - flowers were perishing in the heat of East Africa.

And that family tragedies were unfolding before our very EYES, with postponed weddings and god knows what other earth-shattering catastrophes.

Few reported the fact that 40% (by value) of Germany's exports are airfreighted and that a spare part worth €5000 that doesn't get to a shut down production line will cost millions.

And - shock! horror! again - Mercedes, Audi, Opel and BMW all ground to a halt within 4 days.

Yes, men know what they're talking about, but that seems to be a common male trait, don't you think?! (Not looking at anyone in particular...)

Odile et Lieschen - #954

 

There are experts.

And then there are EXPERTS.

Writ large.

Odile Landragin and Sibylle Kallwei at the Oppenheim Plant Fair last Sunday, purveying all sorts of temptingly good herbs and aromatics that you won't find elsewhere.

Well, maybe in our garden....

Down the road..... - #953

...and around the block.

After this trip (involving this near malheur), I figured I deserved a treat.

Tiramisu and lemon

Especially seeing that I'd just burned 589 calories.

I was a tad surprised to note that the folks behind the counter weren't enjoying their Sunday as much as the rest of us were.

I suggested that they cheer up and enjoy the weather.

I can't print their response.

NSFW.

There is a difference - #952

Top:  iPhone 3GS
Bottom: Panasonic FX60

Yep, there is a difference.

But not much...

(This is my first non-Nikon camera since 1978. It feels a bit strange...)

And then there's green, of course.. -#951

Tends not to get the feminine hormones in quite such an uproar as the white stuff....

Blue - #950

For someone who used to look at an aircraft that flew over the house and work out how much revenue that particular flight would generate  for the company("€7.50 Weight & Balance, 350 passengers times €0.16 Inventory, 320 passengers times €1.20 DCS makes .....around €450, KaCHING"), it's been rather pleasant to sit outside and watch a trio of gliders chasing thermals and hearing.....NOTHING.

Of course, the fact that Eyjafjallajokull's stuffed my Scottish vacation is neither here nor there.

Definitely not there.....

He's back - #949

 

Carl Wenning is a sly bugger.

He's got a crafty glint in his eye and I know why.

He's back on the market in Mainz, dressed like a gentleman farmer (in real life, he's an architect and engineer)  with his excellent extra virgin (HT to Leif) olive oil from the 220 olive trees that are as old as the hills, if not Methuselah and are probably mentioned in the Old Testament.

He's developed this air of scarcity by only fronting up 4 times a year and spinning this yarn about the 220 olive trees wuggawuggawugga and the gullibles like me swallow it hook line and sinker.

You can't say that he's extravagantly expensive at €23 a litre, either.

But if you read the small print, it now says that the demand from the tribe that he's built up means that his limited production gets sucked up before the year's over.

"But the oil from Pepe, Mirko, Ilvo and the other neighbours is of the same variety and just as good"

He's not actually saying that he's blending theirs with his.

Just implying it.

Crafty old sod

It's back - #948

This isn't the VERY first asparagus of the season (Chilean asparagus - with a carbon footprint this size of Shanghai - has been sighted plus the usual Italian/Spanish invasion) but it's claimed to be

a) local (which I believe, because it's from the folks on the market)

and

b) hasn't been helped along with plastic covers (to which I'd say "Okaaaaaay...", but not be quite convinced, because no-one else is harvesting yet)

I'm waiting for Lydia Bugner....

There ARE alternatives - #947

The catastrophic absence of decent coffee on the market last week made me aware of an urgent need for contingency planning.

This place isn't bad - Die Mainzer Kaffemanufaktur has been around since 1926, roasting small batches of coffee and selling it to people other than me.

They've recently moved in to what used to be Cafe Bachmann, one of those classic Mainz "Granny Cafes" where you have to be an OAP to get in and have to fight your way past the display of opulent cream gateaux to your table.

The grannies are still there (I think I was the youngest customer by a couple of years and I STILL don't think that I fit their demographic) as are the gateaux, but you can sit at the bar just like in Italy and their doppio has an excellent crema and loads of grunt, so we're set up if the machina at Moguntia throws another wobbly.

Of course, you don't get the scintillating conversation and repartee that adds so much to the enjoyment at Moguntia, but you can't have everything....

Late night shopping - #946

Not absolutely jam-packed, eh?

Shopping hours are fairly liberal after decades (centuries..?) of an appalling service ethic.

Want to buy something on Wednesday afternoon in the village?

No.

(And this can still happen to you in Gonso)

Want to go shopping on Saturday afternoon?

No.

These days, though, supermarkets open at 8am and generally close at 8pm, Monday through Saturday.

Big-box "Home Depot"-type places tend to open at 7am and some hypermarkets stay open until 10pm.

I have no idea why - just us and the slaves restocking the shelves at shortly after 9 the other evening.

(Popped in to buy Mrs jb some new cleaning cloths for her birthday)

And yes, the country IS closed on Sundays

Too good to miss - #945

I had LOADS more photographs from Not the Nelson Daily Photo than I could have used before I had to come to terms with reality (and geography) and get MDP back on the rails.

Ben's image today, though, made me dig deep for this one - toetoe fronds under a canopy of Eucalyptus on the edge of the Waimea Estuary

Got milk? -#944

The discount chains (Aldi, Lidl et al) in Germany have over 50% of the grocery market and they pretty much set the market price for commodities.

Milk, for example.

A litre of low fat (1.5%) milk retails for €0.48 at Aldi. (3.5% organic goes for €0.89.)

Farmers get....?

€0.27 a litre with 4.3% fat content.

They reckon it costs €0.40 to produce and the only reason they're not starving or being forced to sell the Mercedes is because they're subsidised like crazy.

(Not enough, of course...)

Some milk factories and co-ops, though, have come up with a smart idea:

Instead of wailing and moaning (OK, they're doing THAT too....) they've created a premium brand called "Bauernmilch" ("Milk from the farmyard") with evocative packaging, retro typeface and a good price point (€0.99) that they're marketing through selected supermarkets, with a big chunk of the revenue going straight to the farmers.

I'll buy it.

I mean, I wouldn't want Mercedes to go down the gurgler just because the farmers can't afford to buy their cars, now would I...?

Heinrichs - #943

Mrs jb's mumble-mumble birthday yesterday, so we rocked on over to "Heinrichs - Die Wirtschaft" to commiserate celebrate.

"Heinrich" is Wilfried Heinrich Nestle (no, not a scion of the chocolate mob..) who started his career in Mainz, cooked at Hiltons in London and Paris and came back to the top of the Gaustrasse to open his own restaurant.

And a "Wirtschaft" is a pub.

Which is what the place used to be, right down to the window for street sales of beer from the local (as in "almost next door") brewery.

They've kept the place original, taken the panelling back to its rich honey colour and scrubbed decades of grime from the tiled floors.

Simple, imaginative, exceptionally well-cooked food, an excellent wine list (and most wines by the glass), 3 standard main courses, 4 that change daily and good service

It's the sort of place you'd love to go to on the spur of the moment.

Spur of the moment?

More like "book a week in advance"

New spuds on the block - #942

That there dirt's all the way from Cyprus.

I'd be a bit worried if I were a Cypriot, in fact.

The place has to be getting levelled out over time, what with the great lumps of soil attaching themselves to potatoes and then getting exported.

And the icecaps are melting, meaning that the seas are rising.

At some stage, it'll all meet in the middle, Cyprus will sink and we'll have to wait a couple of months longer for new potatoes....

Spring is sprung - #941

Correction: was sprung.

6ºC, down from 18ºC yesterday.

Major advantages: Stops Nature blasting off on a time-lapse version of the seasons.

Major disadvantages: Makes me wear shoes again.


Image: iPhone 3GS

Oh dear.....#940

Well, you'd look depressed too if you'd got up at stupid o'clock, put on your best shirt and rocked on down to the market in Mainz, only for the van to break down on the way and THEN for the espresso machine to become incontinent at the tombez d'un chapeau.

"I can hear it now" he said " When Brigitte (his wife, who's away for the weekend) gets back, it'll be "Well, couldn't you have fixed it? Why did you break it in the FIRST place? It wouldn't have happened if I'D been there, I'm sure..."

"And it's a Saturday AND the sun's shining AND everyone wants a coffee. AND I'm hoarse from telling everyone...."

There are other places (I won't honour them with the title of "alternatives"...) where you can get coffee, but I really WAS looking forward to a good solid doppio this morning

Heidi the honey honey - #939

Heidi and Thomas Rabold are apiarists. (He's an engineer in real life, buzzing around in his spare time, shifting hives around to where they're needed. Finthen for apricots this weekend)

Met them through Frank the Potter and their sales stand at their Pots and Plants day (end of the month) and the Studio Market in autumn/Fall.

Plus she's on the Friday Farmers' Market in Bad-Kreuznach, so this is definitely NQM.

So what?


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Location:Mannheimer Straße,Bad Kreuznach,Germany

Easter Bunny? - #938

Don't think so.

Looks a bit hare-raising to me.....

Sculpture: Andreas Hinder

Poor Andreas - #937

You really have to feel sorry for St. Andreas, the patron saint of the RC church in Klaawinnerum.

All he REALLY wants to do is to sit on his perch in front of the church and gaze across the town square at the town hall.

And what do they do?

Drape him with garlands of plastic Easter eggs, poor sod....

Stick with me - #936

Why is it that pollarded trees (planes, I think. They don't look very fancy, anyway...)  remind me of ET.

Or someone who's had an argument with a circular saw.

Or stick insects.

First REALLY decent day of spring.

That doppio at Caffea Moguntea on the market was even choicerer than usual....

And while we're on the subject of eggs......#935

Monika Debus is one of Germany's most recognised and leading ceramicists of her generation.

I fulfilled a long-harboured wish today by buying one of her major (as in "a couple of months' pension major") pieces.

She also makes egg cups.

Just as impressive.

A bit smaller, though......

Location:Kasinostraße,Höhr-Grenzhausen,Germany

To dye for - #934

All heathen stuff, of course - the Zorastrians have been Nowroozing with painted eggs for over 2500 years, but still good fun.

You can get all sorts of petrochemical stuff to colour your Easter eggs, but we (eco-friendly to the core) use natural colourings, gathered by virgins at full moon according to traditions that have been passed down through 100s of generations.

Then you "titch" them, which involves tapping them tip to tip to see which one breaks first and then repeating it with the other end.

(Don't ask me, OK?)

Then you eat them.

True story:

Once bought some psychedelic egg salad from a delicatessen (now defunct) in Gonso.

Pointed out that Easter was long gone (about 4 weeks at that stage) and the green, blue and yellow tinges didn't actually indicate freshness....

What a mess - #933

 

This is the aftermath of a haute couture session involving Mrs jb, Christa G and my credit card.

I'm always getting yelled at for leaving stuff lying around the place (why, for example, can't I leave the lawnmower in the driveway if I'm mowing again next week...?).

This appears to be OK, though....

Not the Monthly Theme Day - Green - #932

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday aka Gründonnerstag (Green Thursday), Skärtorsdag (HT to Leif) and sundry other names.

The "green" bit could come from the medieval wearing of green vestments or the fact that nuns in Freckenhorst traditionally consumed herb pancakes on that day (so sayeth the Grimm Brothers' dictionary from 1852, anyway.)

And then there's Pesach, of course, and the Seder which requires the drinking of 4 cups of wine (I like that bit...) and eating Maror (green herbs, Romaine lettuce, green onions).

Purely coincidentally, we had Grüner Sosse yesterday with hard-boiled eggs and new (from Italy) spuds, parboiled and then lightly crisped with coarsely ground black pepper in olive oil.

Rather nice.

Although next year, I'm definitely stealing bits of the Pesach.

The 4 cups of wine, fr'instance....

(And I still can't get over what good images the iPhone spits out with apparent ease)

Monthly Theme Day - Red - #931

"You could have told me you were a haemophiliac BEFORE I pricked your ear for the haemoglobin test" she said.

"Just KEEP PRESSING the cotton wool to your ear"

Blood Transfusion Centre, University Clinic, Mainz

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