Chimney sweep for luck

Seeing a chimney sweep is good luck in Germany and I saw one on the train. He was wearing traditional garb, black flared trouser, black top hat and with all the relevant equipment on his back. My impromptu photos missed the flares! This sweep had a mop of tangled hair and a little beard ... made me think of Mary Poppins.

Back to normal

Well we are back to normal, the Hamburg I remember. Overcast/wet and 12C.

Gate

A neighbour's gate ... cat watching squirrel. (I think these pictures can be viewed larger if you click on them.)

Warmest April on record.

You might think my eulogies to spring have been a bit overdone - but here is the confirmation that this April has been extraordinary. Official records show that April 2009 in Hamburg has been the warmest and driest April since records began.
The photo above (taken by Marcelo Hernendez) published in the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper was taken in Hamburg last Friday. Is this not what you think Hamburg looks like? Well, but it is Hamburg.

The photo was taken at the Beach-Club StrandPauli, which is an artificial 'beach' near the center of Hamburg built on the banks of the Elbe River. In the background you see the ships in the Port of Hamburg. All you need is a bit of sand, some palms in pots and a DJ playing you summer music and you can imagine yourself in the south of Spain.

Chestnut trees

Chestnut trees are particularly amazing in spring.
One week these huge trees are bare and gray; the next week they are a mass of foliage. Their large floppy leaves are topped by equally large and intricate flowers.

What a change!

The hedgerow today looks very different compared to a month ago.

The view from the office window has changed as well. When I arrived it was different but equally lovely.

Birthday

This table decoration was so pretty last weekend that I took a picture of it. It is so warm we eat outside. (Hamburg? April?) It was also my birthday ... I made a stew from a Jamie Oliver book which was just as delicious as he said it would be and it looked just as good as well.

I bought a bike! (2)

I bought a bike ... this time for real, from eBay, yesterday afternoon. Here it is in all its splendor. I have just been for a test ride and I feel as if I am riding a Harley Davidson - it is one of those sort of bikes. It is a very sturdy bicycle. You sit upright (or almost) on the (very comfortable) seat and feel like the queen, as if you should be waving to passers by as you pedal. Now all I need is a pair of white gloves.
The bike is bigger than it looks. When I sit on the seat my feet are at least 5cm off the ground....

Ausflüge

Yesterday I went on two excursions with different art classes. In the morning the class on Art and our Biosphere went to the Botanic Gardens. The gardens are extensive and beautiful. This sculpture of a shepherd with his lamb was in the 'European' section. The students in this class are a mixture of design and art students and we toured the gardens with the research leader whose enthusiasm for this garden was boundless.
Olive trees don't grown at this latitude (54N) but the olive tree in the Botanic Gardens is in a glass house which is on rails and which can be rolled off the tree in summer.
In the afternoon I joined another group going to the Hamburg Art Gallery. We saw an exhibition of the work of Sigmar Polke called 'Wir Kleinburger' [We Bourgeois] in the Gallery for Modern Art. Our Professor (shown here with his jacket over his shoulder) had known Polke, had been a student of his for a time. We then all traipsed through long corridors, up steps, through a restaurant, down steps, through more galleries to get to the main building and an exhibition called Nicolai Abildgaard, Der Lehrer von Friedrich und Runge. [Nicolai Abildgaard. the teacher of Friedrich und Runge.] I stood in front of the famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich called Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer [The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog] and asked our Professor 'Did Friedrich paint lots of pictures with this motive?".
'No," he replied, "this is THE picture!"

Tulip time

It is tulip time and by now everyone here is commenting about the weather, how it is more like summer than early spring.

Not Tchibo but maybe eBay

I got a form letter back from Tchibo: 'Aufgrund der großen Nachfrage ist das attraktive Angebot bereits vergriffen, aus diesem Grund können wir Ihnen das angeforderte Holland Fahrrad leider nicht mehr zusenden.' (The bikes have sold out because demand was high.) Well, what did I expect!

Perhaps the bike would not have suited me anyway and I have decided to go and sit on a few bikes in a bike shop before I buy, probably through eBay.

Pink

The unfolding leaves on the beech trees shone pinkish in the early morning sun this morning. I opened the roof window for a better look and a chill wind blew in from the cloudless sky.

The village has been overtaken by a different pink. The row of cheery trees look like candy floss on sticks.
Cherry blossom pink seems to look more at home in gardens surrounded by other plants.

What bike?

When I ordered my bike from Tchibo (the coffee shop people) on 14th April I got an email confirming they had my order and telling me I would be contacted by a transport company to arrange a time to deliver the bike. On 16th April after waiting for two days for the transport people to call I got another another email from Tchibo saying 'sorry, the bikes have sold out'!

I would have thought that a slick company like Tchibo would have stock management systems that refused orders (or at least didn't confirm them) once stock had sold. Hmmm. My formerly warm feelings towards Tchibo have cooled considerably. I am wondering just how many Holland-Fahrrad were actually for sale?

I bought a bike!

(Photo from Tchibo website.)
Yesterday I spent ages looking for the university second hand bike shop but I discovered when found it that it was a repair workshop and the second hand bikes they had were expensive. Then I saw a Bikes For Sale sign in the Tchibo coffee shop, celebrating Tchibo's 60th birthday. The bikes are simple but robust and I bought one (online) as soon as I got home. Now I am waiting for a call from the delivery company. The sale sign is gone both from the shops and from the website as the bikes have sold out, even though the sale lasts until end of May. Tchibo is one of the companies that continues to do very well despite the downturn - they have clever marketing.

Etching

On Wednesday I am starting in the print workshop. Gray-black tree trunks, woodland paths, early spring colours; these are the images that keep reappearing as I consider where to begin.

Spring is sprung

It only takes a few warm days and suddenly early blossom is everywhere and the leaves start unfolding. As I rode my borrowed bicycle along the hedgerows and fields today I felt an overwhelming gladness. These fields feel like a piece of home to me, even though it is so long since I lived here. This afternoon there were a lot of people out walking, riding bikes or guiding children on horses. The sun is shining and it is easy to forget that the world is beset by financial and environmental crises.

Easter table

In Germany Easter is celebrated almost as much as Christmas. Tables are set, eggs are coloured, easter bunnies appear from under the bushes. Yellow is a predominant colour - daffodils and forsythia.

Early Easter Sunday

Early on Easter Sunday morning the sun was shining on the daffodils

and Feldweg 78 was crisp and beautiful.

Die Raupe

The sun is out, the buds are swelling .... and some of them host little caterpillars like this one.

I'm in!

After three days of running up and down staircases in tall art school buildings, I am now officially registered as a guest student. I consider myself very lucky as the school, and particularly the painting department, is over subscribed and really had no guest-student places to offer. I was told several times that getting a place would be impossible, but in the end I was able to sneak in. My experience in Germany has often been that if people see you are really keen they do their very best to help you. But you have to be keen!

I am not exactly sure where the boundaries are for a guest student and the information on available courses and lectures is not exactly easy to understand, so the next weeks will be a learning experience. I was told the school is the free-est in Germany. I believe it.