Starting With Fire

A Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you survived the last night rather unharmed in soul and body and had a good time.

I myself had, celebrating the coming of 2011 together with Bambi, Bertie, the Scoundrel and a fellow firebug of his. As it’s becoming some kind of tradition, we blew up Berties’s architectural models he had built during the last year and it was as fun as last year, but way more creative. We started with two backpacks full of fireworks and still have some left!

I like the effect of the fireworks behind the bare trees.

Most of the photos I took didn’t came out as I wanted them to, but anyway, here are some pictures.

Bambi during the preparation of the fire fountain

There it goes.

As you see the pictures are quite blurry, so I spared you most of them.

Favourite Words in October

1. Sea Snail. Maybe I just like the alliteration. But I’ve also got to think of these which I let build up secret cultures in the old bath tub in our garden when I was younger. I even brought some to the school pond. :)
2. Futile. I’m a trekkie, what more should I say? ^^
3. Stuss. German for a kind of nonsense.
4. Jewelseed. Another word for my beloved balsamic impatiens. Doesn’t that name sound enchanting?
5. Antlers. My flat mates both have some, as a Bambi (a grown up, I mean) and a Satyr.

Top Hat Plans and Fairy Shirts

As I said before there are no pictures of me during the weekend I could show you. But what I can show you are pictures of Bambi and Jules and the shirt I made for the latter.

Bambi, spending the weekend pirately. Arrr.

During the festival, Jules and the Scoundrel came up with the idea of top hats with drawers – and instantly looked at me. Being seen as someone who is able to craft about everything is really flattering sometimes. ^^
Somehow, I liked the idea, and as I wanted to sew a felt top hat for myself this late summer anyway, I’ll surely try.

Jules is in sepia for a reason. First of all, he wore his justaucorps, which nearly forces me to use an effect on the picture, and second, the turquoise of his shirt didn’t match the blue of the jacket in my opinion (but I’m not very fond of turquoise at all). I think the picture shows Jules exalted and flamboyant demeanour pretty well. He’s definitely more laid-back than four years ago.

On the festival day itself – Saturday – he wore not shadows but black shorts, a white shirt, combat boots, the justaucorps and a t-shirt I made for him. It’s somewhat like a coming-out on fabric, and he loved it although I really had to hurry to finish the stencil to the date.

Picture taken by Jules

It’s silver on a white base with pink corners and accents, glittery spots-on-purpose-to-make-it-look-artistic and bright raspberry coloured wings with extra glitter. I really like the symbolism the shirt bears, but that’s a hobby of mine, anyway. Light the way out of the closet with a paper lantern of fairy festivities, ring the bells for radical self-love and announcement of a new era of your life and turn to break new ground!

I also made a top for myself but as it is part of a series I don’t want to show you until the whole project is finished.

Back Without Pictures

Oh well, no, I didn’t manage to write something about my festival wardrobe. Which means that I’ll have to plan a little sooner next year. But there are no photos of my outfit or me in general, anyway, which results from the fact that I was the only one in our group to bring a camera. There aren’t any pictures of the bands, too, which is caused by the fact that I’m quite small compared with all those people who stood in front of me… you know what I mean.

The Veldenstein Castle festival itself was great, my personal highlights being ASP and, as always and expected, my beloved Coppelius. I got sunburned although it rained all Friday to Saturday morning and then the sky was covered with clouds and the evening was really, really chilly. The scoundrel was so nice to cook for us (we’ve got a deal that he’s to cook in spring and summer and I’m to be the kitchen fairy in autumn and winter) and hot, good food is worth a lot in cold, damp July nights.

As for my highlight bands, here’s a short summary:

ASP, being the head liner of the evening, started playing at 10 P.M. and as soon as we had found us a nice place on the green quite in the back of the festival ground but still in sight of the stage, Jules diffused into the crowd after we told him that ASP are quite electronic. ^^ Well, our place was well-chosen as we had more space than anyone right in front of the stage for dancing, and without space, dancing isn’t half as much fun… Bambi didn’t dance, though, as he’s pretty convinced that “nobody wants to see that, anyway” so he got our supply bag and wandered though the masses during the concert. I think my favourite song of the evening was Krabat, and it was really, really sweet of ASP to play a tribute to Dio at the end.

Coppelius, as my favourite band, were great as they were supposed to be. They introduced some songs from their upcoming album of which I especially liked the one about Bastille’s life as a butler. Bastille quite surprised the audience by *gasp* undressing on stage (he kept his underwear on, by the way), which didn’t  have any effect on his splendid performance, though. The other gentlemen were great, too, of course, especially when the eternal conflict between Max Copella and Le Comte Caspar had some moments on stage during some songs. Even Graf Lindorf was involved, and only Sissy Voss kept his stiff upper lip. For Nobusama joined the “Undress!”-chorus for his butler… ^^ The Scoundrel had never heard them before, at least not being aware of it but he had a quite good time, too, I dare say.

When we came home last night – after a stopover in Aschaffenburg again, after which my mother kindly decided to drive us to the Frankfurt central train station as “it would have been quite a Oddyssee otherwise” (her own words) – the Scoundrel headed home for a little rest while I took a nice, hot bath with lotus bathing salt and Anne of Green Gables – The Sequel until my beloved returned to make a wonderful dinner out of the leftover from the weekend.

And now, after I told you about the past three days, I’ve got to hurry up with my breakfast as my first Breton lesson starts at 9 A.M..

Treasure Hunt at Weekends

Yesterday evening I walked Jules to the station after a really great (but a little bit exhausting as I feel quite ill since Saturday) weekend. He arrived at Friday afternoon and we took him to Early’s, a small-but-nice bistro near the Institute for Physical Exercise. We continued the evening with watching Elisabeth (the musical) while I took the last stitches on his final birthday present.

Saturday began with Canne de Combat free training. First, Jules was not to eager to participate but grew to like it quite much when our trainer made him take part. After the showers we went to an optician as Bambi’s glasses were broken (and I still need a new pair of them – but I think I spotted some really nice frames there). After that Bambi disappeared and I started to give a birthday present to Jules – a small card, burnt edges, writing on one, a small drawing on the other side.

The first card led him to the old graveyard where he found a pair of spools of silk thread.

The second one showed a hint to head a fountain where he found a moon of his own, just like the princess in the fairy tale. ^^

Station 3 was settled at the market place and had a little unicorn as a gift as Jules adores Charlie the Unicorn, for what reason ever.

It’s a small soft plastic toy, pierced with a hot needle on a thread that was spun by me from embroidery floss and sparkling metallic thread, both in raspberry pink.
I’m sorry that I don’t have a picture of the next present to show but all the photographs turned out to be blurry… Well, it was a mint-and-chocolate scented soap from Italy that matched Jules’ love for After Eight perfectly. I think I can say that his eyes were gleaming when he smelled it… ^^

As a little break and to compensate the really, really sunny, warm weather we had some ice cream, double chocolate and nougat for me and After Eight, strawberry and marzipan for Jules. After that I successfully lured him to the Religious Studies building where on the archway the next gift waited for him: A small bottle of gold.

Then we headed for the castle, for the garden, to be exact where Bambi waited for us with a strawberry tart and Lewis Carroll’s poem of the matter, wearing a silly hat that quite suited him.

After all, we went down to the Botanical Garden again where the Scoundrel waited for us with a picnic and where Jules got his final present, but I think I’d rather tell you about that tomorrow.

Of Plants and Martial Arts

Judo uniforms are really difficult to darn. The story is that Kajal (one of Bambi’s rabbits, just for the case I did not mention her before) nibbled on his jacket, an action that ended with a quite big hole right between the scapulae. I offered him to mend it and so I spent a good part of my mid day break repairing that thick, heavy cotton fabric. Also, darning gets trickier with the size of the hole you’ve got to patch…

I am planning a patch featuring a stag’s head embroidery (little bit pagan, maybe) for Bambi’s uniform to cover the darning. Thank goth the trainer is not too strict about their uniforms…

To stick with the martial arts I may proudly tell you that I successfully passed my first Canne de Combat lesson yesterday, too. French cane fencing is a pretty workout for the thighs, I dare say, and once you’ve mastered the first steps it can be very dynamic and elegant, too.

Also, Teli is going to visit me in the garden again to be given some of the pots I don’t need anymore. Well, she’s got a garden of her own now that seems to grow quite well! I for myself have to go to the market this weekend to look for some pumpkin plants and nasturtium for the lookout point on the city walls.

So much for this moment, but now I’ve got to go. Bye then.

I’ve been so quiet lately

It has been a little quiet here, hasn’t it? But don’t you worry, I’m still alive, just recovering from a flu I had additional to my illness.

So… what did I actually do since my last post?

I finished Bambi’s birthday present (deadline was next Sunday, so I’m not late, once! :) ).

I made lots of copies for my assignment and started to filter them for information (it’s amazing how few people concerned theirselves with the culture contact in the Welsh Marches!).

I entered another swap, this time for headdresses and hats. I’m pretty excited, as always. presumably I’ll get the profile this weekend… *fidget*

Yesterday we went to a graveyard again, this time one in the upper city but comparably old like the other one and this time the battery was all charged and I took more photos. I think I’ll upload them tomorrow in an other post, they don’t really fit in here with my prosaic update. ^^

I went down to Aschaffenburg to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox with Goblin and have sushi with Jules.

Jules managed to get me a pair of Claire’s Alice in Wonderland socks as we don’t have Claire’s in Marburg. I have not seen the film yet and really don’t know if I’m going to (it’s more likely that I’m going to watch How to Train Your Dragon). I am too much a fan of the books and in the end, I’d only go to the movies to see the all hailed and praised costumes and Burton designs. Oh well. And then, when everybody else is running around in Alice-inspired garments, I’ll be wearing pseudo-viking, completely historically incorrect. *g*

I still need a hair trim, my tips are in a most horrible condition. I also reminded in my pajamas way too long today, something that I owe H.P. Lovecraft whose work I started to read yesterday night. I had to lighten it up with some Awful End at 3 A.M. when I recognized that I had spent the last hours in a kind of unhealthy semi-sleep. Finally with Great Expectations I finished another book from my reading list and also fulfilled one of the daring deeds by going to bed before midnight for a whole month (weekends excluded ;) ).

Actually, I should be writing letters now. Poor Mela and Iris, you’re surely waiting eagerly and I really feel bad about letting you wait. I will get out my stationary immediately!

So, good-bye and forgive my late laziness!

Bonnie

The End of Holidays

Here I am, at the end of holidays. Uni will be starting again to-morrow and yesterday I spent my afternoon at Simons’ (a fellow student and kobold whose house is about five minutes away) doing homework for Old and New Irish. Old Irish was quite nice albeit costly in terms of labour, as it was translating the opening of a saga, The Tale of Mac Da Thó’s Pig, but I dearly love translating and I had great company, so it was fun anyway.

Holidays are always gone so fast! I definitely could need somebody to remind me of all the things I wanted to do through my free time, or at least a good plan…

I also love the design of the cover...

Yesterday evening, after Bambi had come home from his holidays, too, I went to bed at half past midnight but stayed awake until 3 AM reading Howl’s Moving Castle which was kindly lent to me by Simons’ flat mate. The book is so much better than the film, and the film alone is already quite great! I love the literature references and the fact that Howl is from Wales (I mean, hey… I’m a student at Celtic studies.). Sophie is way more aggressive and energetic than in the movie and overall, the book is less lethargic and in exchange more ironic and conscious of the story’s clichés. More my kind of story.

At the moment I’m sitting in Bambi’s room with the rabbits and him, sipping tea (I made three pots – thermos flasks are great!) and chatting with my fellow students over the topic of New Irish homework and palatal and neutral consonants. It is snowing outside in very fine snowflakes which means that the snow will last a while and I can see the all the lightened windows of our street through Bambi’s largest window.

I’ve got to go out to take some photos of my fairy tale town!

Snow spirits are wandering the botanical garden at night...

Well, so I went out and took some photos and then called Bambi on the phone for him to come down and have a snowball fight with me and then Simon came along (he had been to a choir rehearsal) and we went to his house (it’s adorable, I’ll write about that another night) for a cup o’ tea and a pillow fight in the living room. We just came back ten minutes ago, but now it’s nearly 1 AM and I’ll have to be at my New Irish lesson at 10 AM and I wanted to look up something before so I’ll load up all the other pictures when I’m home from university tomorrow.

Good night now, and may all the world sleep well under the thick blanket of white…