Hunter

Hunting bears I will
Hone my blade on my instinct -
Sentry in the wild

12 Last Known Speakers Of A Language

Quite interesting article.

12 Last Known Speakers Of A Language

Another quiet night in Tours

Terrains de sport de l'île Aucard 

 Quai Paul Bert

Vue de la bibliothèque municipale et du pont de fil, du pont Wilson 

Rue Briçonnet 

Jardin Saint-Pierre le Puellier 

Place Plumereau 

Rue Colbert 

Passage du Coeur Navré 

Cathédrale Saint-Gatien, vue de la place Grégoire de Tours 

Rue Manceau 

Angle des rues Racine et de la Bazoche

Thunder and love

"El amor y el rallo dejan la ropa intacta y el corazón en cenizas."

Spanish proverb, untraced origin.

Great expectations

“There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.” 
Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes.






“I have often noticed that we are inclined to endow our friends with the stability of type that literary characters acquire in the reader's mind. No matter how many times we reopen 'King Lear,' never shall we find the good king banging his tankard in high revelry, all woes forgotten, at a jolly reunion with all three daughters and their lapdogs. Never will Emma rally, revived by the sympathetic salts in Flaubert's father's timely tear. Whatever evolution this or that popular character has gone through between the book covers, his fate is fixed in our minds, and, similarly, we expect our friends to follow this or that logical and conventional pattern we have fixed for them. Thus X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second-rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances can Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less often we see a particular person, the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous but unethical. We could prefer not to have known at all our neighbor, the retired hot-dog stand operator, if it turns out he has just produced the greatest book of poetry his age has seen.” 
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita.






"Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation."

Elbert Hubbard, writer (1859-1915)






"We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation."

Ivan Illich, sociologist (1926-2002)

Bridging minds

"Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass."


Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)

La triste fin du grand séquoia du jardin botanique de Tours

Quelques années auparavant :

Forward!

"Walking is also an ambulation of mind."

Gretel Ehrlich, novelist, poet and essayist (born 1946)

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards."

Abraham Lincoln

"He who would travel happily must travel light."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars (1939)

"There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left the inessentials behind and of entering a world of natural beauty that has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are a dead weight. The person with the fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right."

Paul Theroux, novelist and travel writer, The Happy Isles of Oceania (1992)

Starkbierfest 2012 Munich

As the name suggests, the following pictures were taken during the Strong Beer Festival held in Munich.

It was a lot of fun. Good beer, good cheer, good band, good dirndl (typical Bavarian dress which I like immensely for the, well, for the view of women's attributes it provides; the male equivalent is called the lederhosen, and I was told isn't practical "if you're in a hurry to piss", which I guess must be the case quite often considering the number of the pints a lambda Bavarian downs in one sitting.) Warmhearted thanks to my friend who brought me there!

And here's a whiff of the ambiance:

Trip to Landsberg

My friend Johanna brought me to her parents' house in the countryside, about half an hour's train from Munich. Fresh air, fresh food from the garden, lunch on the terrace, horses, trees all around, hills. Cloudless blue sky and sun. Old, lovely house. Paintings old and new on the walls and antiquities everywhere. I cannot thank my friend enough for this getaway trip. I was quite serene after that.

On the way to the railway station, Johanna's parents drove us to Landsberg am Lech, fine little town about 65 kilometres west from Munich. Best known perhaps for its prison where Adolf Hitler was incarcerated after his first putsch in 1924. There he dictated and wrote Mein Kampf, together with Rudolf Hess. Quite famous really.

But all things considered, I prefer Rococo.

Klosterkirche, ceiling. 

End of Klosterkirche

Rococo Rathaus 

 Clock tower

Four pictures above: Mariä Himmelfahrt 

View from the riverbank