Silent Poetry - a bit late

Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland,
Ein Birnbaum in seinem Garten stand,
Und kam die goldene Herbsteszeit
Und die Birnen leuchteten weit und breit,
Da stopfte, wenn's Mittag vom Turme scholl,
Der von Ribbeck sich beide Taschen voll,
Und kam in Pantinen ein Junge daher,
So rief er: »Junge, wiste 'ne Beer?«
Und kam ein Mädel, so rief er: »Lütt Dirn,
Kumm man röwer, ick hebb 'ne Birn.«

So ging es viel Jahre, bis lobesam
Der von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck zu sterben kam.
Er fühlte sein Ende. 's war Herbsteszeit,
Wieder lachten die Birnen weit und breit;
Da sagte von Ribbeck: »Ich scheide nun ab.
Legt mir eine Birne mit ins Grab.«
Und drei Tage drauf, aus dem Doppeldachhaus,
Trugen von Ribbeck sie hinaus,
Alle Bauern und Büdner mit Feiergesicht
Sangen »Jesus meine Zuversicht«,
Und die Kinder klagten, das Herze schwer:
»He is dod nu. Wer giwt uns nu 'ne Beer?«

So klagten die Kinder. Das war nicht recht -
Ach, sie kannten den alten Ribbeck schlecht;
Der neue freilich, der knausert und spart,
Hält Park und Birnbaum strenge verwahrt.
Aber der alte, vorahnend schon
Und voll Mißtraun gegen den eigenen Sohn,
Der wußte genau, was damals er tat,
Als um eine Birn' ins Grab er bat,
Und im dritten Jahr aus dem stillen Haus
Ein Birnbaumsprößling sproßt heraus.

Und die Jahre gingen wohl auf und ab,
Längst wölbt sich ein Birnbaum über dem Grab,
Und in der goldenen Herbsteszeit
Leuchtet's wieder weit und breit.
Und kommt ein Jung' übern Kirchhof her,
So flüstert's im Baume: »Wiste 'ne Beer?«
Und kommt ein Mädel, so flüstert's: »Lütt Dirn,
Kumm man röwer, ick gew' di 'ne Birn.«

So spendet Segen noch immer die Hand
Des von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland

Theodor Fontane

Finally a photo of y latest socks

As the wool was quite bright I chose to make them just stockinet socks and have been wearing them to fight of the dreary weather.

Knitting Sheep

I just came across this page with free patterns and just loved the knitting sheep. The rest of the stuff is not so much my taste.

Socks the first FO of 2009

This is the first pair of socks that I finished in 2009. They were started on the 30th of December 2008 and finished 2 weeks later. They are now making their way to an aquaintance who had to have a tumor removed and might need some nice socks and good thoughts.

A second pair is on my feet now, they were knit around this one, with one sock before and one after the traveling pair. They are very colorful and another pair of "Sti-Nos" (stockinette socks). No picture yet, I am behind with photo taking.

Stars and Bars

This is the center of my Ohio Stars and Railroad Fence Quilt that was my summer project. A bit late for summer, but I finally finished the blocks. You can hardly see Betty Boop in the picture, but she is at the center of the blue stars. I am now thinking about a border, but am not sure what to do. MyGuy thinks it needs to be lightened, but looking at this picture, I am not so sure. Maybe just a red binding. Let me know what you think.

Stitchery BOM from Gail Pan

This is going to be christmas BOM, but the first one would do nicely for Valentine's day, too.

Snow

This is the view from our balcony this morning.

And these are a few of our lights on the balcony rail.

Photos by MyGuy who is on vacation while I still have to work.

Tribute to Dewey the Blogger

I can not think of a better tribute to an addicted reader than a reading challenge, so I wanted to let everyone know about this one:

Dewey's reading Challenge is about reading books reviewed by Dewey.

Lost in Translation

All of these will double for the TBR challenge. Sorry, the translation is TO German as that is my mother tongue.

1. Das Lied der Könige by Batya Gur (Hebrew)
2. Der Besuch des Leibarztes by PerOlov Enquist (Swedish)
3. Underground oder Ein Held unserer Zeit by Wladimir Makaninen (Russian)
4. Der Eroberer by Nedim Guersel (Turkish)
5. Erogene Zonen by Philippe Dijan (French)
6. Der schönste Tango der Welt by Manuel Puig (Spanish)

Series Season 3

While I have not participated in the previous two seasons I will have a go now:

1. Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series (I only read book one, so this alone is a challenge) which could also be counted toward the Jewish Challenge I guess, but I will need to whole year to catch up

2. Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series (can only take a book at a time, but they are in my TBR pile)

Both of those series can count against my RYOB for quite a while as I have a couple of each to read in my shelves.

Jewish Challenge

These are the books for my Jewish Challenge, they are mostly in German by Jewish authors. The first of them will also be in the A to Z challenge:

1. Mein Leben by Marcel Reich-Ranicki
2. Gerettete Zunge by Elias Canetti
3. Denn die Seele ist in Deiner Hand by Batya Gur
4. Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow

Numbers Challenge

I have decided to take the numbers challenge. These books will double as some of my TBR challenge.

1. 1421 by Gavin Menzies
2. Die dritte Tür by Patrick O'Leary
3. 1st to die by James Patterson
4. Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
5. Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich

The last one means I have to find book 10 that I had last week and can not lay hands on this week and read it.

Reading Challenges

Must be the winter weather, I am considering more and more reading challenges. These are the ones I am contemplating in addition to the RYOB, TBR and A to Z challenges I have already decided no:

- 9 for 09
- Latin American Challenge
- Jewish Literature Challenge
- Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge
- Lost in Translation
- Numbers Challenge
- War and its Impact
- Series Season 3
- Orbis Terrarum
- World Citizen Challenge
- Read your Name
- What is in a name?

Dewey

My Dewey Decimal Section:

919 Geography of & travel in other areas


Class:
900 History & Geography


Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.



What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Scherenschnitt

This blog is incredible, I am not normally that fond of papercutting or Scherenschnitt, but some of those things are Art! Not the newest post, to me, but the ones like The Wound are wow!

Another one without pictures

As I am not getting around to taking pictures I thought I'd at least let you know what I have been up to.

I knit a scarf for MIL and it needs to be blocked. Inspired by the Yarn Harlot I started a "Noro" Scarf. Mine is made with two color ways of Lang Mille Colori that I got on sale. Unfortunatelly the sale is due to the going out of business of a LYS. I also plan to knit a hat for FIL and a pair of socks for MyGuy. I missed this month's Stricktreff, and feel sorry for myself. On the other hand:

I spent most of the weekend in my hometown. On Saturday my mom and I went for a sewing day with her quilting group. The theme was the storm at sea pattern that I have been eyeing for the longest time. I love the traditional look, but decided on something else for now. I just hope it turns out remotely like what I have envisioned. Due to the lack of preparation on my part I only got to cut and mark foundations, cut a bunch of fabric and sew about 3 units. I have since added a couple more, but with only 15 out of 315 I still have a long way to go. But since I received Bonnie's book at least I feel like sewing again. Actually this morning I really wanted to stay in my sewing room for a while. But that way lies madness, no sewing at 6am on a work day! I also restarted sewing on my Ohio Stars and Rails that was my summer project and am doing the missing stars as leaders-enders.

We went to see James Bond on Sunday and I have to say I was not terribly impressed. It's not bad, but neither does it feel like Bond to me. But I could not tell you what makes a Bond movie, so that is not much of a review.

I am reading quite a lot lately too as you might have noticed looking at my Library gadget. I have found all the books from David Weber that start with Insurrection and am now reading Crusade. Seems to be set before Insurrection, so I might be reading them the wrong way round, but as they are not the same characters it does not trouble me too much. I am thinking about TBR 2009 and what other challenges I might participate in. Novel Challenges is listing them and there are a few that appeal to me. Read your own books of course is much the same as the TBR, but there are Library books and there is the Lost in Translation challenge.

I have adopted some dragon eggs on the net and am waiting to see if I understood enough to get them to hatch.

What to do with HST

Surfing the blogs I came across this post at Kim's Cozy Quilts and wanted to keep the link here so I could return to it. I love scrap quilts and the two layouts that Kim did look fantastic.

More morning pictures

This is another view of the Rhine taken on Monday. The weather was set to change, so we had a couple of great sunups and downs the last couple of days. Unfortunatelly they take place while I am on the train.

Winter come and gone

Just so everyone would put their winter tires on we had snow at the end of October. This picture shows the view from my office across the Rhine last Thursday. By now it is warm again, but it was pretty while it lasted.

Sunny Greetings

This one MyGuy did from two pictures he took. I says Sunny greetings from Karin. He keeps complaining that I have my eyes closed in all pictures. Unfair, I say!