No wonder.... - #1235

... they changed his name to Bacchus.*


Just try saying "Dionysus" when you're ripped.

Waaay too many sullabills sollybulls sabbalabs syllables

*Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy.He was also known as Bacchus  Greek: Βάκχος, Bakkhos), the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents.

Prepare to meet thy Baker - #1234

Or

Proof that you CAN have your cake and eat it too....

Caffea Moguntia - the Tin Shed On Wheels - performs an excellent role in bringing the most disparate people together.

I met Helen of Heliospheric there years ago, I met Bat of 50 Grad there last year and today I met Rute André.

She misguidedly stumbled over MDP back in August last year, at some stage outed herself as an exceptionally skilled ex-pat Portuguese baker-with-a-blog and her most recent effort - Biscuit Joconde Imprime wrapped around an Entremets dessert - looked just too good to be true.

I offered to buy her a coffee if she'd be prepared to front up with something comparably tasty this morning.

So there we were  - drinking Moguntia's excellent coffee in a vain attempt to stay warm in sub-zero temperatures and devouring a quite stunning piece de culinary resistance, surrounded by astounded and envious non-participants.

"Oh, it's EASY" she says, telling Mrs jb how to create the delicate pink vertical stripes in the sponge casing "You just do this and that and then chill it and pour the sponge mix thinly on top and bake it really quickly"

Probably applying some nano-stick wizardry to molecular gastronomy as well, which fits in with the biomineralisation doctorate that she's doing at the Johannes Gutenberg university as part of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme.

Anyone complaining about the "yoof of today"?

Nothing wrong with this one - a real sweetie.

PS Note to self
Invite fishandchips for coffee
Invite Gucki for coffee


Wouldn't want anyone to feel marginalised....

I do like ....... - #1233

...the Schirn art museum in - ahem - Frankfurt.

Not only did they buy me a new iPhone the other year, but their exhibitions are a treat.

Current one is Gustave Courbert, one of the pioneers of social realism.

Plus some free stuff decorating their atrium as part of the Barbara Kruger exhibition.

I DO like free....

Oi! Gimme yer cloak, mate - #1232

Saint Martin gets mugged again...

Snakes....#1231

 

......on everything.[Little Feat 1970 - listen]

Especially on metal containers.

And not only snakes.

This is Sabine, our 165 year old neighbours-from-across-the-road's daughter. 

She's married to a Protestant minister and when she's not doing Good Works and the sort of stuff that ministers' spouses do, she hand-decorates pretty much anything with a lid and sells them at craft markets.

Fire and brimstone - #1230

This goes back to last summer.

Christian Lenz owns and runs a specialist plant nursery in Niederheimbach (AHSAAJ from Mainz) overlooking the Rhine.

He specialises in landscaping, so he's rarely open, but he does have an open day on 1 May plus special events.

This was a special event.

He reckoned that he needed a bell tower in his nursery, so he built that.

But what's a bell tower without a bell?

So he engaged a bell-founder from a local monastery who duly turned up with his team, set up the form, heated the bell metal to the required 870ºC and poured it into the mould.

Great stuff.

Local church choir sang, all of the bells of any church within earshot pealed and a good time was had by all.

Best to stand back, though.

(I learned that when I used to work in the confines of the shot tower at the CAC in Auckland, pouring molten lead to make shotgun pellets)

Sad stuff - #1129

A sad display for potential drinkers at a run-down bar in a run-down part of town

"If you're going....1228

 

....to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

(Just hate that song)

Probably a hibiscus.

Sculpture by the inordinately talented Beate Thiesmeyer.

Just to give you an idea of scale - 5cm (2 inches in pounds and ounces) from chin to the top of her head.

Number 7 - #1127

This one slipped through the cracks back in May when I was hobbling around on crutches and being even less focussed than normal.

My mate Christoph's son Stephan is an architect in Ireland (not a good idea at the moment) and married to Áine (a good idea at any time)

This is Freia, 7th in the line of Christoph's neat grandkids, at her christening in St Stephans.

Big hoolie afterwards and Stephan did his usual stunt of calling up a few weeks in advance and saying with his usual directness "You can either write the supplications or do the address at the hoolie. Up to you."

Chose the latter which was quite cool, because research showed me that the name of the valley in North Yorkshire where my maternal grandparents lived - Fryup - has its origins in the Nordic "Freia* hop" - Freia's valley.

Small world.

* Freia, goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, gold, sorcery, war, and death. First 4 sound OK. Not so sure about the rest....

"Life is rather like a tin of sardines.... - #1226

 

...we're all of us looking for the key....” Alan Bennett once said.

Good stuff seen at Thomas and Gitta Keßler's vinothek in the Heiliggrabgasse.

Wines from good producers, top quality pasta/chocolate/olive oil/condiments. 

Just the job.

"Waiting for .... -#1225

..my bus..
Three Euros and twenty in my hand"
HT Lou Reed and Gucki

Bus stop at the top of the hill blinded bythe light
HT Bruce

Self-portrait on stilts - #1224

Waiting for......#1223

...Knut.

Every year, Ikea, a Swedish furniture store with tentacles all over the world, holds its post-Christmas sale, starting on the 20th day after Christmas which falls on an unpronounceable day called "Tjugonda Knut".

This is also the day when Good Swedes are supposed to divest themselves of Christmas trees and sundry tat and glitter.

So they call their sale "Knut" and run an annual ad campaign (long since cult) featuring tree disposal in all its variations. 

German
Swiss
German again

Unchain my.........#1222

... shopping trolley.

Or cart.

These high-tech thingies are daisy-chained and to release one, you need a €1 coin* for the slot.

Can't get far if you want to steal one, though. Some outfits have RFID based (I think) perimeter protection which locks the wheels when you leave the premises.

*Plastic disk works, too.
Which reminds me of when I was working in the UK and frequently in Germany and someone worked out that a 5p coin fitted the 1DM slot on cigarette vending machines.

Instant price reduction of 95%....

Nothing new under the sun -#1221

Those muscular types who think these newfangled climbing walls are a recent invention are way off the mark.

They've been around for centuries.

All this business with stringing yourself to safety points with high tech ropes, wearing fluorescent lycra pants and fooling around indoors is girls' stuff.

This is the real McCoy.

The defensive wall of the Zitadelle.

Outside.

Toeholds provided in the form of the crest of someone important.

Arrows and boiling oil courtesy of the inhabitants.

Sorts out the men from the girls boys

My kind of vintners - #1220

Gesine und Markus Roll run the Weedenbornhof, a (her) family winery in Monzenheim.

We stumbled over them a year of so back with Frank and Mrs the Potter at an event they held waaaay out in the middle of their vineyards and then tried their sauvignon blanc one evening last year at Heinrich's.

Rocked on down to buy pretty much the last of the 2009 vintage (and they waved their magic wand and produced 6 bottles of their topofthelinesoldout sauvignon as well) and got chatting and they mentioned that they'd been to the Luberon on vacation and hadn't REALLY found a wine that they liked.

Also said that they would have a stand at the Mainz Wine Market in the city park and why didn't we drop by?

Which we did, with a bottle from Chateau la Canorgue in Bonnieux (where "A Good Year" was filmed and where we've been buying wine for the last 10 years) for them to try.

"How come WE didn't find this" they asked and asked if the folks at the neighbouring stand could try it and then proceeded to press all SORTS of varietals and vintages on us "in fair exchange" as Markus put it.

Just the nicest folks - open, generous, genuinely interested, clued up.

AND they humour old people.

What more could you want?

(And aren't they a great-looking couple?)

To the Manna born - #1219

The guy at the Kaiser organic bakery stand on the market spun what sounded like a pretty tall tale yesterday.

"Essener bread has nothing to do with Essen (Ed: a city in Germany's Ruhr industrial heartland)" he said "No, it's over 2000 years old"

(Customer looks for traces of mould)

"Not the BREAD, the recipe" he says and rambles on about fermented sprouts and this and that and Jesus's local bakery and that I can check it all out online (which is exactly why I'd pulled out the iPhone...)

And it's all true.

Supposedly

The Essene supposedly flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD and supposedly the keepers of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Also supposedly descended from Zadokite priests the Priest.

And their bread - fermented wheat sprouts, ground up and baked at a low temperature - was supposedly the original manna.

Toasts very well.

Not "supposedly", either.

Snowsmary -#1218

@ Odiles

Church with ambitions - #1217

St Stephan's church in Mainz-Gonsenheim is just your common or garden church, but you wouldn't know by just looking at it.

The twin spires (invisible at night and in the rain) are 60 metres high and you can see them for miles, which is why some folk refer to it tongue-in-cheek as the Rhine-Hessian cathedral

Baubles, bangles.... #1216

...and beads.


And an outrageous use of roadkill for the  slippers.....

Augustinerstrasse.

Cold...#1215

...snap.

Moss on a cold tiled roof

Cinnabun it's not... -#1214

Mrs Frank the Potter hails from southern Germany where tradition is Alive and Well.

Every year at Christmas, she bakes a batch of cinnamon cookies using moulds with traditional designs that have been in the family for yonks.

And gives us some.

Aren't we lucky people....

"What's for dinner, Mum?" - #1213

"Hmmmm....let's see what's in the fridge ....Savoy cabbage, red onions, regular onions..... how about.... CABBAGE SOUP?!"

"Yechhhh..."

"Well, we COULD spice it up with a couple of pine cones...."

Seasonal table decoration at MajoRahn.

Not that I can usefully judge this sort of stuff....

Forever young.... -#1212

 

Not the Alphaville version

Forever young, i want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever forever
Forever young, i want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever
Forever young

Not even Saint Bob's one.

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous

Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

Just stonecrops (sempervivum) aka Houseleeks or Liveforever overwintering in Anna Rahn's garden in Hahnheim

"You know what he's thinking, of course..." -#1211

Said the guy on the market.

"He's thinking "If I take another step, I'm going to fall off the pinth....""

Johannes Gutenberg living dangerously.

A decidely perverse sense of humoUr...: #1210

As if all this bloody white stuff wasn't bad enough, "Wintaro", a local restaurant, has to rub it in.

"Pork fillet , potato SNOW* and salad"


*Really just mashed potatoes with a college education - steam them in their skins, peel them and put them through a ricer and then whip them with creme fraiche and butter

Not the Kittery Daily Photo - #1209

I can't seriously believe that no-one's doing a Portsmouth Daily Photo.

It was settled in 1630, so there's lots of Olde Stuffe including Strawberry Banke, an outdoor history museum.

It's got a brewery

It's got a good independent bookshop

It's got a GREAT record store

It's got a  professional theatrE company

It's even got a submarine

And just across the Piscataqua river in Maine, you've got Kittery where - if you're really lucky - you'll bump into Paul, Lucy and Lauren, guerilla snowman builders.

They were just putting the finishing touches to this fine example of snow recycling, complete with the traditional carrot nose, courtesy of Anneke Jans.

Which is where we saw Paul and Lucy again, propping up the bar as we left after dinner.

So if anyone's got some spare cash and wants to sponsor a residency for say...5 years..., I'll gladly palm this here site off to Helen and rip on over.

City of Science - #1208

The Stadt der Wissenschaft title is a prestigious trophy that's passed from deserving city to deserving city by the German Science Foundation.

Given that we've got 4 universities

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Fachhochschule Mainz
Katholische Fachhochschule Mainz
Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

6 research institutes and academies

Max-Planck-Institute
Helmholtz-Institut Mainz
Institut für Europäische Geschichte
Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde
Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz
Akademie der Wissenschaften & der Literatur

and 7 museums and libraries

Naturhistorisches Museum
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum
Gutenberg-Museum
Landesmuseum
Dom- und Diözesanmuseum
Stadthistorisches Museum
Stadtarchiv und Bibliotheken der Stadt Mainz

it's not a big surprise.

Plus the fact that the place is absolutely littered with brainy buggers, some of whom even read this blog......

Remnants -#1207

There were so many rocket corpses littering the garden after New Year that you'd think that people were targeting the place.

Maybe they were....

Monthly Theme Day - Not the Photo of the Year 2010 -#1206

Drum roll.

Ladies and Gennlemen - the Runner Up

Never actually published and not even Mainz, but given my terminal case of peripateticism I'm sure you'll forgive me.

The stunning (both inside and out) Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden.

Designed by Richard Meier(Getty Center et al)

Precipitation courtesy of Gundula, the low pressure pattern that kicked off the winter in fine form


Tweaks by iPhoto

Monthly Theme Day - Photo of the year 2010 - #1205

Just HAS to be this one of Semira e Alessandro from August.

(Semira liked it so much that she knocks 10% off the bill these days)

For more cuddles and otherwise, head over her to see what the rest of the world is doing.

Oh.

And Happy New Year.

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